Pierreline Returns

We picked up Pierreline again yesterday. She has a nasty eye infection. Her eyes are oozing green liquid. They look cloudy and she is only opening them about half way. We started her on some medicated drops and we are already noticing a difference! She got right back into her bad habits while she was home. She is hitting and crying over everything. Poor girl lost a ton of weight...she is eating everything in sight. This morning she stole Mika and Jivenson's breakfasts right out of their hands! I am enjoying having her back. She is calling everyone by name and singing songs like the good old days.

The ladies are busy making journals right now. I got to take a break because they are taking an exam right now. Every lady has to make her journals today without assistance. I am testing them to see if the program can continue while I am in the states or if we will need to take a break. Myslene is running things and I am pretending to be invisible.

The medical team arrives tomorrow. Our night nanny is VERY pregnant with twins and looking forward to a check-up and a possible delivery right here at HOPE House! Pretty exciting!

We are still waiting to hear our storage fee and delivery date for our containers. Praying for something EARLY next week! Our building team is waiting and ready to purchase tickets. After the recent winds and storms we are even more eager to have our housing set up.

Tomorrow we are helping Lucienne move, cleaning the house for the team, and picking them up at the airport. Please pray for safe and on time flights!

Storm Pictures

As promised I am posting pictures from last week's storm. One is of our yard with collapsed tents and a broken tree. The other is of a tent city where people were rebuilding their homes that were torn to pieces. We were able to distrbute dry sheets, towels, and rain gear to 70 families in this tent city near our old guest house.

We have been busy making journals, preparing for school to open on Monday, and for our medical team to arrive Friday. All of the kids are doing great! Naika is moving in with us this weekend. We are anxiously waiting to hear a delivery date for our containers! Praying for a date this week or next!

Tomorrow we are going to Les Bours to hang the new medicine cabinets, visit Pierreline, and stop by Gertrude's orphanage to see the kids. In the afternoon we will be measuring uniforms for the school kids and getting their "first day of school goodie bags" ready!

As long as the internet continues to work I will post again later this week! Blessings to you all!

Tornadic winds in PAP

GoodMorning!

What a crazy afternoon we had yesterday! At about 3:30 Guerlik and I were out in the driveway counting raindrops as they fell on our heads. It was barely sprinkling. Within a blink of an eye winds picked up and nearly knocked us over! We didn't even see it coming! Rocks and dust were hitting our eyes as we bolted for the door. We quickly grabbed all the kids and put them in the entry way. Jess and Jackie and I grabbed our sunglasses to save our eyes from flying debris and ran outside to hold down the tents. At first we thought we could put cases of water inside each corner to hold it down. We were very wrong! I was inside my tent, with 3 cases of water, a queen sized air mattress, books, fans, and other items when it completely lifted off the ground. The wind was circling us and coming from every direction. Jess ran across the driveway and threw herself on my tent so I could get out. As we all sprinted towards the door the big tree in our front yard split in half and rubbermaid bins were flying at our heads. It was raining so hard it hurt. We couldn't see anything. The house was flooding upstairs and down. Everything sat in an inch or two of water. We have leaves and papers all over our house even though the door and windows were shut! By the time the storm passed our house and our yard were a mess. (see pictures of collapsed tents and broken tree)

Frentz was out trying to get his birth certificate when the storm hit. He was driving and he said he felt like the truck was going to get picked up by the wind. He was violently shaking back and forth. He watched a tin roof fly off a house into the air and come down and slice a guy's back open. As he passed the tent cities he said everyone's houses were in the air. Things were flying everywhere! People were screaming and crying in misery. They lost everything 8 months ago. Now many families lost what little they had all over again. 5 people have been counted dead, but many tent cities have not been counted yet. Downtown buildings that were almost collapsed from the earthquake fell over crushing more people. Teams have not been able to get into the downtown area to evaluate the damage because the people are so angry. Who could blame them? Tents and tarps are not a long term solution.

The storm has not been called a tornado yet, but my friend living in Croix-de-bouquets said she saw the funnel cloud coming She has spent time in the Michigan and is familiar with tornadoes. She said people were running and screaming in fear. The roof flew off from her house. Her mother's house was completely destroyed along with many of the other houses in her area.

Please pray for the people living in these tent cities. Last night they were cold and wet with no way to dry anything. Our nannies were crying and screaming as the storm damaged our property. Many of them live under tarp houses and they were so afraid for their families and the damage they would find. Many of them lost their houses. Jess, Jackie, and I are heading out to distribute sheets and clothing to wet families. I will try to post more pictures of what we find around PAP later. Thank you for praying.

Prayer Requests

On Tuesday I explained to the ladies in the Gift of Hope program that I would like to be praying for them throughout the week. We talked about prayer requests and how we can pray for each other and celebrate together when God hears, and answers our prayers. Each lady had a request about a health issue. Jiniole has a problem with her heart, Gerlande has had stomach issues since Jivenson was born, FloreMichelle is losing weight no matter now much she finds to eat, and Mideline is praying for the Lord to cure her HIV. Yesterday I was able to share a praise that I received an email from an organization who has a heart doctor coming to Haiti this fall. They were wondering if I knew anyone with heart complications! Just 24 hours earlier we began praying for Jiniole!

Yesterday we took prayer requests again. I would like to share two of them with you. They broke my heart and gave me insight to how difficult life is for these precious girls. Gerlande shared that when she was born her mother did not want her.

Her mother was very young and she was more like a sister. She was raised by her grandmother. After her grandmother died she was sent to live with her mother but she never took care of her. She asked for prayers to keep her health so that her children could always have someone to care for them. Gerlande feels so alone because the only person that every cared for her died. She would like prayers to stay strong and love her children and live until they are all grown up.

Mideline would like prayer for God to show favor on her. Her mother died when she was 5, and her father died when she was 6. Both had AIDS and passed it down to her. She was sent to live at her aunt's house and she grew up without knowing what it felt like to be loved. She became pregnant at 19 and had a child who was also positive for HIV. She died before her first birthday. Mideline feels like her life is cursed. She has a disease that is killing her, killed her child, and keeps her from forming normal relationships. She is trying not to be angry, but feels like she has no life at all. She is praying for a miracle. For a cure. She deserves it. She only got about half way through her story before she broke down crying and couldn't go on.

We are preparing the house for our big move into the containers! We are hoping and praying for a delivery within the next 2 weeks! Our HOPE House children will be moving with us, but Mika and Guerlik will stay here until our rent is up. Then they will be moving to their new property. It was a joy to live with them this year....they are both full of personality and two of the very cutest kids that ever walked this earth! (See for yourself! Their photo is posted above) We are currently working on passports for Mika and Myslene....hoping for them to visit Michigan with us next year and host some fundraising dinners! Myslene is a FABULOUS cook!

Today Jess and Jackie are helping me take an inventory of the supplies we have left at HOPE House. We will be coming up with an updated list of needs for each program! We will keep you posted!

Found a Missing Student!

I spent the morning cleaning the clinic in Les Bours. No exaggeration, I killed at least 70-80 spiders! Good thing I wore my spider stomping shoes! I brought Lucienne along because she is the all time best cleaner! We scrubbed away at the walls, doors, bins, filing cabinets, and floors. I can't say it's sparkling, but it looks remarkably better! We hired a guy to build some new cabinets which should be ready later this week. Next week we will try to sort the best we can before our big medical week Oct 1-8! The doctors hope to see between 1,000-1,500 patients in a week!

Some of you may remember me mentioning a little boy at our school, Lovenson, who was beginning to starve. Last month he weighted only 36 pounds and he is 9 years old. I got on his father about making sure he was getting enough food. He is no longer with Lovenson's mother and he has a new girlfriend who was beating Lovenson so he sent him to live at Grandma's, but apparently Grandma only cooks every 3 or 4 days. This morning he weighted 42 pounds! It's still not great for a 9 year old but it is 6 pounds better than 36! Pretty good for 1 month.

I have more good news! This morning one of our missing students showed up are school! Since the earthquake we have had 12 students still missing. Possibly they moved to the countryside without notifying anyone, or their bodies were never found, or their bodies were collected but never identified. I was so excited to see one of our kindergartners, Richnaider come into the courtyard this morning! His mother told me their house fell on top of him and his shoulder, neck, and head were injured. He had many broken bones and couldn't return to Les Bours until recently. Praise God he is alive and well!

The 5th grade classroom is almost complete! They men have been working on it everyday since the funding was collected. They will finish the roof next week and paint it over the weekend. School will start on Oct 4th. (See classroom pic above)

This morning Jess and Jackie helped with a food and clothing distribution for 50 families from our tent city. They were so thankful for everything! Especially the sheets and fancy children's clothing! Many of the mothers were commenting that they were excited to find clothes for their children to wear to church. Most churches in Haiti will not let you attend without proper attire.

Today is Naika's birthday! We are celebrating tonight with lasagna and confetti cake! Birthday girl's choice! Better go get that cake in the oven!

Containers!

Great News! I just received email from our shipping company and the director has signed off on our containers!!!! They are working on cutting down storage fees and wondering if I will be here Oct 6th for delivery! Praise You Lord! Thank you for all of your continued prayers! He has heard our cry and answered! Praise His Great and Mighty name! Let's keep on praying for this to be true and to have an on time or EARLY delivery!

Jess and Jackie and I have been keeping ourselves busy. We cleaned out the clinic getting ready for our medical team to arrive on the 1st of October. We have been getting journal orders ready and cleaning up termite damage in the house!! They ate right through Frentz's birth certificate and many other important papers. (They literally ate half of the page of paper!) It is a waiting process to get another copy which we MUST have by the time we leave!

We have been laughing over some of the day to day dilemas/circumstances we face in Haiti. For example, Jean, our driver, has been having to walk or take tap-tap to work because he can't get his truck papers renewed. Why? Because he just has a new paint job done and the guy used a brownish red paint and before the truck was just red. So the registration office won't renew his papers because they don't know if it is the same truck because now it is brownish.

The man who was sewing 103 uniforms for our primary school came by to drop them off today. They look awesome! .....except he failed to label them. Meaning I have to go through all 100 children and try to match them upwith uniforms when specific measurements were already taken hoping that the last few uniforms left will fit the last few kids.

We had a discussion around the dinner table the other night about belly buttons. Apparently our entire staff thinks that children with umbilical hernias were left crying for too long when there were a baby and so their belly buton has air in it! Guerlik has a rather large umbilical hernia and Myslene was happy to know it wasn't because she neglected him!

Basically Haiti is funny, beautiful, random, chaos. In light of it all our children are doing very well! I posted a picture of Benley so you could see how much he has grown! He is getting to be a big boy! He just laughs and laughs whenever someone picks him up. His mother is very good to him and loves to hold him and feed him when she comes for journal time!

We are excited for journals tomorrow! We hired a new translator! (Frentz's cousin wh olearned English in the Dominican.) She is the same age as I am! I'm excited to have a new friend.

Keep ordering those journals and praying for Haiti! :o)

Journal Bios

On Tuesday I explained the "rules" of Gift of Hope. I made sure to express the importance of being on time since Haiti is a very relaxed (late) culture. Jiniole for Gerlande were definitely listening! They both came at 8:30am this morning and the program doesn't start until 10:00am! I guess they are as excited as I am!

I have been receiving questions about how to order journals and their cost. The journals are selling for $15. You can order them by emailing us at haitipoverty@gmail.com. If you would like, you can request a specific woman or color. Our first shipment of journals will arrive to Michigan on October 9th. They will make great Christmas presents! We have some with fall paper, winter paper, and Christmas paper. We also have every color of the rainbow with very cool designs and some "manly" ones as well! I will be bringing them with me to various speaking engagements throughout Nov and Dec. If you are interested in taking some to your church or work to sell, please contact us! Every journal sold helps these ladies provide food for their families!

MIDELINE

(Mideline is in the white shirt holding her journal)

My name is Mideline. I am 22 years old. My parents died when I was very little and I grew up working for my aunt. When I was 20 years old I had a baby girl named Shellsie. Shellsie's father died before she was born. I struggled to care for her and she became very sick. Haiti Foudnation Against Poverty helped me care for Shellsie and kept her until she was healthy again. After the earthquake my life was very hard. Shellsie and I were both positive for HIV. In April 2010, just before her first birthday, Shellsie died. I have been very sad and depressed since April.

The Gift of Hope program is the first good thing that has happened to me. I have always wanted to be able to do something for myself and now I can! When I graduate from the program I would like to sell things on the street so I can continue to afford my medication, eat food, and have a place to live. I am thankful to God for this opportunity. He is my life.

FLOREMICHELLE

(Pictured with her two daughters)

My name is FloreMichelle and I am 29 years old. I have two daughters, Victoria and Alexandra. Victoria is 5 and Alexandra is 2. Last year when my mom died I thought my life was over. I had to sell everything we owned to pay for her funeral. We were living with her in a house she was renting, and the owner took it away from us even though we paid a whole year. I was living on the streets with my daughters. I asked the director of Haiti Foundaiton Against Poverty if she could keep my youngest daughter because I could not afford to feed both of them. Instead, she began helping me sell things so I could keep my daughters and find a place to live.

When the earthquake happened my irls and I were at my cousin's house. We made it out alive by my cousins died inside. I am thankful to God because he saved my life.

I am so excited to bein the Gift of Hope program. When I graduate from the program I would like to open a small shop selling slothes and shoes. I would like to see my children grow up like other children, having food to eat and a place to sleep.

JINIOLE

(Pictured holding her son, Benley)

My name is Jiniole Pierre and I am 20 years old. Since the earthquake on January 12, 2010 I have been living in a tent city with my son Benley. His father was killed in the earthquake, and he was the only person in our whole family who had a job. Benley and I lived in a house made of sticks, tarps, and saran wrap. I was very afraid that he might die in the tent city because there are many sicknesses where we lived, and other babies his age are dying.

Benley is living at HOPE House, Haiti Foundaiton Against Poverty's infant care center, until I can earn enough money to move out of the tent city and care for him. I would like to tell you how thankful I am for the Gift of Hope program because it has taught me how to do something to make my life better. When I graduate from the program I would like to open my own store selling hygiene items to other women. I am thankful to God for this new chance at life with my son. I love God very much.

GERLANDE

(Pictured in Tuesday's post with her children in front of their house)

My name is Gerlande and I am 35 years old. I have four children and a husband. My husband does not have work and we struggle to find enough food to feed our children. Sometimes we do not eat for 2 or 3 days.

I would like to tell you why I love God so much. My youngest son, Jivenson, was very sick. I took him to the hospital and they said they would not let dead people in. I sat outside the gate all day saying, "Lord, this is your business, not my business, your child, not my child." At 10:00pm the hospital opened the gate and let me in. I sat by his side with the nurses telling me he was going to die. We were sitting on the third floor of the hospital when the earth started shaking. They asked me to take Jivenson home to die because they needed his bed for trauma patients. I took Jivenson over to Haiti Foundation Against Poverty's clinic and they agreed to help. He has been living at HOPE House ever since. My family calls Jivenson "Lazar" which means Lazarus in English. I am so thankful that God gave my baby a second chance at life. Without God and Haiti Foundation Agaisnst Poverty he would be dead. Now all of my children go to church and thank God for all He has done for us.

I am so thankful to be part of the Gift of Hope program. When I graduate I would like to sell rice and beans in my neighborhood because we are all very hungry.

Now that you have met our amazing ladies send us an email and order away! :o)

Gift of Hope

Gift of Hope officially opened today! We had our first journal making class this morning. Four ladies attended: Jiniol (Benley's mom), Gerlande (Jivenson's mom), FloreMichelle (a lady who has been selling donated shoes and clothing sent from our supporters), and Mideline (Shellsie's mom, a baby we cared for who died just before her first birthday in April). After months and months of preparation the day was finally here! I was so excited to see them all, I started crying before we even began!

The ladies did a great job on their first journals! Mideline's was nearly perfect! Gerlande struggled a little because she has trouble with her eyes. All in all, I think we are going to have some BEAUTIFUL journals coming your way! Get your orders in! They will make great Christmas presents!

We took pictures and wrote down each woman's story for their bio. (Gerlande's photo is posted here, she is holding Jivenson in front of her home with her other children.) Each journal will be complete with a bio of the woman who made it and a picture of them with their child or children.

After journals we spent time talking about the importance of memorizing scripture. As a group, we will be memorizing 2 verses a month. This week's verse is Roman's 14:8b "In life and in death we belong to the Lord!"

Myslene was busy in the kitchen all morning and at noon we all ate a delicious lunch together! White rice, bean sauce, and chicken!

The ladies are so excited and thankful for an opportunity to learn something and care for their children. As I asked each woman to tell me her story the first thing they all said was, "I would like to go back to school and learn something so I can care for myself and my children. I would like to tell people that I am so thankful for this program because I can do something for myself." The women described how difficult it is to find enough food to feed their children. I asked each lady to tell me what God has done for them. Jiniole said, "I love God very much. He is my life." Gerlande said, "I love God so much because he saved my life in the earthquake. I was on the third floor of a hospital with Jivenson and He saved us both."

We are all excited for Thursday! The ladies will be making their first journals that will be sold! (They got to keep the ones they made today.)

Jivenson had to go to the lab for blood testing this morning to see if we can find out any more information about his delayed development. He has pokes all over his fingers and arms. They couldn't get enough blood! Just as they were checking out, the nurse came back and said he needed poked again! Poor guy did NOT have a good morning!

Tomorrow we are going over to Les Bours to distribute clothing to the community. I will also be meeting with Pierreline and her family and enrolling her in school! I got to see her briefly this morning. When she saw the white truck pull up she started jumping up and down and crying with excitment! On Thursday she is going to come visit us at HOPE House just to play for the day! We are all missing her!

Jivenson

This morning we took Jivenson up to Three Angels to visit Dr. Jack. He has had a weird skin infection for the past few days and since Saturday his right eye has been nearly swollen shut. He is on an antibiotic and allergy meds and is doing better. Jack's evaluation showed Jivenson being about 6 months developmentally even though he is 11 months old. We know he is slow but we don't have the right testing in Haiti to diagnose exactly what his conditions are. One of his eyes tends to cross in, he crosses his ankles when sitting, and his head often tilts to the side. His legs are very strong when he is in the walker, but other times they are floppy and fold up under him. Sometimes he can sit up by himself and other times he folds in half. Sometimes he can pick up toys, and other times he bats at things but can't make contact. He is a snuggler and he loves to laugh. He is a very happy little guy!

Right now he is set to go back home with his mom in January. By then she will have been in the journal program for 4 months and earning enough profit to feed and care for him. However, knowing what his future holds it might not be the best thing for him to return home. If he is not able to go to school and be a "productive" member of the family he will not be wanted. His mother already has 4 other children and is handicapped herself. Ideally Jivenson should be receiving therapy each day to help with his muscle and cognitive development, which is not available in Haiti. He would thrive if he were adopted into a loving family who could provide this kind of help that he needs.

We don't know what the future hold for our Little Jeeves but we have fallen in love with him here at HOPE House.....after seeing his picture I'm sure you will too!

Pierreline

It was bittersweet taking Pierreline home a few weeks ago. I am so thankful we were able to help her in her time of need. It was wonderful to watch her recover during her time at HOPE House. She was known for her mischief and her smile! When we first brought her into our family she was hurting and angry. Her father was physically abusing her and her poor little body had the marks to prove it everywhere we looked. She had fresh scars, healing scars, infected scars, and old scars. Her back was raw from whippings. Her ankles were severly burned. Her head was open in several places with puss and blood leaking on whoever was holding her. Everything we did made her scream. She didn't want to be inside or ouside. She didn't want held or put down. She threw her plates of food on the floor or against the wall and refused to eat. We decided the best treatment was unconditional love. Overtime she began to love us in return. After a week she gave us her first smile. Over the 4 months that she lived at HOPE House she worked her way into each of our hearts. The above pictures show Pierreline during her first week at HOPE Hosue, and her last week at HOPE House. She was ridiculously naughty and unbelievably clumbsy! The poor child couldn't walk across the room without falling down! But she was loving to all who entered our gate. Each morning I would wake up to her chanting "a-ya-yi, a-ya-yi!" (The best she could pronounce Mallery) When the truck pulled in the driveway she sang, and clapped, and danced with excitement! It was hard to let her go. But it was time.

I have visited her 4 times in the past few weeks just to check on things at home and make sure she is doing well. So far I have not found any additional wounds or marks. Everytime I turn into Les Bours I look in the tarp house filled with alcohol and find her sitting on a wooden bench. Last week her father had left her there and when she saw me pull up in our white pick-up truck she could hardly believe her eyes! "A-ya-yi!!!!" she screamed and came racing towards the truck! I don't think her feet ever touched the ground! We are enrolling her into preschool at our school this year. We will be making that she is being cared for!

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for Pierreline, sponsored her, or showered her with love. You have made such an important impact in her life!

A week of distributions!

The last week or so has been a whirlwind! ALL of the supplies from the Grand Rapids container have been distributed! Your contributions reached over 800 families in less than a week! Our interns, Jess and Jackie, arrived on Friday and have been a GREAT help sorting, counting, and organizing! We can't thank you enough for all of the donated items! The families were so happy to receive your gifts and know that people are still praying for them and thinking of them.

We went to several different tent cities in town, and one day we went down to Cite Okay and distributed 100 sets of sheets, towels, hygiene kits, and food. The next day we went back to help 100 more families and apparently the new sheets were the talk of the tent city! Everyone was so excited to have new sheets to sleep on! We also received bins full of brown and tan striped purses.....the ladies went CRAZY!!! All of our ladies on staff for to keep a bag for helping us unload the truck. On Sunday Myslene went down to visit her sister-in-law in a tent city for the afternoon. Her son, who used to live with us, Peterson, told Myslene his mom couldn't stop talking about her purse and that she wished she had one. It just to happened that Tuesday afternoon we held a distribution in her tent city!......she was first in line and SO excited when she received a purse, just like Myslene's, filled with goodies! Out of all the people in Port-au-Prince! It was so sweet. God is good.

The house is looking great! Jess, Jackie, and I have been going room to room and cleaning and reorganizing everything into labled bins! A happy house is a clean house!

Things are going well out on the property. The boss is coming in today to pick up locks for the gates and doors. All the doors and gates are up now and the property is secured! (see attached picture of Jess, Jackie, and I on the property)

Life has been hard the past few weeks. We have seen a lot of death. From the first accident in Les Bours, to the man hit on the moto, to the bus that ran over the tap-tap, and now this week a man was run over by a tap-tap and his head was open and bleeding from several places right outside a hospital that wouldn't take him in. And this morning we got word that a friend of ours, Germain, a driver from Providence and Gertrude's brother died last night from a brain tumor. He was diagnosed only weeks ago. I am still trying to figure out how to deal with all of this. How to see these things and go on with life as normal. Maybe I'm not supposed to. Life is so hard in Haiti. Nothing is easy. And I don't see things getting any easier. Jesus please come quickly.

Triple Trouble (Jess, Jackie, and myself) have been busy planning the journal program. Our first meeting with the women is Tuesday! We are planning our spiritual development portion this afternoon. Yesterday we translated verses into Creole and cut paper into the right measurements. I am so excited to get to know these ladies better and give them an opportunity to care for their children! Our first meeting with be Tuesday from 10am-2pm.

This morning Jivenson held his own bottle for the first time! ....after a few days of torture. We kept setting his bottle right next to him at feeding time but not feeding him and doing all the work. For days he screamed and cried....but today with help lifting it he kept it in his mouth on his own! Benley is still sleeping the days away. This morning he was singing and telling us some stories in between naps. Mika is moving around so fast no one can catch her! She is EVERYWHERE! She spends most of the afternoons sitting IN the toy bin, which we refer to as "jail" because she is trapped from finding stairs, cat food, and other things that distract her. Someone gave Guerlik a whistle. Bad idea. He has been inside the house for the past two days blowing the thing without ceasing! Waking up babies and giving of all headaches. I keep telling him to only blow outside. This morning I said, if you blow it inside the house one more time I am taking it away. So I turned around....and yep, you guessed it, he blew the whistle. So I took it away and he has been mad at me all morning. He says we aren't friends anymore but I think he'll get over it!

Well, I need to go look for something for lunch! We have a bin in the kitchen that is now labeled "lunch". I think I will start there! Hooray for an organized house!

Blessings,

Mallery