the good samaritan

A few pictures from the Good Samaritan orphanage today. We took a group there to play games and color some pictures.

Today, I am thankful for...

1. People who have a vision

2. Patience

3. Sundays full of singing!

peace, love, and cute dirty kids,

alex

medical clinics

The past week has been crazy, sorry about the lack of updates! Here is what has been going on...

1. Groups have been coming. We've had 150 people go through the mission this week so I have been help running stuff for them. It is the most people I have ever seen here!

2. Still helping take care of the babies, they have gained two pounds since I came. They are wonderful :)

3. Working in the med clinic. Has been the hardest part of my trip so far. We lost a little 7 year old boy two days ago and it has been extremely rough. Please be praying for his family.

4. Working in the "pharmacy." I'm learning more about prescribing medicine than I could've ever imagined.

5. Mobile med clinics. We have traveled around Haiti taking all the clinic stuff with us and giving free exams, we have seen about 300 patients that way this week. Yesterday I helped granulate a bacterial infection on a two year old little girl that had eaten to the bone. 

6. "Summer camp" for the orphanage is this week. Today was soccer!

7. Working on the new school christian curriculum that will go out to all the christian schools in Haiti. Such a big deal! And will reach 400,000 kids.

8. After dinner at 6, nothing goes on because it's already dark. So I spend that time reading and watching the incredible stars here. It is a good time to soak and relax. We also rock the card games. I fall asleep around 9:00 and wake up by 7 when the sun comes up. My sleep schedule is shot for school!

So overall, things are crazy. God is working here in every aspect. Life is good.

Today I am thankful for...

1. Citron Juice. (limes + vanilla + sugar + water)= SO GOOD

2. Babies staying healthy

3. Assurance that there is a plan, even when I can't figure it out.

4. E-mails from home.

peace, love, and being busy.

alex

independence day.

Happy (late) 4th of July everyone! I was sad to miss everything back home, (especially home made ice cream) but still had a great day in Haiti. The few americans that are here represented by wearing red and white and we even ate some fresh watermelon!

Sundays are my favorite days in Haiti. Church is incredible every single Sunday. My favorite part is hearing the familiar worship songs in a different language. Such a great reminder that God is so universal :) They had a choir today....unreal.

After that Sunday is just a day of rest. We went out to lunch at a haitian restaurant and then spent the rest of the day playing cards. When I say restaurant, I do not mean one anything like in a states. There were chickens running around at my feet and dogs laying all over the ground. I will take pictures next week when we go again.

The babies are doing wonderful, they keep gaining strength. There have been a couple minor problems so we are taking them to a pediatric missionary a couple villages away tomorrow. 

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

Today I am thankful for...

1. Building relationships here, and learning through the people who are already here. Love them.

2. Rain coming and cooling things down a bit!

3. The monopoly card game. SO FUN! We are always playing it on the front porch. It's nothing like the real game.

peace, love, red, white, and blue!

alex

survivor day!

(Christopher playing the worm game)

Today has been an exciting day! After spending the night with the babies again (I posted the picture above) we spent the day with the orphanage kids playing "survivor" games. We divided up into 8 teams, all the teams got bandanas in their color and they made up their own team name. The teams consisted of "Team Lion King, Team Tiger One, Team Highschool Musical, Team Blood of Jesus," etc. Haha. We then spent the day playing all kinds of fun games, here are a couple...

1. Lick the cheerios. Each team picked one person and spent the alloted amount of time licking and sticking cheerios to that person's face. Team with the most cheerios won.

2. Worms. We mixed chocolate pudding, oreo crumbs and gummi worms in a big bucket and had them bob for the gummi worms as a race.

3. Bouncy Balls. We cut holes in the lids of pringles cans and threw bouncy balls all over the ground outside. They had a race to see who could get the most bouncy balls in the cans.

...and so many more! We played games all day and i'm exhausted. Now i'm off to hang out with my twins for the night. I will post part 3 of their story tomorrow, but we have named them "Hannah Grace" and "Jeremiah Issac" Both names fit them so well!

Things I am thankful for today...

1. Coffee. I don't usually drink it but it's a must-have for two newborns!

2. Just being healthy here. It seems like everyone has gotten really sick except me.

3. The free spirit of kids. They just remind you to have fun :)

peace, love, and messy games,

alex

 

Emmanuela and I wearing our bandanas and visors.

the twins: part two

(laundry basket babies)

Today has been an insane and crazy day! Last night I stayed up with the babies, they wake up about every hour or so to drink a bottle, so i'm pretty tired.

I worked at the hospital from 7 to 4 today, and it was CRAZY! I learned so much in one day it's overwhelming. I now know all different forms of skin infections and how to treat them. Soon, I am going on some mobile clinics and that will be awesome. I also worked in the "pharmacy" today and learned a ton about prescriptions and medicine.

Now, I'm sitting on Rachelle's floor with a baby on my stomach, watching the lighting. It doesn't get much better than this. I will be posting more pictures of these little ones soon to actually show you how tiny they are compared to other things! There fingers are like q-tips.

Here is part two of their story, once again written by Rachelle Montgomery!

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I couldn’t sleep Wednesday night because I was so worried about the babies. My main concern being their health, Patris said they were quite small and had not been eating much. 

A little while later I was on my way to Simonette to pick up the babies. I couldn’t believe how tiny they were. I had never seen a baby so small in all my life. So fragile and vulnerable, my heart broke for them. How could their mother have left them without looking back? I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

Vanessa met us at the clinic and we brought the babies in. Doctor Jennifer examined them both and said they were in pretty good shape, small and a little weak but doing well. She wanted them to get some blood work to make sure they were ok.

When we were finished at the clinic we brought the babies up to my house and got them some formula. I made two bassinettes for them out of laundry baskets and pillows. We had only one bottle between the two of them and they took turns feeding. The babies were so weak they didn’t have the energy to suck for more than a few seconds at a time before they fell asleep, so we ended up pouring small amounts of milk into a baby spoon and just pouring the milk in their mouths. They responded really well to this and were able to drink so much more, since the only effort they had to make was swallowing. 

Vanessa and I both knew we couldn’t let these babies leave. She called Mr. Marc, the Haitian Director of Mission of Hope, to see what we could do. He said they could stay the night, but only if we filed a report at the court so Patris went to Cabaret with his cousin, Christine, to file the report. He called us a few hours later saying the judge refused to write the report; since the babies were abandoned in Port au Prince the report needed to be filed in Port au Prince in case their mother came looking for them. It was already 3:30 at this point, which meant he wouldn’t be able to get to the police station on time. 

We called Marc to let him know and to our surprise he said the babies could stay the night, but a report would have to be filed first thing in the morning. 

The babies stayed at my house until the evening and then Vanessa took them back to her house for the night. 

And so ‘baby girl’ and ‘baby boy’ spent their first night at Mission of Hope.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Overall, these babies are my new loves and are growing a tiny bit each day. Part 3 to come soon!

Things I am thankful for today...

1. Bug spray for the million mosquitos

2. Lightning storms to watch

3. The babies getting strong enough to squeeze my finger.

peace, love, and sitting on porches,

alex

the twins - part one

 I am safe in haiti and cannot even express how happy I am to be here! I even arrived with all my luggage which is very rare. I got here around 12 this afternoon and have been with the twins ever since, here is part one of their story...written by Rachelle Montgomery.

Their mother is Carline, 18 years old and living on the streets. Her face is worn and tired, baring the scars of a hard life. Her eyes are dark, sad and empty.  She went into labor last Sunday in the middle of her village, on the street and all alone. A young woman named Christine was walking by and stumbled upon this young woman about to give birth on the side of the road. She flagged a truck down and asked the driver to take them to the hospital right away, but the baby couldn’t wait and her little girl was born in the truck on the way to the hospital. 

When her labor continued they realized that she was having twins. Luckily they made it to the hospital before her little boy was born.  Carline and the twins were at the hospital for three days. Christine, previously a complete stranger to this woman, came to visit a few times worried about the babies knowing that their mother was not quite right mentally. On one of her visits Carline begged Christine to take the babies, saying she didn’t want them and if she had to keep them she would kill them.  On the day they were released from the hospital Christine and a friend came to help bring Carline and the babies back to their village.

 Carline asked Christine to stay with the babies for a minute while she went to buy a comb. Christine and her friend waited with the babies, but Carline never came back.  When they realized Carline wasn’t coming back they decided they should bring the babies back to their village, hoping Carline would show up there. 

She didn’t. 

Not knowing what else to do Christine brought the babies to Simonette hoping her cousin Patris could help. I got the call from Patris on Wednesday night saying these tiny babies were at his house and in need of help. I told him to bring the babies on Thursday morning knowing at the very least I could get them into the clinic and buy them some formula and other things.  

 I knew from the moment I heard about the babies God had a plan for them and that I was going to be a part of their life, in some way, shape or form.
------------------------------------------------------------ 

I will post part 2 later! Here are pictures of the babies...The baby girl weighed 2.8 pounds and the baby boy weighted 3.5 pounds. The babies came to us without names and so far we've been referring to them as baby girl and baby boy.

Today I am thankful for...

1. Arriving safely

2. Diapers :)

3. Feeling like a mom at the moment

peace, love, and newborns,

alex

history in haiti.

I am officially sitting in the Miami airport headed to Haiti for the rest of the summer, and I CAN NOT wait until I get there. I’ll be spending the night here and heading there really early in the morning. I thought some of you would like to know a little background info on what i’m doing and why. 

I went to haiti for the first time after my sophomore year of high school and stayed at MOH. MOH (Mission of Hope) is what I fell in love with, especially the kids. It all started with the orphanage, which now has about 50 kids, and now consists of that orphanage, a hospital clinic, a school for about 5000 kids, a food bank, and a church. The vision that the people have here for this mission is incredible, and every child who comes through this orphanage is hoped to eventually be sent to college in the U.S. This place has grown tremendously every time I return, and that’s one of the biggest joys I get of coming back! 

Since that first time with a wonderful group from church, I have been back 4 times. This time will be my 6th and my first time to fly by myself, which has been exciting. I am considered an intern for the summer and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to do this. You will hear about everything I’m doing throughout the next few weeks, but the one thing I am most excited about is hanging out with and loving on the kids. They range from 3 years to about 15 years, and we also just got two newborn twin babies that will be here, “baby girl” and “baby boy.” You’ll hear a lot more about them soon to come. I appreciate you coming to read and i’ll update you as soon as I arrive at MOH. 

HAITI HERE I COME!

Things I am thankful for today.... 

1. Not getting lost (yet) while flying by myself. 

2. Parents that trust me enough to go. Thanks mom and dad! :)

3. Airport food! Mmmm

peace, love, and 8 hour layovers,

alex