You're all invited!

I'm so excited! Linda and Pierre are coming to Iowa! For those of you that have no clue who I'm talking about, Linda is the director of For His Glory, and Pierre is the director at the Maison des Enfants de Dieu orphanage in Port Au Prince Haiti where our babies live right now. I am so looking forward to meeting them in person. They are staying for about 4 days with another family in the area that is adopting 3 children from the same orphanage.

We are working to set up several gatherings so our friends, families, co-workers, etc can meet them. I'm not exactly sure of the format, but they will be presenting about the mission of FHG and Maison. My hope for the gatherings is to raise awareness and gain some much-needed support for the orphanage. There is more information on the FHG website. If you click on the "News and Events" link at the top, there is a recap of the 2007 activities and the needs for 2008. Also, there is a message from Pierre about some of the things that go on at the orphanage if you click on his picture at the lower left of the main page.

Mainly, though, I wanted to get the word out to all of you. The dates they will be in Iowa are February 10th-13th. We are working to book meetings each evening, and over lunch breaks if possible - all over the Des Moines area. We want to spread the message to as many of you as possible. Please let me know if you are interested in attending one of these (leave me a comment or email me), and I will let you know when we have more details on the times and locations. And tell all your friends and family too!

In addition to packed meetings, we're also hoping to send Linda and Pierre back to Colorado with a full car of donations. There is a donation drive going on from now through early March. Transportation (a big truck) of the donations from Colorado to Miami has been arranged, and last I heard the transportation (flight) from Miami to PAP is still being worked on. This is a HUGE blessing to the orphanage, as buying products in Haiti is much more expensive than we can get it here and ship it to them - and supplies are more readily available in the states. So, if you're planning to come to a meeting, please consider bringing a donation. One of the biggest and most consistent needs is for soy baby formula - just the Walmart brand is good.

Anyway, please let me know if you'd like to attend, and also please join me in praying that the Lord will open many doors for FHG and Maison, through Linda and Pierre's visit to Iowa.

Hair & Skin Care for People of Color (Part 2)

And now, for the Hair Care... (Go here for the intro to this and the skin care part.)

Some tips

• Hair cannot be cared for with just any hair care products. Try to stay away from products that are not geard for the hair texture you are treating.
• Wash hair once a week, or as needed. You can tell it needs to be washed by squeezing the ends of the hair (not the roots, as the skin will come off like exfoliating) with a white paper towel. If you see dirt and dust on the paper towel, it's time to wash the hair. Use conditioners often - leave-in conditioners are good to use as well. After washing, be sure to oil the scalp and the hair.
• If the hair is up in braids, you can still wash it - just put an old nylon over them, and shampoo and rinse through it. (I remember a college friend of mine doing this - and she had really long braids with the extensions - she always said her neck hurt after she washed with her braids in, because they soaked up all that water and took a long time to dry - it was heavy!)
• Oiling/massaging: part the hair in a straight line from front to back until the scalp is visible, and apply oil (Softee was recommended) in the part. Make sure the head is covered in oil, then massage.
• Combing - must be combed through thoroughly, use a wide-tooth comb - if it doesn't comb well, section it and work on one section at the time. Hold the hair close to the scalp so it doesn't pull on/hurt the scalp when you're combing. (Especially if the child is "tender-headed", i.e. not used to sitting still and having her hair combed out, and it's painful for them.)
• Sleep with the hair covered with either an cut-off pair of nylons or a silky fabric night-cap. This will pto prevent it getting caught in the sheets/blankets or from lint getting in caught in their hair, which will cause the hair to break off at the root. You could also use a silk pillowcase (although I'm not convinced on this one, because kids move around so much in their sleep).
• Do not use hair relaxers on children, unless done by a professional - the chemicals can burn the hair and skin if left on too long. This was demonstrated by using a hair relaxer creme on the hands of a man in our class who does manual labor for a living - his hands were so dry and calloused before, and very soft afterwards - it just dissolved the callouses, and he said it stung on the less/non-calloused parts of his hands. Especially if you are sending a child to have their hair relaxed, don't wash it first.
• Trimming/Growth - trim the ends of the hair every three months, except for little girls' hair. It's hard to grow it back (about three times longer for black children's hair than other children's hair). Keeping the hair braided fosters growth. She also demonstrated gently pulling on the hair after oiling and massaging.
• Swimming - BEFORE getting in the pool, soak with water and then lotion/oil, so the chlorine won't dry it out. AFTER swimming, shower and shampoo it out well.
• Styling gel - try to stay away from products with a high alcohol content. Strictly use African products for African hair.
• The recommended sectioning a girls' hair, putting it in a pony tail, and then braiding the tail. This will keep the hair from getting snarled/"nappy" if you just leave it to its own devices. Use cloth rubberbands close to the scalp so they won't break the hair. If you use rubber rubberbands, don't try to save them or pull them out - just cut them out.
• For boys' hair, she actually cut a 10-year-old boy's hair in our class. I'm not sure I'd ever try that myself, unless I was completely buzzing it. It looked a little complicated. Think about how if you cut a white boy's hair real short, it would just stick straight out. Not so with a black boy's hair. Apparently it will lay different directions depending on where the colics are. So if you use just the same guard on all of it evenly, it will still look uneven - you have to just eye it and do it free-hand to get it to look even... (Karen - will definitely need your help here!!!)

Some products

• Shampoos: Motions, *Creme of Nature, *Therapeutic T+Plus (Can also wash athlete's feet in it), *Mane & Tail (horse shampoo), Sulfur 8, Scurl, Silk Elements, Stay Soft, DuGro, Pantene (only in the brown bottle, specific for colored people's hair)
• Conditioners: Lutrasilk Cholesterol, *Parnevu Leave-in Conditioner (they used this in the class demonstrations - about 1 Tablespoon all over the hair), Queen Helene Placenta Cream Hair Conditioner, *Mane & Tail, Creme of Nature, Motions
• Oils: Blue Magic, Bergamont, *Softee Hair food (especially good for curls that won't come out), DuGro, Oil Sheen (good for boys hair), Sulfur 8, African Pride, Coconut Oil, *Pink Lotion/K-7 Extra Lite Oil Moisturizer (for boys only - not good for girls long hair), *Olive oil (is fairly cheap, helps grow hair, and the body absorbs the oil so it's good for the skin too)

The ones with the *s are the ones I circled, that she specifically mentioned in class as favorites.

Enjoy! Have fun! I'm excited that I now have some tips I can use, and feel a little more confident about what I'll be doing. I'm sure I don't have it all figured out yet by any means, and will take some trial and error. However, I plan on having these notes, tips, and products handy to help me out.

Weekend... Lazy? Productive?

Well, yesterday Jock worked from home so he could stay home with Kaylen. She had a slight rash on her chin on Wednesday night which we thought was exema in this harsh winter weather. But, it got worse on Thursday, so Jock took her to urgent care while I went to our Thursday evening Bible study. Turns out it was impetigo.

Kaylen and I had planned to play with/babysit for a friend's kids last evening while Jock went to the church men's group game night, but she hadn't quite been on the antibiotics for 24 hours yet, and there's no way we could have covered up all those splotches - all over her chin and up her jawbone, and a couple on her nose and forehead. So instead we stayed home, had left-over pizza & birthday cake, and just relaxed.

Today was better as far as Kaylen was concerned. The lesions (which never got to the point of oozing) are shrinking/drying out, which I think is making them itchy, but she's doing such a good job of not trying not to touch her face. We had thought about going to a cultural festival downtown today, but decided to stay home.

We had a pretty lazy day for the most part. We watched movies (I think we've all got a fair amount of the Barbie Island Princess movie memorized), played computer games, read books, and lounged around/took a nap. I also spent a fair amount of the day working to get caught up on Kaylen's scrap-book pages. I'm caught up through Halloween - did 14 pages in the last week (over half of them today)!

Tomorrow we are hoping that some friends can stop by for a visit after naptime. I'll probably be working on laundry - gotta disinfect all the sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, & toys that Kaylen has contacted recently (yes, I'm a germ freak sometimes). I'm also hoping to get to the hair care that we leared from our class a couple weeks ago, typed up and posted to my blog. Have you been dying for me to complete that, or completely forgotten, or weren't interested to begin with? :)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

I'll leave you with a link to a documentary of a woman's experiences in Haiti, that I found on another's blog. It's 22 minutes, but well worth the time to watch it.

Jan Pix & Updates from Haiti

We received these pictures and updates of our beautiful Haitian babies. We're going to be getting pictures every month, as usual, but we will also be getting the developmental updates each quarter. And, yes - Elijah is smiling for us this month!





What a blessing these are to us! Especially since we can't go down to see them - at least not yet. Please pray that God would open doors for us to be able to go see them soon! I'm told it could be this several months before any parent trips are scheduled. :(

Birthday Pictures

Well, it was a success, and now Kaylen is in bed, fast asleep. Sounded like she had lots of fun passing out cookies at daycare. She had extras, so I think she paraded herself around passing the extras out to the teachers in the other room, and the director and assistant director in the office. They even made her a crown to wear for the day.

Tonight was a rush. We didn't get home until late, because of the weather (yes, more snow today brought with it very slow traffic), but we got dinner warming on the stove and picked up a few things. Jock made it home about the time the company arrived. We had a nice supper, cake & ice cream, and then Kaylen opened her presents. It was great fun - Kaylens uncles, great aunt, cousins, and grandma all made it to the party. Grandpa Bob and Grandma Terry called, as they're traveling out in West Virginia this week. Great Grandma Cheryl also called, but Kaylen was opening presents at the time, and didn't get to talk to her. She also talked to Great Grandma Barb in Florida for a few minutes. Her birthday is also also today - 82!

Thanks everyone for the gifts and Birthday wishes. It made for a really special day for her. Below are a few pictures from today.

(I had to download pictures from my camera and clear my memory card before the party started. I'm not sure what happened, but the ones I downloaded then were gone. I was hoping to post one of the ones I took this morning, and a maybe a couple I took last night of her helping decorate the cake, but it just wasn't to be.)

Happy 5th Birthday Kaylen!!!

Our princess turns 5 today! She's been excited for this day for months! I think she's been telling people she's "almost 5" since October - when they asked her age, or even when they didn't. :)

We did some preparations over the weekend. Saturday after dinner, we went to get groceries - you know, balloons, wrapping paper, and of course the food. The food included ingredients for dinner, cookies for daycare (decided to not try to make/take 33 cupcakes!), cake, frosting, candy letters, sprinkles, and ice cream. Kaylen got to pick out her cake - of course, she picked strawberry because it's pink. Imagine that! She picked out white frosting, pink and purple "Happy Birthday" letters, and pink and purple sprinkles. Oh, and the sucker mom I am, let Kaylen get some strawberry milk, and told her she could pour that over rice crispies for breakfast on her birthday. :)

Sunday, I made the dinner ahead of time - it's my mom's Irish Stew recipe. We thought that would be something quick and easy to heat up once we get home before our guests arrive. It should be yummy too, with the cold weather we're having! Then we all took naps before we made the cake. Kaylen was so excited to help - she dumped all the ingredients into the mixer bowl, turned on the mixer, and then took care of the very tough job of licking off the beater! After putting the cake in the oven, we ate supper, and then I got busy doing Kaylen's "Birthday Braids". I told her last week that I'd do that so she could wear them to daycare for her birthday. By the time I was done, we had to quickly decorate the cake, as it was already bedtime. After she went to bed, Jock and I got her presents wrapped up.

This morning we got Kaylen up and dressed in one of her favorite shirts. She ate her breakfast of rice crispies with strawberry milk. The braids stayed in her hair pretty well overnight. I took a birthday picture of her this morning also - surrounded by balloons and with the presents we'd wrapped for her. I got her off to daycare, with all those cookies, and her normal stuff. Hoping she has a great day at daycare, and we all have a fun party this evening. I'm so excited to see her open her gifts - especially one in particular (more on that in a previous post below). I'll try to share more tonight after the big event, including a few pictures from this weekend and today.

Missing My Mom

Three years ago today I lost my mom. Time has eased the pain, but I still think of her often, about the things we did together and the things I learned from her. I wonder what she might have done or said in certain situations. I think of how I wish she could be here for this or that event. However, I know she's still in my heart, and she's still a part of me. Since I've become a parent, I realize just how much I am like her in many ways.

I struggled to find just the right pictures of mom to share, because she didn't like having her picture taken. She usually was frowning or looking the other way in pictures, but I found a couple from some important memories I have of her:
The second one was taken by my sister-in-law the weekend before mom died. Despite not liking her having her picture taken, she had a great smile on her face - in fact we all were. She was probably just so happy that we were all there with her. And we realized afterwards, that even the dog was in the picture. :)

I sure miss her, but I know she's in Heaven dancing with the angels! (Turn up your volume for the most awesome song about a loved one going to Heaven.)

Yucky!

It's a bad sign when you wake up to a traffic report that takes several minutes, the school closings take even longer, can hear the wind howling outside, and a temp in the single digits with wind chills around negative 10. It's supposed to get up to 17 today - and that's the highlight of the next several days - the high temps for saturday and sunday are 5 and 8 (without wind chill)!!! YIKES!

So, I decided to work from home for a while this morning, and maybe go into the office this afternoon. Hopefully the accidents will be cleared, and the road conditions will be better by then.

By the way - conference calls are very fun without a speaker phone or a headset!

Busy-ness Ramblings

- Another snow storm arrived today. It's supposed to dump about 5 inches by the time it's done tomorrow, but the wind has picked up and it's supposed to be teeth-chatteringly-COLD through the weekend. So much for more ice skating this weekend. I guess we could probably go to the indoor place, but that's not near as much fun as the outdoor one!

- Work's been very busy for both of us. Amongst other things, I've been working on project proposals for the new contract that has come out. I've been pulling data every which way so we can try to work through our strategies and document our assumptions. Jock's been busy trying to keep up with the issues that come up with the database and reporting systems he supports. Tonight he left work at 6:30, and got home 45-minutes later.

- We got our Christmas tree and decorations taken down, and our living room furniture mostly put back their designated places. Actually, I think Jock has yet to take down the small tree that's in the office, and the wreath is still hanging out front. We'll get there eventually - actually, probably by this weekend. You can't do a birthday party with Christmas decorations still up, right?!

- I FINALLY got the pages printed for Kaylen's life story-book that we're giving her for her birthday. I did up the pages - backgrounds, pictures, and text - on my scrapbooking software. Most of her regular scrapbook pages I put in a binder with sheet-protectors, but this time we're going to bind it for her to be able to read when she wants. I'm so excited for her to see it. She doesn't ask to see her pictures very often, but she knows where they are, and just recently asked if we could look at it again, and was worried that she'd forget. I think she'll really cherish it, and she won't have to worry about losing the pictures. Jock will be off to Kinkos get it bound in the next day or two so we can get it finished up!

- We're anxiously awaiting our new baby pictures. They're actually trying to get developmental updates out for the babies this month. The toddlers in February, and the big kids in March - so from then on we'll get development updates each quarter. I'm not sure if we'll still get pictures in the off months of the quarter or not - I may need prayers if we don't - that might be tough. I pray that their generator holds out long enough to get them all done and sent. What a blessing that will be to all of us. While I LOVE getting the pictures every month, a still picture only says so much. It'll be awesome to know how they're doing, what they like, and what new things they're learning to do.

- Please join us in praying that we hear the good news at the end of this month that we're out of IBESR. We will just barely be at 4 months in IBESR, and it's usually 4-7 months for that step. There are many from our Orphanage in this same step that need our prayers, as this is a key approval step from the Haitian social services. Also, please pray for the families that are bringing home their children. I know of 2 families from our O that brought their children home today, and a few others very close behind. This is such exciting and encouraging news for those of us waiting in the process. They've been waiting longer than I can imagine. Praise God for His promises and His provision through the journey!

- Now we've just got to get the house cleaned and some party planning done. Then will be the groceries. (Those cupcakes for 28 preschoolers and 5 teachers don't make themselves!) Kaylen has basketball on Saturday morning. The laundry is really piling up. Sometime I've got to re-pot the plants we got from my grandpa's funeral - although it's hard to find potting soil and cute pots 'round here this time of year. And, don't worry - I am still going to update you all on the hair-care tips we learned from our class last weekend.

- Hmmm... That's all I can think of right now, but I'm quite certain that's not everything - at least a hand-full of other things will come up between now and Monday. Isn't that always how things go?! Just when you think things are slowing down and you have a handle on things, a bunch of other stuff gets scheduled. Maybe a trip to Haiti is just what I need to re-focus. We are hoping to go on the next mission trip that FHG schedules. I'm getting really anxious to hear more about when that will be. I just wanna go hold those two little ones in my arms!

Hair & Skin Care for People of Color

Jock and I went to a class yesterday to fulfill our requirements for our state foster care and adoption license. The foster and adoptive parents association offers free classes that we get to choose from. This time we chose a class regarding hair and skin care for people of color. It was a great class - very informative, and very fun as well. The lady who taught the class is a black woman who is a mom of eight children of different races and mixed race as well. I think she said she had two biological children, and 6 that she adopted (or fostered?), of many different races/ethnicities - hispanic, african, african-american, white, asian, mixed-race...

She also was trained as a beautician, and is now a nurse, so she gave us MANY helpful hints on how to care for children of color. She came armed with a huge rubbermaid tub full of products, of which she said not all will work on all skin and hair types, but you just have to try things out and see what works for each individual. You don't have to spend a lot on name brand items - she shops mostly at dollar stores and WalMart. She had asked some of the parents in the class to bring their children of color with them, so she could show us some things. She also brought two teens that she works with in her church and in a school to help her out. They did hair-do's for 4 little girls and one boy, and showed us some things about their skin.

Here are a few helpful things we learned about skin care:

• People of color by nature have dry skin, and the oils have to be replaced daily - 2-3 times per day. The darker the skin, the heavier the oil you need to use - using things like lotions with vitamin E moisturizer, vaseline, baby oil, olive oil, and mineral oil.This is especially important before bed, first thing in the morning, and after baths - more often if the skin appears powdery/ashy.
• If the skin isn't kept moist it will tend to crack and bleed - especially on the elbows, knees, hands and feet. Keep an eye out for cracked and open, red areas, and seek medical advice if this doesn't clear up. (Oh - she also said doctors don't always know some of these tricks, as they've never had to do it themselves - these things aren't in a textbook that they learn in med-school. :)
• People of color need sunscreen when outdoors in the winter as well as in the summer - the dark skin soaks in the sun and burns, even that reflects off the snow.
• Baths - still need to be done daily, and be sure to oil up afterwards. Generally people of color use dark-colored wash-cloths. Think about it - when you wash, your dead skin comes off onto the washcloth - don't mistake this for dirt and keep washing if you're using white washcloths. (same with sheets). Use a shower cap though, because you don't wash hair daily - more on this later.
• Scarring is more pronounced for people of color. Try to keep your children from scratching their faces - that's a place to especially keep moisturized. When they first get a cut or scratch, use cocoa butter and vitamin E when healing. Afterward, use Ambi creme to get the scar to fade back to the original color of the skin.
• ALWAYS keep on hand at least 4 tubes of Monistat-7. (there were some funny stores about this too - imagine a woman walking out of the dollar store with 8 tubes of it :) It's much cheaper and can be bought in larger quantites than anti-fungal cream like you use for athlete's foot - and does the same thing.
• For exema, she had a special recipe: 10 capsules of Vitamin E - open caps and dissolve powder in: 3 Tablespoons triple-antibiotic ointment and 3 Tablespoons of Monistat-7. Keep in a small container, and apply 2-3 times a day - it should clear things up in 3-7 days. This works for white folks too, but exema is apparently much more common in people of color. (I think I'll try this recipe myself, and recommend it to some others that I know with exema problems).
• Mongoloid spots are common in people of color. They don't really go away, but sometimes they will fade or get smaller over the years. Document these, because mandatory child abuse reporters (teachers, medical professionals) sometimes think that these are bruises and report them. As far as the documentation, the same goes with scrapes and cuts, because the scars don't go away - call your social worker, document how it happened, the exact size and location, and what the headlines were on the news that day. (This is more important for foster parents because of the higher incidence of abuse allegations, but it could be important for adoptive parents as well.)

Just a couple general things... She said everyone she knows of color covers their furniture. The oils they use on their hair and skin will soak into your upholstery and ruin it. You can use specific furniture covers or towels or throws, but do cover them. She also said she didn't let her kids just lie around on her good furniture. She apparently has her basement finished with some furniture that she doesn't care about as much, but her living room is off-limits - even though it's still covered. However, when company comes, they do quickly pull up the coverings. Also, think about phones or any other things that typically contact your skin and/or hair...

This is getting too long - I'll blog on the hair-care stuff later. That was lots of fun too!

Technology is so cool...

A few weeks ago I put a tracker on my blog, so I could have some idea who out there is reading. It doesn't technically tell me who you are, but I know where you are reading from, down to the city. Now, it's not always exactly the city you live in - for example, some of my family lives in a very rural part of the state, and their internet service is based in a neighboring town, not in their town. But it's close, and I usually have a pretty good idea of who it is, if I don't know for sure.

I've got readers in many of the United States: Iowa, Florida, New York, Utah, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Arizona, New Jersey, Nebraska, Illinois, Virginia, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Michigan, Kansas, and Ohio. I've got a couple readers in Canada as well. These I expect - many are relatives, friends, and fellow adoptive families. Some I'm sure are people who have found my blog because of a link on another's blog, or because they can link to my blog when I leave a comment on someone else's blog. I sometimes do this as well.

Now, imagine my surprise when this evening when checking my visitor's locations, to see a visit from someone in Egypt! I have no clue, but I'd love to hear from you and see how you found out about my blog. Maybe it's someone traveling, maybe it's not - I don't know. But it's kind of cool - I've now gone international! (If you can call three countries being international :)

So, next time you're here, feel free to drop me a comment - especially if you haven't done so in the past. I probably know you're reading anyway, and if I don't know who you are, I'd love to solve the mystery. :)

...

While this is all so fun to see who's been reading my blog, it reminds me to continue to be somewhat careful about posting specifics about where we live, our last names, etc. Yes, if you were truly that interested and very resourceful, you could probably figure things out, but the tracking is just one more way I'm trying to be more safe about it.

Another reason to not throw fits...

If you are watching where you are going (rather than crying and throwing a fit and not watching where you're going), you are less likely to walk right into the wall/door-frame instead of walking through the open doorway! She said it hurt - well Duh! Hopefully she doesn't have a huge welt on her cheek in the morning.

Our little girl...

...is growing up!

Kindergarten registration is in about 4 weeks already! I can't believe it. Our local school district has started posting notices in the newspapers and at the local daycare centers that it's coming up. Daycare is going to be doing parent-teacher conferences, and apparently will be giving us information that we may need to pass along to her Kindergarten teacher. Will she know coming out who her teacher is going to be? Will parents get to actually meet the teacher, and let them know a little bit about our child? I'd sure like to. I know, for instance, that her teacher's job will be much easier, knowing ahead of time that Kaylen will try to run that entire classroom, and get away with anything and everything! :) Oh boy - how do teachers do it?!

Today one of the assistant teachers in Kaylen's classroom told me Kaylen had a few rough spots in her day. You see, Kaylen was having a hard time listening and obeying today. She did lay down nicely, and the reward for that (if you don't fall asleep) is that you get to go to the big kids' classroom until the kids that aren't worried about missing something and fall asleep, wake up. Well, apparently she was too wild and acting like a mean dog, even after one of the teachers asked her to stop. So, she got sent back to her classroom, and proceeded to throw a fit. She tends to do that when she doesn't get what she wants. Then later in the afternoon she was jumping off the couch and off the stairs, and when she got sent to time-out, she threw another fit. When do the screaming fits end? I thought that would be over by now. We're working on that now - this evening she got sent to timeout once, and we made a point to quickly tell her that if she proceeds to throw a fit on her way and during time-out she will have more consequences than just a time-out. Any other suggestions?

She's so ready for school, though. Every day she amazes me by how much she knows, what she can do, what she's learned! This evening, she "read" a whole book. We mostly just listened while we were fixing dinner, as she does much better when we're not listening. She gets real nervous and worried that she's saying the wrong words, and we just wanted to let her give it a try herself. I'm not sure anyone listening (including us), would even have had a clue what she was talking about, but she got a few words that we had no clue she knew how to read. We asked her to spell a few words for us, and she had them right! Who knew?! I think it gave her a little confidence that she "read" the whole book by herself. Usually when we ask her to read to us, she declines, so hopefully this encouraged her to want to try it more often.

Anyway, I can't believe she's almost 5 already. And she'll be starting Kindergarten in mid-August. Yep, I think it may be the earliest school start date in the history of schools - although that does mean they're usually out by Memorial Day. Yikes - a school-age kid so soon! She's lived with us almost two years now. How did she grow up so fast?!

FHG's Haiti - Christmas Update

I received the following message a few days before Christmas that I'd like to share with you:

Dear Friends,

We would like to take this time to thank you for your participation in For His Glory Outreach in the US and the orphanage in Port-au-Price, Haiti. We have been so blessed to serve with all of you in so many areas.

We pray that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that this Christmas season will bring you joy beyond what you could imagine.

A Recap of 2007
We moved to our new facility this year and have so much more space for the children. It was a great labor for the Haitian staff and they did a wonderful job relocating the children.

Early in the year our adoption processor was kidnapped and held captive with our office administrator. After violating our office admin, the captors released her and she was freed from their grip – but not their memory. Some days later, our adoption processor was released. Thank you to all of you that prayed for the safe return of our dear friends. Thank you for continued prayer for their healing.

We have had a few mission trips this past year that were wonderful opportunities to spend time ministering to the lovely people of Haiti. For many that traveled with us, being able to be used by God to serve and reach out to the children and staff in the orphanage, and those we met in our travels in Haiti, was a life-changing experience.

The bunk bed cribs that were built and installed are such a great blessing to the orphanage! On one of our trips this year, we built triple bunk beds for the older children so each child could have their own bed. They are really sturdy and it's such an improved use of space.

On one of our next trips, we will repaint and personalize each one of the bunk beds with the children's names and have the children paint a little image to personalize their space.

One of the teams this year also built a chapel on an open area upstairs. The children have church there on Sundays and school during the week. We are visited by other churches that pray for us that like to pray in the chapel as well.

We would like to thank all of the mission teams that came down that showed your hearts of service to the children and worked with such dedication on medical teams, construction teams, teaching teams, Backyard Bible Club outreach, and so much more.

One team had the opportunity to bring a meal out to an entire village that lives on a lakefront. This village has so little and it was such a great experience to go and pray over each of the huts as food was handed out to the villagers.

During one of our trips, our Pastor was arrested and taken to jail on bogus charges that were designed to gain some income for some police that were not working on the right side of the law. After being forced to stand for 5 days in a 12' x 12' room with 60 other men and women, he was permitted to use the bathroom. However, in order to use the bathroom, they made him remove all his clothing and walk across the police department to humiliate him. That night, after great discouragement was setting in, he started to pray. And pray and pray and pray. He prayed out loud – loud! Hardened criminals began to pray with him. One prisoner who was about to kill himself, handed over the weapon he was going to use on himself to our Pastor after the prayer and said he wanted to live. Over the course of the next two days, 27 people gave their lives to Christ. The next day, our Pastor was released!

If you are interested in the life changing event of a mission trip, we are planning several trips in 2008 and would love for you to join us. We have churches and schools that are signed up for a few trips next year and are opening up more summer dates as well.

Our Current Needs
We are holding a donation drive from now until the end of January. We need cloth diapers, disposable diapers, diaper pins, summer clothes for all ages and sizes, sandals, baby bottles and nipples, sippy cups, formula (we try to use Walmart brand to keep the formula consistent, but will use any formula we are sent), whole powdered milk (formula and milk are the greatest needs), rice cereal, towels, wash cloths, sturdy plastic dishes, aprons and most other household items. We may have free shipment down to Miami and free shipment from Miami into Haiti. If you would like to help us in this donation drive, please contact us at MesiSenye@aol.com.

This has not been an easy year financially for For His Glory and the orphanage in Haiti. We have been stretched in ways financially that we could not imagine. We'll give you a brief background.

During one of our mission trips this past summer, we had the idea of starting a campaign called 1000 Friends in 100 Days. The Campaign launched about 70 days ago. We have DVD's we are showing as we have been traveling all around the Western US speaking to any group, church, chili cook off, you name it that would like to hear of our ministry in Haiti. The concept is to find 1000 sponsors at $30 per month. That would sustain the orphanage as it costs about $28,000 per month to run the orphanage currently.

We have a little over 50 sponsors that we are so thankful for! We are starting a Sponsorship Update Corner on our website where the children will write letters letting sponsors know what their lives were like before coming to the orphanage, pictures of the children in various activities such as school, meals and at play, a monthly menu for the orphanage and an update from our Pastor in Haiti.

Along our travels in speaking to raise awareness of our Campaign, we met with a church that saw the need and caught the vision of For His Glory and they are coming along side us to help us in our goal to move out of the city and be more self sustaining. Our desire is to move in the next year or so.

We hope to build a new facility that will have a school, and grow to make room for children from local villages to be able to attend the school at no charge. This is an amazing gift when the statistics show that in a country of 8 million people, 300,000 are child slaves and 300,000 are orphans – most without resources for hope of a better life. This is so important because God is providing a way for us to move to being more self sustaining to the point that we can even grow produce we can sell, rent out missionary housing, sell livestock and water, etc. It's the "now" that's such a challenge.

There have been some needed changes and improvements made for the living situation for the children. The new facility provides so much more room for the children. However, it has increased expenses at the same time.

Two years ago, adoptions were taking 15 months or less. Now they are taking around 2 years. The adoption fees that were meant to sustain a 15 month adoption now have to last well beyond the intended timeframe. Our long term commitments to the children were based on what we were receiving during the first half of the year. As income and donations decreased and feel short of our anticipated income, For His Glory has been faced with some tough choices for the immediate future, putting the orphanage in a volatile financial situation.

New adoptions coming in are going faster than those that started 2 years ago, so we see a trend of the time shortening a bit again, but that does not help us right now. The truth is we are in serious financial need. Without an immediate and consistent source of funding, we will have to make major cutbacks in orphanage operations. We have cut the budget nearly 30% but we are still not making ends meet. Without new donations and funding sources in the very near future, we will have to make even more drastic changes. This may include cutting school programs, reducing staff and even sending children back to their birth families -- which could could prove to be fatal for some of these children. It is in the direness of this situation that we ask you to please help us in securing the physical future for the children.

Many of our children come from Cite Soliel – ranked the most dangerous city in the world. Children are sold into slavery as young as three years old. Five year old girls are bought and sold into prostitution. Gangs rule, starvation kills and the abortion system of putting newborn babies in plastic trash bags to dispose of them when there is no hope is sadly, commonplace.

Dirt is mixed with water, oil or butter and salt to taste to make a paste that is spread out on sheets to dry and then sold for 7 cents apiece. This is eaten to stave of hunger. This is reality and this is why we must serve the people of Haiti.

We want to continue this ministry, but we need your help. We need to reach more people to help more people. We cannot do this as an individual or two, but we can do it as a team – one person, telling one person, telling one person until we have 1000 friends that will partner with us and stand in the gap.

Please consider becoming a sponsor if you are not already sponsoring the orphanage. If you are sponsoring, please consider telling a friend. If you would prefer, please consider a one time donation. If you have groups or churches that would like to have our pastor from Haiti come and speak, we would be happy to come.

We have faith that the Lord will provide and we pray that you will be blessed by partnering with For His Glory! Together we can change lives – one person at a time!

Have a very Merry Christmas and thank you for all you do for the children in Haiti!

Every Blessing,

For His Glory Outreach Staff
P.O. Box 674
Kingsland, TX 78639

I also heard back from Linda (FHG Director who sent this out). She is trying to arrange for Pierre (pastor from Haiti) to travel to the states again in a few weeks. Let me know if you'd like to have him visit with any group that may be interested in hearing their message and possibly supporting this ministry.

Some general Haiti adoption info

I'm trying to catch up on some general updates we've received over the last few weeks. This one came out a few days before Christmas:

Hi Everyone,
With the celebration of our Lord's birth just hours away, I thought I would bring you some encouraging news to start the festivities!!! In the last few weeks, FHG has had 8 DOSSIERS RELEASED FROM MOI!!!!!!!!

That is so exciting and the families will probably be posting soon! This update will be included in the end of the month update and does not replace or change the precident for updates. But we know that there has been some anxiety for some of you as you look ahead to offices like MOI. We will be updating more frequently regarding this office. We want you to know that things are going very well. Although, it is a slow time, we have seen our processor consistently getting dossiers out of MOI in about 4 months. We have heard of people working with other creches waiting upwards
of 10 months. So we are praising God for the consistent releases and the hard work of Kiki (attorney in Haiti)! THANK YOU, KIKI!!!

We currently have 6 dossiers in MOI. None of which have been in process for 4 months yet. (So not every month do we see movement like this because we have so few dossiers in MOI and they will be released according to their time frame). There is a lot of information that floats around because of the blessing of technology. I want to encourage your hearts not to compare or fret over different agencies/creches. Not
all information you read on blogs and websites is confirmed or accurate. Things are moving for FHG and kids are going home! I hope this brings encouragement to your hearts and one more reason to praise the Lord for every good and perfect gift. If you have questions regarding your specific dossier, please email me off board.
Many blessings,
Cate

Clarification: MOI=Ministry of Interior - they approve passports - after courts step - meaning that as soon as the passports are approved and actually printed and US Immigration approves their visa (usually a couple months total), these children will be on their way home!

A couple weeks ago in my Provision post, I mentioned that security issues had caused a delay in a group's Christmas mission trip to the orphanage. I'm still not certain what the status of that trip is, but here is some more info about that, along with the general orphanage process updates from last month - from Jodie's blog.

Jodie also posted some interesting info we received a while back regarding food at the orphanage. PS - aren't her girls beautiful? They are also waiting in IBESR.

Our Dec07 Adoption Process Update

Not really much to update you on our adoption process, but we received this update from our adoption coordinator:

Happy New Year, Lisa and Jock!
I hope this email finds you well and having had a wonderful celebration of our Lord's birth! This year has been challenging for process at times. But we are so encouraged by God's continuous victories over those challenges and the work He continues to do for His precious little ones in Haiti!!
Your dossier is currently in IBESR. IBESR has moved this year from one of the most difficult offices to one of efficiency. We are thrilled to see the vast majority of children being released from this office in about 4 months. In the month of December, FHG did not have any releases from IBESR. Please do not be discouraged by this, though. There are currently 21 dossiers in IBESR, with only a few just hitting the 4 month mark. Your dossier, for instance, has just barely been in IBESR for 3 months. So you are still under the average wait time of 4-7 months for processing. The short wait for the majority of dossiers, coupled with the holidays taken by the Haitian offices, led us to not anticipate any approvals this month. Just so you know, the offices and staff will not be in full swing again until the 14th. We look forward with great anticipation to all God will be doing in January and all of 2008!
As always, please email me if you have any questions regarding your dossier. Many blessings for a wonderful start to 2008,
Cate

Just a note regarding the holidays in Haiti... Christmas was last Tuesday. Today is New Year's Day and Haiti's Independence Day. Tomorrow is also an official holiday, I've seen it called Ancestors Day or National Day of the Forefathers or Founder's Day. While not official holidays, January 3rd is Heroes Day, and the 6th is Epiphany.