5 days.

So its almost here- I'm getting on a plane and going back to Haiti in 5 days. Does time really fly by that fast? I don't think its really began to hit me yet that I'll be leaving the US and going back home soon. My whole time of being here in Florida, I have tried to keep the mindset of embracing each moment that I have here and not waste it on missing Haiti, which I so easily could have fallen in to doing. Don't get me wrong, I definitely had my moments of missing home, my kids and my family- But the Lord really placed it upon my heart to just keep my eyes on Him and the day before me and just LIVE in each moment. I once read a quote by Jim Elliot that said
"Wherever you are, be all there." That's what motivated me each day.

Now that its getting closer to going home, I'm slowly trying to switch into 'Haiti Mode.' I'm so excited to be going home and spending this holiday season with my HUGE family there. I know that it will be nothing less than beautiful.

My time here in Florida has been such a blessing and I will forever cherish the 5 months that I've had here. Being with my grandparents and just spending time with them has been wonderful- I've definitely learned a lot from them and I will forever be thankful for this time I got to spend with them. Love them so much.

So here it is guys, the start of a new chapter. I have no clue what this next year is going to bring, but I'm anticipating it, knowing that Jesus always has such an amazing, perfect plan. He is SO good and forever faithful. Thank YOU Lord! :)

Adriano Visit

I cannot even describe how thankful and blessed I feel right now. The Lord truly does care about the things that are on our hearts and really does listen when we tell Him our desires. He showed me this first hand.

As most of you know, Adriano has been in the states for a little over 3 months now getting medical treatment done. Since the moment I said goodbye to him in July, I prayed in my heart that I would be able to visit him in the US. I had mentioned it to my parents and a couple close friends, but honestly, I had to clue how it was going to happen. When I decided to move to Florida for 5 months, I thought that maybe I would road trip it and see him. Well, then reality slapped me in the face with the well known fact that I don't have a drivers license. I guess I could have still drove, but unlike Haiti, America has laws and apparently its illegal. Prison? No thank you.

Well after a couple weeks of being in Florida and trying to figure out how I was going to see my little man, I finally just had to come to a place of surrender. I gave up my desire of wanting to see him to the Lord and left it at that, knowing that whatever the Lord wanted was best. While I was still praying this through, I got an e-mail from a friend. Reading the e-mail, my jaw immediately dropped. My sweet friends, Jessica and Matt blessed my socks off and offered to make it possible for me to see Adriano. I was ECSTATIC!

After two months of anxiously waiting, on October 7th, I finally set out on my trip to PA. It took a little longer than I expected because I kind of got lost and missed my flight, but eventually I DID make it there. Jessica picked me up from the airport and from there the PA adventure began :) It was such a great trip, because not only did I get to see Adriano, but I also got to surprise and reunite with my friend Josiah, whom I had gotten to know in Haiti. He had met Adriano about a week after we had taken him in, when the little man was only 3 months old and a little under 5 pounds. Crazy to see how much he's changed now.

Josiah, his lovely sister Jocelyn and I took the one hour car ride to see Adriano this past Sunday, and it was nothing less than amazing. When we arrived, Adriano was sleeping in his host mom's arms. She asked me if I wanted to hold him as she slowly passed him to me. I tried hard to hold back tears. I was finally holding my sweet boy. The Lord is so good!

Adriano is now 12 pounds and looking absolutely amazing. He'll hopefully be going back to Haiti in mid December or early January. I just can't get over it- The Lord Jesus is so amazingly good, it just blows me away. I look back on the day when we first picked him up and brought him to my house. Nurses were teaching me ways on how to resesitate him if he died on my watch, because of the condition that he was in, he wasn't expected to live very long. Looking at the beautiful child that he has become now, I'm absolutely amazed. This little boy that so many people thought was going to die, is now a living and breathing miracle. Now no one can tell me that there isn't a God.

A New Season

The Lord has been teaching me a lot about seasons. I've realized that there is a season for everything, and every season walking with Jesus, He wants to teach us, grow us and draw us closer to Himself.

Growing up, I have always had a really hard time with change. Change is what I had to do my whole life, though, from moving numerous times, traveling and making new friends, than having to say goodbyes constantly. It was tough for a little girl and it got harder every time. Moving to Haiti was definitely the biggest change I went through and it was rough in the beginning, like change always is, but it ended up being the biggest blessing of my life. I look back now, on all those times change had to take place and the seasons that the Lord was bringing me through. Through all the tears and all the goodbyes and all the changes, the Lord was teaching me to lean on Him as He drew me in closer to Himself. He was preparing me for Haiti where Satan is so visably active, that we know that Jesus is the only one that we could depend on and put our full hope in.

My family and I's 6th year anniversary in Haiti is coming up,( crazy how times flies!!) and through those six years the Lord has brought us indivually and together through many different seasons. It has been so beautiful to see the Lord's faithfulness through it all. He is so amazing and I am so thankful for all that He's done.

About two months ago or so, I felt like the Lord put it heavy upon my heart to step into a new season. I was nervous at first because it was out of my comfort zone, but that just made it clearer that I had to go. The Lord doesn't call us to stay where its safe and comfortable to us, He call us to step out in faith. So...for the next 5 months, I'm living in Florida. I'm staying with my lovely Cuban grandparents. They speak more Spanish than English, so its been a bit challenging at times, but I love it. I'm hoping to go back to Haiti trilingual. ha! We shall see. This time with my Grandparents has been so precious and I'm cherishing every moment. I'm not really sure what Jesus has planned for this new season, but I'm excited and looking forward to it!

I will be getting some more updates on Adriano soon, that I will definitely be posting on here. Even though there will not be any, "life in Haiti" posts for a while, I will still continue to update you all on the little man as much as I can.

Love you all! xo

I'm without words.

This is the latest picture of Adriano after the surgery. I don't even have words... He looks so amazing I could cry. Thank you JESUS for restoring this beautiful little boy so soon!

Praise Jesus!

This says it all. The Lord is soooo good! :

Hi guys, Just home from Philadelphia after Adriano's surgery. Thought you would be interested in knowing he had a lot more wrong with his heart than initially expected. Of course Adriano went on the heart-lung machine (or by-pass) for the procedure. First of all, the hole in his heart was very large and was successfully patched. He also had some structural malformations which required some "rewiring" and relocation before the repair took place. This was so the oxygenated blood would reach the correct heart chambers once the repair was completed. He had two leaky heart valves which were repaired along with his pulmonary stenosis which was also fixed. The surgeon said he has done hundreds of heart repairs but this was the biggest hole he's seen in a child of Adriano's size. The whole thing took about seven hours. When they took Adriano off by-pass his heart started right up in normal sinus rhythm which is ideal and they weren't expecting. Many children have to stay on by-pass for several days before their heart becomes strong enough to function on it's own. Not so with Adriano and this really surprised the surgeon. (not us of course)They are talking about taking out his breathing tube tomorrow as he is breathing on his own now and even about sending him home in just a few days. What a miracle. If he eats, and maintains weight he'll go home. So we need to pray him through a few more days, but the hard part is done!! The doctor said Adriano's heart was only functioning at 10% of normal and that you guys did an incredible job of keeping him alive for those many days and weeks. His malformation was truly not survivable and he got to Philly in the nick of time. Yeah God! The Roses are taking wonderful care of him. They are truly amazing people and they have inspired the entire hospital. They simply never left his side even through his three weeks in the hospital. Adriano has seriously won every heart in the place. He maintains his penchant for blondes and is quite a big flirt since he's gotten a little meat on his bones. He'll probably not feel like flirting for a few days now, but just be prepared to hear stories. The surgeon did say he hadn't a single fat cell, so don't worry about him getting bulky just yet. The picture of him right after surgery might look grim to the lay folks, but to us in the trade, he looks just fantastic. He's asleep in the photo, his eyes are just open a bit. His lungs have suffered some "permanent" damage from the fluid backup but I say they just don't know our God. I say the same thing about his "Down Syndrome diagnosis. Our God is bigger. I just can't imagine how Adriano managed to stay alive and grow at all with 10% of normal cardiac output. What a fighter! So, congratulations to everyone who prayed, who loved, who touched, who hovered, who cared. I say "great work, team." Love, Ardith


I can't even get over how amazingly faithful our Lord is! Thank you all SO much for your prayers - We can't even wait to see all that the Lord has in store for this little man's life. He's already doing so much through him already!

I just want to hold him in my arms right now...

Prayer for Adriano

Adriano gets his surgery in two days. Please continue to keep praying for this little man. The Lord is so good and I know that His hand is upon him. Just please be praying that the surgery goes well and that Jesus will give him the strength to get through it.

Here are some pictures his host family sent :

gosh, how I miss that smile!

God is SO good!

We just got news today on how Adriano is doing, from his host family in PA. Heres the message :

Greater news today, Adriano is still gaining weight and we learned late yesterday afternoon his surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday. At this point he weighs in at a hefty 9.031 lbs and has had an average daily weight gain of 28.125 grams per day! He will be getting a lot of tests tomorrow in preparation for surgery so pray he passes with flyingcolors!

The Lord Jesus is SO good! Please be praying for the little man and his surgery this upcoming Wednesday.

Adriano in the STATES!

Sweet little Adriano is in the States now, getting medical treatment. After much much prayer and the amazing help of our nurses at MDL, Ashley and Brooke, the Lord provided a visa for him to go. The Lord is SO faithful!

He is staying in PA with a sweet family for the next couple of months. He will be getting surgery on his heart soon, so if you all could all be praying for him, that would be wonderful! We're not quite sure yet when his surgery will be, but as soon I find out I will definitely post it on here.

My heart aches so much from missing him and saying goodbye was painful- but I know that this is God's plan, and my little one, that all of us love so much, will be back here soon.

I love you sweet boy.

Wedding Time!

Church in the middle of no where, trucks piled with people, dog chilling on the floor, pastor fast asleep, wedding starting late...but yet the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen in my life.

My sweet friend Syliviana got married Saturday. The man that she married, she's been with for a quite a few years now. They have three beautiful children together, and now that they're both following the Lord, they finally decided to do it right. We were so so happy for her and it was such a blessing to be able to share with her on her special day!

The wedding preperations didn't take that long, surprisingly, and the wedding party and everyone else were only an hour in a half late. Ok...maybe thats a big deal, but it was much better timing than the other Haitian weddings I've been to! The Church was in the middle of no where and when we finally got there, there was a Church service going on. Apparently, since we were a little late, the Pastor just decided to start a service preaching. When we arrived, it was almost completely full with people from the congregation. People from tents around the church were also peeking in and pulling up chairs around the church.

The Bride and Groom waited patiently for their time, and inbetween the Pastor falling in and out of sleep, the ceremony finally began. The people from the church congregation stayed for the wedding-which I found hilarious- but hey! If I were them, I would probably want to stay for a random wedding too!

Sylviana and her husband took their vows, and the Pastor kept forgetting what her name was and kept calling her Julianna. She didn't seem to mind much, though and just seemed to be happy to be getting married. When they finished their vows, they shared in the traditionally kiss and everyone clapped and went and congratulated the newly wed couple.

The wedding was short and sweet, and for the reception we all went to her one roomed house. Since there wasn't enough room for everyone in her home, they set up chairs in her yard and everyone shared in coca cola and Pates. It was beautiful.

Her wedding was the sweetest, humblest wedding I've ever been to and it was absolutely perfect. It really made me look at things differently and what really truly matters. For myself, being the hopeless romantic that I am, have always loved weddings and especially big beautiful ones. I've always loved the color cordination, the tons of flowers, the music...

This wedding had no bridmaides to color cordinate, the only flowers were the fake ones the bride was holding and the only music was the worship being sung, acapela, by the people in the church. The reason this couple got married wasn't for the stuff, it was because they loved each other and the wanted a seal on the commitment to live the rest of their lives together. Admist the chaos and the pastor forgetting her name, or falling in and out of sleep...they still seemed so happily in love and thankful to be there. The Lord is so good :) Thank you Jesus for Marriage.

One of the many reasons why I love living in this beautiful country...

Blessed Be His Name.

There is this song that has always been kind of like our "theme song" since moving to Haiti. Most of the people that read this blog will probably know it- It's called Blessed be Your Name.

For years I have been singing this song and I have always sang "you give and take away...my heart with chose to say, Blessed me your name."

When the earthquake hit, we sang that song, and I couldn't bring myself to sing the "you give and take away" part. A dear friend of mine died in the earthquake and thoughts of him would go through my head when we sang that song. I knew that he was in heaven, but my heart ached because the Lord had taken him away, and the words "Blessed be Your Name" were just too hard to spit out. I didn't know if I could ever really sing those words again and truly mean it....

But then Jesus brought Adriano....
I didn't even know that such a tiny person can inpact my life in such a big way.

Adriano is a twin and was born much weaker than his sister, Adriana. We had known him and his family for some time now, and after a couple visits to his place, myself and a couple others began to realize that he wasn't doing too well. His sister was getting plump and beautiful and he was skin and bones. I think because he was born weak, his mom thought he was gonna die, so she decided to atleast take care of his sister. Coming in and seeing the situation was so sad. After visiting a couple of times, the little baby boy became so heavy upon my heart, that I asked if we could take care of him and help his mom out, atleast for a couple of months. Our friend, doctor Eddie looked at him and said that he was gonna die if something wasn't done, so we asked the mother if we could nurse him back to health and then when he's all better, give him back to her. She agreed and gave us her little boy.

This little child has been the joy of my life. Seeing him get better everyday, watching him grow stronger and seeing him eat so well, has been the most amazing thing I've ever seen. He's absolutely beautiful; he's like a little Angel that shines love wherever he goes. Having this opportunity to be his caregiver has absolutely changed my life...I don't even know how to describe it.

The Lord takes away...but He also gives.

The Lord took away one of my best friends, who blessed the world with who he was. He was amazing and loved Jesus, and shared Jesus' love till the end of his days. We loved him so much and he will forever be in our hearts...

Through death, the Lord brought life. He gave Adriano a second chance at living...

The Lord gives and takes away, my heart will chose to say, Blessed be His Name.

We loved you so much, Daniel. You will always and forever be in our hearts. Can't wait to see you in Heaven!

Our little Angel, Adriano.

One Month.

Tomorrow will be one month since the earthquake happened. I can't even believe it...
Starting tomorrow, for three days Haiti will be fasting and praying. If you want to join in, please feel free too. Haiti needs your prayers...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJq2TXW8JeM

This video is a song of our kids singing a song they wrote a couple years back. Copy this link and check it out!

Broken.

I saw this picture today and it broke my heart. Haiti after the earthquake...



http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-haiti-hires-html,0,5775052.htmlstory

MORGUE: Lionel Michaud mourns the death of his wife, Lormeny Nathalie, and son Christian Michaud, who lie in the courtyard outside a morgue in Port-au-Prince where hundreds of bodies have been brought.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Another day in Haiti...

I learned something new today...

For one : Haitian people are by the most strongest and most determined people I have ever seen in my entire life. BY FAR.

2: It IS infact possible to lift a 23489234 ton generator with plywood. Who knew?

3: I learned today that I can hold a gun without killing anyone. Miracle.

4: I also learned that my mom picks up stray animals off the street that look like deers..? hmm.

The craziness of today started when my uncle Tom and Fritz picked up a new generator for our house. 12 guys from all over the neighborhood pitched together and moved our generator to the side of our yard. Things were going pretty smoothly till they got to the stairs...

Then things started getting a little tricky. We didn't have the right equpiment like we would in the states; All we had was strong men and little metals pipes. There wasn't much progress, so my Uncle sent me down to our school house/clinic to get some plywood from there. I ran down to the house and when I got there my friends, Markenson and Stevenson were there. They were so nice and helped me carry the wood up to our house. For some reason they thought it was hilarious that a girl was carrying wood on her shoulder. They kept calling me "gwo bibit" which means, "big muscles" in creole. They're too funny. :)

When we got to the house, we ran and gave them the plywood. Markenson and Stevenson pitched in on the mission to "Lift the Generator!" While I just stood off to the side, trying to cheer the men on. After about 10 minutes or so, the guys managed to get the generator onto the wood, and up the stairs. I still have NO clue how they did it, but they pulled it off! I have never seen a group of guys so excited in my entire of life!

In the midst of all this, the guard handed me his gun and asked me to hold it for him. He started laughing and just walked away to continue forth on their generator mission. I was speechless. I didn't know what the heck to do, so I just walked around, hoping I wouldn't touch the triger on accident. All of I sudden, my dad from the window told me that some people were at the front gate. My greatest fear. I ran to the gate, gun in hand, hoping that it wasn't anyone that I had to introduce myself to as, " Hi, I'm ari. I'm a missionary kid" with a gun in my hand. When I opened the gate, it was two doctors from the states that I had never met, with my nurse friend, Ashely and two other guys...one from ABC news. Oh dear. The two guys ended up being pros at guns, so they taught me everything about it and how to load and shoot. They also pointed out to me that the gun I was holding didn't have a ,saftely latch on it, and I had been waving it around like nobodys business. Good to know! ha.

After some time I thought that maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to fill in for the guard...so the security guard came back and claimed his job again. :) Thank you Jesus!

I went and hung out with our kids at the benz for a little bit, and when I got back to my house, my little sister introduced me to, "Bijou", a little dog that my mama took home off the street and apparently, the newest member to our family. This dog seriously looks like Bambie...not even kidding. She's adorable...she just looks like a deer. Not really sure how that happened...

Today was a crazy day and sometimes you just can't help but laugh. Even through the times that we're going through right now, Jesus still provides for us comic relief and a time to to experience the joy of others that are here with us today. He is so beautiful and amazing to give us days like these...He is so good!

Moments of Joy.

{written yesterday}

This is now the 15th day since the earthquake happened. It is so crazy how fast time flies. These past two weeks feel like a blur...so much has happened. Last night our girls and I had a movie night before they all went to bed. We watched some Chuck Norris, Walker Texas Ranger, and giggled at Chuck Norris' round-house-kick-in-the-face-skills. It was nice to experience some 'normalcy' after all that has happened, and just get our minds off of reality for a few short hours. It was a blessing to see the girls laugh and just be themselves. Made my week.

The Lord is so good and I am so thankful. Today was such a beautiful day...I don't even know how to describe it. The boys were able to have a soccer match and we played some christian rap and the little kids had a little dance off. Daphne and I rocked out to the song 'Fresh'. It made my heart so happy to see her dance, cast and all, and just be her funny, sassy little self.

Jesus is so good!



Our lady bug sleeping peacefully

Earthquake in Haiti.

It has been a whole week since the earthquake happened-I can't even believe it. It's been really hard to process everything, but I think I'm finally going to try now.

The day the earthquake happened, my cousin Nikkie and I went to my little sisters school to watch her soccer practice. It seemed like a any other normal day...
My cousin and I went to the upstairs of the highschool to go to the bathroom. While we were up there, we looked out the window of the bathroom, which overlooks a part of Delmas, and started singing "You're the God of city...Greater things are yet to come in this City..." then the bathroom started to shake. I thought it was just a big truck passing by that made the bathroom shake..so my cousin and I continued singing. It then started shaking violently, so we held tight to each other and tried to walk as far as we can to the exit. The upstairs of the school rocked back and forth and I was convinced that we were going to die. We both started crying out to Jesus and tried to work our way out the door, but we were soon stopped because all the lockers fell down infront of us. We just held on to each other and prayed that Jesus would be with us. After about 10 seconds...it stopped. We ran down the stairs and people were shaking, crying, laughing- there were so many emotions.
At the time I had no clue how serious the earthquake had been. My mom, our friend Patty, Nikkie and my sister were all on the school campus and nothing happened to anyone there...so we had no clue how bad it was outside. We heard that a house had fallen accross the way, but I don't think we even began to comprehend how bad it was around the country. We were told to stay on the school campus for a while, so we waited there for about an hour or so. We decided after some time to walk home. As we began to walk home, we realized that the roads weren't as bad as we thought, so we ran back to the school and got our car.
As we drove down the street, people were crying, many were praising Jesus, others were just sitting on the side of the road with blank looks on their faces. When we arrived at our orphanage, a clinic had already started outside of the boys home. People were coming in with missing arms and legs, gashes on their heads...it was then that I realized that this earthquake was way bigger than it had appeared to be. I hadn't even walked into to the boys home yet when Dana walked up to me and said that Daphne was ingured and had broken her leg. Thats when I lost it...I ran around trying to find her while trying to pull myself together cuz I didn't want her to see me cry. After looking everywhere, I found her being put in the back of our white truck, next to another injured man that was dying. She started wailing asking either Navi or I to go with her to the hospital. Navi couldn't go, so I jumped in the back of the truck and laid next to her, trying to calm her down. All she wanted was for me so hold her close, and she slowly dosed off while we sped away to the hospital.
When we got to the first hospital, the hospital was so packed with people that they practically started another hospital outside. We waited there for a while with Daphne and the man that was dying...the sight of all those people suffering, waiting to be seen, was heartbreaking. Jonas, Willie E and I had gathered around while we were waiting to be seen and started praying for the people around us. Marval came shortly after and told us that we should try another hospital. We left the man who was dying because he was already being seen by a doctor, and tried to get Daphne to another hospital.
The next hospital was 10 times worse than the first one. There were hundreds of people laid outside the hospital waiting to be seen. The place smelled like blood. There were only 2 doctors that I saw that were trying to treat all these people. We tried to get to Daphne to the front where the doctors were...We looked around for the doctors and while we were looking for them, I saw a little boy laid out covered in blood. He couldn't have been more than 7. I just remember looking at him and having this gut, horrible feeling in my stomach. A doctor finally looked at Daphne and said that her case wasn't as serious as all the rest, so they just wrapped up her leg in cardboard and sent her home. Right before we were about to leave, I saw this lady standing infront of the little boy that I had just seen, with a blank look on her face. Willie E told me that the little boy had just died...
Everything felt so surreal and STILL feels so surreal. That night seems like a crazy blur...no one slept that night, running around, working in the clinic. It was insane.
At one point of the night, maybe around 4 in the morning, my mom came up to me with tears in her eyes and told me that our friend/co worker and sweet sister Erta was no where to be found. Her parents went to her school where she had been at and the school at collapsed. My Mom and I collapsed to the floor and wept. "It's not true...Erta can't be gone," were the thoughts that went through my head over and over again. We weren't allowed to tell any of the girls till the morning, just because all the kids had been through so much already in one day. I sat with Daphne, trying to put her to sleep, but the tears wouldn't stop. The girls kept asking me what was wrong and I couldn't tell anyone. It killed...but beside all the pain, all of us who knew had to keep pushing forward. It was the hardest night...but Jesus pulled us through.
Early in the morning the next day, right before I was about to go and tell the girls, Marval told me that he got a phone call from Erta's parents and she was ALIVE! Her and her brother who had been in the School had gotten out miraculously and were ALIVE! The Lord is SO good! It turned a painful, tragic day, into a day of hope...The Lord is so faithful.

There are so many things that have happened this week that would probably take me another three hours to write down. There are so many things and so many questions that are left unanswered. Like why did he choose us to live? Will we ever see certain people again? The only thing that we can find true hope and peace in right now, is that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and He is always faithful. He is doing so much and here and there is no other place that I would rather be than right here in Haiti. To God's name be the glory forever and ever. Amen.