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Medika Mamba Graduate - Melanie!

Before & After

Melanie

dob 5/6/05
9.1 kg - 12 kg

(20.02 lbs to 26.4 lbs)
Before...

During ...
After
We are thankful. Hurrah for Melanie!!!

Random photo sampling

Working in the infamous Tilapia Pond at Heartline Ministries ...
Crafts with kids ...Team from Grand Rapids area with interpreters from Canaan Orphanage in Petit Goave ..

Thank You God

We have no idea what all happens in the spiritual realm, but it seems the angels were fighting for this little girl today. We had a bad scare - that could have easily ended another way, but Phoebe just got tucked into bed for the night and is back to normal. We are so thankful she is okay; we are feeling spared, protected, and blessed.

We don't get to know or meet many of you that are reading but we're often told "I prayed for you guys". Tonight, we just want to thank you for praying. This afternoon we missed a lot of pain and heartache and we're thankful for that and for the prayers. Thank you God.


Ephesians 6:18
¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Romans 12:12
¹² Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

Pray for Zach

Tomorrow Zach is leaving for 8 weeks in the USA. He is doing some fund-raising and speaking and organizing. The trips to the USA tend to make you feel a little crazy ... and quite frankly, it is hard to live in two worlds. Troy and Zach have become good friends over the years, they talk most days. We notice when he is gone. :(

Please, if you would, pray for Zach while he travels. Pray for his daughters Licia and Lori and their husbands and children. The ministry they do astounds us and we want to lift them up in any way possible as they continue to deal with life and death every.single.day. (And for the record, THEY are the ones truly administering the WWV Mamba program, the real work happens with them, their staff, and the kids they serve in Cazale.)

Our plan is to continue to fund Licia's Mamba program for the next year or more and to open two or three new locations (new partners) that are seeing and treating kids with severe malnutrition with the money being raised now.

Also, a year ago Lori (one of Zach's two daughters) lost her house during the hurricane. I believe that it is so important for everyone living in an intense environment to have a respite, a place to get a break. Lori and her husband Charles need to have a new house. (She would correct me and say it is a want -- but *I* am saying NEED.) They need to have a way to leave ministry at the end of the day. It is healthy. I know all I do lately is ask you for money... I am not so much asking you for money as I am asking you to get creative. Check out Lori's site and story here. Think about it. Maybe there is something you can do to help her rebuild. Maybe you'll get a nudge to give. She has served in Haiti for more than a decade, losing her house to a hurricane and water is a bump in the road ... she has faced many difficult things and overcome ... I think there might be people out there willing to help her rebuild.

(Photo from church yesterday.)

You people rock.

Our weekend was fun. Megan came to stay with us Saturday and Sunday. Troy spoke at church and I thought he did a nice job ... but I am fairly biased.

After church Beth had a birthday party for me. She made a great big, delicious meal for us. Annie and Lydie took a stab at finishing the rest of the birthday cake without any boundaries or rules. I would have said "No girls" as they climed onto the table with forks in hand - but Beth claims she makes the rules for my kids at her house ... so I knew not to bother with protesting :) - they went to bed hyper and happy and more convinced than ever that Beth is the bomb.

Our entire household left to go to the party together ... before hand we had a little draft party. Each person over 13 got to pick a kid (or two) to be in charge of over at the McHouls house. I drafted Noah and he pretty much laid around watching a DVD so that rocked. Troy picked Lydie ... not such a great pick. She was covered in dirt and dog-snag by the time we headed back home. I think Paige and Megan were happy with their picks.

Super-Viv (Vivien) has her work cut out for her. Whoa.does.she.ever. Isaac worked on some tests this weekend ... below you'll find just three of his fabulous answers. We were not allowed to coach at all so he was on his own. My mother likes the idea of him picking her flowers ... I just want to see how nice she is when he shows up by her bedside at 4:30am to deliver them.He is so wonderfully silly and happy and encouraging and sweet ... I am glad the sky in his world is always cloud free. I know Super-Viv will help keep it that way --- while also teaching him a few things. :)

He told me a few months ago that "girls do dishes" -- I marched straight to Troy to get him to work on changing Isaac's paradigm - and fast. Since then I have held a few sweeping and toilet bowl cleaning lessons just for the boys in the house. I guess his answer above is if a boy is doing the dishes. ;) "Sensible" is such a relative term. And yes, his "circles" say something about him as well. He is one of a kind!

We have a rare week ahead without any guests in town so we really hope to finally get a lot of things we have been pushing back crossed off of our list. In addition to the regular schedules (or whatever it is that goes on week to week) we're also getting Viv's room ready, we're doing DNA testing on one of the girls for adoption purposes, we need to get the girls to the Doctor for more shots, we're going to go pick up the chairs for Beth out near our old stomping grounds, we'll visit Gran and Sophie again while we are out there, and I think we might be having a missionary tattoo artist paying us a visit on Wednesday. Don't quote Leviticus ... it is too late - we already shaved our beards off too!

This week has 32 miles on the training schedule. I am feeling ready for it. A few of you asked about the plan and goal for the next 8 weeks until race day. I said I would not adjust the goal amount on the Chip-In meter again, and I won't. Clearly this has nothing to do with my number anyway. This is God's show and like you, I am just excited to see where He takes it. To date with mailed in donations we're sitting right around 33K. That is $1,260 per mile run. You people rock.

Men's Wearhouse - Haiti Branch

George Zimmer wasted a bunch of money ...
all he needed was a wall and some rope.

No overhead, no lease negotiations, no mortgage.
No-Duh.

Medika Mamba Grad

Examene
dob 5.30.06

8.2 kg - 10.7 kg
(18.04 lbs - 23.54 lbs)

Soldier Boy(s)

Camo Works!
I almost did not see these guys ... ;)
Tiny little UN soldiers.
Ginormous me. :)
No shots were fired.

(Click photo to enlarge it - look for blue helmets to find the toy-sized soldiers.)

Medika Mamba Grad

Barthelmy

dob 6/31/06
8.3 kg - 11.8 kg
(18.26 lbs - 25.96 lbs)

Jean Peter

Jean Peter has had a rough go of it. He is 10 months old and still hanging out around the 9 pound mark. He has recently battled both pneumonia and chicken pox. We are encouraging his young mom to nurse him frequently but have also decided to try Medika Mamba. The Mamba can be used on children 6 months to 5 years old.

We will be meeting with mom each Tuesday to check Peter's weight and encourage her to keep working on getting it into him and packing some pounds on in the process. Much of the process is simply encouraging the Moms. Usually they feel a little bit defeated and need to have hope restored.

We all hope to show you a different kid about 50 days from now. Prayers for Peter and his Mom are appreciated. :)

Matching Donor #1

At the beginning of this exciting ride (the Medika Mamba Marathon ride - which is not yet over) a friend from Minnesota wrote and said that she wanted to be the first $2,600 matching donor. I was humbled and touched by the gesture and asked her if I could share her motivation for putting up the match.

Linda is a friend from our home church in Rogers, MN. She came to Haiti to see us with a team in January of 2007 and again in August of 2008.

In August of 2008 Linda came on the trip with about a dozen other folks from our church and her teenage son, Mike. The trip was packed full of activity. We hiked mountains and did lots of fun things. It was a bittersweet time for all of us based on a few situations yet the trip really seemed to have a covering of God's mercy and grace on us all.

One afternoon we returned from a nearby village to learn that Linda's husband, Steve, had suffered a massive heart attack while on a piece of machinery and was in critical condition.

Linda and Mike tried to get airline tickets the next day but we could not find them any seats due to storms that had caused backups out of Port au Prince. It was a helpless feeling knowing Linda really wanted to be home, yet no tickets could be found. That night a blog reader stayed up half the night plugging in the tickets she was looking for over and over until she found Linda a seat.

The next morning Linda headed to Minnesota, leaving her son Mike behind with the team. That night I asked you all to pray for her and I know many of you did.

Steve never regained consciousness and about a week later Steve left his mortal body and went to be with Jesus. He left behind four children and his wife. The goodbye that Linda and Mike said before they left for Haiti turned out to be their last exchange with him.

In late May Linda wrote me to tell me that she was preparing to have a sale to sell much of the equipment Steve owned and that in his honor she would like to offer $2,600 toward a matching grant to get the Mamba donors motivated to give. She said that Steve, and Haiti, and much of what happened last August are all intertwined and that she knows Steve would love to know his business and the sale of his equipment benefited hungry children in Haiti.

For Linda and her kids, August is going to be a tough month. They are of course still grieving the loss of their Dad, Husband, and friend. Later this month will be the one year anniversary of his heart attack and his passing.

One of the difficult things they are doing is selling a lot of the equipment from his excavating business and his tools and other "man stuff". The main sale dates that they are currently preparing for are Friday Aug. 14th and Sat. Aug 15th. Those will not be easy days for their family.

I am so thankful that Linda wanted to kick off the fund-raising with this matching grant. I am humbled knowing how difficult this year has been for Linda, yet when I spoke with her on the phone she assured me that God's grace is enough and that He has been faithful to her in this time of great grief.

I know so many of you have also given to this Mamba cause (and continue to do so) and I am blessed by each and every gift.

Tonight I wanted to ask that in the coming weeks you pray for Linda, Mike, Anna, Steph, and Tom - as August will not be easy for them. Pray their sale goes well and that they find opportunities to honor the man they loved and to be strengthened by his memory and their love for one another. Thank you to Linda and Steve Kohnen for kicking off this fundraising effort with a generous matching grant ... As you can see, God is blessing your gift.


(With donations already received by mail, and two or three more promised donations we are over 31K raised right now. More than 300 children's lives will be touched!)

26K +

SO SO Excited!

I have to go join the team -- but as I was getting ready I saw an email from "Chip In" and it said "Your Chip In has reached its goal." I thought it was a mistake because it had just been about 2,100 from the goal.

I am teary and amazed and so thrilled about this. THANK YOU to the donor that just put us WAAY over the top. (And this is not counting mail donations ... which have been coming in to the WWV office.)

More later, I have to do a happy skip down the road now.

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!! Thank You GOD!

Healing

To see Medika Mamba and God at work ...

Please see this post.

(A short-term volunteer at RHFH posted these photos recently.)

Losing It

My kids are almost always warned when I am about to lose it. :) That is about all that they get for grace from me some days. They will often warn each other too ... "Remember ... shhhhh- don't fight with me ... Mom said she does not have patience for this today!"

I just asked Hope, "Do I lose my temper a lot?"
She said - "Only a tiny bit - every single day."

Ha. Nice.

Teams, Toddlers, Programs & Plans

Troy and Paige headed south to Petit Goave earlier today to spend the night with the Michigan team down there. They will bring entire group back Port on Tuesday afternoon/evening.

Tina and I will keep things operational in Port au Prince - at least our little tiny square of PAP anyway.

Lydie, Annie and Phoebe are in full destruction mode, just keeping them from wrecking things is a full time job for two adults.

They are no longer going to be called "the babies" these three are the demolition crew and "toddler" sounds far too gentle at this point.

We are officially a bottle free house, before Annie and Lydie turned two we decided to pitch them. Annie was ready. Lydie was totally ticked off, but only for two nights.

Phoebe has been diapering her favorite toy, a stuffed Monkey named Mort Monkey. I would not mind it at all except that thick diaper rash cream on stuffed animal fur is kind of a mess and yesterday I found ELEVEN clean diapers in the trash. goodbye $ ! I thought we were going through diapers too fast. Mystery solved. That monkey gets his diaper changed every hour, his mother loves him. :)

Phoebe is still very quiet and says very little for a child her age. I really hope it is related to the two languages and not to something that I need to be worrying about. She is going to be three in three months. I am hoping she starts talking like crazy soon. I also hope she starts doing her business in the toilet soon. We can afford to diaper either HER or her monkey. But not both. So far she has zero interest in potty-training.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heartline Women's Program
We have a few really unique and difficult pregnancies right now. Beth has been researching trying to find solutions for them, but there are no easy answers here. One of our mom's lost a three week old baby in October 2008. At the time we thought it was strictly due to dehydration that she did not address fast enough. She (the mom) has Hepatitis B. Her next baby is due late this fall. Her dates don't match up right with her size and we have concern for her. We're trying to figure out how to assure that her baby gets the first Hep B. vaccine within 12 hours of birth. (If the baby gets the vaccine within 12 hours of birth, it is 90% less likely to end up getting Hep B. from the mother.)

We may end up moving her in when her due date draws near. Haiti is far too difficult of a place to navigate and the medical system is too unstable to be certain that she would - 1. make it to a hospital to deliver in the first place 2. The hospital would let her in to deliver 3. she would be able to convince them of or communicate her situation 3. that they would even have the vaccine on hand 4. that they would care enough to give the vaccine if they have it ... if you are not strong enough to FIGHT for your own care here - you will not get it. The Mom's name is Mirlande if you would like to be praying for her and her unborn baby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the last week of English Camp for Isaac and Hope. They have had a lot of fun these past six weeks and Troy and I would like to thank the Tlucek Family for doing a great job of overseeing it and juggling dozens and dozens of volunteers who came to make it happen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

School Year 2009-2010
I am doing a very laid back reading-based Kindergarten curriculum with Noah. The home-schoolers will know what "Five in a Row" means. Noah is very happy that it is not time for him to leave the house for school yet. He loves home and his parents and he says he might "nev-oh, ev-oh leave us". He is five and technically Kindergarten age, but there is no way he would be ready to actually go to a traditional school yet.

For our other school-age kids...
A ticket has been booked for Super-Viv, our new teacher for next year. Our kids will be home-schooled by this brilliant and capable college grad from the great state of Texas. (Photo on left from her 21st B-day.)

Vivien finished at Texas Tech earlier this year and is taking one year of her life to experience living abroad. She will teach Hope, Isaac, and Paige and also get to do a lot of other "mission" type stuff during her year with us. We are blessed by her willingness to come and are looking forward to her arrival in late August.

School is going to take place at the guest house down the street and Hope and Isaac will go for part of the day and Paige will go for the other part. I am so grateful that this plan fell so easily and perfectly into place. It frees up our schedules a bit and allows Paige time to do ministry stuff, which she is gifted for and enjoys doing.

Please pray for Vivien and her Mom and Dad as they prepare and fight the normal nerves that happen when you make a decision this big.

Vivien - We are so psyched!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The plans for going to MN in less than 9 weeks for the race, etc. - have started to come together. With a large family it is always very difficult to decide what to do and who to take. (And taking everyone is not an option.) I torture myself for weeks trying to come up with the best "travel team" but end up feeling sick about the ones that have to stay behind. Last year Hope, Paige and Lydia got to go -- and then, last minute, Noah was added. This year we're bringing a different group - but are still undecided on one child. This might be my least favorite thing about being a "large family" - it complicates travel a whole lot and it makes my mom heart hurt. I don't like leaving them at all. As long as you're already praying - please pray I figure this out and get peace about it.

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An on-line friend and blogger posted info on the Mamba Marathon and I think this is the week we get up into the 95% range - maybe even all the way to 100%+ of the goal!

The training is going remarkably well and I know that is mostly due to a lot of prayer. Troy learned from Dr. Cheryl how to get my hip to go back to its spot when I get crooked and he was able to fix it before my 15 mile run Friday. I only have three training runs left that are longer than the 15miles we just accomplished - (A 16-18 & 20) - that feels very doable to me and I am pumped about all of it!

I will also try to get more mid-treatment progress or graduate photos posted for you later in the week to see the Mamba at work ... Licia reports a handful of big weight gains this last week. When they come to mind, please be praying for Licia, Lori and Zach and all of the kids they are helping recover from severe malnutrition.

I just proof-read this post quickly and realized I asked for lots of prayers. Thanks for choosing even one of these things and covering it in prayer - we appreciate being able to ask.

Have a great week - with love from Haiti,
Tara for all of us

Mr. Choy's Texts

From a former employee:

Hi brother Choy,
you're the best boss I have never known.

It is raining cheese

Every time I turn around these last few weeks someone is dropping a gift on our heads.

Thank you to those of you who came down on a mission trip and brought us a treat ... I actually don't know where some of it came from.

Today when we got home from church there were strawberries in the fridge - three minutes later they were in the bellies of very happy kids ... thank you sweet and thoughtful visitors for:

Cheez-Its, Strawberries, Cajun Trail Mix, Cashews, GINORMOUS hunks of Gouda Cheese, Honey Butter!, Granola Bars, PopTarts and Crystal Light - I am sorry I cannot thank you personally but I hope you understand how fun it is to get these goodies from America.

When you rock the house, you rock it all the way down.

MERCI ANPIL !!!!