comforts of home. . .

it is good to be home. i traveled to my parents on tuesday after going with janeil and heather to kentucky. my sister came with her two children and spent a couple days with us. (my nephew benton is in the picture above)

the comforts of home are great. . .

sleeping in.

spending time with family.

drinking coffee.

eating around the table.

shopping with my mom.

laughing at my dad.

making fun of my dad.

it is good to be home for a little while.

love. . .

ben (the little guy who had knee surgery yesterday), his brother benson and his mom were all sleeping on the same bed tonight. ben is doing much better. this morning he was crying and crying in pain. we had to restart his IV which was no small thing for a five year old who really doesn't like people coming towards him with any type of needles. his mom really loves him and his brother. seeing them all sleeping together on that bed brought tears to my eyes. more than likely that mattress is more comfortable than what they have at home.

i had a seminar with the nurses this afternoon and we will have another one tomorrow and then saturday am EARLY i will head home. i don't think it has sunk in to my head yet that i am really leaving.

uncertainty. . .

last friday while all the uncertainty about the rioting and the state of the country was going on, i was worried. mostly because i realized that there would be so many people who weren't going to get surgery. if we couldn't find diesel we wouldn't be able to run the generator. obviously no generator, no surgery. one little guy ben who is special to me because i have been seeing him every week since early february was scheduled for surgery. he has a horrible infection in his knee. it wasn't something that he would be able to live with and just wait for october when the team came back. it is something that needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.

we have enough diesel to do surgery on a bit of a smaller scale, the team that was supposed to come in on saturday didn't come. so things are a bit different from planned. there were people who weren't able to have surgery as planned. but ben had his surgery last night. he is in a cast and he will need weeks of antibiotics. but the possibility for him to have surgery, to be able to have a surgeon who knows what he needed is amazing. i am so grateful to dr. del and the team for being willing to be here and work as hard as they do. thanks guys!

moving on. . .

isaiah moved up to the baby orphanage today. he is all of 6 pounds and it is time for him to move into his new home there.

i have been working on getting some of my things sorted through and packed (or stored) to be ready to leave on saturday. i had tears come to my eyes a few times thinking about it. i am very ready to be home and get to see family and friends, but that doesn't mean i am ready to leave family and friends who are here.

life in haiti. . .

today has been an extremely full day!! i helped deliver twins. i was glad to have sylveste (one of our very experiences nurses in the birthing center) there because it was my first twin delivery. other than that we have a surgical team and lots of craziness going on.

if you have heard there is some unrest in port-au-prince. people here are hungry and mad at the government for not helping with the cost of food. we are safe here, but if things get complicated there, we don't get our containers with supplies, paperwork doesn't get done and things just get worse overall. so pray for peace.

sharing. . .

this morning in church a little toddler i know was sitting on my lap for a while, then he went and sat with his mom again. his older sister is in the feeding program and was horribly malnourished a year ago, so this is a family that really doesn't have very much. he was getting a little fussy in church and his mom got him a cookie. his face completely lit up! i thought merely because he was going to get a cookie, no, he broke it and toddled right over and gave me half of it. he gave it with so much joy! it brought tears to my eyes.

determination. . .

last week before i was supposed to be leaving for the far west, we also had a surgical team here, they were two surgeons here for womans surgeries. for whatever reason some of the patients who were scheduled for surgery didn't show up. so there were a few openings in their schedule. mdm jericho who is in my sewing project is always talking about how she needs to have planning or do something to not have anymore children. this is her with four of her five children outside their house. they also rent a room in this house to another family and have other family members who stay with them, so it is crowded. she knows that she can hardly care for the children she has and doesn't want anymore.

she was the first person i thought of when i heard they had openings for tubals. so i walked to her house to tell her that she had the opportunity to get her tubes tied if she wanted. her face lit up when i told her, she was so very excited. she turned to her husband to talk with him about it. while we were there he told her it was fine. but the day she was supposed to come for surgery it was a completely different story. he wouldn't help watch the children, told her that he would leave her because she needed to give him more children. she didn't care she said. she knew that he had left before, that she could have no more children, that she was going to do this with or without him. what a determination she had. what a hard life. i realized talking with her and the struggle that was going on was probably why so many woman hadn't shown up as scheduled for surgery. there is no simple answer to things here. there are so many cultural differences that i don't understand and really that i don't think i will ever understand. it is hard to look at things from any other perspective other than mine. but while mdm. jericho went through this whole situation i couldn't even imagine life in her shoes. i still don't know if she had surgery or not, because i had to leave the day before she was scheduled. i will try to visit her soon and see.

far west. . .

what a trip we had to the far west. we had two doctors, a nurse practitioner and many nurses and other helpers pull off five days of clinic. it was an accomplishment amidst rivers that were up, broken down vehicles and many changes of plans. hopefully it was a blessing to the many people we were able to see who don't have access to health care.