Haiti, Day Two

Today was another GREAT day in Haiti! We started our day earlier than yesterday. We got to see the beautiful countryside of Haiti. The mountains were stunning!

The little spots of color in this photo are tent houses. Our translator explained that a lot of these "houses" belong to people who lost their homes in the earthquake and had to move outside the city.

One of the amazing things about these trips is to watch how God touches hearts and opens the eyes of the team members. Every trip, we go expecting to be a blessing to everyone we meet, but WE are the ones who are blessed by those we serve. Crystal, one of our team leaders, had one of those moments today.

When we walked through the baby room of an orphanage, there was a beautiful baby in a crib. We found out that he has hydrocephalus and other terminal conditions and probably only has about a month to live.

Crystal stopped and picked up this sweet baby, and her world was rocked. Knowing this child only has months to live was heartbreaking for all of us. But what a moment when she held that sweet boy, singing to him, playing with him, reminding him he is LOVED.  An amazing moment that will stay with us all. 

Next, we traveled back to the guest house. Along the way we found some children in the villages to bless with blessing bags.

Earlier, Tonya, one of our team members, had recognized the road that led to her Haitian adoptive daughters' orphanage. We told her on the way back we would stop so her son could see where his sisters lived. You have to understand, the chances of this even happening are truly a miracle. The streets and roads make no sense. We were out in the countryside probably driving 75 miles an hour and her adoption was almost 3 years ago! Truly a God moment.

When we came back to the street, we turned down and drove very slow so Tonya could look down every side street to see if she recognized any of them. She narrowed it down to two streets so we stopped the first person we saw walking down the road to see if he knew where the place was. He gave us directions and soon we were standing in front of the very spot where she met her two beautiful girls 3 years ago. 

 When we drove up, there was a soldier looking guy standing in front of the gate and did not want to let us in. Just then, a truck drove up with a few Americans in it and a Haitian man. Tonya's face lit up as she recognized the driver as the director of the orphanage! He recognized her immediately and welcomed us in.

It was so neat to see this very important moment for Tonya and her family. Beautiful!

Tomorrow we head for Respire Haiti for the next 3 days where we will finish out our trip. Before that, I wanted to leave you with a picture of our driver, John. He is the sweetest man. So patient and SUCH an excellent driver. Driving on the roads in Haiti are not for the faint of heart.