HOPE is holding steady at19 little girls. We know that God is preparing us for number 20 and are patiently waiting for His hand in bringing us the little girl that needs us.
We have had a busy season here. We were blessed to host a team in November that consisted of some medical people and some construction folks. The medical people performed same day surgeries on 23 folks even though some heavy rains tried to foil the plans. The construction folks helped to build a house for the elderly mother of one of our Haitian staff members, built a storage closet at HOPE and created a playground area for the girls. The playground, consisting of a new super-size swing set, 2 teeter totters and a climbing dome, have been great for helping the girls develop some gross motor skills. Many of our girls come to us malnourished with poorly developed muscles and the equipment is a great and fun way to make a difference for them.
December saw us preparing for Christmas. Sharing the story of Christ coming as a baby was great fun. We did many of the traditional Christmas things; put up trees, strung lights, made ornaments, sang songs, made cookies, and talked about giving and receiving gifts. The girls put together a special Christmas program at school and we had a nice audience of family and friends followed by cookies and juice and a little party where Pere Noel (Santa Claus) came. Last year Santa (played by Tim) came and the girls were convinced that the REAL Santa came to see them. This year we went to a festival where they had a Santa played by a Haitian fellow. The girls told us that the Haitian Santa was not real because Santa is really a blan (white). This made us look around at the stories and influence of American culture at HOPE and in general in Haiti. We were relived to discover that Haitians do portray Santa as white in their stories and it wasn’t us subjecting them to our American belief system.
We had a great response this year to OPERATION TON TON NOEL with so many people participating in making Christmas special for the girls. They had a great time and have also learned again that the world is a place full of people who love and care for them. They finally completed all of the thank you notes and they go off in the mail soon. A huge thank you from us to all of you who participated. It just is not possible for us to make the Christmas season so special for all of them without you. What a blessing.
The girls were finally able to meet Grandma Becky (Tim’s mom) when she came for a visit shortly after Christmas. They have talked to her on the phone but they were so excited to meet her in person. They had a great time tattling on Papa so and trying to get his mom to give him a spanking for his bad behavior. She also brought a trunk of dress up clothes so they are having fun trying on different personalities.
We celebrated the New Year in the traditional Haitian style with soup joumou (pumpkin soup) and a celebration of Haiti’s freedom. School started back up and we are delighted with the girl’s progress. It is so wonderful to sit down with one of the girls and go over homework and see her delight when she reads!
God has blessed us greatly in our 3 years in Haiti and we are looking forward to the plans God has for us.