Home From Haiti

Look at those smiles! Noah is on the left and Samuel is on the right, and my how they have grown! I apologize for not posting sooner, but I came home from Haiti sick this time. I just haven't had the energy to sit down and write this post until now.

I arrived in Haiti last Wednesday. The hotel had overbooked itself, so the first night we didn't bring children back to the hotel because we were all doubled up in rooms. From a sleep perspective, this was a good thing. I got plenty of rest the night before traveling to Haiti and then even more the first night there. Back in July Chuck and I could barely sleep the night before getting to Haiti, and so we went into the trip sleep deprived. This time around was so much better in that respect.

It turns out that it wasn't RSV going around the nursery. There were a total of 8 sick babies that had to be hospitalized, but praise God it wasn't RSV. By the time I left Haiti on Sunday, all but 2 of the babies had been released from the hospital. Noah was sick with a cold and fever while I was there, but he was checked daily by the doctor. We kept him on Tylenol and watched him. His fever was gone by the time I left, but he was still suffering with cold symptoms. He was not himself - he slept a lot and was grumpy much of the time, poor guy.

On Thursday I kept both boys overnight since it was their birthday. We didn't get to the cakes until late, and the boys were tired. Noah kept laying down, but I did manage to give them birthday presents and their cakes. Noah wanted nothing to do with the cake and barely touched it. Samuel played in his a little bit, but didn't get too messy before we called it quits. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to post because I shot video instead. Maybe Chuck can pull some still shots from the video. If so, I'll post some.

On Friday I kept Noah overnight so that I could give him some individualized attention. He slept most of the time, but was awake for dinnertime with our group. He slept until 5 a.m., which was better than when I had both boys - Samuel woke up at 4 a.m. for the day when I had them both.

Saturday night I kept Samuel and we had fun. He did not sleep a bunch, so we played. He seemed to enjoy toys so much more than Noah did, but again, I think I didn't get a true perspective of Noah on this trip.

Sunday morning I spent time with both boys at the orphanage before flying home. Noah was really clingy and would cry if I put him down. Samuel had a good time playing and crawling around.

We has a total of 3 doctors from the US with us, one of which is a Haitian-American. They did assessments on all the kids while we were there. One of the doctors, Cathy, was very impressed with the boys' size. They are both right around 20 lbs, and in the 5oth percentile for weight. Samuel is slightly heavier. He is also longer. He is in the 95th percentile for height and Noah is in the 75th. Back in July Samuel was noticibly smaller that Noah, and now he is bigger! They are doing really well. The doctor was most impressed by their size because twins are expected to be smaller and they aren't. They are good eaters!

Each day on this trip we worked toward moving to a new building. All of the donations from the July donation drive were opened and sorted. We worked on sorting on Thursday and then some of us went to the new building to beging prepping for painting. The new building is beautiful (sorry - no pictures, only video). It is big and spacious with lots of natural light. We dusted walls and began painting on Thursday. On Friday I stayed behind at the old orphanage and worked on sorting clothing. On Saturday I spent most of the day at the new building. We put all the donated toiletries away in cabinets in the kitchen. It is just amazing how generous people were with their donations. A lot of other items were moved in that day, and a lot of things were put away. Their was a muralist with us on the trip, and he and his team worked on painting.

Remember the cribs from an earlier post? Well, they arrived in Haiti while we were there, which is a total God thing. They weren't expected to arrive until well after we were all back in the states. The last I heard they were waiting to get the cribs cleared through customs. It sounds like they are planning a trip for either the week before Christmas or the first week in January for a team of guys to go down and put together the cribs, lay tile, and do other construction work. If you're reading this and would like to go, please contact me and I'll put you in touch with our Director.

Okay, that's all I can think of for now.