A Story from Haiti Day 1

Today has been more than interesting. When I boarded the plane in Miami I immediately noticed the lady next to me was going through several pictures of children in a Haitian orphanage. Of course I could not help but ask what she was doing or who she was with. As we talked, I learned that she was in the final months of an almost three year adoption process. Adopting not one but two Haitian children a little girl who is five and a little boy who is nearing three.  This woman’s story was amazing, her daughter had been a mission in Haiti for a year and had met her future husband while he was here on a medical mission. This sweet woman has visited her soon to be official children over twenty-five times in the past year. You could see the love in her eyes and hear it in her voice. I could go on and on but there is so much more to our day.

We arrived in Port au Prince today at 12:00 noon. We were greeted by a Haitian band and then piled into the “airport” which was a very different experience. No air, dirty walls, people on top of people, not much organization, etc. Once we got all twenty-one checked bags and all our carry ons, we were off. As we were looking for our bus driver, I noticed that the people did not have much compassion for people of their own country or coworkers but more so for the people coming off the plane. They were doing anything they could to make a dollar to support themselves or their family.

Once we made it to our bus and loaded up, we were off to our mission house. Goodness was that a ride! There is absolutely no driving structure. Drivers pass each other with another car coming from the other direction, play chicken with the other drivers, stop in the middle of the road to wait on another driver who might be following you and lastly they use there horns for any type of warning. If you stop to long you get honked at, if you get too close you get honked out, if your just flat out in the way…you get honked at. The bigger the car the better chance you have. BUT nonetheless we finally made it, safe and sound.

Lastly but most importantly we got to visit Bon Berger which is one of the two  orphanages that we will be with this week. I cannot begin to describe the emotions I felt when we were greeted by 20 children from ages 1-10 that were singing and dancing to see us! You have never seen the light and smiles of children who live so different then we do.

I look so forward to the rest of the week to see God’s amazing light shine through the group that God has put together in His name for His glory!

Jessica