We had a great 28 hours in Jacmel. The travel was less than smooth but we got there ... eventually. The whole feel down there is much more "chill". A person could get used to that. We stayed at a place with a stunning view. (Cap Lamandou)We got locked in a bathroom on the way down. The funniest part about it was that the gas station employees could not have cared less. They actually shrugged and said, "You'll have to stay in there, we don't have keys." They weren't kidding. Troy had a leatherman and freed us from the bathroom after only a few minutes. Noah and Paige were the kids voted on the Jacmel travel team. They had fun in the pool together and tagged along with us for part of the time.
We visited a small AIDS orphanage, an orphanage and church called Calvary Chrisitian Church, and a Haitian family that is caring for a adorable little girl with Cerebral Palsy.
Cheri Kay Sessions (in the gray Diet Coke shirt) is an amazingly talented Physical Therapist and it was an honor to watch her work with three patients with varying degrees of brain injuries. I have known CK for three years but my eyes were opened to who she really is while watching her work. I knew she was talented and smart, she has helped both Troy and I with back problems in the last year, but with the CP patients she is in her element. Both Pat and I were bawling, it was heartbreaking to see these beautiful little ones trapped inside bodies that won't ever be functional or "normal". There are so many sad things to see here, I don't want to get to the point where strength and beauty such as we saw during the therapy sessions does not move me. It was both horrible and wonderful, beautiful and ugly and incredibly moving, I wish you could have all been there.
CK will be leaving Haiti soon and I know without a doubt there are dozens of people who will miss having her here. Pray for her and the two children she is adopting (one pictured with Leann Pye and one pictured with Paige) as they FINALLY go to the USA after more than three years of fighting through the adoption system ... praise the Lord for CK's endurance and ask in your prayers for visas for them - that is all they are waiting on now. After that they are Michigan bound.
We have a lot of great Jacmel photos and will post them as we're able in the coming days.
Coming up this week:
The kids are back to school!
Visiting team provides one day medical clinic at Heartline!
Noah Livesay turns five!
Aaron Ivey is coming over!
Britt and Chris come for one night on Friday!
We end many sentences with exclamation points!!!!!!
