better. . .

thanks so much for your prayers. i feel much better. hopefully i will stay that way!

my prenatal clinic in the far west is tomorrow. then it is back here to st. louis possibly and off again on thursday to the far west for a week of clinics. should be good. hopefully the haitian people will be blessed by this time.

women of faith. . .

the other day i got an e-mail from my mom asking if i possibly wanted to go to a women of faith conference with her and some women from her church. thoughts of the difference between a women of faith conference at home in the states and the women's conference at the church here in haiti were running through my mind friday night was i went to the women's conference. i began to look at the woman who were sitting around me here in st. louis du nord, haiti.

the woman in front of me has at least 2-3 of her children with her, all in clean clothes, all sitting quietly through the service or singing along with the songs. she herself had on a gleaming white skirt, nicely ironed and an ironed t-shirt. i began to think about what it took for her to get there to church that night.

clean clothes - easy enough with a washer and dryer. a rather big challenge with no running water and doing your laundry in the river. also a challenge in a house that is probably a dirt floor.

ironed clothes - easy enough with an iron and ironing board. a rather big challenge with a charcoal heated iron (that let me tell you they are heavy irons!) and no ironing board.

i thought of edalia. she is a woman in my sewing project. her son jose is my little cutie. he is only three, but says i am his girlfriend. he came and sat on my lap. imagining her day prior to coming to churchthought about edalia and what it takes for her to get through a day, carrying water, buying food, cooking over an open fire, sweeping her yard every day, sweeping the trash out and the dust down. trying to make the food last just a little bit longer because she probably doesn't have money to buy for the next day. trying to care for and love her children. carrying two of her children at least a 20 minute walk down the mountain to come to the women's conference that night. both of her youngest boys were asleep on a towel on the concrete floor and edalia sat on the ledge outside the church because there weren't any seats left inside.

i am pretty sure that night i was at a women of faith conference!

full week. . .

realizing that i haven't posted since monday i think it has been a full week!! it has been a good week though.

i had a great time in the far west. another group from florida was having a revival and i went on tuesday and just realized again that God is in control and i am not. (which is a lesson i think i will probably learn over and over for the rest of my life!!)

i had a seminar with the nurses from the birthing center yesterday and today. i loved it. being able to help give them some knowledge for alot of what they do on a daily basis will only improve their care.

there are many more thoughts and ideas in my head, but i don't think tonight they will transfer to written form well, so i will write later. . .

i am grateful. . .

in this country where life is extremely hard for so many people i realize over and over how easy my life is and how much i have to be grateful for. . .

water. when you don't have it because the pump breaks you realize how nice it is to be able to take a shower. you realize that a birthing center truly does need water. i am grateful for the men who were here who knew how to fix a broken water pump.

electricity. when the generator doesn't work and you don't have lights you realize how dark it is. the last couple days the generator has been working again and i am glad!

family and friends who love me. i realized this tonight as i am working through a difficult situation with a girl whose mother really hasn't cared for her like a mother should. i am so grateful to be loved and be able to love.

support. i am grateful for those who support me so i can be here and also who are behind the programs that go on here. i delivered a baby today, the mother had been in labor at home and finally came here with high blood pressure and bled alot after the delivery. without the birthing center i know her outcome wouldn't have been good.

small gifts. i had five women bring back their sewing projects today. i am grateful to be able to be involved in their lives and help them even though in such a small way. i see it as a gift to be able to bless them and their children in this way. i wish i could do more.

staff. we have such awesome staff here. we did some staff pictures this last week. what we do here everyday we couldn't accomplish without them

i have to remind myself over and over again of the good things in life. of the blessings, of the way God is working through extremely difficult situations.

my heart. . .

maureen went to port-au-paix today and went to the hospital. she found out that the baby we had taken with an omphalocele had never had surgery and had died. also she couldn't find nesley the older boy who was so severely anemic and sick. so i am thinking he probably died.

my heart hurts tonight.

glad i am not a mechanic. . .

today i was grateful that i wasn't a mechanic. the reason being that i probably wouldn't have gotten on either of the tap-taps i went on today. tap-taps are the form of public transportation here. it is the back of a small pick up with boards around the edges as benches. the first truck had 24 people, four cases of coke bottles and multiple bags of stuff heading to the market. both trucks had flat tires. the first truck turned off the engine as we coasted down the hills. once again i am glad that i am not a mechanic.

new life. . .

we get to see new life almost every day in the birthing center.

new life needs new clothes, new diapers, new blankets. or you could say a layette.

the sewing hope project women have been making flannel baby blankets. five women come every week and get flannel and hem the edges. these blankets are for layettes and currently we don't have any layettes, so we got together the clothing and diapers we had and made layettes with what we had on sunday. we got about 40 or so made (that should last a couple weeks) we used stockinette to make baby hats. it makes a huge difference with a babies temperature to be able to put a little hat on their heads!

although five women aren't alot, i hope the money they are making is helping them feed their children. i guess for gary, nerline, john wendy and the other children in these families it helps them possibly have food for a couple days. thanks so much to those who are part of the sewing hope project.

rough night. . .

last night sylveste one of our nurses was doing a delivery and she said to me in perfect english right after the baby came out, "i need you to come look at this." so of course i did. the baby had its intestines on the outside of its body. it is called an omphalocele and is a medical emergency. we went into emergency mode and a few hours later (yeah that is an emergency in haiti!!) we arrived at the hospital. as of tonight the baby still hasn't had surgery.

while at the hospital last night i thought i would just check and see if nesly was still there. i didn't figure that he would live. at the end of the men's ward his bed was empty, i walked past it and turned to the small mass under sheets on another bed. i pulled back the sheet and it was him. i could hardly believe that he was still alive. he opened his eyes in shock to see me. he immediately reached out his arms. he still looks horrible.

also while at the hospital a man come up to me and said thanks for helping pay for his wife to get to the hospital. we had sent her that day because of her dangerously low blood levels. he said that baby had died, but she was ok. he could hardly stop saying thank you, thank you. . . there would have been no way for them to get to the hospital had i not financially helped them from money that was given to me from people like you.

i was exhausted upon getting back and getting in bed.

we have had generator issues most of today, when that happens we don't have a pump for our water tank. hopefully it keeps running, they seem to have it fixed now.

alex

alex

i would really appreciate your prayers for alex. he is an 18 year old who came in today. he has a horrible infection in his hand. it is swollen almost twice the size. he was working with a machete, got a blister, broke the blister and has had this for the last 21 days. obviously getting worse every day. it is open and has so much pus draining out, i worked on it for 30 minutes helping some of the infection drain and started him on IV antibiotics. . . but he really needs to see a surgeon. if it isn't somewhat better by tomorrow we will probably have to send him to one of the local hospitals. the problem always with everyone going to the hospitals is they don't have money. with no money they don't usually get treated.

that is faith. . .

last night matt (one of the full time staff members here) said, "hey guys guess what josiah just did? he got into his car himself, buckled up and just looked around for someone to push him." heather (josiah's mom) replied, "that is what you call faith!"

i feel that way right now with so many things in my life. this is especially true about our medical program right now. we are trying to meet some extremely amazing needs in a country where there is such little hope of improvement. we keep seeing more typhoid, more malnourished children, more deliveries. we aren't sure who is going to be pushing or supporting what we are doing. but i guess that is what you call faith. for josiah he got in his car and knew that someone would come push him around so he could play. for peter he got out and walked on water when he kept his eyes on Christ. for the israelites they walked around the city of jericho 7 times even when it didn't make sense as a battle plan. when God asks you to do something you walk in faith knowing that HE will provide. i have to believe that here.