Haiti 2/15-3/7

Hi! I'm trying to type on my little phone screen so forgive me for this post being super scattered!! Thursday was long! We flew all night and got into Port Au Prince around 9:30am. We got settled in at the Meadths, took naps, went to the boys home. We woke up Ti- you, Micah's best bud and the boy we sponsor, he was so confused! No one told him we were coming so he wouldn't be disappointed if we didn't make it. So he was super surprised and out of it when he saw us. But quickly snapped out of it and the boys had so much fun playing. We then headed back home had dinner and crashed listening to people worship from our balcony.
We woke up refreshed yesterday morning and had such a great day! I am in heaven and loving every minute here!!! Brittany's husband Rod is the principle of a local private Christian school so he was off to work early in the morning. I did school with Micah and Asher, their oldest joined us. Sue Manessero (whose family started child hope ministry), Brooke (the nurse), Cindy (the boys house mom), and Alicia came over for bible study and I joined in, in between watching Micah, Asher (2) and Isaiah (8 mo). I've really enjoyed those sweet boys and giving Brittany little breaks.Poor Isaiah is teething and having a hard time and not giving Brittany much sleep.
This afternoon Micah and I walked to the boys house and helped with the feeding program. They bring in about 150 street kids, sing worship songs and give them a plate of rice and beans. It's so amazing to see the kids, who live in tent cities, giving away their food to the more hungry kids. I saw a girl who I had remembered from when we were here last time about 8 months ago. She was extremely malnourished and had even lost the color pigment in her hair. This time her hair was a little darker and I was so happy to see her. She was wearing the same dress, and it was still soaked with urine. She loves to be held and cuddle with anyone that will love on her so we sat and played, and cuddled for a while together. Pray for her...it breaks my heart that in the 8 months we were gone her life has stayed the same. Nothing has changed just like most of the kids here. Still each day struggling to survive with not much hope things will change. It's easy to endure hardship with hope, knowing things will get better. But to endure hardship with no end in sight or no hope blows my mind. I don't know how they do it. They need Jesus.
We stayed and skateboarded and played basketball with the boys at the orphanage before heading home. On our walk home a young girl came up to us and told us she was really hungry and wanted food. I was bummed to not have any food on me but we got to pray with her which was better anyway.
Last night we went to dinner with a group of people that work here in a town called Haitianville. It was about 45 min away and the driving here is crazy!!! We rode with Rod's parents Josie and John Meadth. John is a pastor over her and they are from Australia. They are so hilarious and it's been super fun getting to know them and spend time with them. Josie is so funny!
As we were laying in bed falling asleep in started to dump rain and it was so beautiful to fall asleep to. Micah and I are having a bug bite contest. Whoever has the most at the end of the day gets a special treat (protein bars I brought). So far Micah is killing me! His poor little body has 81 bug bites! I have 6. They aren't bothering him too much yet but they are itchy! He's been teary and homesick off and on. We pray and talk and he seems to feel better after that. Just pray that he continues to be open with me about how he is feeling and that I would have discernment on when to help him sacrifice and push through things and when to let him step back and rest and have quiet time. We've been having good "mommy and Micah time" :) thanks for checking in and praying for us! The Lord is being so sweet to us here and really giving us our hearts desire. Oh, yesterday Cindy told us the boys are off school all week next week! How awesome is that, that it worked out for us to be here then! So Cindy was talking about us maybe doing an art class or computer class or something like that with them next week. We'll see!