A House for Figi's Family

I have learned over the years to try not to have any expectations when you are talking about life in a developing country. It's human to have expectations, so often some sneak in...but I try not to let them.

For example, if you expect to get someplace in the developing world that normally takes 10 minutes to drive to, it can easily take an hour and half. More often than not, something will happen to cause a delay--your vehicle breaks down, or the driver gets sick and doesn't show up, or the road is closed for some crazy reason, or some other random thing happens to make you late. Other times, things swing the other way and something that you were expecting to be hard goes better than expected.

Another example of this would be adopting our daughter from Vietnam ten years ago. While the adoption process was going on, I purposely tried to NOT think about what it would be like to hold her in my arms for the first time. Because there were so many things that could have happened that would have prevented our ever adopting her. Thank God, Cece's adoption was one of the precious, grace-filled times where things went easier than is typical for Vietnam.

So, all of this is a rather lengthy way of saying that as I was trying to raise money to pay for the building of some houses in Haiti, I tried NOT to think about what it would be like to give away a house. I tried to keep my expectations low.

I left the picking of who would get a house to John and Beth McHoul, who have lived in Haiti for over 20 years and pour their hearts in their ministry every day there. John and Beth have personal relationships with hundreds, if not thousands of Haitians. They know their stories and are infinitely more qualified to pick one family out of all the needy families to get a gift of a house. The house, is, of course what you all made possible with your donations.

The tent camps in Haiti are like nothing I've ever seen before. In every public park, in every vacant lot, by the side of the road and even in a median strip there are tents and tarps where families are trying to survive after the earthquake. Nobody really knows how many people are living outdoors, but most of the estimates agree it is over 1.3 million people living in tents in Port-au-Prince alone. The tents get hot as ovens during the day, and offer lousy protection when it rains. The ground around them turns muddy and the water runs off onto whatever ground is lowest--usually the tents of many unfortunate families.

Tents are not secure, so the few belongings a Haitian family may have after the earthquake often get stolen because there is no way to effectively lock anything up. John says many times families who go to their church and live in the tent camps will trade off Sundays going to church--the husband going one week, and the wife going the next Sunday because somebody needs to stay with the tent and watch their possessions all the time. The tent camps are extremely noisy and crowded with tents strung up right next to other tents. I can not imagine living this way with my family.

Heartline has been trying to provide simple wooden houses for families they know have special problems. Many of the houses they build are for people who lost limbs in the earthquake and who Heartline cared for weeks and months while they recovered.

I didn't know when I arrived in Haiti who John and Beth would pick to get the first house this blog/fundraising effort would pay for. They told me they had prayed about this decision and chose a lady named Figi. Figi is not her real name -- which is Marjorie (a different Marjorie than the young woman I wrote about a few weeks ago who lost her hand.) "Figi" means "face" in Creole. John loves giving people--Haitian or American-- nicknames. John has the kind of crazy, outgoing personality that people just love and therefore they embrace any nickname he bestows on them.

He calls this lady Figi because she has seven children and John says all the children look exactly like her. They have her face, so he calls her Figi. As it happens, all her children are girls. Marjorie came to the Heartline field hospital after the quake with extremely high blood pressure. John and Beth fear for Figi's health and for what would happen to her children if she were to die. They have arranged for Figi to get treatment for her blood pressure and they have her come into the clinic every week, monitor her blood pressure and give her free blood pressure medication.

About the time of the earthquake, Figi had a baby and stayed at Heartline hospital for weeks after the birth while the doctors tried to monitor her health and get her blood pressure under control with medicine. Then Figi stayed in an outdoor ward with a tarp strung up over head, but at least she had a cot to sleep on, medical care, was fed every day and had the Heartline staff to help with the newborn baby. Her oldest daughter, about age 17, had stayed with Figi at the hospital also to help take care of her mom and her newborn sister. John and Beth know the whole family well. Figi eventually got well enough to go back with the rest of her family in the tent camps.

Beth told me to come to the clinic at noon on Tuesday, because Figi comes in then for her weekly blood pressure check and never misses her appointment. John and Beth wanted me to be with them when they told Figi the news that she was getting a house and would soon be able to leave the tent camp with her family. They were sure Figi would be very excited and happy.

Figi showed up looking terrible--downcast, hunched over, red eyes and a voice so scratchy and soft she could barely get words out. Clearly something was wrong. With my non-existent Creole language skills, I couldn't tell what exactly was happening but obviously something very, very bad was going on. Soon John and Beth translated what Figi was saying: her oldest daughter, her helper, had died three days earlier.

Figi was deep in morning and grief. Beth nearly started crying herself and we all ached for this woman who already had so many hard things going on in her life. John and Beth questioned her about what happened: had the teenager been sick long? Did she get cholera? Figi gave short answers in a choked voice...she didn't think it was cholera because her daughter did not have diarrhea--the teenager had severe stomach pain. The family took her to a large public hospital and she died very suddenly the same day she got sick. Figi is not an educated woman, so asking for a more precise diagnosis wasn't going anywhere. All she knew is that her daughter had died. Most likely, no one at the hospital ever bothered to explain to her why the girl had died.

Figi looked like she might faint and so we quickly got her a chair and into a side room away from the busy clinic lobby. Figi cried and poured her heart out to Beth. Figi said everyone in the tent camps is sick--coughs and other illnesses are spreading everywhere. She was afraid more of her children were going to die. Figi's husband has not been able to find work since the earthquake and she was afraid the whole family would starve. She cried out she was afraid someone in the tent camp would kidnap her girls and rape them or sell them as slaves. Pain and fear poured out of Figi like a flood.

It was beyond heartbreaking.

All we could do was hold her hands, listen and grieve with her. Allison, the leader of our short term mission trip was there, as well as Beth and myself. Beth told her that this American lady wanted to pay for her family to have a house. That John would find some land to buy and then she would have a free house and could move her family out of the tent camps. With her blood pressure issues, John and Beth are truly afraid that living in the camp is going to kill her.

With a house to live in, Figi's personal security and that of her family would vastly improve. Beth kept saying something in Creole and then "fini, fini" which means "finished." Beth promised her that some of those worries she had would be finished shortly. No more fear of flooding. No more living in a crowd of sick people, no more worries about her girls being kidnapped. Those worries would soon be finished.

Beth tried to tell Figi she must keep taking her blood pressure pills and take care of herself for the sake of her other children. Figi's plastic pill box indicated that she had forgotten to take her medicine for several days.

While Beth was talking, Figi was quiet and somber. She seemed shell-shocked--in her grief there was just no reaction to the news that she was getting a house. She nodded her head, but the news did not really penetrate. It was as though one of your children died and then three days later the Publisher's Clearinghouse Prize Patrol showed up at your house with a check for $200,000 for you. You would be somewhat pleased, but you not be that happy because nothing can replace the loss of a beloved child. This was not the time for joy, it was a time for grief. In that grief God granted me the privilege of lighting a tiny candle of hope in Figi's life.

Allison and I stayed and prayed with Figi for a long time. Allison lived and worked for a year at an orphanage in Haiti and so she is fluent in Creole. At one point as we were praying, I heard a strange sound and half-realized that Beth had quietly taken a picture of us praying together. Beth posted her telling of this whole story and the picture on the Heartline Ministries blog which you can read at Heartlineministries.org (See the entry for Nov. 10.) I am the one in the orangish shirt. Before I left, Beth took Figi and my picture together. As you can imagine, we are not smiling in the photograph. The picture still means a lot to me.

It was a good thing I had low expectations--that I had not spent a lot of time anticipating making someone very happy by giving them a house. It didn't happen that way. It's Haiti, and things rarely go the way you think they might. I could not give this woman her daughter back, but I could give her something else that will somewhat help her.

You all share that role by donating for the house and praying for me while I am in Haiti. Please pray for Figi too, her husband and her six remaining girls. Beth and John promised to keep us updated and as soon as they find some land they will build the house and send pictures.

Today's blog story was a long and hard one that I wish had a better ending.
Fini. Fini.

People, Trucks, and Gangs

One of the greatest things about being in Haiti is meeting the people I been reading and writing about for months. Today, I got to spend time with Marjorie, who I wrote about when she lost her hand in the earthquake. Heartline Ministries nurtured her back to health and built a house for her family to live in. Marjorie is sweet and shy and wonderfully kind.

I also go to meet Emmanuel, a 20-year-old young man who lost one leg in the earthquake. Heartline is helping him go to school, and he is even able to ride his bike to school with his prosthetic leg. He loves practicing his English with the short-term missionaries like us who are with Heartline for a few days or few weeks.

I also got to meet the woman who will receive the house that I fundraised for with the blog. I'll make that a separate blog entry. It was an especially tragic story and it didn't go at all how I thought it might.

Getting from point A to point B in Haiti is completely crazy and you wouldn't believe the things that people do here as a matter of daily life. Things that are considered totally unsafe and illegal in the USA are done here without an eye blink.

Soon I'll post soon the pictures of the truck I've been riding around on every day--a huge truck with a railing on the top-- and we sit on the roof of the truck and hold on for dear life. It puts you up so high it is like riding and elephant--if you can imagine riding on the roof of the cab of a semi-truck, that's what we are doing. You have to contiuously be aware of tree branches and power lines and many times we have to quickly lie down flat on the truck roof to avoid being hit in the head by anything.

You can do incredible things when you come as a missionary and stay with people who know Haiti and all it's ways. These are things that would never, ever happen in the USA and would be totally crazy to do if you weren't with someone who knows the area intimately. Today, we went to Cite Soleil in downtown Port au Prince for a meeting/party with 50 children that Heartline sponsors to go to elementary school. The United Nations considers Cite Soleil to be a highly dangerous slum and sends their people into that part of town only when wearing hard helmets and armed with heavy guns.

Cite Soleil is ruled completely by Haitian gangs, but the head of Heartline Ministries, John McHoul, is known and respected even by the gang leaders in this roughest, poorest part of town. The leader of the gang is a gianormous guy named Franz.

We saw the Cite Soleil children put on a little program of singing and recitations, and when it was over, an incredible thing happened. Franz, the big, tough-looking leader of the gang (did I mention he was huge?) took my hand in his. As if I were his mother and he was taking care of me, he helped me climb into the Heartline truck. He treated me and all the women of Heartline with the utmost kindness, respect and care.

In Franz's eyes, I was with Pastor John, so I was automatically considered OK by him. Franz had his gang guys standing guard all around us as we were leaving and he made sure that no one messed with us or our truck. That was a totally wild experience! I am a typical Briargate suburban mom-- I do not usually hang around with tough-guy gang leaders.

As a side note, there was one little thing that happened today that made us all laugh in the middle of a really hard part of Haiti. On the building that hosted the Cite Soleil program, someone had taped up a handmade paper sign put there for today. It was written in broken English, and totally cracked up everyone in our group. The sign said, "Welcome Pastor John and HER Staff." John may never live it down. Naturally we had to take a picture of him with the sign.

Getting very late here, must sign off for now.

Working

There is no end to the work that needs to be done in Haiti--this is one small ministry and there is endless work to be done. Our short-term team is pitching in with very routine-sounding but necessary work like washing walls and painting rooms. Heartline runs several different programs: a sewing center to provide women jobs so they can support their families. Heartlin runs a maternal and baby care center, so women can get prenatal care during their pregnancies and have safe child births. Heartline also does lots of follow up care so the babies have a higher chance of remaining healthy.

For more than ten years Heartline Ministries ran an orphange, but after the earthquake adoptions from Haiti were expediated--meaning all the kids here got adopted and went home to be with their forever families.

So Heartline now has an extra empty building--the former orphanage). After the earthquake that orphanage building was quickly turned into a field hospital, to care for so many people wounded people. Thanks to the efforts of dozens of different medical people who volunteered to come to Haiti in the weeks and months after the earthquake many, many people were healed. I've been telling some of those stories in earlier blogs.

Now that former orphanage building/field hospital is being changed into a home for unwed teen moms and their babies. The goal is to intervene in a young woman's life during her first pregnancy and provide emotional support, a stable housing environment, education, literacy training,and Christian mentoring. Also, to teach those young women job skills so they can support their children. Most of all, the women staff here at Heartline want to let the teen moms know they are loved deeply by their heavenly father, and that they can make other choices -- so that a girl having one child at 17 years old doesn't have another baby the next year and the next.

Those of us on the Colorado short-term team are painting the inside walls of the former orphanage. Washing walls, killing spiders, wiping away cob webs, cleaning and painting isn't glamorous work, but it is a small way we can help the full-time missionaries here. The Heatline staff is also introducing us to lots of the Haitians who they see in their ministry every week. Today I witnessed part of a class for moms to learn basic care for their babies--for example what to do if a baby develops a temperature,


Usually when I have traveled for missionary work in the past it has been to a Spanish-speaking country like Bolivia or Honduras where I can talk to people with my mediocre Spanish. Here I can't understand or speak the language at all and I'm really feeling it. Still, there are many people around who can translate. Not speaking Creole does have its drawbacks, however.

Last night I made a run out for sodas at a local small market nearby with one of the other volunteers, a teenager who has been living here in Haiti several months. When we got to the store, we were having trouble communicating with the clerk about the amount we owed--we only had American money.

My teen buddy hasn't been here long enough to acquire much Creole, and I know about only ten words. People here are more than happy to take American dollars, but there is a lot of math involved in the currency conversion. Currently there are about 40 Haitian "Gourdes" to the dollar. Doing math in my head has never been a great strength of mine (probably why I became and English major).

We solved the issue with the store clerk when I switched to Spanish. Wahoo! My brain barely remembers my high school and college Spanish but apparently I can shake the rust off if I really need to. Many people speak Spanish in Haiti because the Dominican Republic shares this island. We finished the translation in Spanish and I rejoiced that my long-ago college education finally paid off. I can buy a Coke-a-cola in Haiti.

Lots more has happened, but I am on a shared computer with other folks who would like a turn to use it, so I will sign off for now. More soon.

Full Day In Haiti

Yesterday was our first full day in Haiti, and it was packed with activity and getting a real look at Haiti. The morning started with a 40 min. drive through the streets of Port au Prince as we drove to church. Port au Prince Fellowship Church is an English-speaking congregation that attracts a lot of native Haitian Christians as well.

Church in developing countries is different than the church service we are used to in the U.S. ...and the number one difference is in VOLUME. People sing and clap and praise in super loud voices that, if you were to do the same thing in an American church, people would stare and wonder what the heck was wrong with you. The singing and praying go on with a level of high emotion and intensity that just seems unusual to outsiders, but from what I've seen is the total "norm" for other countries. By comparison, our churches look half asleep.

Later we took a two hour drive through the city of Port au Prince. Maybe someday I'll be able to describe Port au Prince, but right now, let's just say it's beyond anything I've seen in Bolivia, Honduras or even Vietnam in terms of the depth and scale of the poverty.

We're talking cobbled together tents that go on for as far as the eye can see in some places--with garbage and the insects and animals that feed on garbage everywhere. Garbage is piled in heaps everywhere you look--and pigs and goats that feed on the trash wander around freely and become extra traffic hazards. Pigs and goats running in the street are more common than squirrels in Briargate.

Much of the earthquake damage has been partially cleaned up in the parts of the city we were in-- mostly visible by vacant lots everywhere--buildings that have been torn down and hauled away. In other places, there are buildings that are totally pancaked--as if stomped on by a giant invisible foot. You can count the floors on th heap and tell that it used to be a four story building but is now only about eight feet tall. We saw the ruins of the National Palace (the Haitian version of the White House) and the mostly ruined National Cathedral. You all have probably seen pictures of those on the news.

On the streets, people carry their loads on their heads here in Haiti. I've tried it and found out how much easier it is to balance something heavy that way because the weight is centered on your body, not pulling you in one direction or the other. One image I will remember from today is a older lady who was balancing a three gallon plastic bottle of what appeared to be blue car window-wiper fluid on her head as she walked.

The guest house we are staying in while in Haiti is very comfortable, so don't think I'm camping out in a tent or something like that. It's a regular house and I have a the bottom bunk of a bunkbed in a room I'm sharing with three other women. The room could hold eight women if we were full here but, I have the comfort of the bottom bed without the shaking involved of having somebody on the top bunk. Our hosts, the McHouls who founded Heartline Ministries over 20 years ago and the couple that runs the guest house have been extremely gracious and kind. We had a small worship service in the guest house last night. Sundays are really stressed as days of worship here.

One thing I find extremely encouraging is the number of American young people who are staying in Haiti at the Heartline guest house. People in their late teens and twenties who are here for a month, some three months, some a year, all pouring out their lives and doing whatever needs to be done at this ministry for Haiti. There are at least three young people staying here at the house long-term, and several others who live in buildings within a block or two of here.

I wish I had more time, but it is early morning and the work of the day is about to start. The internet connection comes and goes quickly and disappears without reason so I need to sign off. More soon. Terri

We made it!

We did make it to Haiti about noon today. Very little sleep last night -- maybe 2 hours so this is going to be short. My traveling companions are great--all people I have never met before. Hurrican Tomas was very kind and mostly missed this part of Haiti. Everyone at Heartline has been very welcoming. More tomorrow when I am not so tired and loopy. Love to all of you and especially Ralph and the kiddos. Terri

Good News / Bad News

Take a look at the blue graph, baby! The blue bar has moved big time, thanks to you many generous donors. (It's on the far right side of the blog page.)

This isn't the final number. A few checks are still coming in. The bookkeeper can't come up with a final number yet, but we are finally able to say YES, WE HAVE ENOUGH TO BUILD A HOUSE (or two) IN HAITI. Wahoo!

So that's the good news. The bad news: just about everything else. Hurricane Tomas, is as this moment, pounding Haiti. I can only imagine what the horrible results will be for the people in the tent camps. Cholera is spreading in Haiti, and this new flooding will only make it worse.

At this moment, no airplanes are landing in Haiti--the airport in Port au Prince is closed. I am scheduled to leave DIA this afternoon (Friday) and fly to Florida. Our little mission trip group of five people was supposed to board a plane early Saturday morning to fly into Haiti. The ministry we are serving is right in Port au Prince, sbout 15 minutes from the airport, so if they let planes land at the airport, we will be able to get to our destination. We have potential to be one of the first planes to land after the storm lets up.

If the airport remains closed into Saturday morning, we will have to be re-booked on new flights into Haiti. We may be cooling our heels in Florida for a day or two. I pray we make it, and don't end up having to turn around come back to Colorado.

I hate all the uncertainty. Let me categorically state, I am bad at uncertainty. But these events are completely out of my hands. So please pray for me to accept whatever happens without getting emotionally bent out of shape. May God's will be done.

And to keep track of me from now on, you are going to need to check my blog. I've been emailing about 75 people directly with my blog, but I can not do that while in Haiti. The responsibility is now on you. If you want to know what I am in doing, where I am, and if we make it to Haiti you will have to check my blog. Go to Pound4pound4Haiti.blogspot.com

The leader of the trip has an Iphone, so I hope to be able to update my blog from Haiti. I will try very hard to do so. I have no idea what internet access will be like after this storm.

It is still very possible to donate to this effort to build houses in Haiti if you are moved to do so. Please make the checks out to Heartline Ministries. You can find out more about Heartline by clicking on the link on the right side of the blog. They are a fabulous non-profit that has been in Haiti for over 20 years. Send checks to: Heartline Ministries
(ATTN. Pound4Pound Housing Fund)
P.O. Box 898
Sunnyside, WA 98944

I am trying to raise the money to build at least four houses in Haiti. Be sure to write Pound4pound on the memo line so the bookkeper will know to dedicate your donation to this house-building project.

OK, I'm off! Stay tuned and pray!

Memo to Hurricane Tomas: GO AWAY!

With less than five days to go before I leave for Haiti, yet another new wrinkle has appeared. Hurricane Tomas is looking at the moment like it will hit Haiti on Thursday. I am scheduled to leave for Haiti on Friday afternoon.

With over a million people living in tent camps, I can not even imagine the devastation if a hurricane hits Haiti. There is literally nowhere safe to put the people who are living in the tent cities to get them out of the storm. Please join me in praying that hurricane Tomas weakens and changes course to miss Haiti.

At the Urban house, we've received some bad family news I am not at liberty to share, at least not now and not over the internet. Let me say only that the forces of darkness apparently want me to be anxious and afraid. Please pray with me that I stay grounded on the word of God and in the calm that God alone holds my fate and my family's future in his hands. We stand on God's promises and trust him.

Lord, we know you have the power to control the wind and the waves. We humbly intercede right now for the people of Haiti. Spare the people the destruction of a hurricane, we ask in the name of Jesus. Turn Tomas in a direction where it will not cause loss of life. We pray against the spread of cholera. We pray against the tide of hopelessness. We ask for solutions to the many problems of the land, especially the issue of housing for the people. Lord we place our hope in you and ask you Lord God to protect the innocent. Lord, we ask you to save us from despair and put our hope entirely in you.

TICK -TICK- TICK

The clock is ticking because I'm leaving for Haiti in six days. If you've been intending to donate to the fund to build houses for homeless families in Haiti, please do it now. Do NOT procrastinate one more day!

Many of you have asked me about the cholera epidemic in Haiti and how that would affect my plans. My answer: only God knows. Cholera is spread by unclean water, so avoiding contact with contaminated water and to a lesser degree contaminated food is key.

While in Haiti, I am staying at the Heartline Ministries Guesthouse, which is run for American visitors and by American hosts. They are very familiar with the protocols for safely handling food and water. God willing, I won't need to worry about getting sick.

But if cholera hits the Port Au Prince area, Heartline Ministries would likely become involved in helping the afflicted. So really, who knows? I'm trying not to think too far ahead. This is one of those time when I am trying very hard to place myself in God's hands and not worry over every possible scenario.

The good news is that more people are donating to build houses in Haiti--the bad news is that we are running out of time. Currently we are at about $1650 or 33% of the $5,000 goal

There are only three days left to donate through the Paypal route,(the Chip-In Meter) if that is your intention. The Chip-In Meter closes on November first, and we are practically there. Paypal is not the only method available--there is always the good ole' personal check. The blue graph on the far right shows the ACTUAL TOTAL, adding together the Paypal contributions from the Chip-In Meter and checks people have mailed in.

You are very welcome to send in a personal check. Checks should be made out to: Heartline Ministries and sent to:
Heartline Ministies ATTN.Pound4Pound Housing Fund
P.O. Box 898
Sunnyside, WA 98944.

Be sure to add that "Pound4Pound Housing Fund" on the envelope or the memo line of the check so that your donation will be specifically dedicated by the bookkeeper to this housing effort.

In the meantime, huge thunderstorms are dumping rain and wind on Port au Prince several times a week. Living conditions there are bad and getting worse--it's been over 9 months since the earthquake. Safe, basic housing would make a huge impact on the lives of families there. Please help.

The Big Diet Reveal

OK, three months of dieting. Drum roll please....I've lost 17 pounds.

I was hoping for more weight loss, but a little more than 5 pounds a month is pretty good. It's the best I could do without a personal trainer, nanny or chef. I feel I gave a good, honest effort and got some decent results.

If you are sponsoring me on a per pound basis, it's time to pay up. I'm continuing to diet and exercise, so those of you who feel inclined could maybe spot me three pounds and call it an even 20 pounds. I have a feeling I will be working quite hard physically in Haiti and will probably lose some weight there.

You can pay thorough the Chip-In Meter on the far right side of the page, if you have a Paypal account. If you would like to send a check directly to the ministry, please make the check out to Heartline Ministries and send it to:

Heartline Ministries
Attn. Pound4pound Housing Fund
P.O. Box 898
Sunnyside WA 98944

Heartline Ministries is a 501-C3 non-profit organization and you will receive a receipt for your donation that you can use for income tax purposes. It is very important that you write the Pound4pound Housing Fund on the envelope so that the bookkeeper knows to put it in the account specifically earmarked for building houses.

Of course, if you know me and see me in the regular course of a week, you can make the check out to Heartline Ministries and hand it to me and I will mail it in for you. But it might be quicker to just mail it in and be done with it. I need to get everything to the bookkeeper by November 1st!

I would really like to go to Haiti with an idea of how many houses we can build there as a result of all of us working together for homeless families in Haiti. $2500 builds 2 houses. I say let's build at least four houses for homeless families in Haiti.

Please don't delay if you have a pledge to send in. I leave for Haiti in eight days. P.S. We have at least $200 more than we did yesterday! We're at $1,515 raised or 30% of goal. It's time to really make those graphs move. Please help.

Just 10 Days to GO--The Update

Imagine camping with your family. Now imagine camping with your family, with no camping gear FOR NINE MONTHS. That is what is going on right now in Haiti. Most people are living under tarps and blankets cobbled together to form the most minimal type of shelter. My brain explodes and my heart aches when I think about parents trying to raise their children in these horrible conditions.

Over one million people are living under tarps and tents at this moment in Port-au-Prince. My goal is to build four families houses in Haiti. That requires $5,000. At this moment, we have $1,315 in total donations. That is about 26% of the goal. The scary thing is, I leave for Haiti in 10 days! That's not much time.


I have been struggling mightily with a way to give you readers an accurate update on the amount of money we have raised together to build houses for homeless families in Haiti.

The Chip-In Meter (and the associated orange bar graph) on the side of the blog is great for people with Paypal accounts, but it has some significant limitations. There is no way for the orange graph to record the money from checks that people have mailed in directly to Heartline Ministries. Thus the orange bar graph has been rather inaccurate when it comes to totals from all sources of funds. I've been trying to figure out a better way of visually showing that.

So now we have a new improved blue graph near the top of the right side of this blog. It is just above the Chip-In graph. This blue graph adds together the Paypal contributions and checks for a complete financial picture of where we are. (Thanks to my hubby Ralph for working on the graph this weekend, in spite of the fact that our three kids were in a conspiracy to not give him a moment's peace to work on it.)

Those who have paid close attention may have noticed something else...I have lowered the goal. The old goal was probably unrealistic for these current economic times. I really appreciate the people who have dug in their pockets to give a donation to build a house for a homeless family in Haiti. $2500 builds two strong wooden houses in Haiti. Having a safe house means that families can stop living under tarps, tents and bedsheets.

The wonderful women in my Tuesday morning bible study group took up a collection for the Haiti Houses, and generously donated over $450. Thank you so much! I really appreciate seeing your faith in action. Appropriately, in the bible study we are reading and discussing the book of ACTS--which is largely about missions. Thank you Marilyn (our teacher) and all the fabulous women who attend. You all are huge gifts in my life. Again, I thank you.

I must get the donated money to the Heartline bookkeeper before I leave, so really Nov. 1 is our collection deadline. The funds need to be donated through Paypal or mailed by then.

So get ready to pay! I've been dieting for almost three solid months. I'll do the official weigh in tomorrow and find out how many pounds I've lost and how much you need to contribute to Heartline Ministries, if you are sponsoring me on a per pound basis. Of course, all donations of any amount are welcome.

Remember: In Haiti, camping has nothing to do with vacation. Please help me build some houses for needy families there.

Carrying --Two Different Kinds

Yesterday I did something somewhat unusual (for me.) In an effort to get more exercise, I walked to the grocery store and carried the groceries home. I used to do that over 20 years ago when I lived in Boston and didn't own a car, but I rarely do it here in Colorado. Buying groceries for my family of five people usually involves more bags of groceries than I can physically carry at once.

This time, I bought only things on special sale and had just 2 bags, probably about 15 pounds of groceries. And boy, did my arms hurt by the time I got home! Seriously--ouch.

All over the world and in many developing countries, women walk and carry food. In most cultures, carrying food and water is women's work, and it consumes A LOT of their time. People who live in Haiti (and many other countries) don't need gyms because the daily tasks of life involve a lot more walking and carrying than life does here.

So in addiition to carrying a physical burden recently, I also find myself carrying a heart-burden for my friend Ross Harrop. I talked about Ross in one of my very first blog entries. Ross is the biggest smack-talker in the world, ever. Somehow he has turned this talent for being a goofball into a career managing the finances of our church. (I know, go figure!)

Here is an antic typical of Ross. A few weeks ago, our family of five was late to church. (Ahem, we won't talk about WHO made us late.) My husband Ralph dropped us off at the church front door so we could miss as little as possible while he parked the car and walked in even later than the rest of us. Ross saw Ralph coming in late, and made a huge spectacle of it. He rushed over, pumped Ralph's hand and exclaimed in a loud voice, "HELLO! WECOME! You must be a newcomer to our church! We start at 10:30 a.m." Now, we have known Ross for about 14 years so we expect this kind of garbage from him, but that is just a very mild example of the type of stunts he pulls all the time.

The thing is, Ross also has the most gigantic heart ever, and he has been my biggest cheerleader in the whole Pound4Pound Challenge. Ross said he will pay me five dollars a pound for every pound I lose. Not even my mother has promised me $5 a pound! So right now, he owes me about $100 towards building the houses in Haiti.

The thing is, Ross just had a huge heart attack on Thursday and nearly died. His wife Jill (long-suffering woman that she is) is a nurse and got him to the hospital in time. He ended up having triple by pass surgery with a 95% blockage in one artery. Ross is only 55 years old, and his son had just gotten married a few days before he suffered the heart attack. Ross and Jill were in Florida for the wedding, so now that he is beginning the process of recovering, we can only love on him and pray for him long distance.

We are praying for you Ross. I mean it. We are. I physically get down on my knees for you every day.

But you still don't get out of paying me the $100 for the Haiti Houses, you big turkey.

Marjorie's Story

Marjorie is the 24 year-old Haitian woman pictured above, whose concrete-block house collapsed on her during the January 2010 earthquake. Because of her severe injuries, Marjorie's left hand was amputated by a British medical charity responding to the earthquake. That charity flew in all the orthopedic doctors they could find after the earthquake in order to handle the serious crush injuries caused by the scale of destruction.

Marjorie also had nerve damage to her right leg and a large gash on her head. After her operation, the British charity asked if Heartline Ministries would provide aftercare and other help for Marjorie, because they needed the bed for another orthopedic patient and Marjorie was not doing well.

Hearline missionary Tara Livesay went to pick up Marjorie in one of the ministry's trucks. Tara says, "Marjorie was one of the saddest people I had met. She cried the entire ride to Heartline and once there she sat totally alone, dejected and depressed."

"Honestly, she seemed without hope. It was obvious watching her that she had no desire to be alive and was deep in depression/mourning. After I dropped her off at Heartline, I got back in my truck and cried. I could not blame Marjorie for hating life and I felt totally helpless to cheer her up."

We can all only imagine the emotional trauma we would feel after losing a hand and suffering other serious injuries. Marjorie became one of the long-term patients in Heartline's care. Volunteer doctors and nurses who flew in from the United States kept volunteering for months and kept the newly formed Heartline Hospital open. There were so many patients with serious injuries, they felt there was no way they could close the hospital. The Heartline patients who stayed in the hospital also began bonding with each other, forming a new community of caring.

With loving and Christ-centered medical care, the patients began to heal. Heartline's staff made arrangements for physical therapists to come from the United States and work with patients who needed therapy, and arranged with other medical organizations to get prosthetic limbs to help the Heartline patients who needed them.

Patients designated time in the evenings where they would gather to sing and pray together. Severely injured people singing, clapping and praising God with gusto together is the most inspiring thing the American medical volunteers say they have ever seen.

Heartline worked with each patient to help figure out their future. Many had no homes to return to--their previous homes were rubble. Marjorie was one of the many Heartline patients who had nowhere to call home anymore.

Many of the medical charities who came to Haiti released patients who had suffered amputations and other serious injuries to live in crude tent camps, saying they were medical organizations only. Heartline felt they could not in good conscience release their patients to the horrible and unsanitary conditions of the tent camps.

Heartline co-founder John McHoul investigated and found that while most of Marjorie's neighborhood was damaged, the buildings closest to her house were still intact and structurally sound. If the rubble were cleared away, Marjorie's house could be rebuilt on the spot where it stood before the quake.

Marjorie lived in a very congested urban area where many buildings had collapsed and yet many remained whole. Much of the devastation was caused, in part, by poor construction standards for buildings. Because money is so scarce for most people in Haiti, people try to build as cheaply as possible and end up taking shortcuts--not using rebar to reinforce concrete walls, or thinning the concrete mixture too much with water and sand to save cost. The result after the earthquake? Well-constructed buildings standing right beside buildings that were heaps of debris.

Paige Porter Livesay, the 15-year-old daughter of two Heartline employees, ran a half-marathon in the United States this past summer and raised over $50,000 for Heartline's housing fund. Marjorie and her family received a new wooden house to replace their collapsed concrete one because of this fundraiser.

Together with Marjorie's family, Heartline employees and fellow patients worked together to construct Marjorie a new house, like the one pictured at the top of this blog. The houses are built from kits, made by Maxima Building in Haiti. The homes have been tested to withstand earthquake and hurricane forces. Marjorie even helped in the construction of her new house. In the picture above, Marjorie is looking out the window of her house while it was still under construction.

Missionary Tara Livesay says,"Of all the patients I met during those first weeks after the earthquke, Marjorie was the one that I thought about most. When I returned to Haiti...I met a different young woman; she had begun the long process of healing...She had learned to smile again."

Please help purchase more housing kits so people in Haiti like Marjorie can rebuild their lives. The kits to build two houses cost a total of $2,500. Whether you can give $5 or $500, please help me to raise the funds to build houses for the many homeless people of Haiti.

Too-busy People

I have to admit something that is hard to admit. I hope it doesn't sound like obnoxious complaining.

I am weary of people I care about telling me they are too busy to read this blog.

Most people in my circle of friendship are busy with really good things. Busy homeschooling their children, busy working because their families really need the money. I have several friends who are working second jobs because credit card debt is smothering them. Others are extremely busy working their home-based businesses.

And then family life intervenes: kids throw up, a hailstorm knocks the shingles off the roof, and the car refuses to start. I know. I know. I live in that world too.

The people I know and love are, in large part, too busy with their own problems to care about people suffering who live in a far-away country.

What I don't want to act is all entitled and self-righteous...with the attitude of "people SHOULD care because I do." We all know people who are just TOO intense about their favorite causes: too into their political opinions, too into animal rights, or rather over-involved in their favorite cause. Being PREACHY is a big turn off.

Quite frankly, I find it really annoying when people come to my house for a party, and then let it be known that if I really cared about the earth, I wouldn't be using paper plates and cups for my guests.

Being judgemental--it's very unattractive.

At the same time, I seem to hear the same phrases over and over and over. "I don't have time." And "It's the bad economy." And I am very frustrated.

I can only make decisions for myself. And I know that when I say, I don't have time for something...to pray, to study the bible, to read something that challenges me, I still manage to find time to spend time reading on the web, to spend time browsing on eBay, or to watch a talk show on television. Heck--Dancing With the Stars is my favorite guilty pleasure. It's cotton candy for the mind.

So far, the people who have pitched in to help build houses in Haiti are--in large part--the people who can least afford it. Two retired missionaries who are on support themselves. A single mom of three kids. These people don't have any more time or any more money than anybody else. Maybe they have less. But somehow they've made it a priority.

I leave for Haiti in less than a month. So far, there is no money to build even one house.

So it makes me wonder: is the problem me?

Maybe I don't have a very good hook publicity-wise. Fifteen-year old Paige Porter Livesay (the daughter of two Heartline employees) raised over $50,000 for houses in Haiti by running a half marathon. (I pray to God he never asks me to run a marathon or you are likely to see some very unpleasant, rebellious behavior that would rival the biblical Job.) A ten-year-old boy named Malcolm has raised money for a Heartline Haiti house through a walk-a-thon--to date he's raised over $2,200.

So is it that I'm not cute enough, or young enough or publicity-savy enough? I'm not 15 years old or 10 years old. I am a pudgy, over-worked, too-busy average American mom. I am not Angelina Jolie. I am not a beauty. I am not trying to do something flashy like break into the Guiness Book of World Records. I don't have a reality tv show. I sorta hate that I'm so unimportant and, well--average. I FEEL UTTERLY POWERLESS.

Beautiful and famous people can raise a lot of money and awareness. Rich people can write large checks. Young people can and do inspire. These are not bad things. Often they are very good things.

So far my appeal to overworked, too busy people doesn't seem to be effective. It's as though I'm saying, "Sponsor another pudgy, overworked, middle-age mom to build houses in Haiti." And people are saying, "No thanks. I'm too busy."

Ideas anyone?

He did not forget you, Collette

Heartline Ministries in Haiti decided that they would open an "instant" hospital within days of the earthquake. They found, however, there were so many injured people that field triage of the wounded became one of the hardest jobs. The materially poorest people of Haiti had little to no medical care available to them. Heartline Ministries drove their trucks into the slums of Haiti to help the wounded people who lived there.

Fortunately, Heartline and the injured people had help from several volunteer emergency medical technicians who traveled from the United States to offer their assistance. The EMTs could assess the injured,and even get drugs for pain and infections started in the field. Heartline employees like missionary Troy Livesay drove the trucks and translated the essential information from English to Creole and back again. The most seriously hurt were taken to the hospital first.

In one of these neighborhoods, Troy found a young pregnant woman laying on the ground in a clearing with many other injured people. The woman was seven months pregnant and in terrible pain any time she attempted to move her body, but she was not yet in labor. Her name was Collette. The medical volunteers guessed she had internal injuries. However, in the midst of the mass casualty situation, there were many other injured people who appeared worse than Collette. It was getting late in the day, and --although it broke his heart-- Troy had to tell Collette he would return for her the next day.

Collette grabbed his hand and said urgently in Creole, "Please don't forget me." Troy promised he would be back.

When the medical team returned to the neighborhood, Troy was determined not to leave without Collette. He found her. As he motioned for a driver to pull the truck up next to where Collette lay on the ground, she waved her arms in the air and screamed at the top of her lungs, "Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! You came back for me. Thank you Jesus!" She had been injured and on the ground for six days. Troy said he nearly burst out crying and could barely choke out the words, "I did not forget you."

So Collette was transported to Heartline Hospital, but she and her unborn baby were far from OK. Colette was diagnosed with a severely broken pelvis. The medical team at Heartline got her somewhat stabilized and controlled her pain. But Collette and her baby were in very serious condition.

The doctors suspected she would need surgery and her shattered pelvic bones screwed back together with metal hardware. Collette's baby would have to be delivered early, but Heartline's quickly-opened hospital did not have incubators or the kind of specialized care and equipment that premature infants need. How could Heartline save both the mother and the baby?

Dr. Jen Halverson, the head of Heartline's medical efforts had heard some rumors and television reports that the U.S. Navy's medical ship The Comfort was close to reaching Haiti. Collette and many other of the Heartline patients needed a level of care that Heartline Hospital simply could not provide--but the navy ship could.

Dr. Jen decided to try to find a way to locate the ship and get the Heartline patients to the star medical professionals there. They loaded eleven seriously injured patients, including Collette, onto four trucks and began driving in search of help. They traveled to an area of Port au Prince near the ocean. They stopped and asked directions from anyone and everyone. They found a road where someone told them they were headed toward some Americans.

They found an American military unit who was just beginning to set up camp. "Can you help us?" Dr. Jen asked them, gesturing to the eleven very seriously injured people in the Heartline trucks. The officer in charge said they had been on land for less than an hour, and they didn't have anything set up, but he would see what he could do. Tara Livesay, who had driven one of the trucks, prayed they had not loaded up these eleven injured people needing surgery and driven them around the city for nothing. Here is the story as Tara told it on her blog.

"All of a sudden out of nowhere a helicopter circled over a time or two ... then swooped in. It landed right out in front of us. Two studly helicopter military guys walked over and said they could take four people. We chose the four worst. They said 'We'll be back in ten minutes for more.' We could not believe what was happening. They came back ... and back. Three trips to the ship for the people of Simon Pele (the low-income neighborhood where the injured came from.) I asked a couple of the patients that I had connected with if they were afraid. They seemed to know that something big was about to happen. How humbling it was to watch the poorest of the poor ... forgotten by most ... be some of the very first patients to arrive by helicopter to a US Navy Hospital floating in the Port. I stood there weeping as they took the last group up."

"We left Heartline on Jen's hunch - with almost no location information and no certainty we would be received - and we found the American base, that had only been in place for 60 minutes, that led to the helicopter coming, that led to hurting people getting help."

"It felt like justice to me. Hurray for justice. Hurray for miracles."

Collette got a miracle. She was transported to the hospital ship where the navy medical professionals were able to deliver and care for her baby. The baby is a girl named Esther, who is alive and healthy today.

Unbelievably, Esther's C-section birth was captured in news photos from the Comfort that were seen all over the world. Collette and Esther were even featured in LIFE magazine. Once her baby was delivered, Collette received the life-saving surgery she needed on her pelvis and will be able to live a healthy and normal life. Both Collette and baby Esther returned to Heartline Hospital after several weeks on the navy ship so Collette could get follow-up care and physical therapy.

This is just one story of how Heartline helped the people of Haiti after the earthquake, acting as the hands of Jesus in an amazing situation. More to come.

Good News: A Quickie

Got some good news this weekend--we've raised more money than the Chip In Meter actually shows.

The Chip In Meter is connected to the Paypal account set up for the Pound4pound challenge. There is, unfortunately, no way to make it reflect the money that has been sent in to Heartline via check. So, there is actually about $200 in the fund that isn't recorded on the Chip-In graph.

I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in the total so far. It's turned out to be much harder to get people to READ this blog than I realized, let alone contribute some bucks.

I'm getting nervous because there are less than 5 weeks left before this fund raising effort ends and I leave for Haiti. I hope you all will stick with me as I travel to Haiti and blog from there. I know people are short of both time and money in this difficult economy. However, I can't control how people choose to spend their time or money: I can only control what I do. I'm continuing to diet, exercise an hour a day and my clothes are getting a lot looser. The weight loss is just slower than I would like it to be. I must learn to trust God to do the rest.

In the meantime, I need to root around in my closet and find a smaller pair of exercise shorts--my old ones are getting waaaay too loose. I don't want to lose them in the middle of aerobics class. (And now, you're saying "Thanks Terri, for that attractive mental picture.")

If you've been thinking about sending in a contribution and just haven't gotten around to it, please do it today. Thanks for stickin' with me and supporting me.

A Hospital is Born

With their children safely transported to the United States, American missionaries Troy and Tara Livesay were able to fully concentrate on helping the people of Haiti.

Shortly after the earthquake, the head of Heartline Ministries called together the staff. They prayed urgently, "Lord, what would you have us do?" They were a small band of people, less than 10 Americans, and fewer than 20 Haitian employees of Heartline.

What do you do in the aftermath of an earthquake --total apocalyptic chaos--when EVERYTHING is needed? The Haitian people needed water, food, medical care, housing,and supplies of every kind. Buildings were in ruins everywhere and roads were blocked by rubble. Many of the dead were stacked out on the streets.

The Heartline staff discerned they would try to help with medical care. Not one of them was a doctor or a nurse, but the Heartline staff knew that they had contacts in the medical community who would help. One of Tara's best friends was a emergency room pediatrician. Tara called Dr. Jen Halverson in Minnesota and in hours "Dr. Jen" had cleared her schedule and was headed for Haiti.

Heartline has been working in Haiti over 20 years, so they have a group of people in the USA who have come to know and support them. Heartline put out the word, "Tell everyone you know, we need doctors, nurses and EMT's. We also need people who speak Creole and can act as translators. We need people who can get to Haiti within two days and stay for as long as possible."

Their emails and phone calls for help were answered abundantly. It was a logistical nightmare to get people and medical supplies to Haiti but through tons of hard work and lots of prayer support, they managed it. In two days Heartline turned some of their buildings into a hospital, staffed with medical people who had never met or worked together before.

Many other charities and ministries were sending help to Haiti too--but the need was completely overwhelming. Beyond overwhelming. Everywhere, there were wounded.

The poor of Haiti do not have cars, so how could the injured people get to a hospital? Many people remained in their own neighborhoods, sleeping on the ground next to the rubble of their former homes. Heartline used their vehicles to go find the injured and pick them up. By the grace of God, Heartline had just purchased a large truck. The truck was supposed to be used for transporting visiting short-term mission teams from US churches when they came to Haiti. The truck became an ambulance that could transport almost a dozen injured people at a time.

Troy and the men of Heartline drove into the poorest neighborhoods of Port au Prince to find the wounded. These are places the United Nations would not even send their armed troops because they feared violence. The Heartline men and medical staff had no trouble with crime or violence--their problems were figuring out who was wounded the worst and therefore most in need of transport to the hospital.

In was now about a week after the earthquake. Anyone with a television saw the horrible injures after the Haitian earthquake and Heartline Hospital got them all: fractures with the bones exposed, deep lacerations, limbs needing amputation, crush injuries. I quote from Tara Livesay's blog.

"It seems that lots of folks were treated at home or by a friend or in some sort of make-shift clinic in the early hours following the earthquake. The problem is, they were not given follow up instructions and now they have major infections. In some cases they were wrapped with an ace bandage when in fact they have a major fractured bone...These injuries are far too serious to treat and send away for good..."

The Heatline non-medical missionaries "disinfected, ran around to get supplies, tried to prioritize patients, took phone calls, did research and tried to stay clear of things that might make us faint," as Tara described it. Many patients were treated on the ground in the yard outside of the Heartline Hospital, for lack of a better place.

Tara writes, "At one point in the day I walked by a guy that needed to pee. He was very vocal about it too. I looked around and found no one to help him ... I was it. Not something I can say I had ever done before today. Helping a non-ambulatory male go pee."

It quickly became clear that some of these patients were so seriously injured they would need around-the-clock care for many days into the future. Heartline scrambled to set up some cots and beds for the patients to use long-term.

Tara continues, "My favorite part of the day was getting to be the one to deliver the news to a Mom that her child did not need an amputation on her broken leg. We prayed and hugged and rejoiced together. A good moment."

Heartline Hospital was born.

Coming soon: Stories of the people who came to Heartline looking for help.

The Seed

This Easter, my 10-year-old daughter Cece brought home a seed planted in a little plastic cup of dirt. Her Sunday school teacher gave her the seed, and all the kids planted their seeds in class. We didn't know what kind of seed it was, but we were curious.

We put it in our sunny kitchen window and watered it. It sprouted and grew. What kind of plant was it-- a vegetable plant? When it warmed up this spring, we transplanted the plant into our flowerbed. We still didn't know what it was.

Look what the plant became! It is now a big bushy HUGE plant with purple flowers all over it. We learned it is called a Cosmos. The Cosmos plant is now literally bigger than Cece is. The little seed in its humble plastic cup that became a huge plant has been a great metaphor and teaching tool about Jesus.

The plant is now producing dozens of seeds of its own. Next year, I predict the Cosmos plant will take over the whole flowerbed.

So the message is KEEP PLANTING SEEDS, you never know what they will become!

Jesus talked about seeds in his time on earth. He shared many stories about seeds with lots of people as he told his good news. Jesus said, "The seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart--those who hear the word, retain it and by persevering produce a great crop." (Luke 8:15)

Please help share the love of Jesus--let's plant some seeds in Haiti.

The Day After the Earthquake : Tara's Words

On the day after the earthquake, the Livesay family--the American family pictured here who are missionaries with Heartline Ministries in Haiti-- fired up their computer. They were one of the few families in the Port-au-Prince area who could do so. The Livesays were equipped with gasoline-powered generators that could provide power. Most of the island was shut down in an electrical blackout caused by the earthquake. This is what Tara (the mom) wrote:

"The sun is about to come up. The aftershocks continue. Some more noticeable than others. There is no way to even begin to share the things we’ve heard and seen since 5pm yesterday. To do so would take hours that we don’t have to give right now. Some of them feel wrong to share - Like only God should know these personal horrible tragedies... There are buildings that suffered almost no damage. Right next door will be a pile of rubble."

"Thousands of people are currently trapped. To guess at a number would be like guessing at raindrops in the ocean. Precious lives hang in the balance. When pulled from the rubble there is no place to take them for care Haiti has an almost non existent medical care system for her people."

"I cannot imagine what the next few weeks and months will be like. I am afraid for everyone. Never in my life have I seen people stronger than Haitian people. But I am afraid for them. For us."

"When the quake hit it took many seconds to even process what was happening. The house was rocking back and forth in a way that I cannot even begin to describe. It felt fake. It felt like a movie. Things were crashing down all over the house. It felt like the world was ending. I do not know why my house stands and my children all lie sleeping in their beds right now. It defies logic that my babies were spared while thousands of others were not. "

"The horror has only just begun and I beg you to get on your knees – I truly mean ON YOUR KNEES and pray for the people of this country. The news might forget in a few days - but people will still be trapped alive and people will still be suffering. Pray. Pray. Pray. After that - PLEASE PRAY."

(From the Livesay Haiti Weblog)

Tara's words went out over the internet. Her husband Troy sent out messaages on his Twitter account. Their words were some of the very little communication coming out of Haiti--their messages were transmitted to an information-hungry world. Their words were literally passsed around the world in a few minutes and rebroadcast on radio and television in many countries. And when Troy and Tara logged onto their computer, they got thousands of messages back. Desperate people all over the U.S. and everywhere in the world were asking the Livesays in Haiti to help their loved ones, or to look for someone who was lost in the earthquake aftermath.

Troy and Tara Livesay had two impulses: 1)to do everything in their power to help the people of Haiti in their hours of worst need and 2)to protect their children. No one knew what would happen in Haiti. Would their be more serious earthquakes?

Troy and Tara decided to get the children to someplace safe, while they stayed in Haiti and do whatever they could to help. After much agonizing, they decided to put their children on an airplane to the United States. They secured places on a cargo plane that the U.S. government provided for American citizens to evacuate Haiti. (All but one of their children had legal status as citizens of the United States.)

The day the earthquake hit Haiti, the Livesay family had some American friends staying with them in their house. The Livesays arranged passage for their children and their American friends by making their friends the children's official travel escorts. The children and their temporary guardians boarded a big noisy C-130 military cargo plane to the United States. Tara stood at the airport in Haiti watching and crying--her heart so divided between going with her children and staying to help. Loving friends and family met the children in the United States and took care of them.

With the children and former houseguests safe, Troy and Tara could concentrate on helping whoever they could help in Haiti.

And so many of the Haitians needed their help.

Coming soon: What Heartline Did to Help

Where I Am

Today, I am wondering if I'm crazy for caring so much about Haiti. For caring so much about a lot of things that take up time and emotional energy and that don't involve anyone I actually know.

Discouraged. Things have happened that make me angry at injustice and wondering if it would be easier to be apathetic about the world and not try so hard to change it. I think I'd better stop writing and go lean on a strength greater than my own.

How Many Colors Can You Paint It?

This is my little girl's playhouse. We built it about 8 years ago when our now-teenagers were little elementary school kids and our daughter was a toddler. As they've gotten bigger and older, the kids have lost interest in the playhouse. Teens are far too cool for such juvenile things.

This past summer, our 10-year-old got interested in the playhouse again for the first time in years. In fact, she decided to paint the playhouse. Cece and some of her little girlfriends got out her craft paints from her bedroom and went to town. I thought, "Surely those craft paints won't hold up outside, the colors will melt away in the first rainstorm."

The whole project kept them busy, outside, and out of my hair for a few days, which,(let's be brutally honest here) is all you want as a parent some days. So I figured "Why not? Let them paint it however they want, it's a playhouse. Who cares what the result looks like?"

Well, you see the result: I think it came out rather cute. My husband observed, "How many colors can you paint a playhouse?" Well, the answer seems to be, "A lot." Surprisingly, the colors have stuck--the paint must be a lot less water soluble than I thought. And so far, none of the neighbors have complained about the CREATIVELY decorated object in the backyard.

The fact is, this five foot by five foot playhouse is a lot better shelter than a huge number of people have in Haiti right this minute.

It makes me think, "Why is my child so fortunate as to have a PLAYHOUSE that is better than a real house for those people?" And I don't know the answer.

That is why I am trying to raise money for building houses in Haiti. Because, like my kids who ignore the playhouse in the backyard 90% of the time, we have a lot in this country that we ignore, forget about and take for granted. Meanwhile, other people have nothing. Families in Haiti are living in with leaky pieces of plastic for roofs and bedsheets for walls.

While it isn't practical or cost effective to dismantle my child's playhouse and ship it Haiti, there are many ways of building a simple house in Haiti. We are not talking complicated or grand houses here. These houses are not even fitted with electricity or indoor plumbing. They are basic, but a roof that doesn't leak is a whole lot better than a piece of plastic. And a real wooden door that can open and close is a lot better than a blanket or bed sheet acting as a door.

If can help, please, let's build some houses in Haiti.

Quick Diet Update

Thanks for the inquiries on the progress of the diet. It's working and I'm workin' it.

I think the smartest thing I have done so far was buy an improved super-accurate scale. When I started the diet, I had an old scale that would say something different every time I stepped on it--even if the two weigh-ins were only 30 seconds apart.

So depressing to step on the scale and think, "Yeah! I've lost three pounds! Wait a minute, no I didn't. Yes, I did. Nope, not now." I found a great ACCURATE scale on Amazon.com and it was very reasonably priced--actually lower in price than the ones I saw at Target. This scale measures in increments up to 1/10 of a pound. Really, every day I stick to the diet, I see the scale go down a fraction. (Email me if you want the specifics on the model number. I'm not being paid for advertising, but I'll share if you really want to know!) What you want more than anything when you are dieting is assurance YOU ARE MAKING PROGRESS--that you aren't depriving yourself for nothing. And it's working! I'm encouraged.

What diet am I using? The Sonoma Diet--which is basically very low sugar, very low in white flour, lots of veggies, and all the common-sense stuff we all know. High fiber to fill you up. Low fats and vegetable fats like olive oil instead of animal fats. Lots of lean protein.

We do eat waaaay to much sugar in this country and it's hidden in all sorts of foods where you wouldn't expect it. Yesterday at Costco, I sampled some four-bean salad. Sounds very healthy, right? Ingredients: green beans, white beans, red beans, chic peas and 15 grams of sugar per serving. That's as much sugar as a serving of ice cream. Being off sugar for a while really sensitizes your body to tasting the sugar when it appears. And quite frankly, I don't need so much sugar in my green beans.

So, if you haven't sent in or chipped in your pledge for the first ten pounds lost, let this serve as a gentle reminder. If things continue on this course, I'll embrace the nickname "The Incredible Shrinking Woman."

Tortoise,Tortoise -- Did You Hear Me Say Tortoise?

The last few days' blog postings have been heavy and serious, so we are going to take a break from the Haitian earthquake to talk about parenting and pets today. I don't want any of you to think this blog is going to be all somber and thought-provoking. My goal in this forum is to mix up the funny and the serious. Because that's how life is.

Lately, my daughter has been UNBEARABLE in whining about how things in the family are unfair to her, because she is the youngest child. Her big complaints? She doesn't have a laptop computer, and she "is the ONLY one in the family who doesn't have a cell phone." She is ten years old. Boo-hoo. These types of complaints do not get her very far with me, but she is convinced her life is hugely unjust.

Meanwhile, each of my teen-aged boy complains non-stop about his lot in life--"How Cece gets EVERYTHING because she is the youngest and the only girl." I can not convey in mere words the drama and sorrow these three kids express. You have to hear the impassioned voices, see the pained looks, and observe the pouting lips. Everybody get out your Kleenexes.

Last week, after a particularly long session of whining, I finally lost it. I'll admit this was not my finest moment in parenting.

"I'll tell you what," I snapped at one of them. "Why don't you and Lindsey Lohan go cry about how terrible your lives are!"

Probably not the best choice of words--but it seemed to get the message across that I was done hearing their trivial complaints about the perceived unfairness of their lives.

Now, my daughter has a new cause. She is waging a full-on campaign for a new pet. I have to confess, I have a sneaking sympathy for this particular line of arguments. Our little dog Pal died last year at age 12, and my husband is adamant about not getting another major pet like a dog or cat. I love animals, especially dogs.

We have some fish in an aquarium, but quite frankly--none of us like them very much. Fish are boring. Fish can not be picked up and petted. Fish do not care if their owner chokes on a mouthful of hot dog and dies right in front of them. Fish do not call 911 for you, ever. Fish tanks require lots of cleaning and maintenance. Fish just aren't doin' it for us.

As a kid, I had all the small pets: gerbils, hamsters, and the like. Truthfully, they smelled bad. They often bit. They stayed awake making annoying noises all night on their little hamster exercise wheels. I really don't want any more pets like those.

Cece and I talked to our wonderful veterinarian neighbor and his wife about something that would make a nice, quiet but yet still interesting pet with not too much maintenance. He suggested a tortoise, and lent us a book called Turtles and Tortoises for Dummies.

My first thought was "ACK--SALMONELLA!" but I am apparently misinformed. According to the book and Dr. Chris, turtles carry salmonella, tortoises generally do not. Turtles live primarily in water, tortoises live on land. Turtles generally don't enjoy being handled, while tortoises do. Our vet friend has tortoises for his own kids and believes they make great pets. He even claims his tortoises come when you call them (which I'm not sure I believe--sorry Dr. Chris.)

Now Cece can not utter a sentence without the word "tortoise" in it. She is doing a full-court press for a tortoise. She talks about them at breakfast. She chatters nonstop about them when I am busily engaged in other things, especially talking to another adult on the telephone. "When can I get a tortoise?" are the last words she utters every night before bed. I may become deaf if I hear the word "tortoise" again.

I am trying to impress on her that we need to understand how to take care of a tortoise before we agree to get one. We told her that IF we get one, she has to pay for it with her own money and clean up after it herself. This has not deterred her. All parents will recognize these promises. In fact, I'm quite sure in the time of the cavemen there were little cave-boys and cave-girls who were saying, "Please Mom, can I keep him? I'll do all the work. I promise."

Yesterday I picked Miss Cece up from school. Before "Hi Mom" or any other such greeting, she said, "So about the tortoise: Is that a 'maybe' or a 'probably.'"

I have a feeling I know how this is going to turn out, don't you? I'll keep you posted on the Urban Family Tortoise Saga.

The Day The Earthquake Hit, Part 2

Chris Rollings -- the man in this picture -- was having an ordinary day in Haiti with ordinary problems (for Haiti) until the earthquake struck. Chris and his wife Leslie run a charity called Clean Water for Haiti. Chris had just gotten a loaner vehicle from a Toyota dealership near Port-au-Prince when the loaner truck broke down in the center of the road. The Rollings are Canadians who have lived and worked in Haiti for years--Chris for seven years and Leslie for four years. The Rollings have a little two-year-old daughter, Olivia, who is adopted from Haiti. They also have their own family blog, called Rollings In Haiti.

Chris was not pleased that the truck he has in his possession for less than a half a day had conked out, but these things happen in Haiti. He stepped out of the broken truck and called the dealership. While he waited in the street for someone to come, the the earthquake hit. Says Chris, "As the quake rolled on, I remembered the conversations I’ve had with the other missionaries about what an earthquake would mean for Haiti...it would be devastating. Construction materials and methods aren’t just shoddy, they’re suicidal..."

I am going to quote directly from Chris's blog entry for that day, because the story he tells is very, very powerful.

"I didn’t actually fall on the ground, but I stumbled around quite a bit," says Chris. When the tremors ceased, a large dust cloud was rising from the building a few doors down. A 3 story school full of teenage girls had collapsed. I stood around looking stupid for longer than I’d like to admit. I looked at the truck from Toyota, tried to call my wife (the service was out) and looked around me at people’s reactions. Virtually everyone reacted in strange ways. Eventually, I went to the school and started working to pull trapped students from the wreckage."

"The work was very hard because I was working by myself... I got one girl out, who was very frantic. I told her to stop shouting and pray for help. She was about 10 feet deep under the collapsed cement roof of the building. At one point I went and borrowed a hammer from someone to break up the large piece of cement that she was trapped behind. The aftershocks scared the crap out of me, and I really didn’t like being under that cement slab. There was an obviously dead woman under the slab with us."

"When the girl was out, I took my hammer and moved over to find the next trapped girl. All I could see was her face and left arm, and she frantically called out to me. I asked her to calm down because it would help me to work and asked her to pray for both of us. She calmed down and became very brave. I was having trouble seeing her where she was jammed under the slab. I pulled out a very large piece of rubble that didn’t really help Jacqueline at all (her name was Jacqueline). There was some sort of object behind that rubble and when I went to move it it turned out to be another girl’s bottom. The girl cried out but I could barely hear her – her whole head was underneath rubble."

"At this point I began to realize that I was in over my head. All I had was a hammer, and it was quickly becoming pitch dark with twilight fading and no electricity anywhere. I tried to borrow a flashlight, but it was impossible. I had a moment of feeling intense helplessness. After thinking and praying for a minute, I told Jacqueline that I had to leave her and find more help."

"I walked 4 or 5 miles to a place where I could get a bus, then got on one eventually made it home just after 9pm. On my way home, I resolved to return to Port au Prince the next day with 2 trucks full of tools and workers to do whatever we could."

The Rollings' charity builds water filters, so Chris had some serious power tools at home, as well as the gasoline-powered generators needed to charge the power tools. At daybreak, Chris and many of the employees of Clean Water for Haiti headed back to the school where Chris had been the day before. Chris went right to the spot where he had been digging for Jacqueline. Sadly, both she and the girl next to her were dead.

Chris resumes telling the story. "Some of the local people had been working through the night to rescue their loved ones. They had found lighting and hack saws and had already pulled some people out, including a lot of bodies. We joined their efforts with our power tools. Quickly, we pulled out two more living girls and then a third. The fourth and fifth were a lot more work and each had a severely crushed foot. After that, there were no more cries for help, even when everybody went quiet in order to listen. Lots of dead bodies were still stuck, but getting at them would require large machines."

Chris' story leaves me speechless. In the days after the earthquake, Chris suffered a great deal of survivor's guilt about those girls. He knows he did everything he was physically able to do to save Jacqueline and her classmate, and it wasn't enough to prevent their deaths. He had no tools, no other workers, and no light to help him work in the dark. He had to go get tools and help. He also needed to go check on the status of his own wife and daughter, who he prayed were still alive. (They were--the Rollings home suffered only minor damage and Leslie and little Olivia were fine.) But with his efforts, Chris was able to save one girl at the school the first day and five more on the day after the quake. That means a lot.

Because Chris was stranded in the middle of the street when the earthquake hit, no buildings fell on top of him--that broken-down truck may have saved his life. Perhaps Chris was spared so he could then save those girls. Who knows? In a situation as incredible as what he describes, I think he did an amazing, admirable job. Thank you Chris, for doing the hard work of saving the lives of those young students and preparing others for their next lives with Jesus.

Coming soon to this blog: The Earthquake, Part 3. The days right after...

The Day the Earthquake Hit

What is it like to live through an earthquake? Shortly after the Haitian earthquake on January 12, 2010, I starting reading the blogs of Americans in Haiti in order to understand. I needed the blogs to be in English. As it so happens, many of the Americans and Canadians who live Haiti are missionaries working for charities there. The Livesays--pictured above--are one such American family.

Tara Livesay, formerly of Minnesota, is a mom of seven children who with her husband Troy has been working in Haiti for four years. The Livesays have a combination of biological kids and adopted Haitian children. To read Tara's fabulous blog--The Livesay Haiti Web-log, follow the link at the right side of this page.

Troy and Tara work for Heartline Ministries, the charity I am supporting with this house-building effort. For more than 20 years before the earthquake, Heartline Ministries has been working with women, children and orphans in Haiti in many different ways. One thing that Tara helps Heartline with is to act as a midwife assistant/cheerleader for Haitian women in the midst of childbirth at the Heartline birthing center.

During the earthquake, which hit a few minutes before 5 p.m. in Haiti, Tara and Troy were in their kitchen at their rented home in an area very close to Port-au-Prince. The children were scattered all over the house and in other buildings on the property. Things began to quake. Everything--pictures, dishes, clocks, the jars of spaghetti sauce they had on the counter top--began falling and smashing. Tara remembers, "For me personally, the sound of the earthquake is what struck me the very most. Yes, we were shaking and yes the entire house was rocking, so much that you easily fell down as you walked. But the sound was deafening and it is what first registered with me when I wondered WHO could possibly want to bomb Haiti?"

After about 40 seconds the quaking stopped. During the earthquake, they had been trying to find all the children to get out of the house, but there wasn't time to locate them all while the shaking was going on. Their house had withstood the earthquake without collapsing. Says Tara, "The kitchen floor was covered in soy sauce and spaghetti sauce and glass. Troy was pacing. He seemed uncertain of what to do first. Upstairs the desks had vibrated out of their places to the center of the office area. Books had shaken free from their spots on the shelves. The floor was covered with office supplies, papers, things from the walls, and glass. The boys' "pet" lizard used the opportunity of a broken pickle-jar to escape once and for all. The walls were bare of everything that hung on them just sixty seconds earlier. Water leaked from the toilet that had been shaken out of its place."

Troy and Tara got their children and some guests visiting from the USA outside the house to their driveway. Everybody in the family was unhurt, but the kids were terrified and shaking. Soon after, an aftershock hit, which sent all the children screaming and diving for the safety of their parents' laps.

Phones and electricity did not work, so the Livesay family had no immediate way to know the totality of the devastation in Haiti. They knew things were bad and guessed that things were much worse in other parts of the city.

Soon, Troy decided he needed to go check on people they knew in other places--especially other missionaries and children at several orphanages. It had gotten dark shortly after the earthquake, and power was out everywhere -- so he was going out into chaos in total blackness. Tara says letting Troy go out into the post-earthquake apocalypse was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. They knew it was dangerous to venture out into the unknown. Tara told Troy, "If I never see you again, I love you so much. But PLEASE come back."

Tara fed the children, and put them down to sleep -- only to worry and sleeplessly pray for Troy until the wee hours of the night.

Troy didn't come back until four a.m. He described collapsed buildings and blocked roads that forced him to abandon the truck and walk, in some cases crawling over rubble and dead bodies. All the places they knew, for example the place where the family normally grocery shopped, were in ruins. Says Tara, "He cried as he told me the story of a young woman and her husband's cousin sitting outside of the collapsed St. Josephs Boys home. Her husband was trapped inside. The husband had been singing for awhile, they could hear him, but eventually the singing stopped. Troy asked if he could give them a ride, they were not ready to leave or give up on saving their lost loved one."

So Tara and Troy slept only about half an hour that night, and woke up to face Haiti, post-earthquake. Tomorrow, more stories from the day the earthquake hit.

Ten Pounds Down! Wahoo!

OK, it's time! The first ten pounds is off--goodbye and good riddance.

My clothes are fitting better and I'm finding it easier to do things like getting up if I'm sitting on the floor. (The real kick in the pants for me to get started on this weight loss thing was going to the beach this summer and struggling to get up off the soft, squishy sand. Oh the humiliation!)

What I really need is for you to keep reading. I also need brave souls who will recommend this blog to their friends in the real world and the Facebook world.

So, If you want to sponsor me on a per pound basis, it's time to open your purse or wallet. Now, let's discuss for a minute about how this sponsorship thing works. My original idea was having people sponsor at $1 a pound, $2 pound or whatever--with my goal of ultimately losing about 40 pounds. I was asking that every time I lose 10 pounds, it's time to pay up. But if that idea doesn't work for you, and you can only chip in $10 or $20 total, please feel completely free to do that.

If you think breaking up your contribution into four separate units to too complicated or annoying, by all means feel free to give just once. I just thought the per pound thing WOULD BE MOTIVATING FOR ME, because the more I lose the more money the people in Haiti would get and the more houses we would be able to build.

I would really like to see the Chip In Meter MOVE! Do you understand Chip-In Meter? By clicking on the orange button marked "Chip In" you will be magically and electronically connected to Paypal and right into Heartline Ministries' accounts. If you have a Paypal account, it is really easy. The money goes right to Heartline without ever passing through me. You can pay there with a credit card or with your Paypal balance and you are emailed a receipt for tax purposes. Many people have Paypal because it is the only way to pay for things on eBay. But many people also don't have a Paypal account.

If you want to send in a check, please make it out to Heartline Ministries and write "Pound4Pound" on the memo line. That memo line is important! Checks can be sent to: Heartline Ministries, P.O. Box 898 Sunnyside, WA 98944. It probably makes the most sense to write one check. You can wait until the end of the Pound 4 Pound challenge on November 1st if you want me to prove my weight loss determination with results. Sending a check will also get you a paper receipt for tax purposes.

Lastly, a few people have just handed me money or checks made out to Heartline Ministries. If you know me and see me in your daily life, I can get the check to the ministry for you. When I'm giving away my bucks, I like to give to charity directly with no intermediaries, but if you want to save a stamp and a little time for yourself, feel free to just hand your donation to me. (A check made out to Heartline, please.)

And if you can't support me, please, please do keep reading. What I plan to write about this week is Heartline and what it was like to live through the earthquake and what they are doing today. These people are AMAZING. I can't wait to go to Haiti in November and help them.

The Lady In the Shoe

You remember the nursery rhyme about the lady who lived in the shoe and had so many children she didn't know what to do? I'm identifying with that woman.

Yesterday was just nutso. I came home from the grocery store to find a man with a ladder on my roof. Turns out he was an insurance adjuster inspecting the house for hail damage. As I carried in my groceries and chatted with Roof-guy, I noticed a little blonde-haired toddler walking down the center of our street with no adult in sight. She wore pink snow boots and was pushing her empty blue jogging stroller.

That didn't seem right. I didn't recognize the little girl, who looked about age two, at all. The only adults anywhere were myself and Roof-guy.

"Hey Sweetie, what's your name?" I asked as she looked at me with sky blue eyes. Silence. "Where do you live?" More silence. But she seemed willing to toddle after me as I went from house to house on my street, asking if anyone if she knew where she belonged. Finally, someone did and I returned her home. Her name is Bella, she is two and a half, and according to her mom, she is an escape artist. The mother didn't even realize she was gone.

"Good thing you aren't a child kidnapper," I told Roof-guy, who agreed.

I 'm willing to grant Bella's mom some grace. Two-year-olds are some of the most notoriously unpredictable and difficult people on earth, and if they want to wear their pink snow boots in August, I say "Let 'em." I also know how sneaky they can be: you think your child is taking a nap in his crib, when really he is in the kitchen, painting the walls with Hershey's Syrup and mustard.

After Miss Bella was safely home, my two noisy teen aged boys pulled up to the house with five of their friends, in three separate cars. The boys all proceeded to go on a Ramen-noodle feeding frenzy in the kitchen. Shortly after that, my daughter arrived home with one of her friends from elementary school.

"Just how many children to you have?" Roof-guy asked, watching the parade of children going by.

"Ten!" I said. "Do you want any?"

So if anybody needs me, I'll be like the lady in the shoe--feeding them all Ramen, spanking them soundly and putting them to bed. Oh--cancel that spanking part. I'm not in the mood for a visit from Social Services.