HATS Family

Today we'd like to take a moment to introduce each of the kids to those of you reading the blog who don't know them. And to thank everyone who donated a Christmas present for the kids. The presents are all safely tucked away until Christmas day when they'll bring joy to the kids.

We'll go from oldest to youngest.

 

This is Vladimy (16). A sensitive, helpful boy, he loves soccer and listening to the radio.

TiFi (11). She loves people and is learning more words every day. TiFi is mentally challenged.

This is Mirlande (10). She is inquisitive, intelligent and bossy.

This is JJ (10). JJ is energetic, loves to learn and loves sports.

This is Moise (9). Sweet-natured and helpful, he loves to play with Ti Luc.

This is Dieumima (9). Intelligent and kind, she loves to walk along the river.

This is Leica (7). Affectionate and fun-loving, she loves to laugh.

This is Ti Luc (6). Smart and determined, he loves to interact and play jokes on people.

This is Karma (6). She loves people and has the biggest smile you've ever seen.

This is Josie (6). Laid-back and cute, she likes to braid visitors' hair.

This is Ismyis (5). Energetic and super affectionate, she loves to swing in the kids' playground.

This is Dieumel (5). Sweet-tempered and athletic, he can be found climbing the monkey bars.

This is Judel (4). Impossible to ignore, Judel will hold your hand and steal your heart.

This is Karena (3). Smart as a whip and with an amazing smile, Karena loves to play house and tell the other young kids what to do.

This is Jofky (2). Karena's best friend, Jofky can be moody, but is sweet nonetheless.

This is Anne (1 1/2). Anne is quiet and sweet, watching the other kids run all around her.

This is Sandra (6 months). Calm and happy, Sandra has the best baby smile and laugh ever!

This is Jonathan (6 weeks). This tiny guy loves to be snuggled and held.

That's it for today! More tomorrow from Liette, Yvette and the HATS gang.

At 3:00 a.m our first alarm went off

…. actually it was a truck honking it’s horn and pretty much had Liette on the roof…she went back to sleep immediately (unfortunately I did not) until our 5:30 alarm clock went off to start our day. We took a truck full of kids to do a hike leaving behind a crowd of tiny kids looking thru the fence at us.

We saw lots of wild life on the way up…goats, chicken, pigs, horses, cows, dogs and even turkeys. The kids had no problem scrambling up the hill. I was amazed at the people coming down the mountain with huge loads on their head and of course, nothing on their feet. At the top Seth discovered if you move the right rocks you find brown scorpions. A few feet from the one we found another one with all her babies on her back. I thought that was pretty cool. The kids enjoyed climbing the tree at the top of the mountain. And we all enjoyed the beautiful view.

The high school kids were busy cutting grass with machetes (and killing three snakes) in the back field behind the school. They are trying to get it ready for soccer matches. A group of girls cooked a meal for the hard workers, and the boys hanging around in the shade just waiting for lunch...

The afternoon consisted of another beautiful hairdo, some badminton with Moise and JJ, and and a very quick dip in the private hospital pool. Liette, Mariah and I couldn’t have found a better way to cool off.

We took another nice walk along the canal. The two tired babies happily shared a stroller for a quick nap.

Yvette tried to cover up her amazing hairdo with her hat, but the kids all had to try it on. We've decided that Tifi really rocked the hat and we can now see what she'll look like at 55 years old.

This evening we had an awesome lightning show. The clouds were lit up from behind for lightning for well over an hour. Truly an awesome display of God’s creation.

Oh, and we did do a little tiny bit of work….
Yvette and Liette (for all of us at HATS)

Falling stars, fireflies, toads and bats

Falling stars, fireflies, toads and bats were what I got to think about as I went to bed last night. I didn’t realize that when you take one picture of a tree frog, you’re ok but when you take two, the frog leaps off the wall and pees all over you…interesting….. Today I found out that the HATS kids don’t like frogs because they pee in your eye and make you blind…

Yvette

A long beautiful walk along the canal to start and end the day - what could be better. Haiti is such a beautiful country and the walks along the canal can re-energize you to face the challenges that lie ahead. The kids love the canal walks and everyone had a wonderful time, besides Jofky, who was not happy at being forced to walk for a few minutes.

The day began with awesome singing in the school before classes began. Yvette, Jessie and I had a chance to get several classes of student photos and letters completed today. The majority of the letters are already translated so now we're scanning and prepping them to send out to the sponsors. Your letters/photos will soon be in your inbox!

I got to see Mariah teaching in action. Wow, with a class of 15 excited little people and very few supplies, she is doing a fantastic job. So proud of her :)

There was a rousing game of football late this afternoon with Yvette and Vladimy taking on Seth and Liette. Vladimy and Yvette won by one point, but Moise seemed like a biased referee if you ask me. That was followed by Yvette getting a new hairdo by three talented and determined young ladies. Not sure if the twisted dreads will every come out, but she sure looks cute!

Tomorrow is our hike up the mountain. The kids who are old enough to do the hike are beside themselves with excitement and I'm sure there will be lots of stories about how HIGH the mountain is and how they were unable to do anything but run full speed down the mountain because it's SO steep. We're heading out at 6am to beat the heat, so we'll be heading to bed soon.

Hugs to everyone back home!

Liette (and the HATS gang)

We’ve arrived safely

We’re happy to say that we’ve arrived safely in Deschapelles, Haiti. We flew into Port-au-Prince early this am and were already at Hands Across the Sea shortly after noon. We had a chance to peek into the classrooms at the school, including seeing Mariah teach her preschool class!

The kids were all so happy to see us, except for Jofky, who is reserving judgement for the moment.

Jofky's just not too sure yet

This afternoon was spent organizing the donated gifts into bins to await Christmas as well as organizing the diapers and formula for the babies. We had a chance to hold babies too! Late afternoon as an English pronunciation / speaking class at Luckner’s trade school with an enthusiastic group of students aged 12-27 years old. After games and hugs with the kids, it was soupe joumou for dinner.

Yvette hard at work

Tomorrow will be a big day as we start the process of getting all of the students photographed and their letters written to their sponsors in Canada or the U.S. We’re hoping to get a lot done tomorrow as the schools are closed Friday for a National holiday.

We’re hot, but happy to be here!

Liette and Yvette

Here we are again, finally

Here we are again, finally. Actually we tried to get a blog posted on Saturday. Mariah wrote a blog twice on Saturday but lost both due to electicity problems.

Two more sleeps before Liette arrives. YEAH!!!! Wednesday morning early Luckner and I will be heading to the airport in PAP to pick up Liette and Yvette. Are we anxious? Are we excited? Yes and Yes. You bet we are.

End of day play time

While here Liette will be in charge of getting all school photos and all thank you letters done for our wonderful sponsors. Getting them done is only part of the huge task. Letters all need to be translated, scanned, and put into a file in the computer. Photos need to be taken, names of all students prepared in advance to go with the photos, and downloaded to the computer. Then all sponsors need to be emailed with two attachments - the letter from their student (s) and a photo of their student (s). Am I thankful that Liette is returning this year to take on this horrendous job once again?? Thankful does not cover it. I might be seen in the compound next week jumping up and down with joy and praising and thanking God that the letters and photos are done.

Liette is coming and taking on a big job again, but we will have time together as well. That is what Mariah and I are looking forward to. We are both looking forward to having Yvette here for the first time too and sharing everything with her.

Speaking of Mariah we have news about her. Mariah was planning on returning to Canada in December. Plans, however, have changed and Mariah has agreed to stay on until school closes in June. Mariah is one of our preschool teachers. She is doing a good job and is liked by teachers and students. For awhile now Mariah has been in charge of prescolaire I as we have loaned the other teacher to one of our other classes for awhile. Mariah is keen and keeping things going nicely on her own. Eventually the other teacher will rejoin her again and they will share the teaching. Mariah is hoping to be able to start some university courses online in January.

Baby Jonathan was released from the hospital late Friday. O happy day! It was a huge relief to all of us. He is doing fine - tiny still but starting to fill out. Yesterday, he was back to church with us snuggled into the sling Mama Karen carries him in.

Multi-tasking at its best

Today it was great to see Seth on his feet again. He had been ill for awhile, with what appeared to be a nasty case of strep throat. It really was fantastic to see him walking across the compound.
We give God thanks for the renewed health of Baby Jonathan and Seth. Other than runny noses the other kids are well. They are busy with school work and mischief.

Work continues on the school compound. Our office is finished and getting a lot of use. The secondary part of the school, that was damaged in the earthquake, is being worked on when school is not in session. Slowly and steadily things are improving and looking good. Lots of positive comments when people come on the main compound and/or the school compound. HATS has a good reputation in the area and people are pleased to see the work continuing.

Grades 7,8,9 being reinforced & finished

I cannot blog without saying thank you. Saying 'thank you' does not in any way convey the amount of thankfulness in my heart to all of you. You are loved, appreciated and needed. All of you!

Gwo Luckner and Ti Luckner

Mariah with my kids

Karena & Jofky ready to help Jacques

Karen and kids

Precious baby Jonathan

Precious baby Jonathan has been in the hospital for the past few days and will be for awhile yet. He came down with a fever on Thursday evening. Friday morning off to the hospital we went where he was quickly admitted. Since his fever broke Sunday morning I expected I would get him home today, Monday. Not. His doctor told me he has an infection in his blood that has to be cleared up first and he needs to keep him there for another four to five days. Yikes. It is not easy for us with an emergency like this as one of the house mothers has to be at the hospital all the time. That, in turn, leaves us short staffed on site and no days off for anyone, but this precious baby boy is more important than any of the above.

Baby Jonathan in hospital

Baby Jonathan with Mama in hospital

School is doing well and starting to sort itself out for the year. Next week Liette and Yvette arrive to take care of all letters and photos of the sponsored students. Thank you, God. Some of our sponsors will find that you have a different student this year. If this is so, there is a good reason for it.

Mariah continues to do a good job at the school. She is a mature and disciplined teacher for whom the other teachers and the director have a lot of respect. She will be sorely missed at the school after Christmas. This week she is teaching one of the younger grades by herself.

Mariah in charge of her own class

Our students are delighted and thankful to be receiving a meal at school again. Most of them arrive at school hungry and so this meal is extremely important. Today our school director, Luckner, and his assistant, Wagler, spent a lot of time taking up the food and serving the students. This enabled the students to be served more quickly to make room for other students.

Meal for our students

Luckner, Director, & Wagler Asst Director taking up the meal for the students.

Jessie and Seth have been busy painting the new school office for Luckner and I, and I might add have done a great job of it. Seth keeps busy building things we need. Jessie continues to help where needed - in the office, helping Leica with her school lessons, painting, etc.

Jessie & Seth painting our school office

The office/future library building is finished (only needs painting outside) and looking good. We have a 'real' school office. Thank you, Lord. We used our office today for the first time and were thrilled to have space to work. We will be able to hold staff meetings in comfort from now on instead of standing in the school yard.

Beautiful school office and future library

A 'real' school office. Yeah!!

The children are doing well. The older ones glad to be attending school. Ti Luc is doing well in school with his reading. Writing, of course, is not easy for him. He cannot write small and neatly in an exercise book like other students. He has small portable blackboards in his backpack for this and continues to write with his feet - actually with his left foot. His teacher has patience and understanding with him. He is bright, loves going to school, and has a sense of humour that keeps us all entertained. Karena and Jofky continue to be bossom pals. Anne chases these two around and does whatever they do. Little Sandra continues to blossom and light up whenever she sees us.

Grade One. Ti Luc at front working with his feet

Jofky & Karena

Gorgeous Baby Sandra

My children are all precious and give me joy, along with the stress that comes naturally with being a mother - I now have 18. I am constantly being asked to take other children, but I do not do so lightly. We are a family and I do not want to ever see that change. There is a place and necessity for institutions, but even before purchasing the land for HATS, I knew I was to form a 'family' and do the best I could as a mother to bring the children up and keep the family together. With God's help, that of others here with me, and yours may we continue to be a family.

IT IS ALL ABOUT THE CHILDREN.

Many thanks to all of you. God bless you.
Karen and kids

I am so thankful

So, even though it is only November 2nd and our Thanksgiving in United States isn’t until November 24th, I have been in a very thankful mindset lately. I am so thankful for God and the way he works. I am thankful that He chose Seth and I to fill this position and has been so faithful throughout the entire journey. I am thankful for how he has grown Seth and I’s marriage and helped us each individually learn much needed things and discover a more intimate relationship with Him. I am thankful that Karen has let us be a part of HATS and the children’s lives. We are so overjoyed to get to see these kids everyday. We are thankful for Karen and her service to this mission. Her faithfulness in carrying out God’s will for her life and her hard, hard, HARD work here. We are also thankful for Mariah and her sacrifice to be here with us and how she brings so much joy to Karen. In addition, we are extremely thankful for James, Ken and Betty, and Sara and Peter: all who have brought us such a source of community and friendship. God has been so good to us this past year and we are so thankful for a opportunity to grow more Christ-like while being part of this mission.

Things have picked up here around HATS. With school starting, Seth and I have been much more busy. Seth doing carpentry and me doing office work. These past several days, I have been trying to get the school sponsor list ready for when Liette comes down, so she can use it when organizing the school sponsorship photos and letters. I have really enjoyed my work here, especially that I don’t do any certain task for a long period of time. This work has been great, and I have been still trying to keep up with other small things I REALLY enjoy doing.

Mirlande and I still try to meet once a week and discuss a bible story focused on one of the Fruits of the Spirit. During our meeting the other day, we got on the topic of dreams. She told me that she would love to become the President of Haiti. However, that she would quickly get rid of the chofer and the door opener to her car because she would want to drive herself. I told her people would probably LOVE her for that. :)

I also have been trying to do a craft each week based off the Creation Story. I am doing a three week sermon spread out on the Creation story. To kick it off, we made animal masks to later use at our final Creation party at the end of the sermon series. I explained what we would be learning in church and how they would need the information they will learn in church to complete the creation party at the end. The kids were really excited. Since then, we have been doing a craft each week for each day of creation and recapping the lesson.

The kids with their animal masks

Within the last few weeks, we have had some really neat visitors. One group was a Canadian group who stopped by for a full day visit. They got to see the whole compound, the school, and time to play with the kids. It was a blast having them around and hearing all their stories. One very encouraging guy named, James, for Seth and I told us how him and his wife went to Africa on their honeymoon and stayed for two years to do mission work. His wife always says he owes her another honeymoon! :) Now that is dedication to God’s calling! The other was a previous resident at HATS. Janine, who lived here for a total of 3 months in 2005, came to visit last Wednesday through Saturday. It was neat to hear her experiences with HATS and the other orphanages she worked with and her new passions in ministry.

Yesterday was October 31st, yes Halloween, but also Mariah’s adoption day. It is such a neat thing her family does. They chose a day between Josiah’s adoption date and her’s and they celebrate every year that God gave them to the family. So NEAT! We had a small party on the bank of the canal as the sun set.

Mariah's adoption celebration

Today, a group from Borel stopped by to play with the kids. They brought mats to sit on for the truck ride there, but the kids soon turned them into toys. We had toboggan rides, house with sleeping bags, and crawling, hungary animals. The kids had a blast and can enjoy the simplest things.

The kids new toys

Mariah is still working over at the school and doing a fantastic job. She looks very professional as she heads over to the school every morning and always has various jobs to be doing. Last week, she hand drew two poster boards for separate classrooms of all the fruits and vegetables she could fit on it. They both turned out great!

Karen, well, I think if I listed everything she has been doing in the last few weeks we would be here for days reading! All I have to say is that lady is BUSY! She has been keeping track of the school, organizing and handing out school books, replacing and adding school students on the sponsor sheet, and everything else you can imagine. She is still go, go, go!!

Karen and her kids

Seth’s turn....

Well, first I want to brag on my wife a bit. She talked about her crafts, but I want to tell you what I see as a helper and observer. The kids love Jess! They love the crafts that she puts together for them and they are constantly asking when she is going to do the next craft with them. Most importantly, they’re learning about God! Before she starts the craft she reviews the lesson from church with them and explains how it applies to the craft. A few weeks ago she asked the kids what were the fruits of the Spirit and what were some examples of good and bad fruit. They were full of good answers! To the extent that we could barely get them to speak one at a time! It’s the kind of disorder that brings a smile to your face because they were so excited to share what they’ve been learning!

Like Jess said, things have picked up quite a bit from August. While things were slow, I helped Jacques harvest the corn from the garden behind Karen’s house. Lately I’ve been working on building 2 desks and 3 cabinets for the offices at the school. I also built a swimming pool (That’s what I told the kids). Actually, it was a very large tool box (6 1/2 X 3 X 3) for the work teams that come down so that they will ALWAYS have tools to work with here (I’m pretty sure there’s a Haitian tool troll that’s constantly stealing our tools!). Soon, I will be building a roof for the small office at the school, as well as helping with painting the offices.

The Boys Repairing the Backboard

I’ve also been playing a lot of soccer with the boys and lately teaching JJ and Moise how to throw the football and run routes. I have to tell a story about Moise. A few weeks ago Moise and I went over to the field next to HATS to play (JJ and Vladimy were busy). We played a few games. The older boys are always trying to kick the small boys off of the field so in the second game I told a smaller boy who didn’t get to play the first game to play in my place. I made sure, though, that Moise didn’t get kicked off. I went and stood on the sidelines and as I started to watch the game I realized Moise wasn’t playing. I realized he was standing next to me, so I asked him, “why aren’t you playing.” I was getting ready to stop the game because I figured the older boys had kicked him off the field. Instead he pointed at a kid and responded, “I let him play in my place.” Then he stood and cheered joyfully for his team! What a great kid! I was so proud of him!

We’ve started a nursery for church (we may have already said that in a blog). Sandra, Ann, Jofky, and Karena tend to take to much of the other kids attention, so we thought it would be best to have a nursery. The adults take turns at it, but I do it the most because when Jess isn’t speaking, I’m the one that gets the least out of a sermon because I don’t understand it all yet. So why not watch the little ones!

Nursery

Tuesday and Wednesday were a holiday here in Haiti- The Day of the Dead. To counteract some of the ‘other’ stuff that goes on during this holiday here, Luckner held a time of prayer and fasting at Radio Creole. Jess and I got to join Karen and Mariah to pray and worship with our brothers and sisters at the station. It was an encouraging time of worship together!

Also, remember Mariah in your prayers. She’s feeling better today because school was out the past two days and she took that time to get a lot of rest, but she could still use your prayers for a full recovery. Thanks

A beautiful picture from a walk

Thanks again for all of your support of us here at HATS. God bless you!