Miracles continue, Praises Flowing

The days are full of work, organizing, educating and taking care of medical situations in Jacmel. We fall into bed at night and although the air is 100% humidity we fall quickly asleep.  The children are also sleeping very well with all the constant motion they are in all day long. 

The nurses spent time teaching everyone how to use the toilet. We will need to continue the educating daily. It is all a process.

We said a tearful good bye to the Ochylinski family whose generosity made this a reality. They will be back. It was hard to take the children out of their arms.

We continue to explore Jacmel taking groups of children with us so they can see their new town. They are so excited to be out walking around and seeing the ocean is an amazing site for them. The joy continues to be felt in ways that in our lives we rarely feel for short times much less days at a time. 

Our hearts are full. Thank you for the prayers we are feeling every one of them.  GRATEFUL,  Barb

Amazing Graces!

It will be difficult to put into words the experience LOVE Takes Root, DSN Students and  Ochylski Family  had today moving 47 children from a less than desirable location to a very wonderful newly built home.

The morning started early with miracles like our bus arriving on time to pick us up at 6:30 am sharp AND our breakfast ready before the bus arrived. Arriving at the La Concorde it felt a little like Uncle Jed and Grannie throw back.  We had a bus, moving truck and van. They were all filled to the brim. With belongings and people. Some like Connor Rick and Genevivie were sitting in the back of the open air moving van on some belongings. While others were in the van holding the younger ones on laps. Then there was a bus filled with children in yellow LTR tee shirts and Doug. The neighborhood was buzzing with excitement. As we waved good bye and headed to drive over the mountains.  All was well except for Doug passing the kids "the bucket".  

We arrived at the new site of La Concorde to be greeted by a long line of all the workers that had worked at the building site over the last 6 months.  The children lined up and walked through the workers into the new dining hall. They then had a celebration of song and prayers so heartfelt not a dry eye in the room. The praise for gratefulness was an overwhelming expression of joy. Mama had her arms raised in praise to The Lord. 

We then toured the site, the kitchen,the boys cottage, the girls cottage named for Eleanor Ochylski, the staff house and the great outdoors!  There were beds for all, toilets, sinks with water running, showers, a bedroom and porch for Mama and Papa. The kitchen is spacious with stove, refrigerator and deep freezer! Missing some content like fork, spoons and plates but we are on our way to a new future. 

We all wondered if the children we all know and love so much would be over whelmed and quiet or go wild with the joy of the experience. WELL they went wild! They ran and ran and ran all over the outdoors. Interesting many fell multiple times because they had never had room to actually run before. We had scrapes and lots of dirt. The older girls not having had a shower were all striped down in the bathroom taking a shower or two. They were truly singing in the shower. The talking, laughing and smiles were like nothing we all had ever seen before.

We then all gathered for a late lunch. ALL the children, all the guests and all the workmen! It was about 150 people eating a feast. We learned the workmen have gotten a noon meal daily working on the site that is part of their pay. It was wonderful chicken, hot dog, rice and juice!

The children continued to explore every inch of ground. They walked in the tall grass out back. They saw a cow over the fence and watched it munching grass, they learned about shade trees!

As those of us honored to be a part of something so much bigger than all of us we jumped in the back of the pick up to find our hotel.  It is remains a miracle that so many people with the love to care made such a difference in the life and future of children who are our future. 

Preparing to MOVE

There was much excitement in La Concorde Orphanage today.  The belongs are packed ready to be put in a truck. The children are aware but not really sure what this all means. The adults are sleepless with anticipation.  We had a wonderful last day in the present site with dancing, singing and playing some hand movement games. It seemed like we had been waiting such a long time and also like it was just yesterday we started this vision!  We have a wonderful new little girl joining us, she is 3 years old quiet and seems to have a lot of pain. We will be deworming and hope that will help. Moving with the children are two new kittens and a puppy.  They are too cute and bring a lot of joyful entertainment to everyone. Elisee went to the new site today with people from his church in PAP.  They were blessing and praying on the land in preparation.
Rick took both the nursing students with Keetah and then the Klein Family with Aunt Jessie on a walking tour of PAP today.
We are meeting the bus, truck and van at 6:30 am tomorrow. So grateful for all the work done by so many people to make this a reality. God Bless each one.  Trying to fall asleep!   Barb

Port au Prince - Day 2

The girls woke up in Port au Prince today, sticky as can be. Showers were needed to feel refreshed before heading to breakfast. The girls were a little droggy until they had about a pitcher of coffee each, it was hard to stop because it tasted so good. After breakfast, with Rick as their tour guide, they ventured through the city. There aren't many words to describe the way of life the Haitian people live. You could still see the destrucion of the earthquake that hit the city in January 2010, and a few tent cities still existed. There was garbage everywhere, cars driving wildly obeying no road rules or laws, and goats, stray dogs, hogs, roosters and chickens wandering around unoticed by bystanders. The girls were able to grasp a good idea of the state the people of Haiti live in during their walk around the city, and they were able to taste some sugar care and view the local hospital. The girls were in awe and at a loss for words when seeing the destruction that still exsits.

After spending an hour and a half walking around Port au Prince the girls and Rick headed back to the hotel. There were 3 men selling Haitian paintings, carvings and gifts outside which Rick said were priced fairly so the girls spent a little time shopping for souvioniers. They then freshened up the best they could, some put their feet in the pool to cool down, they grabed a couple snacks and then started walking to the orphanage.

They arrived at the orphanage after another good walk through the city. They waited anxiously outside as they heard the children singing on the other side of what can only be described as a "steel barn door". Rick did his secret knock and everyone inside screamed with joy. The girls were overwhelmed when they finally saw the kids everyone had been talking about. Although the orphange had been described as "hell" the children couldn't have been in better spirits. The joy that these children have despite having almost nothing brings incredible perspective. The girls spent the next few hours getting to know the children, they watched them sing songs, saw their incredible expertice at working iPads and iPhones, and loved having their photos taken and taking photos in return. You should see these kids run an iPhone, not to mention Instagram. No wifi in the orphanage, darn. They laughed and cheers and crawled all over the girls, they tickled each other and danced and couldn't have been happier to have the DSN nurses there to hang out with. The girls were able to see mama prepare dinner for all the children and got to see them sing there before dinner song, or maybe it was a prayer. The girls could not be more excited to transition these children to their new home in Jacmel tomorrow morning. The future that these children are getting because of the love and generosity of Love Takes Root is astouding, and something that the girls will treasure for a lifetime.

We Arrived

We are sitting at the Ausberg finishing our meal. All have arrived safely. The LOVE Takes Root members, the Klein Family and Aunt Jessie and the DSN Nursing students are getting to know each other and ready to work together to have the children move.  The weather is wonderful and there is a lovely breeze. We are tired and ready for a great night of sleep.
The drive through Port-Au-Prince was amazing for those of us who have been coming for 2 years noticing all the improvements and those who have never been here trying to understand the quick change from Miami to PAP.
As it happens here the check in at the hotel takes a long long time. And we even paid with one person.  We are thankful for the opportunity to be here.  We can not wait to hug the children tomorrow and spend time together.  Such blessings.

The Adventure Begins

The trip started off with a packing party and a bunch of space bags and mountains of pillow pets. The DSN girls met at their school and stuffed the 60 pillow pets into 10 space bags and then sucked the air out to make them small enough to pack among their bags. It was quite an effort but the girls faired well. Nursing students: 1, Pillow Pets: 0.

The nursing students were on a Spirit Airlines flight leaving Denver at 11pm. When checking their bags they were really excited to see that they were under the 50 lbs! Only to be corrected that Spirit Airlines' policy was 40 lbs....well shoot. Luckily, half the girls had a nice attendant who waived the fee. The other half of the girls were being helped by a less than helpful female and had to pay the extra fee. The girls arrived 2 hours before departure and easily made it though security, except for Emily, who decided to push the boundaries by wearing an excessive amount of bobby pins, carrying more than the recommended amount of lotion and having a full water bottle, Airport: 1, Emily: 0. Once through security the girls had plenty of time to spare so they headed to The Chop House for a drink. After receiving their beers and taking their first sip they were told by their waiter that they were closing and to hurry up and finish, but that the bar across the way was open until midnight. During this time the girls also learned that their flight had been delayed an hour and a half, great...more time for drinking.

They headed over to the other bar, Jimmy's, to have a few more beers. They had a great time getting to know each other and had a lot of laughs. During a moment of going to the bathroom to break the seal they decided to check the flight board to see when their flight was supposed to depart, the board read: ON TIME! It was 11:15pm and the original departure time was 11pm. The girls were in a panic! They went back into the bar to grab their belongings, and ran out leaving their almost full beers behind (luckily they'd already paid!). It's too bad we can't break into the airport security to watch the tape back of the girls running through the airport. Not only were they a little tipsy but they were sprinting and bypassed all the walking escalators which could have saved them precious seconds on their quest toward their gate at the end of the terminal. When they finally got to the gate their was no one in sight and no plane was present. For a second the girls thought they'd missed their plane only to find out that it was further delayed till 3am....you've got to be kidding!  They just left perfectly good beer behind, Airport: 2, Nursing students: 0.

After laughing at the ridiculous of the situation they finally figured out where to talk to the Spirit Airlines representatives to figure out about making their connecting flight to Haiti, which was to leave out of Ft. Lauderdale at 7:15am. They were now arriving in Ft. Lauderdale after 9am. Spirit booked them on American Airlines leaving Ft. Lauderdale at 1:20pm. With nothing left to do until 3am the girls decided to head back to the bar which closed at midnight, they had about 20 minutes to have another drink. They were able to talk the waitress into giving them two drinks each if they promised to have them both drunk by 12:05am....not a problem. Pretty sure she hated them. Nursing students: 1, Airport: 2.

Once they were kicked out of the bar they headed back to the gate and found an incredibly uncomfortable spot to lay down and "sleep," which was tough between feeling like they were in an igloo and catching glimpses of the marijuana documentary going on in the background. The flight was finally boarded and took off at 3:40am and they were off to Ft. Lauderdale. The girls all slept pretty much the whole flight.

They landed in Ft. Lauderdale at 9:15am and luckily their connecting flight gate was next door to the one they got off. And, even more impressively, it was the original flight they were suppose to be on, which had also been away, evening up the score, Nursing students: 2, Airport: 2. They had enough time to hit the loo, grab some coffee and get in line to board. Once on the plane the girls were instantly the minority, they were the only six white girls on the flight, the adventure begins! The flight was a fairly quick and easy one with only slight turbulence for about 30 seconds. Once they landed they headed through customs, grabbed their luggage and headed out to find Frantz, their driver who drove a van with no door, but as Barb described, "is ok because he's a really good driver." They waited about 15 minutes before Frantz found them and led them over to the van which was about a 2 minute walk. Some of the girls made the mistake of letting some of the locals roll their bag for them. Once loaded up they then demanded money...opps. 

Leaving Minneapolis

Well all the bags are packed with Sheet, Towels, Pillow Pets and Cups. Thank you to Lucy Steffen that did a lot of run around and Sam Geyer who can pack like a champ! To Jamie Billings for the sponsor donations. A special thank you to Hailey Johnson and the Fourth grade in Ames, Iowa for hand decorating our cups.
Kirk, Doug, Keetah, Rick and I are ready for a wake up call at 4:00 am.  We were given wonderful tee shirts with spirit by First Congregational Church. We are so excited and also know there is a lot of adjustment in this trip for many. As I prepare I just think of the amount of love that has been given by so many. It is so humbling to have so many people work together caring for the least of us.
Follow our blog this week so you can journey with us and also the pictures on Facebook!  Walk on!
Grateful,  Barb