Welcome Home!

It was heavenly to have my hubby back. The boys were just as excited as I was, even though they barely recognized his thin and grizzly new look. It was such a happy reunion. He had so many amazing experiences and so many gorgeous pictures to share...I have loved listening to him give chats and firesides. The stories are incredible and compelling and make you want to be better, more giving and more appreciative for the abundance we all have. If you would like him to come talk to your social, school or church group he would love to. He wants as many people as possible to feel a tie to the Haitian people, and hopefully be willing to help and give to make things better for a nation that has suffered so greatly, so just let us know if you are interested!

On the Home Front Part 2

We survived the 16 days without Mike, and one of the reasons we did is because of our amazing family. My parents came down the second weekend, then my mom stayed for the entire next week. It was awesome! My kids felt loved, taken care of and more spoiled than ever. Here are some of the highlights:

Jace's Basketball Game
I feel like my kids rarely "perform" when parents or in-laws come to watch. You know, you brag all season to grandparents, then they come to watch and your kid is barely interested in the game? Well, not so this time! Jace scored 12 points and played GREAT! He has really loved playing basketball this year.

Parker's Soccer Game

Talk about a time to shine. Parker played soccer out of his head. He scored 3 goals and was just this tiny little fireball. I am so proud of the way he has caught on. He just loves soccer and playing it. He asks everyday if he has soccer practice or a soccer game that day. He's tiny, but he sure can play! And he LOVED having an audience.

Miniature Golf

There are no pictures, but there should be. We had the BEST time miniature golfing. It is a perfect activity for our family. No one wanted to stop or leave and the adults and kids all had an equally good time. James got a hole in 1, and I tied my dad!

Hanging Out

It was so nice to have support here. My boys adored all the love and attention from both my parents and so did I. My mom did all the food the whole time, let me sleep in, got Jace ready for school, did laundry constantly, cleaned both bathrooms until they shined, cleaned my laundry room, found comforters and pillows for my boys room, took me to Target, to IKEA, to Mary Poppins, and our favorite lunch spot ever. Hmmmmm what else? So much stuff I can't even remember it all!

Play, Play, Play!

Both my parents are awesome players and they both agreed to play, read, or be at the park anytime one of the boys was ready. My dad is such a sports lover, so it's always fun to watch him with my boys...teaching, coaching...he has the patience of no one I've ever seen!

Photoshoots

Gotta love my mom and her camera! They are the only great pictures I get of my kids! Next time, I need to put them in something besides pajamas!

Dates!

Since grandma was here for so long, each of the boys got a special date with grandma. They loved their one on one time, even if it always was to the dollar store. Jace got to do a little birthday shopping too!

Superbowl!

My dad left about 30 minutes after the Superbowl started. Jace loves everythng sports, so he was disappointed that the rest of us didn't care at all about the big game.

A big fat thank you to my wonderful parents! We love you guys!

The Final Days in Haiti

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning I woke up in my little two man tent at 3:15 AM. I made sure that Bry was awake in the tent next to me, visited the sanijohn, washed up and then headed over to the humvees. The 82nd Airborne was heading out on their daily rice drop mission and we were translating for them this morning.

I jumped in the humvee with Sergeant Burds from New Mexico, PFC Roberts from Texas and PFC Atkins who was our Spanish speaker in case we needed that (which we did). I thought how jealous Jace, Parker and James would be that I got to ride in a military humvee. We all headed over to each pick up our four rice trucks just around the corner from our base at another army base. Once each convoy had their trucks we split up to our two rice drop locations.

When we arrived I got right to work directing the Haitian drivers. The third driver was a "tet mato" and ripped off one of the gates to the hospital's courtyard. I love how Haitians respond to anything. No big deal they said, we can easily fix it. The 17 workers that had come to help unload the trucks got to work right away, two trucks at a time. I obviously couldn't stand there and watch, so I jumped right in and to the Haitians' surprise started chucking 80 lb. bags of rice along with them. Haitians love it when a "blan" (white guy) works with them. They're always surprised at first because in their country, although the country freed itself from slavery 206 years ago, they're still exists a very real master/servant relationship between the haves (less than 1% of the country and lighter skinned) and the have nots. To keep them motivated I started a competition with one of the faster workers to see who could unload more bags of rice.

I can't remember the last time I was performing heavy labor at 4:30 in the morning and sweating like a monkey but it was great fun. We unloaded the four trucks in an hour and a half and then escorted the trucks back to their warehouse down on Delmas 3.

Once back to camp I thought I might take a quick nap but didn't want to waste my last day in the country (or so we thought). Good thing I didn't because a group of three other older RM's were heading north to the beautiful Moulin sur Mer beach, just south of St. Marc.

The five of us jumped in a tap-tap driven by two members from Croix des Mission and one hour and 40 minutes later we were in a tropical paradise. Moulin sur Mer is a gorgeous colonial style resort with Caribbean colored waters and excellent food. We enjoyed a relaxing last day taking a salty bath in the sea and eating our last Haitian meal. The entire time I was in Haiti I wanted to drink a papaya shake and couldn't ever find a place clean enough to make it. Today I finally got my wish, a very befitting gift on my birthday. For the past 12 years I've tried time and time again to recreate this Haitian delicacy at my parents’ house. Every time we visit my parents my mom buys papaya so we can make shakes but it has never turned out as good as I remembered them in Cap Haitian. Finally again my shake and I were reunited. What a beautiful reunion it was.

At 2 o'clock we packed up and hesitantly left this beautiful paradise that is much more representative of Haiti as a whole than dirty Port-au-Prince. I wish more people could see this side of Haiti. We arrived back in camp at 3 PM ready to pack up and head to the airport but to our surprise everyone told us that our departure had been delayed a day. At first we thought they were playing a trick on us but then we realized it was true. We had packed up all our tents and blankets that morning but fortunately President Mardy hadn't picked them up yet.

When we realized we weren't leaving we jumped back in our tap-tap with a few additional friends and headed down town to see the Champs des Mars and the national Palace. I had not seen it yet in person and it was a surreal sight. We drove by the 200 year old national cathedral and it was destroyed but for a few exterior walls still standing. A piece of Haiti's history gone. We then drove over to the palace and witnessed an eerie sight. The national palace, very similar to our own White House, was destroyed and rendered useless. Rebuilding will take months if not years. There have been rumors that the seat of government will be temporarily moved to St. Marc while they rebuild PAP.

We then climbed the 100 ft tower of eternal flame across the street from the palace and witnessed the destruction from a commanding view of the city. From this view the 2 million homeless Haitians in the city was breath-taking. The palace is surrounded by open public plazas with statues of Haiti's forefathers and heroes. These public squares have now been turned into shanty towns with thousands of people living under sheets and tarps, some lucky enough to be in a tent. A sea of humanity. At that moment I imagined what New York or Chicago or LA would look like if its residents were forced out into the streets and I wondered how we would handle it differently. As bad as we think our government agencies are at responding to disasters at least we have those agencies. Haiti has nothing and these people are left to fend for themselves. We headed back to camp after that and reconstructed our tents for the night and hoped we'd fly out the next day.

THURSDAY (the real final day)
This morning we woke up after being soaked by rains during the night. I didn't sleep at all and I at least had a tent. What about the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who did not? I remembered back to the first week of work when I discharged an older gentleman with a brand new cast on his broken arm and the doctors parting advice was not to get it wet. His daughter looked at me with desperation in her eyes and said we have no home and no tent. How do you expect us to do that? We didn't have any tents at the hospital to hand out to the homeless. The fear in our group is that if tents are not provided quickly to the people many will suffer from or die from diseases brought on by the ensuing rainy season.

We began packing up camp again and drying out all of our wet articles and then a group of us headed up above PAP to show some of the docs beautiful Haiti. Above PAP to the east are the mountains that eventually lead to the Dominican Republic. It is also where beautiful green farm lands thrive, where the wealthy live because the climate is much cooler and it’s where President Monson, as a young apostle, dedicated Haiti for missionary work.

We visited Kenskoff, played with local children, joked around with adults, sucked on sweet fresh grapefruit and visited the Baptist Mission which was established at the beginning of the last century and is still a thriving self sustained community with a hospital, bakery, school, church, zoo, and artisans shop. Once we finished there and the docs had bought some souvenirs we headed back down on our bumpy tap-tap ride. Once back at camp we finished packing up the last of our items for Pres Mardy to pick up for his orphanage. We loaded up the LTV's, waved goodbye to the 82nd on our way out and then arrived at the airport around 7 PM.

Our Sun Country Airlines charter jet arrived was allotted a 9 PM landing slot by the airport authority and it arrived shortly thereafter. Cheers went up when the plane landed and within an hour we had loaded the plane and were leaving Haiti. It was a bitter sweet moment as any moment like this is. We wanted to stay and continue helping because we knew how great the need was, but also knew we couldn't stay forever and because of the conditional on the ground all governmental and non governmental agencies had reduced their deployment times to 2 weeks in Haiti. We didn't want to press our luck even though we knew the Lord had been watching over us. We arrived at Orlando at midnight, went through customs and then waited for TSA to check all of our checked baggage and finally we were in our way to SLC at 4 am. Two cheeseburgers, fries, a coke and a cookie later we were in SLC.

Media was at the Jet Center, family, and other group members that had left earlier were there too, and it was an emotional overload. Two weeks of hard hard work now came to an end and we were reunited with loved ones that had sacrificed for us to go on our "Mission of Mercy" as it had been dubbed. Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support financially and emotionally. Our work has just begun. God bless you all and the Haitian people as they rebuild. I have so many more thoughts and pictures I hope to share with every one soon.
Kenbe lafwa e pa pedi lespwa!

If you want to see the real resilience of the Haitian church members, visit http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/100202church.html
It's an amazing depiction of their strength, optimism, and courage.

He's Back!!!

I'm going to pick up Mike in 30 minutes. I feel like I'm getting ready for a first date with a guy I'm crazy about. I can't wait to see him and hear about everything! I am so proud of him. Here is an update of why they left, what they did and what it meant to so many. If you're mostly interested what Mike has been up to, read the bolded text. I'm so grateful for the men who put this tremendous force together and to all those who sacrificed to make it possible. It's a bit long, but definately worth the read!

Because of the extraordinary sign up of volunteers on the UHTF web site (which we kept open to optimize priority medical emergency skills and Creole speaking skills), we hoped we could take a second large team of volunteers to Haiti. Unfortunately, conditions at the Port-au-Prince Airport are drastically changing, and options for both entry and departure are tightening. Food, water, and shelter for the long term are becoming highest priority – and this is not our mission. UNICEF, WFP, and World Vision are now on the ground in Haiti and are managing these elements.

Therefore the UHTF has decided not to take a large second plane team to Haiti
Conditions in Haiti are evolving; some things are now turning to a new (and difficult) normal. Native hospital workers are beginning to return to the hospitals. Critical wound care is believed to have been mostly now performed. Though obviously much remains to be done, such is a many year task which has never been part of the UHTF mission.

We are told that in a few days we can no longer count on U.S. Air Force transport from Haiti to the USA because the military will soon begin shuttling out military personnel who have been on the ground since the earthquake; most seats on the military transport planes will then be allocated to military requirements.

Daily transport assistance by the 82nd Airborne to and from remote areas for our medical teams will no longer be available. UHTF would have to rent transport trucks. Our campsite will be transitioned back to the military for its larger and longer term role in Haiti. This would result in increased camp costs for security, water, food and bathroom room facilities.
We are informed the airport will be turned back to Haitian government control on February 13, further complicating the issue and taking away priority options we currently have. Evacuation efforts by the U.S. Government will effectively end. We would be required to work out landing spots for a second plane in and out with Haitian government officials rather than with the U.S. Government with who we are in good favor. Our confidence in the Haiti government’s control of the severely damaged airport is not great enough to risk inserting the second team.

The volunteer team leaders in Haiti are unitedly unwilling to incur the risk of having a second team of 120 doctors, nurses, and translators stuck in a country with little available food and water, inadequate medical care, uncertain ground transport, increasing risk of disease, and increasing hunger of the populace. Remember, we are all volunteers who are doing this – we have no paid leadership or staff.

Simply put, regardless of how much any of us want to send a second team to Haiti and continue serving the Haitian people, we love and respect all of our fellow volunteers far too much to subject them to a potential situation where we cannot effectively and safely control the length, security, and living conditions of their stay in Haiti.

Those noble volunteers who wish to go to Haiti should now do so in smaller groups under the auspices of Healing Hands for Haiti or other established long-term aid groups. We will work with the HHH leadership to confidentially transfer the names and emails of all those who volunteered to serve with the UHTF. As we have stated from the beginning, all donations for UHTF have gone to the Healing Hands for Haiti Foundation and that 501(c)(3) organization will continue to benefit from those donations with smaller teams into Haiti and rebuilding their medical facility in Haiti.

Our tents and non-medical supplies in Haiti will, upon our departure, be turned over to the Mardy orphanage. All medical supplies will be turned over to clinics here.
We appreciate all those who have volunteered, all those who have helped with donations and all those still willing to find ways to help ease the pain of those suffering in Haiti.

Activity Report
We are gratified and pleased with the success that this mission has brought to the wonderful people of Haiti. We are all grateful to the Lord for the honor of being part of such a great endeavor.

The UHTF (utahhospitaltaskforce.org) team is made up of doctors, nurses, medics, EMTs, building contractors, and Haitian-speaking LDS returned missionaries. The original vision of our mission was to help Utah surgeon (and former Haiti missionary) Dr. Jeff Randle and his charitable organization Healing Hands for Haiti International Foundation, (healinghandsforhaiti.org) to restore some level of patient care at the HHH facility in Haiti. The medical clinic received significant damage from the recent earthquake. Working with the Healing Hands staff who traveled with us to Haiti, our construction team has made an assessment and determined nothing is ever-again usable at the HHH campus except the guesthouse. Our first task for HHH was to make the guesthouse useable and that has been accomplished. Working together, significant intermediate repairs to restore some care capability has occurred.

In furtherance of our original goal to at least restore care delivery at the HHH facility, a Utah company donated a large field tent to the Utah Hospital Task Force which we carried on our aircraft. Our team has erected that tent on site, and the Healing Hands team (who we provided air transport from SLC) supplemented by about 15 medical professionals and interpreters from our UHTF team, have thus far treated several hundred Haitians in need of medical care.

The second part of the original vision was to help all those we could, especially those of our LDS faith. We came to render assistance and express our Christianity.

Within three hours after making camp (during the night) the medical/interpreter teams were out delivering emergency medical care. Two Haitian babies have been delivered in our camp.
Our medical professionals, each linked with invaluable returned missionary interpreters, are performing extraordinary medical services in an exceptionally harsh environment. They have treated hundreds of severely wounded Haitians. Our field teams are providing wound care, infection prevention, appendage amputations, and primary care to infants and children along the side of the road and in refugee camps.

Doctors are treating acute wounds, broken bones, serious illness, infection, and horrendous numbers of amputations. They have also performed dozens of critical surgeries.
Each day over 50 UHTF medical professionals provide the core of treatment services at three Port-au-Prince hospitals. They are joined by these invaluable return missionary interpreters – who themselves have been performing medical functions beyond any reasonable expectation. At the overwhelmed hospitals, best described as somewhat-organized chaos, our doctors are now in charge of two main departments, one nurse is now director of nursing for a several-hundred bed hospital, and one physician is medical director for that hospital. Return missionary interpreters are enlisted in critical patient care and surgery. It is miraculous to behold.

Returned missionary interpreters are seeing wounds so severe some of these doctors have not seen such before, and they are so totally invaluable in translating for doctors and nurses and in giving comfort to frightened patients. The senior physician of a large hospital told me these interpreters are unique in that their language skills are superior to any other interpreters they have, and their love of the people is felt by everyone involved, especially the patients.
Numerous doctors from the U.S. and other countries are broadly applauding these American medical professionals and the return missionary interpreters of the UHTF. A group of Austrian physicians told us tonight this is by far the hardest disaster they ever done; the Army guys tell us this is far more brutal than Afghanistan.

Medical and construction teams have visited many orphanages and several remote villages where medical care was given to several hundred. Neither space nor time will allow us to enumerate the truly unbelievable healing care these Utah Hospital Task Force team members have provided. Our construction teams have been tasked by the U.S. Army in assessing structural status at several facilities and bridges. We are constructing a compound that will initially house 100 orphans in a safe environment until their replacement building is constructed. This compound includes a covered outdoor kitchen, covered eating facility, 650 feet of security fence, security gates, outhouses for the children, as well as an on-site graveyard.

Under the direction of the LDS stake president, construction teams partnering with local priesthood brethren are assessing structural damage to LDS members’ homes and attempting to procure materials to do temporary structural safety repair and assist in making those homes habitable again, and in relieving anxiety about the safety of their home and giving them comfort regarding moving back into their homes so they can go back home in peace. We are also, at the invitation of the stake president, doing a demonstration on how to safely rebuild. The rainy season is coming, and there are well more than one million people in tent cities and shantytowns. With the rainy season coming, with its increased probability of disease, the more homes we can make at least temporarily habitable the better.

In addition to interpreting for medical teams, the returned missionaries – acting as interpreters – join the US Army at sentry points, accompany US Army ambulances, advise US Navy evacuation helicopters, accompany US Army / World Food Program food convoys, have set at ease large crowds where disorder was potentially disrupting medical services, assist DMAT in emergency patient care, and countless other interpreter duties as requested by UN, USAID, WHO, WFP, Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services, and others.
Every morning at 2:15 a.m. a convoy of US Army trucks heads out, accompanied by several Haitian-speaking returned missionary interpreters. Where military and police feared food riots, these gentle former missionaries with their language and cultural understanding and their great smiles instantly calm the crowds and bring peace and order. These convoys carry rice to huge tent cities. Enormous amounts of emergency food aid are delivered each day.
In the daily coordinating meeting of all outside organizations providing aid in country, the return missionary interpreters are the envy of everyone and our most praised asset. Every group is asking us how they can get a few “Mormon missionaries” to interpret for them; we try to respond to every such request.

The Utah Hospital Task Force is incurring immeasurable goodwill for the United States of America and for the LDS Church.

The third part of our mission objective was to assist in the clearance and removal of as many orphans destined for American families as possible. Under indescribable political and time pressures, after meetings with Haiti’s Minister of Social Services, Minister of Foreign Affairs, the First Lady, the Prime Minister, and the President of Haiti, and multiple meetings with the U.S. Ambassador and numerous US officials, we were able to break the long-standing logjam and clear 141 orphans to America. About half of them were headed to LDS homes in Utah. We continue to work orphan evacuation issues through the Haitian and US governments.

Through the stake president, we have arranged for Relief Society sisters to provide laundry services to our team – for pay. This helps them earn desperately needed income and solves our laundry needs. The Relief Society will provide the same service to the US Army at our camp.

The unprecedented magnitude of devastation, field living conditions, and the indescribable human suffering coupled with the stench of death in some areas and surrounded by hungry people, all makes for a physically draining experience.

This team is serving with quiet dignity; it is invaluable. There is a gentle, orderly, professional, spiritual comradery to this team; we all here feel it. Christ-like goodness seems to have enveloped everyone on this team.

We appreciate the enormous willingness to serve here and feel strongly that all those volunteers that are unable to come as part of the Utah Hospital Task Force will be blessed for their willingness to serve from afar the Haitian sons and daughters of God. If this has served to open their hearts and checkbooks, then we are doubly grateful – as this team is fully funded through donations. The team feels they have all brought honor to the Utah Hospital Task Force name.

In a large all-agencies coordinating meetings, a United Nations official remarked “No non-governmental team now in Haiti is as large or as skilled as the Utah Hospital Task Force.”
We can’t adequately express our gratitude and admiration for what so many good people have done to make this all a reality.

Haiti Day Twelve and Thirteen

Tuesday
Last night I actually slept fairly well. It felt great. Today we visited the Petionville chapel and dropped off medical supplies with the doctor there since we're leaving tomorrow.
We visited Kenskoff with the meds that were with us since we knew they would absolutely love it. We want each of the medical personnel to experience the beauty of the country that escapes you in downtown PAP.
Tonight my heart was broken again. The cutest little girl you've ever seen came to see our neurologist. I served with her mother 12 years ago. She is 5 years old, same age as Parker, and she has seizures often due to sickle cell anemia. Saika had a stroke 2 years ago and if she were in the states she would have received the care she needs. It kills me to see kids suffer here because they don't have the means.
Tomorrow we make sure that all of our supplies get to the right people since we no longer have a second group coming down. These people are beautiful and this country is beautiful. Ayiti si telman bel.

Wednesday

Mike was supposed to leave Haiti last night and be on his way home today. Their trip was shortened because the Haitian government is taking back control of the airport after the weekend and those in charge are not sure what that will mean for food, water, and safety, plus their army unit is also leaving. Unfortunately, their plane couldn't land last night. They were all packed up and ready to go when they got the news in the late afternoon. So, they reset up camp and stayed another day. I'm still waiting to hear if they will be able to leave tonight. Right now, I'm not counting on anything, but cross your fingers! It would have been really fun to have him fly back home on his birthday! Thanks for all the love and support!

Haiti Day Nine, Ten and Eleven

SATURDAY
Everyone was dragging a little today. We all thought that our stay here wouldn't be too bad physically. It caught up with all of us. Everyone was in much better health today.

A group of us went to a large tent city up in Petion-Ville. An estimated 50-60 thousand people have moved into the golf course area of the Petion-Ville club. A company of the 82nd airborne is there and a medical relief group has been directing healthcare services.
We assisted with simple care and after we finished there we got a special treat. We stopped by a supermarket and grabbed some sinful indulgences like Pringles and chocolate.

The people have started rebuilding and even though it will take years to complete it’s so encouraging to see. Children are so resilient here and everywhere we go they're playing with cars created out of juice bottles and little kites made from plastic bags. The people in these tent cities have named roads and walkways and are starting little businesses. I love their faith and determination. No matter how depressing the situation becomes they always smile and laugh and are so willing to share.

Tomorrow, needless to say, we won't be fasting. Those of you who are though please keep the Haitians in your prayers.

SUNDAY
Today I went back to General Hospital downtown. We left at 7 am this morning and miraculously got there in about 15 minutes without any traffic jams. Luckily, we went in when we did because there was hardly anyone there this morning. It was a great day. We helped little children, pregnant women, old grandmas, mentally sick people, people with PTSD and everything in between. I pray that the Haitians are watching these amazing doctors and learning how to give good care.
I'm sweaty, smelly, tired and hungry and loving life!

To top it off, today as a special gift to the 82nd airborne we hooked up the super bowl at camp and are watching the Colts and Saints now. How cool. Watching football with the US army in Haiti sipping Couronne. Coolest super bowl I've ever attended.
This was a much needed energy boost and now we'll be able to finish strong.

Keep praying for miracles here. There is still so much to be done. We've barely begun.

MONDAY
I showered for the third time and it was beautiful because the military set up showers for us in a large tent. What a great feeling to be clean for a few hours.

Today we visited a church compound/refugee camp in Cabaret which is about 45 minutes north of PAP along the main state route. The people were extremely kind and welcoming and fortunately the group was very healthy as a whole. We did a couple minor surgeries and helped some children with various maladies. The team of Haitian men that run this are amazingly kind, faithful men who are helping literally thousands of children and adults who lost their homes in Delmas and needed somewhere to stay. There is no better location to recover than outside of PAP.

This country is beautiful and those who never leave PAP don't realize that. These generous men also run an orphanage in Croix des Bouquets. Great men. It was an honor to help them for the day. They were so grateful when we left.

Tomorrow is our last full day. I can't believe our mission is coming to an end. There is still so much to do and there are lots of reasons why we have to leave early. I'll be working the "circuit" when I get home to get the word out to everyone I can. My second to last email will be tomorrow night.

Haiti Day Eight

So, I almost lost it today. Little did I know how emotionally spent I am. I returned to University of Miami's hospital today and again helped out in the adult ward. The children's ward is cute but heart wrenching when they get operated on. I was catching up with all of our PT patients for the first half of the day. The second half of the day I worked with a doctor and a nurse updating patient charts and changing IV's.

It all came to a head when we started working with the patients who have spinal cord injuries. The first patient was great news. He could move his toes and feet and even though he was in an incredible amount of pain he looked extremely hopeful.

The next patient was the heart breaker. The doc started telling this young kid in his early twenties that he had a severe spinal cord injury and only had a 5% chance of walking again after his surgery. He looked at me with this blank stare and then began to tear up. I was taken back because I figured he already knew this since he'd been in the hospital for a week. Then he started begging with me to fix him. He said he had a child and a wife that he needed to care for and he couldn't be handicapped. I turned to the doc and said, “Doc, this is the first time this patient has received this news.” She was surprised too but we had to continue. She explained to him that she would work with him to get him accustomed to the new lifestyle. I had to bite my lip a few times but I told him over and over again that he couldn't lose hope and he had to have faith that he would be okay.

The rest of the day was draining but rewarding, but after that encounter I had to walk outside of the hospital and take a breather for a little bit. I'm so glad we are here but never imagined what this was really going to be like.

Haiti Day Seven

I decided to shower last night rather than post. Sorry. I'm only showering every three days so it’s a big deal.

Right now I'm sitting in a typical Haitian blokis (traffic jam) that won't go away anytime soon because this 4 lane two way main boulevard has just turned into a 4 lane one way nightmare. The best part is that we're right across from the main outdoor market and all the foods mixed with burning garbage combine for quite the sensory overload.

Yesterday I assisted Dr. Matt Huish for the second day at Miami's field hospital and we continued our rehab therapy with our same group of 25 patients. 7 of them have lost a limb, one is a 60 year old with two broken legs, one is a complete headache but we help her still because we love her, several have multiple fractures, and one guy is so weak that when we helped him walk with his crutches for about 20 yards he told me he was getting light headed and then proceeded to faint on me. Dr. Huish said it was a good thing he has someone to speak the language or he never would have known that was coming.
A quarter of the patients live outside of the actual hospital building in tents, two patients to a tent, and have to do their rehab in the burning sun. I spent the entire day encouraging some, aggressively convincing some of the stubborn ones, and telling all of them to not lose hope. The best part of the long day was towards the end when I'd been joking around with a group of the patients and an older gentleman came over and said thank you for the joking around because it lifts everyone's morale. That's all I needed to keep me going the rest of the day.

When we first arrived at the Univ. of Miami's hospital in the morning I spoke with a security guard from Delmas. He was a good looking intelligent kid who was about 21 years old and his name is Stanley. Stanley was only 1 year away from graduating with an education in statistics and was going to work for the government and be able to do some good. He is strong but humble. He has excellent ideas for changing the country and moving it forward. Unfortunately, now he won't be able to complete his studies because like so many other schools his was damaged and completely destroyed. The saddest part though was that he lost his best friend of 15 years in the earthquake. They were out in the street together and a wall fell on his friend and killed him instantly. He said what made it worse was that he couldn't bury him properly. Because of the magnitude of the devastation he was forced to bury his friend right there rather than having someone else come by and burn his body along with the hundreds of others. To see the sadness in his eyes as recounted the experience to me broke my heart. I asked him how hard it’s been without him and he told me that he can't ever be alone because he'll start to remember him. He thinks if him every day and every night. The loss here is unimaginable. I told a mother the other day that I don't know what I would do if I lost one of my boys. Thank goodness for the gospel.

Today was much if the same with a twist. About 20 of our team members came down with some heavy sicknesses. By the end of the day one person was flown to Miami, 12 were on IVs and the rest of us are praying that we don't get hit with it. I'm praying that I remain healthy. Thank you for your prayers. I was at General Hospital translating for an Army Lieutenant and a Doctors without borders doctor. Tomorrow I head to a new hospital downtown!
Love from Haiti.

On the Home Front

It's been just over one week and the good news is we are surviving. The first few days were horrible...I'll be honest. I couldn't sleep or stop missing him. I'd cry at anything and my boys were struggling...strep throat, ear infection, cough and just missing dad. Jace is the only one that really understood what was happening. Here is his sad little face as he said his final good-bye to dad. We ate In-N-Out before he left...tried to make the day seem like a party, but we weren't fooling anyone. I'd already cried in his shoulder as we danced in our bedroom to one of our favorite songs as he was getting packed. Mike tried to be tough, like it was no big deal, but he was feeling the weight of what was going to happen.

Last Friday evening, Rick and Marci arrived. My boys ran to tackle them, and I was next. I don't know who was more excited to see them, my boys or me! It was such a relief to have reinforcements. I was shaky and hadn't slept much in 2 nights. They took us to dinner, let me sleep in on Saturday morning, and seemed to just take care of everything. It was such a nice little break. I feel so blessed to have in-laws that I love so much. They are so good to me and my family.

They also came to catch Jace's basketball game.

And Parker's soccer game, where he scored our team's first goal!!! Go Fighting Sharks!

On Saturday afternoon they took the kids bowling and to an arcade so I could get some work done. I so enjoyed those few hours of quiet. On Sunday we went to church, took a walk, played at the park, and just spent time together reading, playing charades and eating. I'm one of those people who loves my life full of people, and it was so nice to cook for someone besides my kiddos who would always rather just have a quesadilla.
Before they left on Monday, there was a lot of crazy play going on, they came to my workout, and then we picked up Jace early from school and headed to the dollar store where they got to spend $2 on anything they wanted. I loved watching their little minds go back and forth between buying candy or junk. They thought they were so cool. Then we all got a little frozen yogurt and said our good-byes. I was so sad to see them go.

Both Rick and Marci are just really GREAT people. Where can you find in-laws that are so supportive, kind and complimentary? Everytime they come to stay with us, they gush about how they love the way I mother and the way we raise our kids and way we discipline and the way we cook and the way we love each other and how beautiful we all look and how great it feels to be in our home. Even on weekends like this one where my kids were unusually hard and I was less patient than normal and my house was more messy than ever, they couldn't stop saying how much they admired Mike, me and our children. How in the world did I get so lucky? I was teary when they left, not because I was sad, but just because I was so grateful for them and their love and support.

This week has been good. We've all gotten back in our groove and my boys are helpful and kind and feeling better. They love it when I ask them to be "the dad," and they are instantly wonderful and mature. I found some patience again and more smiles and energy and have even slept okay a few nights here and there. We still miss Mike...my garbage can sat on the curb for 2 extra days, our scripture reading is a bit rushed, our dinners are pretty sub par, my phone batteries are all dead because I'm never the one that puts them back on the charger, and my garage and car are a mess and Mike will not be cleaning them out on Saturday. I'm lonely at night and stay up too late and read too much, but I'm so glad Mike is in Haiti with people that really need him. I love hearing from him and am so glad I married a man who can truly forget himself. Haiti is where he is supposed to be, but we can't wait to get him back with us.