Woke up, got ready, ate breakfast, etc.
Then we left for Orphanage #3.
I have no words for this orphanage.
But at the same time, I have so much to say.
This orphanage had around 70 kids.
Some children were naked.
Some boys were wearing girl clothes.
Some of them were wearing sweaters or winter pajamas, and it was so hot.
They were all dirty.
Most of them were coughing.
They had flies crawling on them.
Some had hernias.
Some had bloated bellies.
One boy yanked my "God works miracles" bracelet off my wrist, put it in his pocket, and ran away.
Some of the girls tried to pull the earrings out of my ears.
They were hungry and thirsty.
There was a little pump outside that pumped dirty water.
The orphanage smelled like a barn, maybe worse.
The beds that had mattresses had very thin mattresses, and some beds seemed to have nothing more than a folded blanket on top of the frame.
I saw some kids sleeping on the floor or on benches.
But the thing that got me most was the sadness in their eyes.
I feel like when people think about orphans, for some reason they think "they have nothing but they're so happy" etc.
Not saying that these kids didn't smile and laugh and play,
but they were broken.
It seemed like a child was almost always crying.
I noticed that a lot of them seemed to not know how to be held; they would reach up but once I was holding them they would just hang there and stare at me.
They would hit and pinch each other, and even hit and pinch us.
They fought over rice... well actually they fought over everything.
It breaks my heart that they would feel like they have to.
Our job at this orphanage was to fill buckets with sand from a pile outside the orphanage, get them through the orphanage, up the steps, and to the workers upstairs who would mix it with water to make some kind of cement that would eventually become another room for the orphanage.
The strong boys filled the buckets :)
A bunch of us formed a line through the building and passed the buckets to the steps, where some really brave members of our team were.
They passed them up to some other really brave people at the top, who dumped them in a pile for the workers to use.
The kids all wanted to get in line and help us too. Some of them wanted held, and would reach up and cry. So we adapted, and carried buckets with one hand, or carried buckets together, or took turns sitting on the bench holding multiple children at once.
It was pretty tough.
But at the same time it felt so good and was such an honor to work together for God and do whatever we possibly could for those kids.
We instantly fell in love with them.
We went to Orphanage #3... four of the days we were there.
When we finished working for the day, we played with the kids for a while, then loaded up and went back to the guest house.
First moments with the kids ♥
Karli feeding some hungry children ♥
They loved to do our hair!
This picture gets me. He's so thin.
Getting hair done!
When we got to the guest house, we changed, got cleaned up, and left again to go meet Lorvens!
If you don't know who Lorvens is, he is an adorable, awesome, cutie pie little 4 year old boy being adopted by an awesome family, the Huber's :) They have been in the adoption process for a while, and all of us back home have been anxiously waiting to meet him! How cool that we got to meet him in Haiti!!
Nick was with our team, and Rachael and Mrs. Huber were in Haiti visiting Lorvens the same time that we were there.
Isn't God cool :)
On the way there we stopped at a market (like a grocery store type one).
It was funny, they wanted to take us on a tour of their store.
It was kind of like a Walmart or something.
They had groceries, food, clothes, electronics, etc.
It was cute.
Then we left that store, and there was a guy outside with a huge gun!!!
I guess they didn't want us stealing groceries? :)
On the way to the hotel where Rachael and Mrs. Huber were with Lorvens, we saw some like... riot or something. It was crazy! People were screaming and holding signs and stuff. One guy fell off a tap tap.
But anyways, we got to the hotel. It was fancy.
Lorvens was so cute.
There were other families there visiting their kids too.
It was really lovely.
Adoption is so beautiful.
Lots of vehicles like this in Haiti!
Going to meet Lorvens :)
Super excited :)
Guest house gate + Nixon
Haiti
Crazy
At the market!
Colton - Doug's son :)
Cutest refrigerators!
Sometimes Nixon would scare us half to death and hang on the back of the tap tap :P
With Lorvens!
Nixon after they threw him in the pool!
Then Kylee and I went downstairs to take showers, and there was a lizard in her shower. Hahaha.
Then we had our nightly team meeting thing and got ready and went to bed.
It was an awesome day in Haiti :)
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