One of My Favorites

I have been racking my brain trying to decide where to start as far as sharing pictures and stories about Haiti goes.  Honestly, I could not figure out how or where to start.  So I prayed it about and God showed me this verse:

To man belong the plans of the heart,

but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue.

Proverbs 16:1

This is exactly what I was feeling.  I knew I wanted to share the Haiti stories with respect, love, grace and dignity, but I didn’t really know how.  So, I had to ask God to show me how.  I started to flip through my pictures one by one, and this one jumped off the screen at me.

 

I love this picture! 

No, not because I’m in it.  I love this picture because of the sweet memories it conjures up.  We came to this orphanage to deliver food.  You see, not too long ago, Heartline came to this orphanage for the first time.  We were told that the first time they came, the kids were so sick and hungry that they could not even lift their heads off the floor.  The “mama” that runs the place had her heart in the right place taking in these kids, but she just didn’t have the resources to feed all the kids she took in.  Immediately, the group that came the first time left and then came back with food for the kids.  Several other groups have come to bring more food and love to the kids since then, and now they are so healthy that they have the energy to play.  They had so much energy when we were there that they even had some fights over toys! 

At this particular orphanage, there were several older girls.  I felt bad that we had only brought balls, toy cars and coloring books for the kids.  If I had known about the older girls, I would have brought nail polish, makeup and hair things for them.  But, I quickly remembered that I had brought stickers and rubber stamps in my back pack, so I improvised.

After catching their attention, I started putting stamps on the girls’ hands.  It didn’t take long until I was swarmed by them.  (See how I was pinned against the wall?)  Next, I started to put a sticker on each girls’ shirt.  But then I got brave and put them on their faces (kind of like makeup).  Oh, they giggled and giggled at that.  And then they started to take stickers and put them on my face!

Best smile ever!

Seriously, this girl is gorgeous.  She sat on the step the whole time and giggled with some of the other girls.  I asked her if she was going to color and she just giggled and looked at me like, “ya, right!”

 

Eventually, this girlie came to me with a comb and motioned that she wanted to braid my hair.  So, I took off my hat, pulled my greasy hair out of it’s ponytail, set aside my fears of head lice and let her have at it.

Once she had my hair slicked (it didn’t take much, there was plenty of grease to assist her), she combed out my hair, put the ponytail back in and twisted it into a braid.  Once she had the braid in, she realized that I didn’t have another hair tie to hold it in.  Without even a second thought this sweet girl, that has next to nothing, reached up into her hair, removed one of her yellow hair clips and put it in my hair.  It makes me cry to even think of it.  When we got home, I put that clip in a safe place and will always cherish it.

See that little guy watching me get my hair braided?

That is Robinsky and he has the best dimples ever!  He was tiny and crawled around on the ground, I was told he is 4.  This dude was smart as a whip.  I could have played with him all day.

Back to this picture:

 

I don’t even know her name, we don’t speak the same language, but I loved my time with her.  She had a very gentle, sweet demeanor, as you can tell by her smile.  As we were standing there, she gently reached down and grabbed my hand.  She ran her finger over my wedding ring and stared at it for a minute.  Then she looked up at me and it was clear that she was asking if I was married.  I smiled, shook my head “yes” and pointed at Shad.  Her eyes got huge and she got very excited.  She motioned for an interpreter and excitedly asked him something in Creole.  The interpreter said, “She wants to know if you are married.”  Again I said yes and pointed to Shad saying that he is my husband.  Her reaction was so teenage girl like, she put her hand over her mouth and giggled and giggled.  It was the cutest thing.

I was really nervous about going to an orphanage.  I was so afraid that I would be broken, seeing the kids there.  This turned out to be one my favorite things we got to do in Haiti.  Kids are kids, no matter where they live or what they have.  All they wanted from us was some love, attention and affection and it was an honor to be there with them.