Home and boy am I happy!

I landed last night at 9:30 pm!  Now, it is 4am and I have travelers tummy :((  So, here are some pics and thoughts:

View from the orphanage's new guests' quarters.  The cement blocks you see are the old toilets(thank you God they have newer indoor bathroom).  The land is gorgeous.

The brand new orphanage/church/school building.  Until very recently, 61 parentless children were living in a 2 room building.

When you hear the word "orphan", do you see his beautiful face??  Oh what an angel!

Preparing our medical bins.  Thank you FBC DeLeon for your donations.

Little Charlito sat in my lap during church and fell asleep.  A mommy's arms feel good huh?

This is a 10 month old severely malnourished baby who was at our clinic.  Pray for Haiti!!!!!

We are about to load up in hollowed out trees that serve as wonderful canoes, call me Indiana Jones!

Do you have clean water in your home?  If yes, be GRATEFUL!  And, please donate to things like water for life and water missions.  More children die every year, worldwide, from drinking contaminated water than any other illness.  Here the village children carry buckets to get water for the day.  There is no infrastructure in Haiti to bring clean water to the homes.

Here I am with a shoebox that was sent from FBC Stephenville--thanks girls!

This is my little lovebug, Ovenslay.  I adore him.  He has gorgeous eyes and dimples.  He is hearing impaired and I fear for his future.  The hardest children to place with families are boys over the age of 4--especially with a special need.  What kind of future does he have? 

My sweet Immanuel, who interpreted for me everyday in clinic.  What a precious and bright young man. 

And this is what happens when you have no access to medical care.  A simple shunt procedure at birth would have most likely prevented this horrendous case of hydrocephaly!  As you can imagine, I was sick to my stomach with heartbreak after seeing this.  I'm a mom of a special needs child and I realize how many times, without medical care, my Dillon would be in really bad shape--if even with us still.  The sweet parents were so proud when we asked if we could take pictures of her baby.

So, the question is "How was your trip?"  Honestly, I don't know yet.  I need several days to process it.  It was amazing, funny, adventurous, hilarious, ridiculous, scary, exhausting, wonderful all at the same time.  If I had never been to a poor country before, I'm quite sure I'd never go anywhere again.  Thankfully, God had prepared me first by going to Mexico on missions twice and Nicaragua once.  Haiti is beautiful and horrible together!  God worked mightily for sure.  The people at Global Vision Citadelle Ministries(http://www.gvcm.org/) were so giving, so humble, hardworking, and just flat wonderful.  I love them dearly.  I've never ever seen poverty and desparation like in Haiti.  Port au Prince, the capitol is in shambles.  No pavement, just dirt roads filled with huge rocks and holes.  People milling about with nothing to do.  Unemployment rates must be through the roof.  Only half of all adults are literate.  The good news is that there is progress!  I saw markets with fresh fruits and veges, livestock, electricity at most houses.  We were never threatened, well, a voodoo priest in a village did throw a tempertantrum when we were distrubuting Christmas shoeboxes in a little church and singing hymns.  How amazing is it to hear Haitian children singing How Great Thou Art in Creole??  Awesome!  Uh oh, my tummy is doing summer saults--pause!

Okay, I'm back.  I'm totally cracking up at 4:30 am because I just took Pepto Bismal.  Pepto was the magic potion of our medical clinic ;)  I'll explain later!  Must......get.....sleep..................