Super Encouraged

Two weeks. That’s how long it has been since I said goodbye to my day at lunch and hugged my mom at the airport. Two weeks. 14 days. A fortnight. Back home, and especially in college two weeks can go by sooo slowly. By time here as absolutely flown by. And I hate it. I hate that two of the five weeks have already past. I hate that I only have three weeks left before I head back to the states. I hate that I have already started to cry and grow upset even thinking about having to part with these kids. Two weeks. Wow.

Last night I slept like a rock. I was out so fast and didn’t wake up until my alarm went off. Due to a lack of beds with such a large group coming in, I slept in Autumn’s house. On a real mattress. With clean sheets. And a super large fan. It was amazing. Not to mention, Autumn has this master plan of waking up at 6:27, rolling out of bed and heading across the common area for our 6:30 am staff meeting. Genius!

Even with 140 plus people this morning we actually had two pancakes and peaches each! It was lovely. What wasn’t so lovely about this time: Having to say goodbye to Mary. She headed to Mission of Hope with her dad and their group right after breakfast. I have determined that I absolutely hate saying goodbye to people here. Fortunately, we have several weeks until I have to say goodbye to the next person, but I know it will be just as difficult. What made saying bye to Mary a little easier was knowing that her time in Haiti is not over yet, and she was going to have an incredible time and opportunity to serve the deaf there. Not to mention, it looks like fingers crossed, we will be flying back to Austin together, which will give us loads of time to catch up and share about all of our experiences!

I was able to enjoy a relaxing quiet time soon after this. And it was great. Even with the crowdedness of the mission now with 140 additional people than normal, it was great still getting to spend time away from it all. Even though I could over hear people talking about growing their hair out for about half the time. It’s alright. I am just thankful for my time with the Lord here! I has become incredibly clear to me, that I am not doing any of this on my own, and I have begun to rely solely on Him, which is one the most comforting and scariest things ever. I mean it.

I then went down to the M.C. (my new acronym for the Miriam Center). By this time, I walked in on music in both classrooms. I was in the severe and profound kids. I hung out with Ti-Stevenson for a bit, ‘playing’ an instrument with him. I then began picking up several of the other kids to hold and would dance with them in my arms. This was one of the coolest experiences I have had since I have been here. Preparing for this trip I had always heard the phrase, dancing with the kids of the Miriam Center, but in many regards I just took it as a metaphor rather than literally. I have danced with Roselore since I have been here and that’s been fun. But there is something completely different about dancing while holding a kid in your arms. Dancing with a kid who can’t walk or sit up on their own. Dancing with a kid who can’t move their own legs, but creating the rhythm for them. Holding them tight and seeing the joy of their face and feeling the joy in my own heart. It was beautiful.

After this dance session I have come to cherish so much, we had quite the treat. Up until now, the severe and profound kids have not been able to eat fruit when the higher functioning kids have. Not only does this not seem fair in the eyes of many, but nutritionally, it also leaves them at a disadvantage. With this last group that just came in though, Autumn received fruit mesh bag things. This nifty things are designed for kids with special needs to be able to bite the fruit and receive all the juice from what’s inside the bags while not risking choking on the actual pieces of fruit. It was really cool to see some of the kids really seem to enjoy the taste of this fruit juice and I look forward to seeing the benefits of this in the future!

With 140 people it as clear that I would be standing in a rather long line at lunch, so rather than going up right at noon to eat, I stuck around and actually did some therapy with Barto using one of the severe and profound boxes and binders we created yesterday. It was so great and I enjoyed my time with him. Barto is gradually beginning to steal my heart, especially since he is and will always be the first kid I ever did any sort of treatment on.

Lunch today was not my favorite. I can’t even describe what it was. So instead, I ate some peanut butter crackers and the last bit of oreos I had in a package (thanks parts!). It definitely was able to hold me over.

After lunch, as usual was therapy. Outreach today was sooo much fun! We had three kids today. One of the girls that came today had missed therapy last week, so it was a bit challenging for Autumn trying to catch her up on things. I was able to also help model the different exercises using my favorite model: who other than Barto! During Outreach today Autumn had to go run up and get some things from her room and take her pill for Staph (please continue to pray for her). So, she actually had me lead a section of therapy on the back! Let’s reiterate that one more time: TODAY I LEAD THERAPY! Granted I am sure I didn’t do that great of a job, and the instructions were right there for the parents to read on their sheets, but I did it! It was really cool and I am thankful for Autumn having the trust in me to allow me to do this. It was sooo cool!

Today was really cool because we have a physical therapist here along with a team that is concentrating considerably on the Miriam Center. It is really great to have all the help. This group this afternoon brought down tye dyed shirt they had for all the kids. It was great to see their smiles as they put their new shirts on and I am so glad they have them as many of the clothes the kids have been wearing the past couple of weeks have been looking a little ragged. It was also so heart warming to see these kids passing them out to one another and those who didn’t have shirts yet. I feel like children in America would often not be this willing to share what they have. But I feel like almost every time, (with the exception of maybe Carlos and McKinley) I see kids graciously giving whatever they have been giving to others or sharing. It is the coolest thing! And definitely a punch in the face to how I myself can be so selfish at times. At twenty years old and with more material things than many of the 7 billion people in the world.

I took a shower and then had dinner. We had both brownies and tapioca along with the actual food of chicken and this thing called bread fruit. Not to mention sweet tea! It was good, minus the bread fruit. I have determined that after getting back to the states I will not want to have starches (especially potatoes) for a VERY VERY long time!

Devotional tonight was good. And Kels and I are currently sharing our cold water we bought yesterday at market along with Swedish fish that Kelly’s church who came in yesterday brought in for her! We also just tried basically the equivalency of an American Kit-Kat Haiti style tonight. Not as good as you would think. Not as good. I was a little sad.

Overall today was a great day and I am excited for the rest of this week with these teams that are so devoted to the Miriam Center. The best two parts of my day: Heather (one of the Miriam Center coordinators who specifies with the severe and profound kids) told me today before lunch how thankful she and Stephanie were for all I had down and how much they knew they could rely on me. It was super encouraging to hear and I can only pray that the Lord would continue to give me the strength to do this because serving special needs children in Haiti is something that I alone can not do, it is not of me, but of the Lord. My other favorite part of the day: reading a one minute devotional from a book one of my dear friends gave me the night before I left home. It was great and I will type it below.

Please feel free to send an e-mail, Facebook message, or even comment on this blog. Even though two weeks as flown by, I still miss all of you, and while I have done great so far, I feel like home sickness is just around the corner. I love you all so much! Goodnight from Haiti!

From My Upmost to His Highest: June 15th (yes I was a little behind)

“In the matter of drudgery. No one is born either naturally or superficially with character; it must be developed. Nor are we born with habits-we have to form godly habits on the basis of the new life God has placed within us. We are not meant to be seen as God’s perfect, bright-shining examples, but to be seen as the everyday essence of ordinary life exhibiting the miracle of His grace.”

Gah. I love it. I feel like within the last year I have really begun to understand the true meaning of His grace in my life. And on that, I am going to stop, before I completely keep blabbing on for forever. And believe me, I could. Good night!