Baby Updates

We'll start with good news. The twins came for their weigh-in this afternoon. BOTH girls are over six pounds. They really seem like they are gonna make it ... we pray they stay healthy and keep moving in the right direction. They are about five-six weeks old now. Paige was pumped about their weight gain.

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The baby to the right is Judline. Judline is the niece to Lovely. Lovely started coming here last November and was born close to the same time as her niece. Lovely was the one we put in the feeding program. Judline was being nursed and always outweighed her aunt. She was the healthier of the two up until April. This photo was taken by Troy when she came here sick and not eating well in mid-April. We put her on the formula and then the Widow's Mite program paid for them to go to a nearby clinic to try to get help for whatever was causing the fever and diarrhea. They came back for a second box of formula and then we had not heard anything for a few weeks. We wondered if the mom went back to nursing or what had happened. Troy asked around earlier this week and found out that shortly after the Dr. visit Judline died. It is so common-place to our Haitian neighbors that it did not even make enough noise for us to hear about it right away. She was not yet seven months old when she passed away from her illness.

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The second bit of discouraging news is regarding baby Emmanuel. He came back with the same two caregivers on Tuesday late in the day. He had lost weight. They told us he had been vomiting up a lot of his formula. He looked terrible to us. We asked the aunt and cousin to come back to the mission at 6am on Wednesday morning. We planned to take them to a newer hospital where the twins went called St. Damiens. We waited and waited ... sent someone to look for them where we last knew they were staying ... they were not to be found. At 8am we finally headed into Port but as it turned out they never showed up and have not yet let us know why they did not come back to go to the hospital in Port au Prince. As of right now we still don't know what is going on. We are concerned he may have died Tuesday night.

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I know those who have been here for years still feel frustration even after seeing it over and over again, so I don't expect we'll get used to it. There is a helpless feeling when you cannot offer enough solutions or offer them fast enough to see ALL the babies live. There is frustration in knowing that given a chance to intervene earlier, the outcomes might be different. In these cases we're thankful to know a God who comforts and heals.

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Paul to the church in Corinth- 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (The Message)

3 -5 All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
6 -7 When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it.

May Cleaning Day

If I wake up feeling full of pep, it becomes cleaning day. The boys have been refusing to use their bathroom because the Daddy Long Leg spiders are taking control in there. I am going to make a show of killing spiders and cleaning the place top to bottom so that I can stop sharing my bathroom with the poor aimers. Today is cleaning day, at least until the pep leaves or the sweat overtakes me or the ankles turn into sausages.

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These photos are from Tuesday. Late in the afternoon Britter was feeling pretty icky and was laying on the hammock in the little garden area. We all went out to have family prayer time on
the stairs and ledge looking down at her. I kept waiting for someone to fall off the ledge, thankfully we managed to avoid that. Britt seems to be on the upswing now.
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During prayer time that afternoon we were all so touched by the cutest prayer Isaac offered. He said, "Heavenly Father, thank you for picking this family for me, I love them so much they are such a blessing to me." We were all elbowing each other thinking that was pretty cute. Adoption talk has been important to Isaac and Hope lately, we've been reviewing their stories a lot and talking about how cool it is the way God puts families together in many different ways. Phoebe does own clothes, really - she does. She just prefers a diaper look in the afternoons when the temps are at their highest.
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I'm short on time, so I won't get too detailed -- but we've had a rough few days with the babies in the formula program. There are two stories to share about two of the babies - tonight we'll try to update that situation.

More People in the Neighborhood

We're wrapping up a busy day. One of the four of us will try to post soon.

Random question - How much do chicken breasts cost per pound in the USA?

Soul Searching

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about adoption. Most of my thoughts have been counter-productive, frustrated, and upset. It occurred to me that there must be something God wants to do in the lives of the people that choose to adopt. It’s got to be as much about the journey as it is about the outcome. I must not have learned enough the first time around. Either that or I’m unteachable. I’m taking a refresher course of sorts.

Everyone who experiences waiting (and waiting and waiting and waaaaaaiting) for a child they love learns a little about God’s love.

Everyone who experiences losing hope and faith along the way learns a little bit about placing their hope in the Lord. Certainly we can look back and find Him faithful.

There has been so much uncertainty deciding HOW to go about adopting Phoebe without knowing exactly WHAT to do in our unique situation. (Our situation is unique for a variety of reasons.) We’ve changed directions numerous times and received all sorts of conflicting advice about the best way to do things. We started with an idea of who would process the papers for us, and that too has changed three times. All of it brought me to a point of losing hope that we’d ever figure out how to make her legally ours.

Throughout all of it, during the last almost 5 months that we’ve had her, I found myself holding back. My hope in a long-term future with Phoebe seemed to be directly tied to my ability to give her 100% of myself. I have been acutely aware that there is a tiny bit of me holding back. It’s bothered me greatly, and even in confessing it to my family and God I found I was not changing, not moving in the direction I wanted to be moving. I don’t think Phoebe knew, but I knew. That was enough.

It’s been a different journey than with Hope and Isaac. With them I was 3,000 miles away longing for them; I could not physically and emotionally bond with them due to the distance. I just waited for them to “be mine” to do that.

With Phoebe I have the blessing of being with her very early in her life and getting to bond with her BEFORE she can be labeled ‘LEGAL child of Troy & Tara Livesay.’

Over the last few days we made some decisions about the adoption. Some logistical hang-ups are beginning to look possible. For the first time in months it seems that we have a solution and a plan. It has given me such hope and renewed faith. I can feel myself having enough hope in our future with Phoebe that whatever I was doing to hold back, feels lifted.

That is nice … but …

I am totally convicted of my lack of faith. I did not expect to be so troubled, but I am. It took something positive happening in the adoption, before my cruddy outlook and faith in His plans and timing began to improve.

I am asking myself lots of questions. Why could I not trust God implicitly when things looked bleaker? Why do I need to be promised tomorrow in order to give myself today? Is that the way God loves me? If I loved with 110% and then lost, would it hurt any less? Is God sufficient for me? Shouldn't I be able to love Phoebe the way He loves me? Wouldn’t He still love me if I walked away from Him tomorrow? What does it mean about me that I want to hold back unless I have guarantees?

If you’ve adopted and gone through bonding or struggled with bonding, I appreciate your feedback. If you just want to tell me how shallow that was, don’t bother. I know it. The truth was out there between God and I … now I am just telling you, the blogosphere.

I’m thrilled to finally feel hopeful about Phoebe's long term future with our family; I am just examining myself and hoping to grow in the meantime.

-Tara

Lord-

Forgive me for not trusting you. Help me to have faith in your care for me and your hand in my life even when I don't see it. Teach me things in these difficult circumstances that will make me more like you. Thank you for Phoebe. I love her so much Lord. Help me love the way YOU love.

Briefly ...

Time for blogging is hard to come by lately. Sorry for the lack of stories and information.

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We're all thinking of you and thankful for you - in spite of our lack of words.

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The kids have been hard at work trying to wrap up the school year. Britt has been sick since Sunday night, she seems a little better today.

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Troy has been busy with multiple projects and activities. There is a waxing and waning of new needs and troubles. Currently the taps on the gate are frequent. He is also preparing for the Pastor's training on Saturday, we're in disbelief that it is the first Saturday of the month already.

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We've been gone too long to know anything about USA movies -- but we love Sara Groves and enjoyed this performance of a song of hers that made it into a movie recently. We agree with her. We also want to raise and lead our children in faith and boldness. At some point they would then (conceivably)channel their energy away from wearing underwear on their heads and into something truly amazing. ;-)

Sara Groves "Something Changed"

children of la digue

beach babes

These are two photos from our family day at the beach yesterday. The boys are far too busy to be photographed when the pool is available. I realized when I got home that I had no Ike or Jack photos from the beach/pool. We had a really nice family day. Even though it appears that we left the guys at home, they WERE with us and had a blast. Everyone came home exhausted and ready for a shower and bedtime.

Isaac is not sure if the next baby will be brown or white. He was so surprised when Phoebe showed up a brown person, he now wonders aloud what this new baby will look like. I keep assuring him that it will probably be a white kid. ;-) I then went on to explain why it would be white and his follow up question was, "So if a purple lady and a purple man have a baby together, then their baby will be purple."

I said, "Yes, I believe you are tracking with me now son. But have you seen any purple people?"

"Not around here."

Today we saw Hope and Phoebe's birthmom. We went to visit her at her house. It is Haitian Mother's Day today, she was really happy with our visit. She recently moved out of Cite Soleil, where both of our girls were born and is now in Bon Repos and very happy to be there. We're working out some adoption details with her and sort of starting over because up until now everything has been a total confused mess.

The post by Max Lucado is for us when it comes to Phoebe's adoption and the rest of this year. The Lord is the path. There is no clearly marked trail that tells us where to go or what to do or HOW to do any of it, but HE IS THE PATH. We need to remember that daily as we trust Him with the bajillion details and unanswered questions involved.

Unrelated Information

Britt's finger amputation went well yesterday. After something like that she has an adrenaline high that just about drives us all crazy. As you can read when she blogs, this stuff excites her. She had another day of bouncing off the walls with excitement about what she'd seen and experienced. It is very odd to observe.

The ACT dilemma is solved, we found a cheap ticket on Spirit Air and ACT agreed to let her take it for free this time around, so the girl gets a quick trip to Florida in less than two weeks. She also gets a chance to improve her score, see Baywatch, and shop for some gifts to thank her loving parents for sending her to Florida.

Troy left early this morning for Port. He was going to visit a ministry that gives food and supplies to other ministries and see if they had anything we need out here. He brought Peter with him. Peter is a newer Lifeline employee. He was in the USA for many years but never took care of all the proper paperwork so he was deported and had to come back to Haiti. He speaks French, Creole, Spanish, and English. The guy is invaluable. Troy has felt his presence in real ways ever since he started. He is not from LaDigue and that helps. He is not worried about all the town chatter and he just does his job. He is the Mission Manager. The cooks really like him, that right there is a major statement. He had taken management and conflict resolution classes during his years in the States. He understands the Blans and he understands the Haitians, a perfect situation. The man is capable. Troy was hoping to help him get a drivers license today while in Port.

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Paige and Troy had a real-life math lesson last night. Paige wanted to help with payroll today so Troy taught her how to do it, start to finish. It includes taking Haitian Dollars (the unit the rate of pay is in) and converting it to Gourdes. I overheard the math happening when they were putting money in envelopes. It also currently includes subtracting loan payments from a number of employees. A few times I heard "Oh, you just overpaid. Try again." They then role-played all the things that Paige might hear today as she distributes the envelopes and what the proper response is in each situation. She is ready.

Last week when we went to Port Troy bought a copy of SpiderMan 3 on the street. It was $3.00 U.S.

And to think, you're paying $8.50 at the theater.

It is of course pirated, looks to be shot with a video camera inside a theater. It is the French version and midway through it skips until the DVD player just gives up and shuts off.

We are willing to sell it to you for half price.

Who won American Idol? Paige wanted it to be Jordan.

Today is one of those stretching-for-things-to-say days. We hope you have a great long-weekend. We're going to the beach sometime over the weekend to celebrate Memorial Day with you from afar.

Scenes from a trip to Port Au Prince

Britt was the photographer for these. Dad was just the chauffer this day.

She wanted to be busy ...

Britt had another chopped off "digit" show up last night. It was late and none of her tools had been sterilized so she scheduled the finger amputation for this morning. Hopefully that did not give the lady the chance to disappear with bone exposed, leaving an exposed bone can cause infection that leads to a lot bigger problems. We're waiting on her to come back.

Britt had been bored in March and April with a major lull of nothing much in the way of exciting or challenging medical cases. She wished out loud that she would be busy once she came home from Florida on May 1. Her wish has been granted. :)

Paige finished her one-page information sheet about the Formula Program. If you asked for it you should have received an email from her last night. Giving a new baby (with no mom) flour-water is very normal here. It took Paige convincing the girls who are taking care of Emmanuel that they should not be giving him straight water OR flour-water. That is just what they do here and they think it is an okay substitute for formula/breast milk.

I recently attended a class at Beth McHouls Women's program. I learned that Haitian women throw away colostrum ... they do not think it should go to the baby. The majority of the class was spent telling the four pregnant ladies that the colostrum is the MOST important thing they could give their new babies. The disbelief on their faces was easy to read. It is very hard to change the way a culture thinks. We often get the feeling that everything being said is going in one ear and out the other. What can you do but keep trying? Haiti has room for 1000's of people solely devoted to health education.

There is a group coming from Michigan in August, they've been here multiple times and are getting the hang of mission work and accomplishing things in Haiti. They're a fun group to have. We've made some friends along the way with this group. Yesterday they wrote to say they want to have a baby-shower for us while they are here. They asked if we would register somewhere. I think there is some rule that baby showers are for first born situations, but I guess they're not all about rules in Michigan. The whole idea opened up a fun evening of looking at registry sites on the Internet and Troy spent the night trying to convince us all that the baby really wants an ice-maker ... ice cold beverages are of great importance to this unborn child. Troy makes a very convincing case.

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Just as an exercise, to teach yourself how important ice is to you... Try not using ice for a week. It works better if it is hot outside. Trust us, you have no idea how much you love ice.

I guess that is it for news ... if you're willing - you could pray that we find a way to get Britt a spot to re-take the June 9 ACT in Florida. Her writing test got messed up somehow and they threw the test out so now in order to apply to her schools she needs to find a way to take it again, of course there are all sorts of reasons and rules why it won't work --- we're just hoping to find a "yes" person that is not difficult for the sake of being difficult.

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Do you know anyone important that works for ACT? Knowing Davis Zachary does not help with ACT in Iowa ... but maybe knowing YOU could help? (She missed the registration deadline and it is supposed to be 60 days between tests but this would be 58 days ... we just need someone to help us by overlooking those two small details.) If your sister works at ACT, email us.

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Off to solve the worlds largest problems,

;) T & T

Photos

The newest babe

This is our newest baby, his name is Emmanuel. He is 8 days old today. He was born last Wednesday. His mother died 3 days after child birth. The father died when the mother was 5 months pregnant. The parents were from the mountains. Emmanuel is living with his Aunt in Barbancourt (the next town over), and the cousin is helping with him. The aunt is 15 and has no kids. Her name is Semene. She's the one with the white shirt. In the middle is the cousin who lives here in LaDigue. Her name is Anolad.

Emmanuel had only eaten water and water with flour for the last 8 days, yesterday was the first time he had milk. These ladies openly admitted that. He drank 5 ozs. yesterday in his first bottle.

You might be wondering why HE had a pink dress on, I was wondering too. Here is a ridiculous conversation.

Me: It is a boy or a girl?
The cousin: It is a girl.
Me: What is her name?
The cousin: She does not have a name yet.
Me: Ok well lets name her.
The cousin: Ok we will name Her Asline.

Ten min. later

Me: So it is a girl?
The aunt: No it's a boy
Me: Then why are you naming it Asline?
The cousin: (to the aunt) It's a girl?
The aunt: NO it is a boy.
Me: sooo you guys don't know if it is a boy or girl?
Britt: Some one just check.

Then Britt checked and it was a boy. So there goes that problem. We all agreed on naming him Emmanuel once we agreed he was a boy.

He was weighed and is 5 lbs. and 7 oz. I wish I knew how much he weighed when we was born to see if he lost weight.

They were given formula for 10 days and when they come back they will come with the baby, so I will give an update on how he is doing then.

I am working on a paper about the formula program so if anyone wants any info just let me know and I will add you to the list. It won't be a sales-pitch, you'll have to sell it --- but it will be more informational.

Have a good day and keep Emmanuel (a baby BOY) in your prayers!

Back to grammar and math. :(
~Paige

Tuesday's Toe Trauma

By Britt:

My day started off with a bang when my mom and Jack came to wake me up at 6:45 this morning. A new machete cut was here, they said, and it was pretty bad. I got dressed and headed out to check it out. I'm doing something new with this medical post, per my mother's advice/request. Since I guess it is *mean* to post graphic medically-related pictures, even with warning, I will be linking to a separate post with the details/pictures included.

So for those of you who don't choose to get the whole story, here's a quick run-down. And I would describe the photos as kind-of gross/bad-ish. I mean, they will be to all of you who find pictures of blood and severed digits gross. If you fall in this category, then don't click the link below. I personally find it awesome (not the fact that somebody's digit was severed ... just that ... well you know what I mean, right? ) I know that some of you do too but I figure I need to practice good blogging etiquette and warn you.

(Photo shows our excellent degaje - "make it work"- skills. Bucket for elevation, blood pressure cuff for tourniquet, chair for attaining right height for operating, plus cute girl for assistant)

I'll briefly give a run-down on this post so you can decide if you would like to proceed to the post where the pictures will be. It's a machete cut on a foot. The 28 year old man, named Tiroy, was standing and cutting branches below him, parallel to/below his feet. He had just sharpened his machete, so at least rust/dirt was kind of less of a factor. The cut is in-between the third and fourth toe. When he came to me, he had roughly 4 1/2 toes. Now he has 4.....

..... click for the rest of the story.

Starting off ...

By 6:45 a.m. the action at the gate began. There was a machete cut and an 8th baby that needs to join the formula program.

Troy left to bring the team to the airport and get what he needs to do payroll on Friday. The kids have all been up since 6:40 ... we're off. Another day of crazed unpredictability is underway.

The guy with the cut is in bad shape. He cut his toe in half the long way. As in, the left side of his middle toe is GONE and the bone is sticking out. Half way through Britt's clean up and assessment of the injury someone came running up with the other piece of his toe on a leaf. This is such a weird place to live.

There is something wrong with our satellite, it needs to be tweaked a bit. For now our Internet is painfully slow. I have some photos but they'll have to wait until we get this problem fixed.

We'll be back when our Internet works better.
Have a good day.
Tara

Other Updates

The twins came on Saturday. Paige took the photo below. They are steadily gaining. One of them gained 13 ounces in five days. :) Thanks for praying for them. Paige is working on a one page word document she will email to those who have asked, with specifics on donating to the program that supports these tiny little ones.

Love's sutures came out today. If you did not see the before photos, you have no idea how amazing this is. She is very stoic, a tough little girl for sure. Thanks for praying for her. :)

Sophia, a baby girl being raised by her granny is with Licia at the Cazale Rescue Center, she has been there since late last year. To see photos of her last year at this time, go to this old post. You can also hear one of our very favorite songs. Sophia looks so good! Thanks for praying for her. :)

Baby Updates & Other things

Conversations with Hope-
Me- "Well, what do you think, will it be better to have another sister or another brother?"
Hope- "Hummmmmm" (thinking, long pause)
Hope- "We already have two brothers that we don't need."

Conversations with Isaac-
Me- "Would you like another sister or brother?"
Isaac- "Hum, a brother."
Me- "Why?"
Isaac- "Noah needs another friend. He keeps on hitting me, maybe he would be nicer to another brother."

Britt and Paige's Opinion-
"Please Lord, a girl. Two boys is enough. It is already loud here."
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Our Doctor appointment was fun. Except when the Dr. who thinks he is super funny had me get on the scale. He turned to Troy behind him and said "She is gaining A LOT of weight."

Hardy-har-har. So funny.
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As it turns out, he actually thinks I need to watch it. That is bunk though because the USA O.B. Doc said I was doing great. Granted, I had another big month. 7 lbs in 39 days is indeed a lot. I was in America for two weeks, I ate a lot. But I am still at a total of 14 - which I think is okay for half way done with the pregnancy. I handed my watch to Britt (discreetly) before I got on the scale and Dr. G. said "Oh, your watch does not weigh that much." He is just full of sass. He suggested I cut back the carbs (He forgot I live in Haiti ???) and the sugar.
` After the appt. we went to Caribbean market and bought ICE CREAM - FUDGE TOPPING and MARSHMALLOWS ... if I am going to tolerate pregnancy in the land of 100+ degree temps and 100 varieties of bugs, and NO MILK, I am going to eat. Weight gain be damned. I just don't care. I can care in October when I have the power to lose it.
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(When we DO find real milk (every couple of months) we buy it -- at the bargain price of $6.00 per half gallon of 2% - Then we fight over it.)
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The other excitement of the weekend ... uh, not a lot I guess. We went to Boca Moca, it was lovely - as expected. We got our DHL package, it was unorganized and obnoxious - as expected. It's almost like it is against the rules to have a system at a business here in this land. I did not get to see the back room, but I would venture to guess they take the packages off the plane and whip them across the room and have no system what-so-ever for organizing them. I GUARANTEE you they look at every single package each time someone comes to pick one up. We did get to sit in air-conditioning for 25 minutes while they looked for it though, so there is that.
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On the way to the beach the truck broke down. Troy left the team on the side of the road and took a motorcycle ride back to the mission to get the other truck. He is amazed to be alive. "Rasta," his driver, does not value his life very much.
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There is meat on the counter waiting to be made into very average tasting meatloaf --- I better go do it.

-weightgainer, tara

Pictures for the Weekend

Happy Friday morning ... it was a long week for us, we're glad to call it over. It seems to me that when it comes to blogging, there is either nothing going on, and I am stretching to find and interesting story to share, or, SO much is going on that I cannot keep up with updating everything.

Sometimes when things get tough on a personal level I find it harder to write. Coming to the blog and finding my whining, complaining, and general negativity is not very enlightening or interesting to read. It is also not how I think of myself, that is the "bad Tara" and I save that bad day stuff for emailing my Mom and Sister. Lucky them.

Things are better, mainly because my attitude is better. Tuesday was tough. There was one discouraging/confusing email received and then ten minutes later, discouraging adoption news. We were all at higher stress levels preparing for the group arrival. At that point there was no need to throw in extra issues, we were edgy anyway. And, lets be real about it - there is a strong possibility that the heat and the extra pounds I am hauling around make me irritable. I know they make me tired. At one point Troy said "That's it - everybody to the prayer rock." I think that was the point where I was crying and said some dramatic thing like "It will never work out. Everything is impossible."

HA. It's kind of funny now.

Britt had two more new stitches patients in the last few days, if they are just in need of six or seven stitches she is not blogging about it anymore --- I guess those stories are not interesting or exciting enough to her anymore. Lovelika came home from Cazale yesterday. Troy went to see her, the rest of us have not seen her yet. She should come see Britt today for a dressing change. We're anxious to give her a squeeze.

Paige wrote yesterday about the formula program. We were later asked why someone would lie about where the baby lives and who is taking care of it. I am going to carefully attempt to answer that.

First, everyone lies at some point. I have lied. You have lied. We teach our kids to tell the truth, but at least once a week we deal with someone caught in a lie. The "I did not do it" variety of lie.

Some lies are easier to take than others. As we all know, it is most frustrating to be lied to when you KNOW that you are being lied to. Recently someone told Paige "You must have dreamt that" because they were unwilling to admit to something they had done, they claimed she dreamt it. That's insulting and lying. It is what it is though. We're all capable of sinning and sometimes we're pretty crafty too.

The reasons for lying in this situation are many. First, they might think that if they tell us where they live we will not help them. Maybe it is an area where people have more money, maybe it is too far from our mission, for whatever reason they might lie because they think the lie will make it more likely for us to meet their need. They might lie about the mom being dead so that we don't ask them to have the mom nurse the baby. They might lie because they are embarrassed or ashamed about their own true story. Worst case scenario, they lie because they want the formula, but they don't actually need it.

There are lots of reasons, and in Haiti it is very difficult to discern what is true and what is made-up. Especially as the outsiders. Stories evolve over time and what you hear first is often very different than what you hear a few weeks later. One lady came saying she was the grandma of the baby, about six weeks later we learned she is the mom.

We sort of accept it I guess. That is not to say we LIKE being lied to, it is just to say that you never really know and you can't - so you might as well just do your best to get the right story and then when you think you have it, move on and don't worry about it. It might sound simple and even stupid, but when my girls are frustrated about someone lying to them I've just explained that the truth is the truth whether it is told or not. They cannot be responsible for forcing it to come out, that is God's business ... they can just rest in knowing that He knows and He sees and that is enough.

Today the team is distributing Love Bundles and working on some construction odds and ends. Tonight we'll be dining on my specialty menu item; Tacos. Tomorrow our family is running into Port au Prince to go to an OB appointment and to get a DHL package and some money exchanged. If time permits we will eat lunch at my new favorite place in the entire country. It is called Boca Moca and they have really good deli sandwiches, air-conditioning, comfy over-stuffed couches, internet, and all sorts of new magazines (Tina- they even have Runner's World.) It feels like you are sitting in a coffee shop in Suburbia USA. It is a lovely escape and motivates me to go to my OB appointments. While we do that, the team will go up the Mountain to Petit Bwa. Sunday we'll go to church here at the mission and then take our team to the beach for the afternoon. This weekend will be busy, unless some major excitement comes our way, we won't be around much until Monday. We hope your weekend is wonderful, that you enjoy some fun spring things, and that you know that we appreciate your kind words and support of our tribe.

God Bless You!

-Tara for all of us

Formula Program

By Paige:

I have been given a new responsibility. I am now running the formula program. There are 7 babies in the program right now. What I do is keep track of when the mother needs to come back for more milk and when she last got milk. Also I try to get as much info about the family, who is watching the baby, details like that. But sometimes that is hard because you don't always get the truth. I also try to find out when they were born, but the mother(or whoever is watching the child) is not always sure.

Each baby will be in the program for about one year. Depending on the needs of the family. My oldest baby in the program right now is Lovely, she will be finishing up at the end of May. She lives right next to the mission so we can watch her and make sure she is getting enough to eat.

I have 3 babies that are not in the care of their mother. Richena's mother died after child birth. She is now living with her sister and the sisters two kids. They are living with the uncle in his house. It is not that hard to understand why the mother died she was 40 yrs old and I sure the baby was just born in her house delivered by some member of the family. I am sure very few supplies, and the person that delivered it was not trained I am guessing. I also have the twins(Michaidine & Micacda) are still in the family's care because the mother is still not well. Please keep her in your prayers. On the bright side of things, the twins are gaining weight, and are getting better and better. They will come with the aunt to get the milk next time so we can see how they are doing and weigh them.

My Dad trained me in, and is helping me along the way. Thank you for helping us with the formula program, for your prayers and sponsorship.

Have a good day-

Paige =}

Wake-Up Call

The first day you wake up to snare drums and a trumpet, you kind of lay in bed and smile ... "Oh, that is so fun they are practicing for flag day at 6am." The fourth day you're really not smiling all that much. Or at all. Suffice it to say, we're glad flag day activities wrap up tomorrow and the band will no longer come to practice in the mornings. The big event includes a parade of all the Lifeline kids down to the end of the road and back with the well-practiced band leading the way.

Solar Panels being installed yesterday.

This is a bug that we see often here. Isaac and Noah love bugs and are obsessed with this particular variety of bug, the call it a "Jimmy Rocket." I don't know why. This morning Isaac caught this Jimmy Rocket in a net. Then it bit him through the net and that was the end of the fun.