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).