Pictures

This was taken the first day of our medical clinics in the tent city. These beautiful people were displaced after the earthquake, and now a year later they are still living in tents.

A year in a tent.

That is something I cannot even imagine.

And there is no promise of change anytime soon.

Many people wondered what Sasha did while I was working on the medical end of things. Well, as you can see from the above picture, she was not in any way bored. :) She quickly made friends outside with the children of the tent city ... they played games, colored pictures and just spent time together. She was in her element.

Haiti Part 2

So many people wondered how Sasha would do on this trip.

Well, you can be rest assured that Sasha adjusted beautifully and had the time of her life. Here is a classic example of just how easy it is to go with what you have when you are little. This is Sasha sound asleep on the floor at JFK. :)

She carried her new doll that she got from mom mom and grandpa for Christmas all over Haiti. Here Abrianna is fast asleep with her at JFK. Later in the week she was riding along in the front seat as we drove through the political unrest, and then Abrianna even had a chance to be sprayed down with alcohol after we left the cholera clinic.

Taking Sasha with me was the best decision ever. Not only did the trip change her life, but seeing Haiti through her eyes changed mine as well. I love you, Miss Sasha and we are so very proud of the responsible and delightful spirit you added to this adventure.

So many more thoughts to come ... so much nursing school stuff in front of me. You'll have to be patient. :)

Haiti Part 1

Last week I was riding in the back of a pick up truck through the streets of Port au Prince. At one point we were driving through political unrest complete with SWAT teams and UN soldiers everywhere.

This week I went to the gym and ran 5 miles on a treadmill.

On Wednesday I was haggling with street vendors for good prices on art in 100 degree sun.

Then the next day here in Middletown I picked out perfectly round imported apples from a display case inside a store that had no less than 10 varieties of said apples to choose from.

Now that I am sitting here in front of my computer, the trip seems sort of like a dream. The details are surreal and I am having trouble assimilating them with my life.

I will try and write what I can. I hope it makes sense.

I will be honest. I did not expect this trip to affect me like it did.

I have been lot of places and I have seen a lot of things in this world. I have seen poverty and sickness and injustice. But, the difference is, that I have never seen such things so close to home. Haiti is practically in our backyard people. It is a 3 1/2 hour direct flight from JFK to Port au Prince. That's closer than California!

And yet we sit in our warm safe homes and pretend like it is far, far away.

But now I have been there. And you are reading my blog. So, now we are both responsible for what we know.

Whenever one of us comes back from a trip like this we are bombarded with people who say they want to come next time. This particular trip has been no exception.

Will I go again? The possibility is very real. We are thinking and praying about going this summer after I am finished school. If we go, it will be as a family.

Can you go? Again, the possibility is very real. Haiti is close and Haiti is accessible. I would be more than happy to talk with you about serving in Haiti, if you are interested. But, please take the time to read my next few posts before asking me about it. While it may be close by, you will need to be prepared for inconsistent electricity, no hot water, air conditioning or fans, and very long drives in the back of pick up trucks over insanely bumpy roads.

With that said, a trip to Haiti also has the potential to quite literally change your life.

So, I would say that the long drives and lack of air conditioning are more like character builders rather than difficult factors to deal with. Talk to my daughter Sasha. She lived her 7 days in Haiti with great zeal and had the time of her life.

To be honest, I am not the actual person you would need to talk to about being a part of a trip like this. But, I can put you into contact with that person if you are interested. She is my friend and she is a dreamer just like me. She will also be very honest with you about what to expect and how you can be a part of changing the world in Haiti.

This is sort of a teaser blog post. My pictures will be back with me on Monday night and then I have no less than 8 pages worth of blogs to post which I will do so, complete with the pictures to accompany the stories. Be patient. The wait will be worth it.

Walk for Water …

This past week our family had the opportunity to attend Soulfest, a Christian concert festival held in New Hampshire. After a week of camping in the rain and sludging through the mud we were ready to come home and sleep in our own beds.

Above all the concerts and fellowship one event stands as the life changer for me.

On Saturday morning Kendalyn and I had the opportunity to participate in what’s called a “Walk for Water.” Basically, each person carries a 5 gallon bucket one mile out to a river, fills the bucket with water, and carries it one mile back.

The purpose of this activity is to show how difficult it is to carry water even one mile ... yet women and children carry water many more miles everyday all over the world. And often the water they carry, the water it takes most of the day to collect, is not even sanitary enough to bathe in, never mind drink or cook in. Yet it is the water they use for all daily activities.

How much water would I use each day if I had to carry it all even one mile each way to my home?

The average American uses 100 gallons of water each day. 100 gallons of clean and refreshing water. Water we can use for any purpose we wish without a care in the world.

It would have taken me 20 trips on my walk for water in order to carry that much water back on Saturday.

I can tell you now I would not have made it 20 times.

I’m not sure I would have made it 5 times. Let's just say I was sore for days even after just one trip.

At the beginning we were all together, maybe 50 people or so, each of us with our orange 5 gallon bucket. I had to fight for Kendalyn to be able to participate. They tried to tell me she was too young, that maybe we should save the buckets for a “real” walker. After many attempts at being nice, I basically just told them I was taking a bucket for her because she really wanted to do this. Why do people fight with mothers?

So Kenni and I started walking together. Oh yes, and I was carrying Tariku on my back in the backpack.

And then a man with a video camera asked if he could ask us a couple questions.
Oh sure, why not?

So, he casually asked Kenni why she was walking.

And, as if the very voice of God spoke through her, she said, “I’m walking for my brother Tariku and his first mom and her friends.”

And that’s when I lost it. Completely.

I then tried my best to answer his question as to why I walked. I blubbered through some sort of variation of what she had just so eloquently said and we walked on.

The walk out wasn’t so bad. An empty 5 gallon bucket doesn’t really weigh too much. An active 20 month old baby boy on your back is rather heavy, but I’ve done that plenty of times before.

We waited in line at the creek for our water. Knowing that in order to make the exercise realistic I would need to care a substantial amount of water, I asked the man to fill mine as full as he could. Kenni then filled her bucket with about a gallon of water I then dumped her water in my bucket and had him fill hers again. So my bucket was filled to about 3 inches below the top.

5 gallons of water weighs approximately 45 pounds. That seems all well and good until you try and walk with that much water in a bucket. It’s not only heavy, but incredibly awkward, at the same time. And add to that the 20 month old baby boy on my back trying to climb out of his backpack and the tears running down my face ... we were quite the site.

It’s quite the trick just trying to keep all the water in the bucket. If you’re going to walk that far to carry the water you sure as heck don’t want any of it to spill over the sides along the way.

While I was starting to fall behind, Kendalyn was in front of me leading the way and talking to everyone that crossed our path. She was telling them all about how they too should be walking for water rather than merely standing by the sidelines. That’s my girl. :)

Over the course of the mile I had to put my bucket of water down many times. But we both made it to the end ... tired, with sore hands and arm muscles, but we made it. One mile with one bucket of water. Hardly an accomplishment when I think of all the women and children who walk miles each day to carry water home, just to sustain life. Why me? Why them?

I'd challenge you to do some reading. Check out www.globalbenefit.org to find out more about our walk for water, as well as information on people who walk for water everyday.

And one of these days I'm going to organize my own walk for water here in CT.
Anyone want to help me?

Psalm 15

Psalm 15

"LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart
and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellowman,
who despises a vile man
but honors those who fear the LORD,
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts,
who lends his money without usury
and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things will never be shaken."

Now there's a list worth working on.
He who does these things will never be shaken.

The Last Day of School

The last day of school ...

Hard to believe that today is the last day of school. Mind you, we're the only people still in school at this late hour (thanks to snow make up days), but it's still hard to believe the school year is winding up.

Our firstborn is finishing second grade and is well on her way to being taller than her mama. :) She is beautiful and funny, we have such a good time together.

Our sweet second born finished preschool yesterday. She came home with a backpack full of pictures from the year and a heart full of friends and memories. She loved school ... from the busride in to the busride home. She says she's excited that school is over, but I know she'll miss her friends before the week is out.

And wonder boy is now 19 months old. Our beautiful baby boy is a running, talking little person. Occassionally he will allow us to snuggle him close, but that doesn't happen very often. When it does we try to take deep breathes and savor the moments.

The summer is before us ... so much fun planned this year.

We're headed to the Science Museum in Springfield, MA tomorrow for the day. Buying the family pass to all the science and kid museums was one of our best moves.

Daddy has a missions trip next week for a few days.
We'll be camping at Rocky Neck for a week.
The kids are spending a week at my parents in Jersey after that.
We're all spending a week in PA with grammie and papa.
Soulfest is at the end of July.
Kenni goes to camp all by herself (6 nights in NH!) in August.
And then we round off the summer with family camp up at Spofford, our real vacation.

Whew. We might be ready for school to start again in the fall.

Now I'm off to enjoy one last cup of coffee for the school year.

Adoption Musings

An adoption update ...

We are currently in the middle of the paperwork stage for our next adoption. I specifically remember a conversation Pete and I had on the plane ride to Ethiopia (probably right after Kendalyn's vomit incident) where we both agreed that Tariku's adoption would be the only adoption and that we were done having children. :) Hee, hee. I also specifically remember the moment when we saw all the beautiful children waiting for families at the care center in Ethiopia. We both knew then that we would be back.

Another boy ... this time he will be older. He can be as old as a year younger than Sasha, and it is likely that he will be that old, because the older they are the harder they are to place with families. We are hoping to bring him home within the next year and so that will make him about 5 years old at that time.

Our son. Only now he is someone else's son. And he will always be someone else's son too.

Our son who will soon find himself in the most horrific of circumstances. Circumstances that will leave him orphaned and in need of a new mommy and daddy. Circumstances so traumatic that I dare not even speculate what they might be.

And so what do we do now? Well, for one, we fill out piles of endless paperwork and get countless signatures notarized. We write checks. Big checks that are only being written because we have the ability to take out loans. And then we wait ... wait for our adoption agency to send all our paperwork to all the right places ... wait for visas and passports and medical evaluations, etc.

Why? So many people ask us why. People ask us why, and then generally they tell us why they are not able/choosing to adopt. *Sigh*

Why? Let me tell you why.

Because 15 months ago we traveled to the other side of the world to pick up our son who has forever changed our lives. He is beautiful and smart and a little crazy. He is our son.

But he did not start off as our son and he is not only our son. Due to the tragic imbalance of resources in our world, he was born to a beautiful Ethiopian woman who was unable to care for him. It is true that I will probably never meet her, but yet I see her every minute I look into his face ... and I wonder ... did his birth mommy have dimples ... and did she ever get to see his? Did she have long curly eye lashes? Did she love popcorn?

Did she get to hold him close, even for a minute? I pray she did. Oh God, I pray she was able to hold him.

Because my son is a gift. But he was her son first.
In a perfect world, she should have been able to raise him and love him and chase him all over the place like I do everyday.

And now there is another little boy ... a little older this time ... who is about to lose his family due to the tragic imbalance of resources in our world. And this time he will remember his birth family because he will be old enough to remember. And we will do our best to help him keep those memories alive.

So many beautiful children. So few people who are willing. And if they could only understand ... what we have "sacrificed" to bring these two boys into our home pales in comparison to the joy they have and will bring to us. It pales in comparison to the gift of family and the amazing mystery of adoption.

We might not own a home. We might not drive a nice car. We might not go out to eat or out on dates. We might eat too much pasta and not enough meat.

But we have experienced love, life and blessing like we would never have otherwise known.
The expense, the risk, the grief, the wait ... it's all worth it, I tell you. Well worth it.