Raising our little ones: Mud and Manners: Family Update and Day #6 (A Sad Day)

A Beautiful Sunset in Haiti

I'm back on the blog, and I'll be working on finishing up the rest of my journal entries from the Haiti trip.

However, we have been busy here in the Northeast! I want to give a quick update on our family just in case this week passes by me before I have a chance to write a second post (which is entirely likely!).

The beginning of the snow fort

We had three snow days this past week turning the school week into only two days! I was a little surprised at two of the three, and I would've just assumed we had school. Coming from backgrounds with Wisconsin and northern Canada in our past, it was hard to believe that we were qualifying for a snow day here in Maine. But we also have not lived this close to the coast, and that certainly affects the weather. It can be snow where we live, and it'll be icy on the coast. However, my kids were excited when we finally received a decent amount of snow, and I certainly enjoyed having the kids home for a few days. Now we've used up all of our five built-in snow days into the school calendar, so anything after this will have to be made up at the end of the school year. Oh well!

It would appear that now that we've had our first major snowfall, it's going to snow now until spring! It's a good thing that the kids enjoy outdoor activities no matter what the temperature is outside! We have had snow falling almost all day today, and we probably have about twelve inches on the ground. The forecast is predicting a snowfall for tomorrow into Monday with 18-24 inches of snowfall...and my children are excited!! The forecast also predicts that there will be blizzard like conditions on Monday which doesn't look good for the school calendar or my dad's returning flight!

We also had doctor's appointments for all five kids this week, so we were at the doctor's office on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday! This was our first interaction with our new doctor, and I think he will be a good fit for our children. These were just annual checkups for the children, and everyone appears to be healthy and happy. I have a few concerns about Travis's hearing and vision, so we will be doing a few followups on those concerns. All the kids are in the 50% or higher range for height (no surprise there) except for Wyatt as he is a little on the shorter side in our family. That's okay though, after all, his mama isn't exactly tall!

Roger has been working this week, and he's come home with some cold feet! We found some smooth rocks on the beach this past summer, so Roger has been heating them up. Then all the kids ask for warm rocks, and it makes for a humorous memory with everyone sitting around with warm rocks under "their feet!

Okay, so I have much more I should probably say, but on to another day of the missions trip!

Day #6
Saturday, January 28, 2017
This was a hard day for me. I am emotionally tired, physically weary, and longing to hug my children. As with all the other days in Haiti, we were busy! We had a half -day clinic planned in Seguin, but first we had pancakes for breakfast. I actually made the pancakes (okay, I added water to the mix). However, I did fry them on the griddle; and since they were all consumed, I'm guessing they were good!

We had planned to start the clinic around eight am, but I've learned that time around here is more of a suggestion. 😀 It was actually after eight when we started as Hannah, Cory, and Pastor Kevin made a house call before the clinic. On Wednesday, after the clinic, they had made a house call on a baby that appeared to be very weak and dehydrated. Hannah had given the baby some medicine, and as of Thursday we thought the baby was getting better. However, the dad had come up to the mission house to find the "doctors" as the medical people are called.

While they were making the house call, the rest of us headed down to the church to set up for the half day clinic. As we were working on getting things set up, the grandma and with the sick little boy from Chota came walking up. This grandma had walked all the way from Chota with her grandson. She remembered that we had offered her a trip down the mountain to the missions hospital and she wanted to make sure she did not miss the ride. I have such a great admiration for this grandma and her deep love for her grandson. She would have to wait for several hours while we finished up the clinic and packed up for the trip down the mountain, but she did not seem to mind.

We continued to get ready for the clinic, and I glanced out the door to see Hannah and Cory returning from their house call. I could tell from the way that Hannah was walking at the visit had not gone well. Hannah said that when they arrived the baby was already practically gone. His extremities were cold, his expression stoic, and pupils fixed. Cory and Hannah tried to do what they could with their very limited resources, but the baby was already gone. It's a sweet assurance to know that that sweet little baby is safe in the arms of Jesus. Even now, two weeks later, it's hard to write the words from my journal without my eyes filling with tears. Death, especially death among children, is fairly common. Just as I do, these parents also love their children fervently but their culture expresses grief and a reaction to death differently.

Well, we did not have much time to dwell on that incident, as people were waiting to be seen. We've passed out ten thousand adult vitamins, twelve thousand children's vitamins, ten thousand Tylenol, ten thousand Motrin, and lots of worm medicine. The medical team will have another half day clinic after church tomorrow, but hopefully we will have something to give away. A boy came to the clinic today for a follow up visit. He had been seen on Wednesday for a burn right near his eye. The antibiotics he had been given were working and his eye was looking much better. That was an answer to prayer.

We had to finish up the clinic aound eleven so at we could eat lunch and get ready to head down the mountain to Caya Jocmel. After the clinic we had to sort through all the remaining medicine so that we could get ready for the last half day clinic in Gaiya tomorrow after church. After taking out the medicine we would use for the clinic, we had to inventory what was left so that Hannah will know what to buy for next year. While we were sorting through medicine outside the mission house, there was plenty of yelling and hollaring going on. I don't know if the whole story will ever be clear, but apparently the man who stole the rebar showed up at the mission house very upset because he had been accused. Haitians talk very expressively and passionately and since I don't know the language, I just watched. Eventually, the crowd dispersed, the man put away his machete, and we finished up what we were doing. Hope Ann, another nurse, was a big help in the inventory process as most of the stuff Hannah was pronouncing I had no idea how to spell!

We got on the road to Caya Jocmel about one thirty. It was a full dump truck load coming down the mountain with three people in the cab, three Haitian cooks, three Haitian translators, twelve Americans, two extra Haitians ...I'm not sure where they came from...maybe they'd just needed a ride, and a grandma with a sick baby. The grandma tried to make herself comfortable on someone's bag, and she held that little boy for the entire three plus hours ride down the mountain. That little boy didn't make a peep, he didn't move, he didn't talk, he didn't cry, he just laid there. While I'm not an expert on children by any means, I do know that that is not normal three year old behavior!

It was long ride down the mountain with not very many comfortable positions, but we all made it with fairly good attitudes. 😀We arrived at the camp about 5:00 pm., The camp is in a beautiful location right on the beach. The temperature is a lot warmer than up the mountain, and the mosquitoes are in abundance!

Tomorrow I am going with Pastor Kevin to Moriah Baptist church, Emelie and Josh's parents are going to church in Jocmel, and the other people are going to Gaiya for a church service and the clinic. I will be able to do my children's lesson for the church tomorrow, so I am looking forward to that. Josh's dad, Joe, will be giving his testimony to the church in Jocmel. Grandpa will be preaching at Gaiya. There is not an established church there, but she of the national pastor's are praying about starting one there. Hopefully the clinic will help open the door for a church to be started.

My heart breaks for the parents that lost their baby today. It makes me want to hug mine a little longer and tighter when I get home. The truth is that life is in the hands of our Creator every moment. We may feel like we have a certain measure of control with all the access we have to medicine and doctors in the United States but the Bible clearly states that it is the Lord who gives us our every breath. Today was a good reminder for me of God's sovereignty as well as His love. It gives my soul a sweet peace to know that the baby is at Home in Heaven.

And tonight I will also put in my earplugs so that I won't hear the mosquitoes buzzing in my ear!