Prayer Request

Hi all,

I've got a prayer request for you. I just spent well over an hour talking tonight with a mom who has just started the process of adopting from God's Littlest Angels. Here's the exciting part....

She's been a member of a very large church (and I do mean VERY large) for over 10 years and is on staff at the church. She and I spent quite a bit of time talking about the possibility of getting her church involved in supporting God's Littlest Angels and the effort to build a new orphanage.

Please be in prayer that:
1. Her efforts to get other staff members at her church interested in supporting GLA would be effective.
2. if I or others can help her get her church to support the building efforts, that we'd be able to help her do that.
3. Pray that God would open the hearts of people at her church (many of them) so that we can see a substantial impact in the efforts to build the orphanage.

She is having a meeting in a couple of weeks with a very well connected very affluent staff member at the church and she's going to be working on getting him interested in getting their church involved in helping.

Thanks for your prayers!

Tom

Here's a picture of the kids who need more room!

This is all of the kids at the Toddler House. What a bunch of beautiful kids but the other thing that picture says to me is that "We NEED MORE SPACE!"

Let me know if you can help us help Dixie get a bigger home for them!

What can you do to help GLA get into this orphanage?

Weekend Wrap up!

Hi all,

I thought I'd take a few minutes to provide you with a little more of an update on how the weekend in Colorado Springs went and some of the ways that God was visible throughout it all.....

Focus on the Family - the meeting went very well. As I'm sure you probably know already, Focus, along with Family Life and Steven Curtis Chapman are in the middle of a major initiative to promote the cause of orphans all over the world. Check out www.voiceoftheorphan.org. John and Dixie Bickel and I had an almost 2 hour meeting with people from the orphan care department. There are two ways that Focus on the Family invited God's Littlest Angels to take part in their initiative:
1. Dixie and I were both asked to write "articles" for their new website. They are working on a website that will provide information and "human interest" stories about people and organizations who are meeting the different areas of orphan care, from people who are running church orphan care programs, to foster parents, to people who go on mission trips, to orphanage directors to parents who have adopted. They are planning that this will be a resource to encourage people to read more about it, consider different avenues to be of service, and be able to get in touch with people who have been there and done that. So I'm going to have the opportunity to tell our adoption story on a Focus on the Family website! Talk about a God thing!
2. The other thing that Focus is working on is an "alliance" (they don't know what they are going to call it yet) where they are essentially putting together a list of organizations who work in the orphan care business and asking them to subscribe to certain standards (ethical, religious, financial, practical) so that they can recommend them (on their website, in print, etc.) to people as organizations that people should talk to if they want to pursue sponsoring a child, doing a mission trip, adopting kids, etc. In our board meeting on Saturday, we started working through the details of the standards that Focus is setting and should hopefully be able to work through the logistical and procedural steps that would be required quite soon.

After the meeting on Thursday, I called Cheryl and told her about it and said that even if nothing else happened this weekend, the trip was a resounding success. Just being able to form the start of a relationship between Focus on the Family and God's Littlest Angels is a wonderful thing, and a thing that will open more doors than any of us can imagine going forward. God is good! All the Time!

Friday night, we had a fundraiser dinner and it was a wonderful evening. I worked the registration desk with one of John and Dixie's older sons (who lives in Colorado Springs) so I actually had a chance to talk to almost everyone who was at the dinner. I don't know yet how much was raised in funds (the totalling of that will come tomorrow) but I can tell you that, no matter what the funds raised, it was a success. Let me tell you a few reasons why....
1. There were many people who commented to us on the way out, "Thanks for all you are doing to take care of those kids." "God bless Dixie," "This is really neat!"
2. Bethany Christian Services had a "booth" at the dinner and I had a chance to talk to the three people from Bethany during the dinner. To say that the three of them were excited, when I introduced myself and explained that my connection with Bethany was that I connected Bethany with God's Littlest Angels,would be an understatement!
3. There was a couple who came to the dinner because they were invited by someone. When they filled out the registration form, they didn't check the box that said, "please send me your newsletters." After the dinner, when he came to settle up on what he bought (oh, and he was the second highest buyer at the auction) he made sure that I changed his registration form so that he got on the newsletter. He then asked if he could make his check out for more than what he spent. I told him that we'd love it if he did! Well, he made it out for 2 1/2 times what he spent! There was a man who had his heart touched by God on Friday night.
God is good! All the Time!

On Saturday, we had a rare occurence. We had a board meeting where 80% of the board was all in one place. We had people from Canada, Oregon, Colorado, Haiti, and Michigan there (two board members - one from Canada and one from Arizona couldn't make it, so they teleconferenced in). We spent about three hours in the board meeting and it was very obvious that God was with everything that happened this weekend.

So, where do we stand? Well, within the next couple of weeks, the final plans for the orphanage will be finished. It's going to be a 39,000 sq. ft orphanage at an estimated cost of about $51 per square foot (pretty inexpensive when you figure it's made of stone and concrete!). That comes out to about $2 million that we need to raise. The land has been paid for, the wall around the land is being built and will be done by December, along with the maintenance/storage building and both of them are paid for. We would love to be able to start building the orphanage buildings as soon as the wall is completed. The baby house, offices, guest house and director's quarters will take about 2 years to build and then another year to build the toddler house.

What do we need? To put it very simply, we need 840 people to pledge $100 a month for the next 24 months. Or we need 1600 people to pledge $50 a month for the next 24 months. Can you help? Any amount, however big or small would be appreciated.

We have all said that we really felt that God was with everything that we did this weekend. It wasn't our doings, it was his plans. Thank you for your prayers, they have been very much needed and it has really been felt.

We'll keep you informed, please continue to lift up the cause of God's Littlest Angels and the children in Haiti in your prayers.

Tom Vanderwell
tvanderwell@sbcglobal.net
(616) 292-7559

A Resounding Success!

That's the way I'd describe the fundraiser that was held tonight. It's really really late, so I'm not going to go into much detail, but let me give you a couple of highlights:
1. The food was delicious - I haven't had that good of Haitian food since I was down at Dixie's house!
2. There were, I think, over 150 people who attended. Many of them had no contact with God's Littlest Angels before this.
3. It was very obvious in talking with people that many of them had their hearts touched by the story of GLA and the "plight" of the orphans in Haiti.

Everything went smoothly, all except for 6 of the auction items sold, and everyone had a great time. We had a really neat band performing that was really special because it was a family band with 3 of the kids being biological and 3 of them adopted from Haiti. Check them out at www.lukehamsandwich.com. Yes, that really is the name of their group, but the reason is because that's quite close to how you'd pronounce their last name! Check it out, they are quite something. I spent a while talking to the Mom and they seem like a really neat family.

I don't know the totals of how much money was raised, but it was a resounding success.....

If you want to consider holding one like this in your area, let me know and I'll put you in touch with Doug Rollings who does this type of thing alot.

God is good! All the Time!

Hi all,

I thought I'd put a quick update on here about the meeting with Focus on the Family. I'll give you a couple of quick highlights and then write more later when time allows.....

The meeting went for almost 2 hours. It is truly fun to talk with other people who share your passion for the orphans of the world.

Let's just put it this way:
Focus on the Family is working on some initiatives that will generate much more exposure for the plight of orphans in this world, both internationally and domestically.

Based on our discussions today, GLA will be able to play a part in that initiative! We're still working out some of the details but we firmly believe that God is enabling a huge organization like Focus to help smaller organizations like us achieve what God's calling us to do.

I'll let you know more as I know more, but like I was telling my wife today, if nothing else happens productively out of this trip, I'd still feel like this was a very worthwhile trip. God is Good! All the Time!

I'm here!

Hi all!

I got into Denver around 6pm last night and got down to Colorado Springs around 8:30. It's kind of fun, I'm driving a rental car - a bright red PT cruiser!

Met with Jean Bell last night and worked up some details for the meeting with Focus on the Family, then got settled into the hotel for some sleep. By the time I got to the hotel and got settled, it was a 20 hour day!

I'll write more as I have time later today after the meeting with Focus.

Thanks for your prayers!

Tom

Tomorrow!

Well, tomorrow is the day! I'm heading off from Grand Rapids Michigan to Colorado Springs for the rest of the week. Here's an overview of what's happening during that time:

On Thursday, Dixie and John and I are going to be meeting with people from Focus on the Family to talk about ways that we can jointly work together to raise awareness of the orphans of the world and encourage more people to adopt (specifically Haitian kids!)

On Friday we have the fundraiser (see Dixie's previous posts about that!)

On Saturday we'll be having a board meeting and discussing various ideas in terms of how we can raise $2 million to build a new orphanage.

I'll be coming home on Monday.

Stay tuned, I'll keep you informed on how things are progressing. I'm excited about what God is doing and I'm looking forward to seeing how I and many others can join God in his plans to take care of his Haitian Angels.

Please pray that:
All who travel will have safe travels. I know people are coming from Oregon, Alberta, Haiti, Michigan and other places for this.
Pray that we'll have a wonderful turnout for the fundraiser on Friday.
That the meeting with Focus on the Family will be productive and that God's will be done.

Thanks!

Update on Hurricane Dean

This is from one of the staff members at GLA

Well, we survived Hurricane Dean. It was definitely quite windy during the night, and as a result, I got very little sleep. But, we didn't have any damage, and so we are very thankful for that. I am so glad we did take all the precautions and clean up stuff, because the wind really would have blown things around. ......and she has a small balcony off of her room. She had one of the wooden rocking chairs on her balcony, and it was on its side this morning. So, had there been lighter things, they would have blown away. It is still very cloudy and a bit rainy today, but the wind has died down, and I expect by tomorrow, everything will be back to normal.

Hurricane Dean is heading for Haiti!

I just got these pictures from Laurie B at GLA (about 30 minutes before they lost satellite connection). They show the storm coming in and some of the preparations that they have made.

Pray for their safety, pray that landslides won't be a problem, and pray for those who don't have nice cement houses to keep them safe!

Addendum to the Update

I am so sorry that I left some information out of my Parquet update!

Many of you are wondering about the dossiers coming out of parquet. Yes, it is true that we had dossiers go into Parquet on August 1 and exited on August 6! Another entered on July 18 and exited August 6. Then others entered 4 months ago and are still there!

I truly believe that when Mr. Gassant told his staff to sign them and get them out, they started from the top of the pile and not the bottom! Parquet has not notified us any problems with the dossiers there. When there has been a problem, Parquet right away gave the dossier back to the lawyer.

So...yes, it's not fair or right that that they are not going in order signing the dossiers at Parquet!

Blessings,




Dixie Bickel, RN
God's Littlest Angels
Orphanage Director
www.glahaiti.org

It's only $20 a month - I'm doing it, can you too?

Hi!

I wanted to give a short update before I leave for the USA tomorrow, Wednesday.

I will be in Colorado for our GLA Fundraiser. It takes place on August 24, so I'll be busy helping to get last minute details finished.

Léa LaPointe will be in Haiti doing the adoption paperwork and LaDawn Penner has returned to GLA for a month to help while I'm out of country. Laurie, Molly and Joyce will also be here, so things should run smoothly. John, I, and the boys will return on August 31. I will be in touch via email every day, so if there are any problems that need my attention the staff can reach me easily.

While out in the USA, we will be working to get a newsletter printed and put together. We probably won't get it mailed until after the fundraiser, but you should receive it around the first of September.

EDUCATION

It is that time of the year when children are lining up in our driveway applying for assistance with school tuition! Last year, 296 children went to school through GLA's sponsorship program at a cost of $50,000 USD! Unfortunately, we did not receive that much in donations last year. That is why we had to make a hard decision that unless enough donations came in for education, some children will not be re-enrolled in the program again.

We hate to see any child not attend school, but the mission cannot afford to pay that sort of money out of our charity fund. Please can you take the time to sit down and send a small donation to help put a child in school?

Chris Davies arrives the first week of September and one of his jobs will be helping to set up and organize the sponsorship program. We have not had the staff or time in the past to send out photos and information on the sponsored children. It will not be a sponsorship program like a large organization such as Compassion or Save the Children can do. That is not our primary work here in Haiti nor do we have the staff that you need for a program of that size! We want to send you a photo and information at the beginning of the school year and then once or twice during the year, we'll give you updates.

To sponsor a child for the whole year will cost $240 USD. For just $20 per month, you can have the satisfaction of helping a child attend school and learn to read and write. These children will just sit at home, if you don't help.

Please help educate a child......



ADOPTION

The adoption news out of Haiti, as always, is nothing but confusion and rumors! I try not to panic when something is reported because so many times nothing happens after we hear a rumor or things change before something can take place!

Many of you will remember back when President Aristide left in 2004 and Mr. Cadet became director of IBESR. For 2 years, we fought with IBESR about the law of 1974 and we went through a period where Mr. Cadet would not accept any dossiers that did not meet those requirements of the law of '74. Then Mr. Cadet started being more lenient with dossiers and the law of '74 was not strictly followed.

Now, here again, Commissioner Gassant in Parquet is demanding that IBESR follow the law instead of balancing what is best for the child along with the law. I truly do not believe he is against adoptions, it is just that he cannot see anything except the law. I think they realize that the law is out of date and needs to be changed, but until it is changed, he is insisting that the old law is followed. Now of course even in the Parquet, he told us exceptions would be made for couples who are infertile. So as you can see, even in the Parquet, there is confusion!

The new law is ready to go into chambers at the Senate. I was told yesterday that it hasn't gone but it is ready. Then it will be studied, voted on, and hopefully passed. I think our lawyer's estimate of it being voted on by October of this year may be too optimistic! We'll just have to wait and see.

I have to tell you that I have a peace about all of this. Having lived in Haiti 16 years, I have gone through so many highs and lows with adoptions that it is difficult to see the changes that are taking place today as lasting very long. There are other things going on with Parquet that makes me think maybe things will possibly change in a few months.

So, for right now, if there are any problems with Parquet's rejection of a dossier, we will fight to get it passed. We will ask for a Presidential Dispensation if needed. We will do everything that we can do, because this is not right. God has chosen each of these parents for these children and we will do all we can too see them together!

Have courage and faith and do not get discouraged!

And life goes on in Haiti....





Dixie Bickel, RN
God's Littlest Angels
Orphanage Director
www.glahaiti.org

Guest Blogger - Britt

Hi all,

The post that I'm copying below was actually written by someone I've never met, though my daughter and my wife have. Even though I've never met her or her parents (and siblings), I consider all of them to be close personal friends. They are working for Children's Lifeline International in Haiti. You can read more about their family at www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com .

I'm posting Britt's comments because I think they lay out very well the frustrations that many people who live and work in Haiti feel and they lay out the reasons (just some of them) of why I admire people like John and Dixie (and Troy and Tara, Britt Paige etc.....) for the work they do and why I try to do what I can to help them help the kids in Haiti....


It's quite lengthy, but it's worth the read....

Friday, August 03, 2007
Mountains, Medicine, Moving & Other Muddled Musings

By Britt:


`

Yesterday was a crazy busy day for Paige and me. We started out our day at 5:45am and were out the door by 6:30 to head up the mountain to Petit-bwa. It's about a 5 mile hike, there and back. This was Paige's 4th time, but this pic pretty much describes how we both felt after the first 45 minutes, which oddly enough is the hardest part of the hike:
But then we started following a path on the left side of the mountain, which was completely shaded. The rest of the way up wasn't so bad - we took our sweet time, taking pictures and chatting along the way. Once we got to the top - which really isn't the top at all because deye mon gen mon (Haitian proverb: "behind the mountains, there are more mountains") - we laid out a blanket and sat in the soccer field that is on the outskirts of Petit-bwa. The new header on the blog was taken on top of the mountain from a January Petit-bwa trip, in the same soccer field where Paige and I attempted to rest/lay out yesterday.
`
Yesterday's scene in the soccer field was very similar to the blog header, except about twice as many kids and this time adults. They were sort of surrounding us and trying to speak multiple languages (we heard broken Spanish & English ... which was weird.) We were not amused by the flash mob-like situation. But this is their country after all and we reasoned that if we were them, we would come stare at the white girls too. :) So we just tried to ignore their gawking, bought a coke from the mountain vendor, and eventually set out on our way back down the mountain. We also called and talked to Dad; that was weird - talking on a cell phone on top of a mountain. Digicel has really changed the communication capacity of this country - it's awesome, but very surreal.
`

After the soccer field, we headed to our favorite mountaintop hang-out, this huge mango tree that is used as a shady resting point. We climbed up in the tree - probably higher than my mom would care to know - and chatted and giggled like only sisters can. The funniest part was when we heard a couple of innocent gardeners approaching the tree. We decided to be really quiet and see if they would notice the white monkeys. Right when we thought they'd passed unknowingly, one of the men saw us out of the corner of his eye and then proceeded to look closer, tripping and falling at the sight of the silly blan girls. It was so funny - cruel, I suppose, but laughable none the less! Here are a few pictures from our morning hiking outing:





When we got home, a teenage girl was sitting at the gate waiting to see me. I took one look at her hand and the mini-high that I had from climbing the mountain disappeared. Sigh. Her name is Jislun and she is seventeen. She lives in a village that is four hours away, up in the mountains past Petit bwa. About two weeks ago, she fell in a cooking fire, burning her knee, right hand, and part of her forearm. She had been treating the burns with a home-remedy; the knee had healed completely but there was no change in the burn on her hand. There is kind of a 'duh' to this -- the burn on her hand is probably the worst burn I've ever seen as far as severity goes. It is a full-thickness burn, but one that I don't see healing without months and months of dressings and several skin grafts. It is so bad that I can't bring myself to back-post the picture and put a link to it.
`

After figuring out the story and realizing that there was nothing I could do for her, we sent her and her sister with Pastor Rony into Port to try to find help. Before they left, I had to explain that I couldn't even attempt to clean/bandage the burn because if she had a bandage, the hospitals in Port would definitely refuse her. The concept is, if you have a bandage, then you must have someone ki prann swen or who is taking care of you. I also had to ask them to basically lie about when it happened - or at least try to be vague. But I guess it was to no avail .... MSF or Doctors Without Borders refused to take her because they said it had been too long since the burn occurred.
`
This is so frustrating. I understand that everyone has to have their limits and that that particular MSF clinic is more for trauma patients. (Isn't a severe burn a trauma though?!) But it is SO disheartening how quickly people just clean their hands of problems .... they didn't offer any other ideas for Jislun and didn't refer her to another hospital - they just out and out turned her away. People want things to change here, but it seems like most are unwilling to put very much effort into what it will take for the change to occur but rather wait for someone to do it for them or figure out a way to cheat their way towards change. I'm not saying MSF doesn't do some great, life-saving things - they do; it's just that lots of times it seems like people are turned away because of sheer laziness. Of course there are other possibilities: they don't have the supplies to handle burns, they don't have the knowledge or personnel, blah blah blah. But why couldn't they have given her a referral or some sort of hope? Please pray for Jislun; we sent her to a small burn clinic in Titayen that hopefully will be able to help her.
`
I feel ultra-sensitive to all of Haiti's/the world's injustices this week. On Tuesday, I stitched a boy's split lip. Throughout the procedure, little bugs kept flying around he and I and sometimes even into his open mouth. I was really angry that I didn't have a better option to offer him - he deserved better than that - a clean, sterile, closed room where bugs would be out of the picture.
`
This morning I saw fourteen patients. I don't know why so many people came today, but I was still feeling kind of put-off by the inability to do things differently or offer better care or options. Two different people came with a gaglionic cyst. Most of these eventually go away on their own, but that isn't what a patient wants to hear after having had it for over a year. Blah. I also had to turn away a mountain woman and her eleven month old malnourished son. He has ringworm on his head, so I gave some antifungal cream for that but it just didn't feel like enough.

`
A little boy from Barbancourt came with his dad who I'm currently treating for an infected foot sore. I had to explain to him that I don't have amoxicillin for his son's ear infection but that most ear infections go away on their own. Blah again. I think the American in me hates this explanation -- because I've had a "quick fix" option available to me my whole life, I think this should be available to everyone. I feel like such a loser saying, it will get better on its own, he'll just have to deal with the pain a little longer. I realize most doctors in the states aren't even prescribing amoxicillin for ear infections anymore for this exact reason (and so that the pt doesn't build up resistance to the antibiotic for future, more imminent uses) but still.
`
Mikenlove, a 6 year old boy that's in the feeding program and lives here in La Digue came again today for the third or fourth time. He has a persisting rash on his scalp - I've seen rashes like this before, it's not ringworm but basically just caused by Haiti living environment - being a boy who probably doesn't bathe enough, sweating and playing in the dirt every day. I've given antibacterial soap, triple antibiotic ointment, and other supplies to treat it. But I don't think he's ever getting any of the stuff I give - his mom or somebody must be using it on themselves instead.
`
The reason I haven't done it myself is because I truly believe that at every opportunity possible, I should help others help themselves. So over the year and a half, I have gradually released more and more of what I do/give (supplies) ... if it's something that I think the person can treat well on their own and I have the supplies to give them and they feel comfortable doing it on their own - then that's what we do. I'm going to start seeing him daily.
`
The best part of my morning was with Franchesca. Her burns are completely healed and today was her last appointment. I took pictures, gave her a sucker and finally asked "Eske ou bien ave'm?" Or "Are we friends?" She gave me the sweetest smile and loudly said "WI!" Ahhh, silly silly girl. But I'm happy for her.



Aren't these two cute? They are three year old twins. They have a really bad case of heat rash (so do I ... feelin' their pain) - hopefully hydrocortisone will help them.





As I was sweating under the tin roof, seeing patients, a thought occurred to me. I had overslept and was late starting; I definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed. In evaluating my bad attitude, I realized that a month from now I'm probably going to be spending my mornings working some job, making coffee or answering phones or stocking shelves - I don't know yet. But I most likely won't be sweating my buns off or swatting away bugs. Nor will I get to feel like the work I am doing is directly beneficial to another person and/or myself. I realized that heat, bugs, and sometimes discouraging situations are such a huge blessing. (wait wait wait, of course I viewed what I am so privileged to be able to do here as a blessing before today ... just hang on) I just mean that I am so blessed to feel fulfilled in my "job" - even when I feel inadequate or discouraged about the lack of options - I feel still fulfilled.

I don't really view it as a job, but more a service that I get to offer; I don't think I'll be able to say the same working at a typical-teen job in the states. I'm thankful for the time that I had here. But I have a feeling that wherever I work, it is going to be a huge adjustment. Instead of dealing with people that really have no choices - yet few complaints, I'll have to be patient with a customer who freaks about only seventeen flavors of coffee syrup instead of the normal eighteen.

That being said, I know I am pretty much doomed to feel annoyed with America and the unfairness of it all. My feelings about moving are increasingly conflicting. At first, I was super pumped to go back to Minnesota, get rid of my heat rash, swim a final season, finish up high school and move to college and towards my goals in January. But now I find myself wanting to white-out the countdown I put on my calendar.

I can't really put into words the conflicting jumble of emotions I feel towards leaving in just nineteen short days. I completely love and don't love this island all at the same time. I want to leave, I am ready to leave, but then again I don't like the idea that I'm not coming back for a long while.

I will miss my Haiti friends, I will miss my roles in this community - but part of me is starting to back away from them, distancing myself from my love of the morning medical "clinic." I hate that - why can't I just enjoy it up until the end? Why do I defend myself by pushing things/people that I love away from me? Is it really going to make it easier to leave or me any less in-love with what I was blessed to do and my life in Haiti? I don't really think so.

On a lighter note ... I'd like to address some of my re-entering worries and annoyances. My mom thought I should share this .... people who know me will appreciate this more, knowing that I used to be 100% type A. Friends and family have written, asking about dates and plans. I find myself becoming quite indifferent towards and maybe even irritated with the whole plan-making process. Who cares? My initial response is to write back and say that I'll figure it out the week of the proposed activity/event. (For example, Paige & I decided we'd climb up the mountain about 8 hours before we actually did) Ahhh! How am I ever going to switch back to the "cold climate culture"? Maybe I need to read this book, but for the opposite effect - to learn how to relate to and understand the ways of the cold culture.

I haven't adopted the "hot culture" as my own entirely. I am still not "relationally oriented" and still appreciate to-do lists and completing tasks. But I really do have very little concern for time or the future past a week from now (at least with small, optional plans - of course not big, scary plans like deciding where to go to college.

I also don't care about choices. My thoughts mirror what my mom said in the post below. Gol! I wish that they sold Haitian sugar (un-refined, straight from the cane), Haitian Pepsi, FRAC cookies (which actually are from Chile) and Famosa ketchup in America ... I'm really gonna be ticked about not having those choices at the grocery store. But otherwise, I don't care.

Actually, truthfully - going out to eat and or shopping is overwhelming to me. Overwhelming is not an understatement. I've actually gotten headaches from leisurely shopping with friends. Maybe that is why I don't want to make plans, because planning in and of itself is a choice. And if we're planning to go out to eat, then I will have to decide what to order at some point. I think I have a phobia of choices. Or decision-making anxiety. There's too many of them! And America demands that I make one after another ... I like it better when I only have two brands of food to choose from, knowing that both will probably be a little expired and/or stale. It's so much simpler this way.

I know from visiting the states, that time for me is a really hard thing to control. I do not know how to walk into a Target with a list of the things I need and walk out without sitting at each selection of products, contemplating which brand of shampoo or which of the 5 white shirts to get. It is seriously a challenge for this usually task-oriented person. I've come to the conclusion that shopping is like a hobbie in America. I strongly dislike shopping! Even like fun shopping, for clothes and stuff, is really not all that enjoyable for me anymore. I tire SO much of not only the over-abundance of choices, but of the materialisticness of it all. I hate name-brands; I just do. I don't judge others for loving/wearing them ... I just realize - that a year from now their once-trendiness will be goodwill rejects, being shipped down here.

Another thing that has changed is being late versus early. I used to get so mad when my mom would make us late for stuff (she can attest to this.) Tardiness really doesn't concern me now - I like to live by the "We'll get there when we get there" mentality. I'm probably going to have to change that - if I plan on finding and keeping a job. But if we make plans to go out to eat, just tell me to show up 15 minutes prior to when you're going to be there. That way, we'll show up at the same time. :) Also, please don't ask me my opinion on which mall we shop at or who should drive ... please please please just decide it all for me and let me follow along like the puppy that I want to be. If we follow this arrangement, things will be just fine.

This post makes me feel really strange. I am kind of a fool .... who would have thought that the planner, time-concerned Britt would be dreading returning to the culture and "system" she once so willingly embraced. I used to scoff at TCK (Third Culture Kids) concepts ... That wasn't going to happen to ME. And I've only been here a year and a half - no wonder people hold stereotypes about cross-cultural people who have lived their whole lives this way.

But you know what, I'll be okay. I have a wonderful support team that is going to be going through all of the same stuff and together we can stand in the aisles of the MEGA store trying to decide which brand of low-fat-calorie-reduced delicious (not) Ranch dressing to buy.

We might not have it all together, but together we have it all.

I'll be there - will you?

I live in Michigan but I think it's important enough that I'm going to be there. I hope you'll be there too! Or at least, I hope you'll support it financially!

GLA’s First Annual Fundraiser to be held in Colorado Springs August 24!

God’s Littlest Angels cordially invites you to a Fundraising Evening with Dinner Cruise and Auction on the S.S. GLA –“The Love Boat”. Our goal for the evening is to raise $50,000. All proceeds will go toward building a new orphanage in Haiti for abandoned and orphaned children.

Pre-boarding begins at 5:00 PM. The ship sets sail at 5:30 PM with a Silent and Live Auction of Haitian arts and crafts followed by a dinner cruise starting at 6:30 PM. Come and enjoy an authentic Haitian meal. Door prizes drawn every hour!

Captain Stubby will call all aboard for an evening of food, fun, laughter, and inspiration. Watch for a special guest appearance from one of the world’s most beloved stars. Enjoy the live and silent auction and some unforgettable entertainment.

Remember the GLA Love Boat sets sail at 5:30 PM at Sunrise United Methodist Church, 4005 Lee Vance View, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Call Jean Bell for ticket information at 719-638-4348. Tickets are $30 per person. All children adopted through GLA get in free!

We realize most of you live too far away to come, but please pray for a successful evening for our fundraiser. GLA is not well known in Colorado Springs, so we need lots of prayers that people will hear of our event and want to come. If you know anyone in the area that would like to attend, please let them know!

If you are unable to attend, you can still help the evening be a success by making a donation to the building fund. You can do this via PAYPAL with a credit card on the GLA web site at http://www.glahaiti.org/what_you_can_do/financial_help/ or you can send a check made out to “God’s Littlest Angels” to our US or Canadian Offices. No amount is too small.

Send US funds to:
God's Littlest Angels
c/o Mrs. Jean Bell
2085 Crystal River Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80915

Send Canadian Funds to:
God’s Littlest Angels, Canada
P.O. Box 984
Okotoks, Alberta
T1S 1B1
CANADA


Be a part of the vision for the orphanage…together we can make the dream become a reality!

A Note from Dixie

Hi!

I am leaving on August 8 to help finish up the preparations for the International GLA Fundraiser Day in Colorado. We are excited about having this fundraiser in Colorado. We have had several in Canada but none this organized in the USA.

Even if you can not come because you live too far away, please help us by praying that we will have 300 people come to enjoy the evening with us. We have lots of Haitian arts and crafts for the silent auction, Haitian vanilla and coffee, a trip to Paris, France, and many more items donated to help raise the funds needed to build the orphanage!

Please join us on August 24, 2007 in Colorado Springs for our GLA Fundraiser. John and I will be there to visit and share the news of what is happening in Haiti.

Blessings,




Dixie Bickel, RN
God's Littlest Angels
Orphanage Director
www.glahaiti.org

If a picture is worth 1000 words, I think this picture is worth 8000 words!

As those of us who work with orphanages in Haiti say, "It's all about the kids."

And here's her July 14 Update

Hi everyone!
Well, another week has passed in Haiti! It's been a very fun, tiring, and a bit more eventful week. A few exciting things to start out...
On Wednesday, we had an exciting day. We went up the mountain a little ways to a town called Kenscoff. There is an orphanage there that GLA helps to support. It's called Les Enfants de Jesus Orphanage, and you can see some more about it at http://www.glahaiti.org/our_ministries/les_enfants_de_jesus/ . It is a very small orphanage, with only about 20 children that live there. They don't have much at all in their house. All of their walls were pretty dark and dirty, so it seemed like a very depressing place. 10 of us, the volunteers and the team who is here, went in with around 8 gallons of paint and gave it an enormous face lift! Instead of a dirty, dark purple for the walls, the living room and kitchen were a very bright yellow, and the bedrooms were a light blue and green. It was a lot of fun! We all were a mess, but it was a great day. It was interesting working with oil based paint because all of the paint wouldn't wash off our hands at the end of the day unless we used paint thinner. One of the girls got green paint splattered all over her face, and she still has a little bit of green on her eyelid, it's really cute! It was also nice because the actual quality of the painting didn't matter quite as much as it would have at home. If we dripped on the floor a little bit, it didn't matter much at all. They were very appreciative and loved the new look of their place. We also had the chance to hang around with the children there a little bit, when we needed to escape from the paint fumes in the house (they didn't have very good ventilation- we all started to feel a little bit high!) The children there were very sweet and friendly. They loved having their picture taken and having the chance to just sit by you. I think part of the reason that I enjoyed having the chance to go and paint was the opportunity to make a tangible difference. I know that the work with the children here is very important, and it makes a huge difference in the lives of the children, but often you can't see how much of a difference you have made in their lives. You have to just trust that God will take the love and energy you are pouring into these children and use it to touch them. This was an opportunity where we could take before and after pictures. We could see as soon as the paint went up on the walls how much of a difference this would make in the orphanage, and how much it would brighten up their home and lives. While both types of mission work are definitely needed, it was nice to have a chance to do the other kind and I definitely enjoyed it.
We also did a picture day on Thursday. Once a month, GLA takes pictures of all of the children that are currently here. These pictures are sent to all of the adoptive families, and for the children that don't yet have a family, they are kept in a file for when they go home, so that they will be able to have "baby pictures" of sorts. There just happens to be a professional photographer here with the current team from Edmonton, so he was put in charge of picture day at the baby house. The volunteers were in charge of bringing children up from the nursery, getting them cleaned and lotioned up, and then put in nice clothes from the picture day box. We helped get the kids that we brought up to smile/look, and then changed them back into the clothes they came up in and brought them back down. It's always a lot of work, but its kind of fun too. We got an amazing 65 kids done in 3 1/2 hours! The photographer was really good at getting the good shots pretty quickly. There were 6 kids that we needed to do on Friday because they were asleep when we tried to get them, but otherwise we were done at 2:15, which is amazing. There is a total of 96 kids at the main house that we needed to photograph. I think that we will be doing the Toddler House sometime in the coming week.
Saturday was a fun day around here. A couple of the girls went on a rice feeding. There were a lot of us who wanted to go along, but there shouldn't be more than four at a time so we don't totally overcrowd their truck, so I'll be going again next week, and taking two "newbies" along with me (people who have never gone on a feeding before). I wanted to go with them so that they won't be totally lost and confused with what's going on. It'll be a fun thing to do on my last saturday here (sob!). I hung around here for a little while this morning, doing nothing in particular, and then headed up with a bunch of people here to see the new land that GLA purchased and will be building on. Unfortunately I didn't know we were going to see the new land when I went down to the main house, so I didn't bring my camera with me, but it was still really neat to go see. I'm glad I had the opportunity to go up there. It's a gorgeous property. There will be so much room for everything that they will need, and because it's higher up the mountain, it's really comfortable! There was a slightly chilly wind up there, which is highly unusual for Haiti. They say in the winter months, it's almost cold! Crazy. They are currently working on building the wall, and it's coming along very well. It's up to 5 feet tall in some areas around the property. I'm so excited for the improvements that GLA will have when they are able to be up here, and I'll definitely have to be back again sometime to volunteer in the new building. There is also an incredible view of the city of Port-au-Prince from the land. It was pretty hazy today, but it was still really nice.
Once we were done checking out the land, we headed down to the Baptist Mission. I met Britt and Troy Livesay there and ate lunch with them, and then Britt and I went over some more math stuff while Troy went out and did some sight seeing. He went up to Fort Jacques, but said it was a pretty worthless trip. I think that Britt and I got through all of the first chapter now. She only has 3 more to do now :) I got some ice cream before I left, which tasted really good. Not as good as the stuff back home does, but for not having ice cream for so long, it still tasted really good. The Baptist Mission was really busy as there were many mission teams that came in, but it was fun. The rest of the day was pretty lazy and I just sat around and read. It was nice to have a break with nothing to do.
I'm planning on going to the kreyol church with the toddlers again tomorrow. It should be pretty good. We don't have anything else planned besides that yet.
A few prayer requests...
Please pray that the passports would be released very quickly so that more children would be able to go home to their forever families. We have 50 passports that we are waiting for. Thankfully, 3 more children were able to go home this week, but there are still way too many children here and they need to go home!
Please keep me in your prayers as I prepare to leave a week from Tuesday to go home. It's going to be very hard to leave all of the children here that I've grown to love so much, and all of the new friends that I've made. It's also going to be difficult adjusting to live in America again after living here for a longer time.
Thanks for all of your prayers! I appreciate you all!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin

Guest Blogger Kristin again

Sorry, I've been really swamped and haven't had time to put some of Kristin's updates on. So here they are.....

July 8

Hi everyone!
Here's an update an the past week! It's really starting to hit me this week how incredibly fast my time here is going!! It seems like I just got here, not that I've been in Haiti for almost 4 weeks already. Crazy. I wish that I could stay for a lot longer, but unfortunately, I'll just have to deal with it.
A few special things that we've done this week...On Thursday, we had a birthday party for all of the kids at GLA who have birthdays in June. Yes, we know it is now July, but we don't really care. (Actually, June was such a crazy month here that they forgot.) One of the volunteers made and frosted a cake, and we got some juice made and blew up some balloons. We took all of the kids that we needed from the nursery up to the balcony and got them cleaned up and in nice looking clothes. I think we ended up with 9 kids at the party. They got to play around for a little while, and then they ate. We also take a bunch of pictures to send to adoptive parents. Sometime next week, we are going to do the July birthday party too- actually in July though! Crazy idea!
Wednesday morning was kind of fun. We stayed back at the toddler house and cleaned out and cleaned in our bedrooms. A lot of the volunteers who come here leave stuff behind, because they have things that they don't really want to take home, or that they forget. I had an incredible stash of stuff in my room. We laid all of the unclaimed items out on a bed, and then we went "shopping". I picked up some mandarin oranges, hand sanitizer and bug spray. Molly kept all of the left over stuff incase other people come who didn't remember to bring any of those things. We also wiped down our dressers and stuff, cleaned the bathroom, and swept all of our floors. Things get really dusty here, so it definitely was needed.
For the fourth of July, the volunteers (because we were all Americans) made peanut butter cookies. I frosted them too, which was kind of fun. We also made little napkin rings out of construction paper that we decorated for the fourth of July, and we made little cards with bible verses on them about freedom. It was a fun night spent putting them all together, and then we enjoyed them at supper too. We had some amazing hamburgerrs for supper that night, which made it seem more like the Fourth of July too.

On Saturday, Britt from the Livesay family was going to come up here at around 10:00 for some help with her math homework. I've done the course she's doing right now , and she wasn't really getting it, and there isn't exactly an over-abundance of people in Haiti who understand college level algebra, so she wanted to come up here for some tutoring. They had a bit of trouble getting here, because their truck kept overheating, and an errand they were going to do before they came to GLA took way longer than they though. They ended up being a few hours late, but it was still great to have her come and to see part of the Livesay family again! We got a couple hours of math studying in, and then just hung around until Troy could come back and get Britt. I think they are going to try and come up here one more time before I leave for some more math help.
We got three more volunteers in the week, which has been fun. They are all from Alberta. I now have two more roomates, so I no longer have my own bedroom, which is good. It's a lot more fun this way. We (all of the volunteers) have a great time hanging out with each other. Saturday night we played a rousing round of Dutch Blitz. We play card games or watch movies or sit around and talk a lot at night. It's a fun time.
Sunday morning was another pretty lazy morning. I slept in, and then laid around in bed for a while too. I did my own devotions on the balcony again, instead of going to the Haitian church. We went down to the main house for lunch, and I don't plan on doing anything for the rest of the day. I've been really tired/lazy/lethargic this past week, so I'm going to use today to rest up a bit so I'll be ready for another week of serving God's children.
We have a lot more people coming in this week, which should be very fun. Right now there are only 10 people around the table at dinner, which is very unusual as anyone who has been here before can attest to. Tomorrow, there is a team of 4 people coming in from Edmonton, a adoptive family coming from the Netherlands, and Laurie Bickel comes back. The family from the Netherlands is adopting a 4 year old girl and 6 year boy (ages are my best guess). I'm very excited for them! There are a few more families that could possibly be coming down before I leave, which would be very exciting! We also had a single adoptive mom from France come down to pick up her son. I love being able to see the new families being formed! The lady from France was so precious yesterday when she was telling us how nice it is to be important to someone now. She speaks really good english, which makes it a lot easier to communicate with her.
Thank you to those who have been praying for the new children we recieved here in the past few weeks. They are all doing very well. The twins are eating and growing very good. The little girl with the skin problems is starting to look better, even to my untrained eye. We also haven't had anyone very sick for a while, which is a great thing!
I don't know if it's just because I'm pretty tired today, but I can't think of anything else exciting that has been going on here. I think it will just end up being a shorter update this week! Please continue to keep all of the work being done here, both by the staff and volunteers, in your prayers, and keep the children in your prayers! Thanks!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin

Guest Blogger Kristin - She's writing more than I am!

Hi!
First, I want to apologize. The email I sent out with the pictures had a different picture than I meant on it. The nice one I said I was sending of Lidia actually ended up being a picture of Stanley. I'm sure most of you figured that out, but I just thought I would clarify.
This past week has been a lot of fun! Very exhausting, but a good time none the less. The four volunteers who are here right now have been helping the team from Alberta out with VBS every morning. They were very glad to have our help, which was nice, and we all had a great time. I'm thinking that I would love to try and take a group from my church down to GLA next summer to do a VBS for the toddler kids, so I really appreciated this inside look of what works and what doesn't. We only had the 33 oldest kids at VBS, all of the 2-4ish year old kids played upstairs instead. The theme that they were trying to get across through the whole week was that God loves you. It seems like a simple message, but I think it was done very well! They used a different bible story each day to show how God loves us. Monday was the parable of the lost sheep, Tuesday was the story of Blind Bartimaus, Wednesday was the story of the feeding of the 5000, Thursday was the story of the Jesus calming the story, and Friday was the story of Zaccheus. Each day the kids made a snack and a craft relating to the story. My "job" every day was to help the team member in charge of the snacks. We helped the kids make their snack, and then we served them when it was snack time. It was really cool how they made everything tie in. On Monday, the kids made sheep out of a half of a banana and shredded coconut. On Tuesday, the kids made their own cookie with pieces of brightly colored dough. On Wednesday, they made their own bread with bisquick dough and cut fish out of cheese slices with a cookie cutter, which we actually served to them in baskets they made for the craft. On Thursday, we made boats on a sea with melon slices and finger jello, and on Friday, we decorated cupcakes for the party that Zaccheus had at his house when Jesus came. I don't remember what each of the crafts were because I wasn't helping with them, but they all tied in really well too. Of course, each day we also had several singing times, with some neat songs that the kids really grew to love, and they had a story. We kept hearing the kids walking around singing the new songs they learned after VBS was done even. We also tried to get a few group games in, with a parachute or balloons, and occasionally they had some free play time too. My church was doing VBS this past week, and I was kind of bummed that I wasn't going to be able to help with that. It was nice to be able to help with a VBS here instead. The kids all loved it and they had a great time! We had one volunteer who just walked around with a camera each day taking pictures, and then we should each get a copy of the pictures, so I should have some great photos to show you all when I get home.
On Saturday morning, we slept in, which felt wonderful! We lounged around and watched a little TV, and then went out for a full day of shopping! We went to the Baptist Haiti Mission, to shop and eat lunch, and then we went to the look-out point where you can see the entire city of Port-au-Prince, and then we went to the city of Petionville to do some shopping on the streets and in an art gallery there. I was very successful, and spent a boat load of money! The nice thing is that I don't feel very guilty about spending too much money here, because I know that the economy can use it! Especially at the Baptist Mission, where you can be certain that it goes back to the people who made the stuff. I got some gifts, and some stuff for myself too. We kind of just sat around the rest of the day, recovering from our crazy week.
Sunday was another lazy day. I slept in for a while, and then did my own little church service off of the balcony. No one was going to Quesqueya Chapel this week, and the Haitian Church was having their annual anniversary celebration, so that was guaranteed to be a very long service(at least over 3 hours long). I decided it would be better to just do my own thing. It was great to have the chance to remind myself why exactly I'm here- it's all about Jesus. He has done so much for me, and loves me with such an abundant and everlasting love. I'm here to share that love with others through my actions, to share the gospel of love through whatever I do. The rest of Sunday will be a pretty lazy day too, without much going on.
One thing that has been very cool to see is how some of the children that I was assigned to last year have changed and are thriving! God has been very good to these children!
A few prayer requests...
We've gotten several new children in this week, even though we don't really have the room for them. Pray for all of these kids as they adjust to orphanage life without a mom and dad.
There's been a lot of delays in Haitian adoption recently. There is a guy who is in charge of the courts in Port-au-Prince who has to approve something at the end of the adoption process. He needs to get out of that office so badly, and someone who actually cares about the children needs to get in. Dixie said that there was a chance he might get replaced this weekend. Pray that this did happen, and if it didn't, that he will get replaced soon or have a total change of heart and stop holding up children's adoptions. There has also a hold up in the Passport office. All children need to get a passport in their new adopted names before they can leave the country. There are 50 kids here at GLA who are waiting for a passport! So many kids are really close to being able to go home, but they and their parents are still waiting. GLA has occasionally been getting a few passports out, but please pray that the person in charge at the passport office will start signing those papers like crazy! Any prayers for the adoption process here would be greatly appreciate, because we need to be able to start sending some kids home, so that there is room to take in new children.
I don't know all of the information about the latest status on the virus here, but I know that we haven't had anyone on an IV for a while. I think that there are still sick kids, but no one who is really, really sick, which is a great thing! Please continue to keep the health of the kids here in your prayers.
Please pray for the volunteers who are here. Pray that we would have the patience and strength to keep on loving our assigned children in the way that they need, even when they seem pretty unlovable. Pray that our children will be receptive to our love so we can make a big difference in their lives. Pray that we will all stay healthy so we can better serve.
Thank you in advance for your prayers!
It was kind of depressing to realize this week that I'm almost half way through my stay in Haiti. Time has been going so incredibly fast, it's unbelievable! I'm glad that I have three more weeks to work with my kids, though. With my trip last year, I would have been leaving about right now, and that's way too soon.
I hope that life is going well for all of you!
Love from Haiti,
Kristin
clogirl@sbcglobal.net

Guest Blogger Kristin - Picture Post!

Guest Blogger Kristin - with pictures!

Here's two pictures to brighten your night :)

It was actually pretty painless to, so I'll have to send some more out when I have the chance. Hooray for the small things in life!


I'll send a real update out in a few days about how and what I'm doing. Please continue to keep the sick kids we have in your prayers, as two more children are now on IVs. It looked for a while that it was slowing down, but we have more sick kids again...It's rough.
Love from Haiti,
Kristin

Guest Blogger Kristin Update

Hello everyone!
Well, I'm well into my first week here at GLA, and I've been having a lot of fun getting to know the 8 babies that I am assigned to. I have quite the interesting mix of kids, and we have a lot to work on, so I should have a great time working with them.

Other news going on around here...there has been a team of 5 people from Edmonton, Alberta here, and on Tuesday, another team of 5 from Edmonton came too! We're getting overrun with Canadians!! (I love you all!) They will be doing a VBS at the toddler house next week, which the kids there are so looking forward to. It should be really good.
Ronaldo's mom and dad, Phil and Angie Macomber have been here since Monday morning, and they leave thursday morning. It has been great having them here. Ronaldo is so excited to finally be able to go home. I've emailed with Angie quite a bit, so it has been great to be able to talk in person for a while.
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for the sick kids and the nasty virus. There is only one baby left on an IV, and there doesn't seem to be anyone else getting sick right now. There are kids who still have fevers, but no one is too bad at the moment. Please pray that it stays this way!
Some prayer requests...
Pray for Ronaldo as he adjusts to his new life in a family. It's going to be so new and weird for him, and I think he'll do great, but I know his family would appreciate the prayers.
Pray for LaDawn as she is leaving Thursday morning after spending 2 years working here with the babies at GLA. I can't imagine how hard it must be for her. Pray also that God will make clear to her what she should do when she gets home, because she still hasn't figured that out. Pray for the long-term foreign staff who are going to miss her the most.
Pray for the team that will be doing VBS next week, that they will be able to affectively minister to the kids at the toddler house.
Pray for the health of all of us volunteers...there's a few girls that have been sick this week, and I think that I'm getting a cold. Nothing too bad, but I don't want it to get worse.

Thanks! I'll try and maybe get a few pictures of my kids sent out as I have time over the weeks (it goes really slowly with the internet connection here.)
Love to you all! Thank you for your prayers!!!
Kristin

Prayer Request from Dixie

My 3rd baby died today. We have two more sick and on IV's. More than a dozen have fevers and are sick. Please I urgently need some prayers said for these babies and all of the children in the orphanage. We do not want anymore children dying with this epidemic!

We are hearing news that children and adults are dying all over Haiti with this illness (flu epidemic). Please pray that it will leave our house and all of the children will get well. Tomorrow, we are disinfecting the whole nursery hoping to kill any virus germs. Unfortunately, we have nowhere to isolate the sick children.

Thankfully, the plans for the new orphanage has an isolation room so that when we see children start to get sick with something like this, they can be isolated right away from the well children.

Please start praying as soon as you receive this email.

Blessings,




Dixie Bickel, RN
God's Littlest Angels
Orphanage Director
www.glahaiti.org

Guest Blogger Update - from Haiti

This came in from my daughter Kristin about 10 minutes ago.....

Let's see...what's happened in Haiti since I last wrote? Well, on Thursday morning while we were still in La Didge, Paige took me to the canal that flows through their village. La Didge means the dam in kreyol, and they have a whole system of canals and ditches that flow through the village and provides water to everyone. Granted, it's not clean water, but La Didge is considered a very wealthy part of Haiti just because of that. Right by where the dam is at the river, it's deep and wide enough for people to go swimming in it. It was a really refreshing swim, because of how cold the water felt compared to the air temperature. We of course had an audience of haitians that had nothing better to do than to watch us swim...it was kind of funny. It was also pretty interesting because there are two different parts that you could go in by where we were. There was a shallow-er part that you could just drop a foot into, and there was a deeper part that was a 4-5 foot drop into the water. I actually went into both. Apparently, there aren't many blans, or white people who will do the big jump into the water, but I did. Mom came along too, but she only took pictures, she didn't go swimming.
Later that afternoon, we went up to Barbancourt, where Children's Lifeline International has another one of their feeding centers. They also have a program called "Love Bundles" which is kind of like the Samaritan's purse christmas boxes, and they needed to hand some more of those out that afternoon. Troy and Tara absolutely hate doing this, because they spend all of the rest of their time trying to get into the Haitians' head the idea that they need to work for what they get, and can earn it, but then they have to go and give away tons of gifts. It also doesn't help that most of the kids who get these aren't very grateful, and will say that they didn't get the toy or whatever that they "need", and when they run out of love bundles when they hand them out, some of the people can get very nasty. It went pretty well when we were there, though. They handed out 500 love bundles, and were 58 short. Everyone who didn't get one was pretty polite and knew that they would get one later. It was really hot there, but it was another great experience to see.
We left La Didge by 7:30 monday morning, and Troy took us to the airport, where we met Molly, and then she brought us up to GLA. It felt so great to be back here. We unloaded most of our donations Friday morning, and kind of hung out the rest of the day. Jean Bell is here with her son Tony, and she was working on organizing the pharmacy, so Mom helped her with that for a little while. I took a couple really tiny babies up to the balcony, and rocked them for a while. They were so adorable! I also had to feed one of them their bottle, and he almost ate the whole thing, which was great.
Friday night, we hung around the dinner table for a while talking with Dixie, John, LaDawn, Laurie and Jean. We got to see the plans that the architect drew up for the new house, which look so cool! The actual orphanage house is going to be huge! There is a center "core" and then two wings that go off on either side of it. Each wing is two stories tall. One wing will be what the main house is now, with the kids ages 0-2, and the other wing is for the toddler house. In the center core, there is kitchen areas for all of the toddlers to eat, and for cooks to make the food for all of the kids. They will have a walk in freezer and fridge, which I think sounds really cool for days when you are really hot. All of the offices will also be in the center core. The top floor of the core will be both a covered and uncovered area for volunteers to work with their assigned children. John and Dixie and their family will get their own house, which looks quite cool, and there will also be a guesthouse that will hold 34 people! There will be lots of room for volunteers and teams to come down and help. It looks very exciting! Now they just need to get the money raised so they can afford to build it. They are having Haitians do all of the actually building of the buildings, but once everything is up, they can have teams come down to help with things like painting, putting up cupboards and shelves, putting on doorknobs, etc.
We had a pretty relaxing Saturday morning. It's been kind of frustrating to me that Haiti didn't do the time change this year, so it get light really, really, early (like at 5:30) and it gets dark pretty late. I haven't been sleeping as late in the mornings as I would like to, and I think that's because it's been so light out. I spent some time with toddlers in the morning. It's really pretty sad how many of these kids I remember. I don't remember very many at the baby house, because they grow so fast, and most of the new kids that they get in are younger, but I remember a lot of them here at the toddler house. It's also been really funny to watch some of the kids' faces when I tell them that I know their mom and dad- they start to beam! I heard one of them later telling their friends in kreyol "Kristin knows my mom!" I also think it's kind of funny that none of the other volunteers get the older kids calling out their name whenever they go into the kids' yard, but I get it constantly. I have a ton of fun playing around with the older kids, especially because they are doing so well with their english. Some of them, like Ronaldo, Adeline, Miklene, Rosemanie, can pretty much tell me everything they want to in Creole
We went out and did some shopping on Saturday. We went to the Baptist Mission and bought some things, and then ate lunch in the restaurant there. I did a little bit of shopping on the street also, and got Dad a father's day gift. We also went to the Hispanola grocery store, and Mom got all of the coffee and vanilla that she'll need to take back home, and I also got some fruit drinks, and some awesome Mango suckers that they have here. We hung around with some babies the rest of Saturday, and found some kids whose parents we know to take some pictures for them.
It's also been pretty nice, because our first few days in Haiti were so INCREDIBLY HOT, it doesn't feel very hot here at all. As long as you can stay in the shade, it's very comfortable. In fact, it was kind of funny, Friday night, when the kids were getting ready for bed, they put sweatshirts on because they said they were getting cold! Very funny!
On Sunday, Mom and I decided to go to Quesqueya Chapel with LaDawn and 5 other people here. It was a great service. The sermon was on the multicultural church, and what it looks like. We ran into an adoptive mom that we know from Michigan, and we met several other CRC missionaries from Grand Rapids! It was too funny! They seem really nice, and it was great to have a chance to meet them. Hopefully I'll have a chance to see them again if I go back to Quesqueya. There is a group from Jamestown CRC that will be going to Haiti this summer to help them.
Thank you to those of you who have prayed for the sick babies here. I think that we are just going to hang around for the rest of the day. There are a bunch of really little babies here that have been so fun to just sit and cuddle with. Their preemie/ICU room is full of tiny ones that are SO adorable, I love it! I hope I get assigned to some of them.
Tomorrow, I will get the list of babies that I will be responsible for during the day. It looks like, at this point anyways, I will be spending my whole days at the main house with kids ages 0-2. It should be fun! After I have time to get to know my assigned babies a little better, I'll write and introduce you all to them.
Love from Haiti!
Kristin

God is Good! All the Time!

I just found out that one of the major proponents of orphan care, truly an international Christian organization, has agreed to meet with Dixie Bickel and myself at the end of August to talk about opportunities to further raise awareness of the plight of orphans and to further call people to take action to help care for the orpahans in the world (particularly the orphans in Haiti).

It's a HUGE step forward and I'll share more details later. I'm confident that virtually all of you know the organization I'm talking about, but I won't mention who at this point yet.

Please be in prayer that the seeds that will be planted at this meeting will bear fruit for many years to come.

"God, I have NO idea what you're up to with setting up this meeting, but I trust you and I know that you are in control. Use the meeting, use the people involved for your glory and the benefit of orphan kids all over the world. Amen."

So what would you be willing to do to help an orphanage?

Would you be willing to ask 100 people to donate $50?

Would you be willing to help find companies to sponsor holes at a Golf Marathon?

Would you be willing to help us find some media outlets that would help us gain exposure of our golf marathon and the effort to raise funds to help GLA build a new orphanage?

Do you know what a Golf Marathon is?

Guest Blogger Kristin - Installment #1

Welcome to my first email about my Haiti trip 2007! I've set up this email list to keep family and friends updated on what I'm up to while serving in Haiti. Some of you have asked to be on here, others of you I just assumed would be interested in hearing about my time. If you aren't...well, sorry!

My mom and I are flying out of Grand Rapids at 4:30 in the afternoon on June 10. We'll make it to Miami by 10:30 at night, and then we'll take the final flight to Haiti at 7:10 the next morning, and make it to Haiti by 8:00.

From June 11-June 15, my mom and I will be staying in the village of La Didge, with Troy and Tara Livesay and their family. Troy and Tara run Children's Lifeline International, a ministry that runs feeding programs, christian schools, and they are working on setting up a medical clinic. My mom will be helping out with the medical clinic, and I'll be helping out wherever I can. If you want to learn more about Children's Lifeline, you can check out their website at www.childrenslifeline.net . The Livesay family also has a blog that they update quite often at www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com that would be worth checking out.

On Friday, June 15, we are going to make it back to the airport by 8:00 and meet up with Lori from GLA. She'll take us back to God's Littlest Angels. Mom will be staying at GLA until June 18, and then she'll be heading home. I'll be staying until July 24, and then heading home. Yeah, I know, that sounds like a really long time, but the three and a half weeks that I spent there last summer went by way too quickly. I wanted to have a lot more time to be able to bond with my assigned children more and make a larger difference in their life. You can see more of GLA at www.glahaiti.org . While at GLA, I will be assigned to 8-10 children that I will need to spend time with each day, to assist them in developmental things, such as walking or talking, and making them feel cherished, which they miss out on by not having a mom or dad.

I don't know how much access I'll have to the internet while we're at the Livesays, but I'll have great internet access while at GLA. I hope to be able to send emails out like this about once a week once I get to GLA. If anyone has questions about what I write in some of my emails, or just wants to say "Hi!", I'd love to hear from you! It's really pretty pathetic to watch all of the volunteers swarm to the three computers on our breaks...we like our email!

I also want to use these emails that I send out to let you know about needs that I see in Haiti that could use extra prayers. I know I've heard from so many of you that you would LOVE to be coming to Haiti with me, but your prayer support is just as important as the work that I'll be doing. The rest of the volunteers and I that will be at GLA can't do what we do without the prayer support of people back home in the states and Canada. So, to start it off, here's a couple prayer requests:

~Pray for safe flights for my mom and I, both flying to Haiti, and when we fly home. Pray that we'll be able to make all of our connections with plenty of time.

~Pray for safety and health in the country. While we aren't really worried about our safety, because we are assured that the people we are with will keep us out of the dangerous areas, Haiti is still a very unstable nation and anything could happen. It's also very easy to pick up "bugs" that our bodies aren't used to, and it's no fun being sick in Haiti. I've gotten sick on each of my other trips, and I'd love for this one to be different. There's also been a bug making its way around GLA with several staff and children sick. Prayers for all of their health would be very much appreciated.

~Pray for the people that we will come in contact with, that we will be able to make an impact on their lifes. I would especially appreciate prayers for the children that I will be responsible for at GLA, that God will start touching their hearts so I will be able to make a difference in their lives. Pray that God will show me how I can touch their hurting little souls and make them feel loved.

~LaDawn, the adoption coordinator at GLA, will be leaving and heading home on June 21 after serving for 2 years in Haiti. That's going to be a very hard good-bye for her to make, and for those of us still at GLA to make. I'm sure she would appreciate any and all prayers.

Thank you in advance for praying! Thank you to all of you for your support for my trip in this summer. It still doesn't quite seem real that I get to be in Haiti so soon, but I'm so excited to be able to go! God has given me a huge passion in my heart to help his children in Haiti, and I'm ecstatic to be able to go to Haiti again and serve God by serving his children.

Blessings in Christ,

Kristin Vanderwell

Leaving for Haiti

On Sunday, my wife and my 17 year old daughter are leaving for Haiti. My wife is going to be spending a week helping out and my daughter will be there for 6 1/2 weeks. If there are updates that I can post from them, I'll give them guest blogger status and have them tell you more about what things are like at GLA.

The Reasons we work.....

Hi all!

I've put some pictures on the right side of the blog as a reminder of why we are working to help GLA to get a new orphanage! These kids need a better place to live until they can get home to their forever families.

Can you help us help them?

Thanks!

I need some help!

Hey all,

I'm looking to compile a list of people who are employed in the golf industry or who know people who work in the golf industry who might be willing to help an orphanage. If you know anyone, please e-mail me at tvanderwell@sbcglobal.net.

We're cooking up a fund raiser that will be a lot of fun and will raise a LOT of money.

Thanks!

Tom

Gaining steam....

When my wife and I started our adoption of our Haitian Angels, we knew of one family in Michigan who had adopted from Haiti. 4 years later, we had a Haitian Adoption Gathering and there were 16 families there, another 10 or so who couldn't make it and 8 of the families are currently in the process of adopting!

God is good! All the Time!

This explains why so many of us are involved....

While I could echo what this Dad says, I really couldn't say it any better....

Click here

Plans are starting to fall in place!

But we're still looking for a place to hold a golf marathon. Do you know anywhere where we can get the use of a golf course for a reasonable fee for the day? It could be anywhere in North America (but obviously the northern part of the continent, then it would be for the summer of 2008).

Do you know anyone who can help?

Hi,
I'm looking for a list of people with connections to the golf industry who would be potentially interested in helping raise funds for a great cause in Haiti. If you know anyone who can help, let us know.

Thanks!

A Note From Dixie

Hello from wet and rainy Haiti!

We are in our rainy season and every day it rains! The Engineering team arrives tomorrow to start designing the new orphanage. We are very excited to actually have plans down on paper. Please be praying that all goes well and it does not rain too much so that they can go to the land every day and work on surveying and looking for water where a well can be dug.

Last week we hired some men in the community to go and clean and burn thorn bushes that were on the land. We could not see all of the land because it was overgrown in places. They did a very good job and now we can see all of the wall and land that is there.

On Tuesday, the engineer that we hired to build the wall around the property and the maintenance building sent men to the land to gather rocks and start tearing down the old wall. We were very surprised today when we went to visit and so many rocks are already gathered and put into piles! They have also tore down some of the old wall and are digging the foundation.

The rocks that you see in these photos are all rocks off the surface of the land. None are dug up from deep in the ground. We think there are plenty of rocks for the wall and maybe even some for a house!

Only through everyone's prayers and donations could this be possible. Thank you all so very much!

And life in Haiti goes on...



Dixie Bickel, RN
God's Littlest Angels
Orphanage Director
www.glahaiti.org

What is Project Homeless Child?

Project Homeless Child is a fundraising effort to help God's Littlest Angels raise the funds necessary to build a new orphanage. GLA currently has over 140 kids living in very cramped conditions because the need is great and the kids in Haiti quite often have no where else to go. It truly is a matter of life and death for many of these kids. Many of us involved in raising funds for GLA have children, siblings, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, and or just friends who have benefited from the work that Dixie and her staff do for the kids.