Month: May 2009

We arrived!

I smell like dirty feet wrapped in a bacon sandwich, and it is unbelievably hot and muggy – but we arrived and were SO happy to see the children.  Our little boy is quite the riot – he reminds me of Braeden, he is very spoiled… he HAS to be held and get attention or he cries, but he smiles, and laughs big HUGE smiles.  Christella is as quiet as ever – however, this time we have a young gal named Vivian who is also here, she is Haitian, and she has helped us communicate with Christella, which has been a blessing!

The trip over was rather uneventful, except for all the problems with luggage, that normally occur… Donovan got to meet one of our captains, and he got to sit in the cockpit and try out some of the flight equipment too – that was amazing for all of us!

 

Pictures will be coming very soon – but it’s time to go spend some time with the children… I’m already sad that we have to leave… 🙁

 

By the way; for everyone in Maine that is experiencing frost tonight – nah nah…  😉

Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe!

A very interesting Haitian proverb; most literally, this means: “God knows to give, but He not know to distribute”.  In other words, God gives humans everything they need to survive, but it’s the responsibility of the people to share and divide the bounty amongst themselves.

In other words:  Those who have should give to those who have not; that is the way God intended it to be.

From what I have read about Haiti, this is lived more than just spoken.  While many families go days without food, when they do get food they share every little bit they have with each other; despite the fact that the little they do get isn’t enough for one, let alone to be shared.

This is a direct expository for the biblical verse:

John 3:

11 John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

11 "If you have two coats, give one away," he said. "Do the same with your food."

11 Li reponn yo: Sa ki gen de rad, se pou yo bay sak pa genyen an yonn. Sa ki gen manje pou manje, se pou l’ separe l’ bay yon lòt.

Does this sound familiar to a Mainer?

A man walked into City Hall carrying his cat.
Man:   “Hi.  I would like a dog license for my pet.”
Clerk:   “That’s a cat.  I can’t give you a dog license for your cat.  I can give you a cat license.  That will give her all the same privileges as a dog.”
Man:   “She already has a cat license.  That’s not good enough.  People think of her as just a cat.  Dogs are thought of more highly.  Man’s best friend, you know.  I want to get her a dog license and call her a dog.  Then people will think of her as a dog.”
Clerk:   “I don’t think so.  Anyway, I cannot give you a dog license for your cat.”
Man:   “Look, it’s not fair that only dogs can get dog licenses.  Let’s just call everything with fur and four legs a dog.  Now give me a dog license.”
Clerk:   “That’s a novel idea.  I imagine that would include bears and mice too.  Anyway, I still cannot give you a dog license for your cat.  The law won’t let me.”
Man:   “All right.  I’ll go to the Legislature and get them to change the law to call everything with fur and four legs a dog.  Then I can get a dog license for my cat, and people will start thinking of her as a dog.  I’ll tell the legislators that it’s a civil rights issue.  Then they’ll give me whatever I want.”
Clerk:   “You are probably right.  But she still looks like a cat to me.”

 

(The Record, Maine Family Policy Council)

The thing that is scary…

Today we called Chris to ask her a few questions about things we can bring to help the Orphanage with, and she informed us that our son has been very sick – has been for almost a month and has lost a lot of weight – but they didn’t tell us… 

I suppose they didn’t tell us because there was nothing we could do but worry (except perhaps they forgot about prayer and intercession?), and we would have not only been worried sick, but perhaps we would have also been calling quite frequently to check on him.  Perhaps they were worried about his ability to make it through – so they spared us the agony of worry and concern for something that was out of our hands and half way across the world… 

I am not angry at all with their decision to not tell us, a little scared, and a lot sad though.  It brings a level of concern that we could be thinking that everything is all right, then get a shocking call without any warning or time to prepare… babies are so fragile… this was one of my biggest concerns about having another baby, the constant worries around health and safety of a child that is so tiny and so fragile…

I guess this is the risk that every parent takes… but we didn’t even know he was sick, how heart breaking is it to think of ourselves as his parent and not even able to have a close enough relationship with him to know that he is sick… sad… 🙁

I’m my own grandpa!

We were discussing in my discrete math how you can represent genealogical information by trees; but I had to point out that as trees can’t be cyclical, and genealogies can be – that technically we can’t use trees to represent genealogies.  For example, what if you were your own grandpa – that would create a cycle and would break the whole tree thing…  What?  You say it’s not possible to be your own grandfather… surely it is.. just look…

 

 

Now many, many years ago, when I was twenty-three,
I was married to a widow who was pretty as could be.
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red.
My father fell in love with her, and soon they, too, were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life,
My daughter was my mother, cause she was my father’s wife.
To complicate the matter, even though it brought me joy,
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad,
And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad.
For if he was my uncle, then that also made him brother
Of the widow’s grown-up daughter, who, of course, was my stepmother.

Father’s wife then had a son who kept him on the run,
And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter’s son.
My wife is now my mother’s mother, and it makes me blue,
Because, although she is my wife, she’s my grandmother, too.

Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I’m her grandchild,
And everytime I think of it, it nearly drives me wild,
For now I have become the strangest case you ever saw
As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa!

I’m my own grandpa.
I’m my own grandpa.
It sounds funny, I know, but it really is so,
Oh, I’m my own grandpa.

Talking to our children today…

Once again, we are very grateful to H.I.S. Home for giving us the opportunity to spend a few minutes on the phone with our children a couple times a month. 

This week Christella seemed to be a little more responsive to us, she shook her head a few times; she showed us the “I love You” hand sign, and even blew us a kiss!  Amanda also saw that she had put her dress on backwards today – so CUTE!  When Braeden dressed himself for church today, he put both his shirt and his pants on backwards!  I guess it’s the ‘in’ thing for the 5 year olds right now!  😉

We are so excited to go and spend some time with them in a couple weeks…

image

Feeling stupid funny

Tonight I did something that gave me such indescribable childish pleasure, a feeling that I have not had in a long, long time.  I got on my lawnmower and drove down the road to the neighbors house.  I had this big stupid grin on my face, I felt foolish, and lazy, and embarrassed as the cars drove by and stared at me.  It was so new, and different, and childish and foolish; but it made my night!

 

🙂