We just returned from a trip to Haiti. We were there to meet our son James for the first time, to attend two Haitian court appearances and sign our I-600 at the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince. It was a wonderful trip! It was so exciting to meet James for the first time, and to see how God has had a hand in the matching process for the perfect child for our family. Our court appearances and I-600 signing were accomplished as well. More on those later, but I wanted to get down some overall thoughts on the trip and on GLA in general... I was SO impressed with how everything at GLA was run! Very well organized and very purposeful in everything they do, which was awesome to see.
We stayed at the guest house, which is run by Pastor Brandon and his family and also where they live. Brandon and Nikki were wonderful hosts, even though they had an extremely busy week with family visiting them, and the Associate Pastor's wedding on Thursday that they were preparing for. They house the mission teams that visit, adoptive families coming for courts or to pick up their children, and a classroom for the children from the toddler house.
Pastor Brandon's church is just a few doors down from the guest house. He said the church meets on the second floor of this building (the green floor), and his associate pastor lives on the upper floor.
The toddler house is between the church and the guest house. Molly and Joyce run the Toddler house. Both have been in Haiti for 8-10 years. Melissa lives there as well (she's been in Haiti for 3 years), but works mostly in the main house as the adoptive family coordinator. Some of the short-term volunteers are housed at the toddler house as well. I wasn't there for more than 10 minutes the whole trip - just the day we walked from there to the main house with Melissa.
The main house, where Dixie lives and where the babies are, is about a 5-minute drive or a 20-minute walk from the toddler and guest houses. We did walk it one day, and my calves were sore for more than a full day afterwards from the steep hills which were also very slippery because it's rainy season - but it was nice to get out and walk! It's interesting being in the countryside and mountains instead of in the city. The locals are very polite and no harrassing to get you to give money or buy something on the street. In fact, I kept forgetting to look up from carefully watching my step, to say, "Bonjou," to people as we walked past - so rude! :)
The building off to the right of the main house is has rooms for some of the volunteers.
The first floor of the main building contains a sitting room, a large dining room where all the volunteers, staff and adoptive families have meals together. Just under the stairs is Magaly's office - she's one of our adoption processors. Behind the stairs are Dixie's office and an office shared by Emelyne, Susie, and Melissa.
The second floor is where the babies live. If I remember right, there are 5 baby rooms, with bathrooms, storage, etc.: the NICU, a healthy little-baby room, a room for crawlers, a small room for those starting to walk, and two rooms for the walkers 2 and under. There are 2 or 3 nannies in each room, and their shifts are for 4 days straight - they sleep there as well, then they rotate off. When I was in the rooms they were busy doing little girls' hair, lotion/powdering, wiping noses, diapering, sweeping/mopping, changing sheets, singing with them, and just keeping an eye on them.
The third floor has a large balcony play area for the babies, and also I think is where John and Dixie live. There is a rotation of short-term volunteers that come to help at the baby house. There were 7 there when we were, and most are there for 1-2 weeks, one for a month - also a couple had been to GLA multiple times previously. They're each assigned certain babies, and they have a set schedule of when they go get each baby from their room to bring them to the 3rd floor balcony for some one-on-one play time, where they're supposed to work on certain developmental skills, like sensory, eye contact, small or large motor skills, reading books, doing puzzles, etc. Sometimes they take the children outside the complex for a walk in the neighborhood as well. VERY COOL!!!
We stayed at the guest house, which is run by Pastor Brandon and his family and also where they live. Brandon and Nikki were wonderful hosts, even though they had an extremely busy week with family visiting them, and the Associate Pastor's wedding on Thursday that they were preparing for. They house the mission teams that visit, adoptive families coming for courts or to pick up their children, and a classroom for the children from the toddler house.
Pastor Brandon's church is just a few doors down from the guest house. He said the church meets on the second floor of this building (the green floor), and his associate pastor lives on the upper floor.
The toddler house is between the church and the guest house. Molly and Joyce run the Toddler house. Both have been in Haiti for 8-10 years. Melissa lives there as well (she's been in Haiti for 3 years), but works mostly in the main house as the adoptive family coordinator. Some of the short-term volunteers are housed at the toddler house as well. I wasn't there for more than 10 minutes the whole trip - just the day we walked from there to the main house with Melissa.
The main house, where Dixie lives and where the babies are, is about a 5-minute drive or a 20-minute walk from the toddler and guest houses. We did walk it one day, and my calves were sore for more than a full day afterwards from the steep hills which were also very slippery because it's rainy season - but it was nice to get out and walk! It's interesting being in the countryside and mountains instead of in the city. The locals are very polite and no harrassing to get you to give money or buy something on the street. In fact, I kept forgetting to look up from carefully watching my step, to say, "Bonjou," to people as we walked past - so rude! :)
The building off to the right of the main house is has rooms for some of the volunteers.
The first floor of the main building contains a sitting room, a large dining room where all the volunteers, staff and adoptive families have meals together. Just under the stairs is Magaly's office - she's one of our adoption processors. Behind the stairs are Dixie's office and an office shared by Emelyne, Susie, and Melissa.
The second floor is where the babies live. If I remember right, there are 5 baby rooms, with bathrooms, storage, etc.: the NICU, a healthy little-baby room, a room for crawlers, a small room for those starting to walk, and two rooms for the walkers 2 and under. There are 2 or 3 nannies in each room, and their shifts are for 4 days straight - they sleep there as well, then they rotate off. When I was in the rooms they were busy doing little girls' hair, lotion/powdering, wiping noses, diapering, sweeping/mopping, changing sheets, singing with them, and just keeping an eye on them.
The third floor has a large balcony play area for the babies, and also I think is where John and Dixie live. There is a rotation of short-term volunteers that come to help at the baby house. There were 7 there when we were, and most are there for 1-2 weeks, one for a month - also a couple had been to GLA multiple times previously. They're each assigned certain babies, and they have a set schedule of when they go get each baby from their room to bring them to the 3rd floor balcony for some one-on-one play time, where they're supposed to work on certain developmental skills, like sensory, eye contact, small or large motor skills, reading books, doing puzzles, etc. Sometimes they take the children outside the complex for a walk in the neighborhood as well. VERY COOL!!!
1 comment:
Looks like a nice set up.
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