A Week Since Haiti

It has been one week since I've been back from Haiti and I'm just now to the point that I feel like I can put something into words. When Kim Metcalf suggested the trip I felt very strongly that I should go. I felt so strongly that I went home that same day and bought plane tickets without even having a passport. Thankfully that worked out too!

Our trip was amazing! The team I went with were primarily nurses and since I am not a nurse I started praying right from the start that the Lord would just use me. I was willing to do anything, I just wanted to be used. And I'm thankful to say that He found just the job for me: Keeping a straight line. Yes that's right that was my job, to tell people where to stand. For those of you that know me, telling people what to do is not really hard for me, but keep in mind I had to do this in a language I know NOTHING about. Thankfully I found that I can also be animated if necessary and it worked out wonderfully, except for the one time I pointed to the ground to show a man where I wanted him to stand and he bent over trying to see what I was showing him on the ground, now that's funny in any language!

The first clinic was at a place for handicapped people. The people in this place are outcasts in Haiti, but the man that runs this place is handicapped himself. About 30 people live in the place and he also helps around 300 people in the community.

This child more than likely had cerebral palsy but his mother has no idea, she wrote down that he couldn't sit, stand or talk.



This man peddled himself around with his hands.



All we could do to help this man was give him some Tylenol and Advil but it's more than he had



This little girl crawls on her hands and knees most of the time and wanted some knee pads to help. Some of the supplies were taken to create something to help her

This lady lost part of her foot in the earthquake and came in with a boot that was worn out. Charlie one of our interpreters cut part of a new boot off and it was just what she needed.

On the way home from clinic we stopped at "The Basket Lady's" house. She sells beautiful baskets made from banana tree leaves. She charges hardly anything for them but with makes enough to send her four daughters to school. The largest basket she has she only charges $12, in America that same basket would be over $100.



The next day was Sunday and we were able to worship in the church in Saintard. It was a beautiful service and I was amazed at how even though we couldn't understand a word they were saying you could feel the Holy Spirit so clearly. Part of the church participated in communion and you had to be carrying a blue card to participate because there was not enough for everyone.

Here is a picture of the pastor and his wife

After church we went over to visit the orphanage that is on the same ground as the mission house, where we stay. Miss Phyllis runs the mission house, the orphanage and oversees the hospital that is all at the same place.

These little boys are twins, Charlie and Jake and are the same age as Ethan, one of them is still not able to walk. Their father died in the Cholera epidemic and their mother had several other children. Miss Phyllis said the place they lived before coming to the oprhanage was so steep you literally had to crawl to get to it.

Here are some of the girls from the girls dorm.

Here's Miss Phyllis with one of the twins. She visited Haiti in the 70's with one of her friends from Bible College. She felt the Lord leading her to move there and his lived there over 30 years.

That afternoon we went to City Blue to hand out food. These people were moved into little huts built by Samaritan's Purse after the earthquake and have been there ever since. The children would swarm you and you couldn't hardly move, especially if they thought you had candy.

This was some people bathing outside the village. The water they're bathing in will go on down the line and someone else will use it to cook with.

Here's what the huts look like.

Some of the children

The last day we were there we also did another medical clinic in a place called Lily. This was the saddest place, for me, that we visited. Many, many teenage girls with babies, many pregnant again. Miss Phyllis said the girls wanted children because then they had something that was truly theirs. I can truly say it was a life changing experience for me. We had Haitian men that went with us everywhere we went to keep us safe and at this place they earned their money. I never felt unsafe but occasionally you could hear the crowd get loud just wanting to get in and see the nurses. We treated lots of people with worms, "Grip" which is a reoccuring cough and just simple things that Tylenol will help but is not available to these people.



Here's Kim listening to a patient

Here you can kind of see how the crowd starts getting closer and closer. They get really nervous if they think you're running out of medicines or they're running out of time.

This is the "Pharmacy" where my job was to maintain my "line"

This lady had cataracts and wanted to try a new pair of glasses.

This lady's child had a thorn in it's eye that had been there a month. Miss Phyllis was very upset at the mother because there was a free clinic in the area the mother didn't take the baby to. Miss Phyllis said sometimes the mother's get tired of the children and intentionally try to hurt them.

After this clinic we handed out more food bags and went to see the Caribbean. It was amazing to see.

Yes the water really is this clear!



Here is our group

This trip has changed my life forever. I was blown away by how 700 people put on their "best" clothes, walked to church at 7 a.m. in 90 degree weather and happily worshipped the only One who can ever give these people any hope. I was amazed at how a bunch of people from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee came together in one accord to do whatever needed to be done from moment to moment. And most of all I'm thankful, thankful for the opportunity, thankful for my wonderful husband who carried my load while I was gone, thankful to my church who gave so that I could go, and thankful for Jesus who came into my life when I was 8 years old and changed me so that I can take the gospel wherever I go.

I will NEVER be the same after this trip.

A Whirlwind Weekend.....literally!

This past Friday night we camped out on Big Pine where Brandon grew up. We had been planning this trip for a couple of months and everyone was excited, including us. Ethan and I had been battling a cold all week but we were optimistic that everything would be fine. The wind had been blowing REALLY hard all day but was supposed to die down, so off we went.

We had a wonderful time cooking out, making smores and just visiting around the campfire. Ethan clearly was not 100% but he was having a good time and I was pushing the cold medicine. Around 9:30 he fell asleep on his Papaw Ronnie and went to bed in the tent, Ellie and I followed shortly after and Brandon sat up to visit and came to bed later.

Sometime shortly after, the wind hit us with a vengeance. Our tent was blowing so hard that at times it felt like we were going to take flight. You could hear it coming across the mountain and we would all hunker down and wait for it to hit. The kids were up changing beds every few minutes. (Maybe a little too much Wizard of Oz?) Brandon's aunt stayed in the tent with us and ended up sleeping with all of us before the night was over. Brandon's brother's tent fell partially over at one point but it was so late and windy they opted just to leave it. Here's what it looked like the next morning:

The next day was beautiful and we enjoyed a yummy hot breakfast around the campfire.

Brandon's Aunt's Connie and  Kaye brought pumpkins for the kids to decorate which Ellie in particular really enjoyed. You'll notice Ethan is not in any of these pictures, by this time he was already at his Mamaw's sleeping off his wind induced hangover.

Then we went to Brandon's Mamaw's for a DELICIOUS lunch. By this point Ethan was feeling pretty bad and it was time to take him home. (Ellie was so disappointed to miss the ride to the top of the mountain on the back of Papaw's truck.)

It's so neat to see the influence each of these people have had on Brandon's life. I'm so thankful for all of them and their HUGE hearts to make this weekend so much fun. What a wonderful, whirlwind weekend!

We're NOT in Kansas Anymore

This post really started last May and the ending is hilarious so enjoy.

Last May our family went to see Brandon's brother's family in Walhalla, SC and as we usually do we rented a movie to watch on the way down from Redbox. The movie was quite disappointing so before we started back home we rented The Wizard of Oz from another Redbox and an Oz fan was born in Ellie.

So since that time her love of all things Wizard has only grown when I fully expected it to wane at any time. For her fifth birthday she even wanted a Wizard of Oz cake. One day I was talking to my Papaw Wyatt about it and he was telling me that years ago he took my mother up to a place near Boone that was a replica of The Land of Oz. It sounded kind of interesting so what do we all do when we want to know anything? I googled it and found:  Autumn at Oz Festival Tickets didn't go on sale until July so I wrote it in my planner and waited. On July 13th I ordered us all tickets to Autumn at Oz and then we waited some more.

Early in September I asked Ellie what she wanted to be for Halloween and of course she said Dorothy which worked out great for me since they encourage you to wear a costume to Autumn at Oz. So with the costume bought and the red slippers in hand we waited on this day to arrive. All week long we checked the weather and knew that the weather was going to be questionable but we were excited to finally find the Yellow Brick Road.

Finally, today was our day, I had layers laid out for all of us and at one point Brandon even said, "What if we get up there and it's not too bad and we have all of these clothes on?" Remember this it will be funny later.

Ellie had on several layers and then her Dorothy dress. She really does make a cute Dorothy.

So we leave home and drive to Beech Mountain all the time convincing ourselves that the weather was not going to be that bad. So as we are heading up Beech Mountain, with the snow blowing mind you, and the fuel light comes on. Our fuel light comes on when we have less than 35 miles to go so we knew we were okay to make it and get back out. After sitting in traffic for about 30 minutes we were finally allowed to park in a large field. Brandon, fortunately had the foresight to park on a hill just in case of the gas situation. By this time it's 32 degrees and the snow is more than blowing, it's laying on the ground and the limbs.

We head on it to "Oz" which really is quite neat and went through Dorothy's house and down to the cellar for the tornado, when you come out you are walking through Dorothy's post tornado house where everything is topsy-turvy. Then of course you follow the Yellow Brick Road and meet all of the characters.

At this point we were all frozen and after a quick visit to the museum we decided it was time to head home. The kids were starving and the choices were limited so Ellie and I made a quick stop and picked up two cupcakes and met Brandon and Ethan at the car. Now the fun begins!

Remember the whole gas thing? Well the car WOULD NOT start so since Brandon had the forethought to park on an incline we rolled the car backwards, still it would not start. So he looks over at me and says, "Give me a little push." I jump out of the car and realize I have dropped his wallet that he had given me out of my pocket to buy cupcakes on the ground. I throw the wallet back in the floorboard, give us a push and we start coasting down the hill all the time praying that the car will start. The Lord heard us and the next time we stopped the car started right up and we were on our way to a gas station. About 2 miles down the mountain I look over at Brandon and relay the fact that I cannot find my cellphone and that I must have dropped it the same time I dropped his wallet. With no other option we drive about 5 more miles down the mountain and get gas, all the while I'm using his phone to call my phone hoping that someone will hear it and answer it.

We get gas and head back up and run in to the same traffic waiting to get in to Oz. (Did I mention that 7000 people go to this thing every year?!?!) I tell Brandon that I'm just going to walk the rest of the way back to the parking lot, an important note here is that I'm wearing the boots I bought pre-children and are at least a half a size too small. I start out on my trek and realize that we made no plans on what was going to happen if I did not find my phone, which we realized was a long shot, but I just kept going. I walked by at least 100 cars and several of them asked me all sorts of questions, many of them feeling very sorry for me in my strange situation. (People KNOW the value of a cellphone.) Finally after about 20 minutes and about  1 1/2 miles I make it back to the muddy parking lot and I'm looking everywhere for my phone. I said a quick prayer asking the Lord to please help me that there was no way I could find this on my own. I asked one parking attendant if anyone had turned in a phone and he quickly told me no. I kept going, looking everywhere. I found another parking attendant and asked if he had a cellphone I could borrow, he said he didn't have one, I said, "Well, I lost my phone somewhere right in here and I was thinking maybe if I could just call it I would hear it and find it." And this is the HONEST TRUTH, the boy standing with him pulled MY PHONE out of his pocket and said, "Is this it?" I could have passed out. About that time Brandon called my phone thinking it would help me find it if it were still on the ground, he almost stuttered when I answered it. I started my 1 1/2 mile trek back down the mountain all the while praising the Lord for caring about my little phone. Out of the 100 cars I passed on the way up at least 50 of them stopped me on the way down asking me all sorts of questions and the ones who had spoken to me on the way up were cheering for me on the way down for finding my phone. (People understand the value of a cellphone, let me tell you)

I was so relieved to FINALLY make it back to the car. When I got in the car Brandon said, "See some people do still care." Somebody turned my phone in and all those people I spoke to in the cars were so kind. We're so quick to focus on how bad the world is getting, and it is, but today I realized there are a few good people left and apparently....they're all Wizard of Oz fans.