Haitian bags for sale!

In May Jared had a work event that I took advantage of to raise money for Haiti. As part of my fundraiser I ordered some Haitian made bags to sell. It's through a program that teaches women to sew, which enables them to take care of their families and feed their children. The women begin in a literacy class and when they've completed it they move onto the sewing class. As part of the program they sew bags that you can purchase.

After the earthquake there was a lot of interest in the bags and the batch that I ordered for the event just showed up, so now I'm trying to find homes for them. I've contacted all the local people I know, so I'm now posting pictures of them here so you can browse and decide which one you want. I still haven't decided which one (or two or three!) I want -- they're really neat bags. I took the pictures so you can see how big/small they are. They all have an inside pocket - some have 2 or 3 pockets inside.

You will write a check to: Heartline Ministries

You can learn more about this sewing program at: www.haitiancreations.com

Have fun shopping!

Bag#1 - $30 SOLD

Bag#2 - $40

Bag#3 - $25 SOLD

Bag#4 - $30

Bag#5 - Coconut - burlap - $40

Bag#6 - Jess - $30

Bag#7 - Square - $20 SOLD

Bag#8 - Cafe - burlap - $30 SOLD

Bag#9 - Feed - $25 SOLD

Bag#10 - $25 SOLD

Bag#11 - Coconut - $40

Bag#12 - burlap - $40 SOLD

Bag#13 - Sheila - $35 SOLD

Bag#14 - $30

Bag#15 - Chelsey - burlap - $40

Bag#16 - Chelsea - burlap - $40

Bag#17 - Agathe - $30 SOLD

Bag#18 - Tie - $20 SOLD

Bag#19 - $35

Dance Recital

Today was the dance recital for the girls. During parts of it I was laughing so hard I almost cried -- you'll see what I mean when you watch the video. The girls got a bit confused on stage - especially Tallie. They LOVED putting on their pretty dresses and wearing makeup. They are true girls. And I was feeling pretty proud of myself for doing their hair -- last year I didn't have a clue how to do Tallie's in a bun. It's one of those mom things I'm just supposed to know how to do :)


They looked nervous when we arrived and held hands as they walked in. How cute!!







Their teacher chose the song "Sisters" for Tallie because she new she was getting a new sister this year. In the video Tallie's the one walking around looking lost.



The girls both fell asleep on the way home -- it was a long afternoon.

Valencia's new hair

Valencia got her hair done again last week. I think this one is my favorite. It's DEFINITELY her favorite. She spent the first day after getting it done in front of the mirror. She especially loves to twirl with her new long hair. I overheard the funniest conversation between my two girls the day after Valencia got her hair done:

Valencia: Mama loves me because I have beautiful hair.
Tallie: Yes she does, she loves me too.
Valencia: Yes, mama loves everybody.
Tallie: Jesus loves everybody too. Jesus loves me, you, mama, papa, Beckett.
Valencia: Yes, Jesus loves everybody.

Help for Haiti

I'm currently working on raising money for Haiti. Since the earthquake I've been following blogs about what life is now like in Haiti and what is happening to help the people. I often end up in tears as I read the personal stories and tragedies that people have gone through, and I feel helpless as I sit in my comfortable house with plenty of food, running water, beds, etc -- basic things that many of these people do not have, in addition to their loss of loved ones. I don't have thousands to give to help, but I can help make others aware -- and if we each give a small amount it will add up and change lives.

We are focusing on raising money for the Village of Vision for Haiti Foundation. This is the same foundation for Valencia's orphanage and the village school she attended. Below you can read about some of the programs they're working on since the earthquake. To donate go to: http://www.vvhf.org/index.html

The Women’s Program

Due to the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, many women and their children have found themselves homeless. Village of Vision for Haiti has expanded an existing program that takes in single mothers and their children, providing them with food and housing, as well as medical-social-psychological needs. The program started in 2005 and focused on women of fragile living conditions of existence on less than a dollar a day.

A women’s camp is being erected to take care of the 100 women in the program. They have 20 tents and have been promised 9 huge tents which will be used for therapy, group gatherings, a medical station, and a creation area. Showers and toilets are currently being built. In addition Village of Vision for Haiti has been collecting food and supplies to care for everyone in their programs. They are also working on a self sustaining food plan by growing their own vegetables, and breeding chickens, fish and rabbits. Village of Vision for Haiti is in need of sponsors for these 100 women and their children. The cost to sponsor a woman is $50/month.

The Orphanage

Village of Vision for Haiti has 2 orphanages, one in Lamardelle with 42 children, and the other in the mountains at Obleon with 38 children. The children at Lamardelle came to the orphanage through IBESR (Haiti’s Social Services) after the earthquake. They are children between the ages 0-6 years that were lost, abandoned, or orphaned due to the earthquake. Many are traumatized and in need of medical care. Village of Vision for Haiti is in need of sponsors for all 38 children in Lamardelle. The cost to sponsor a child is $30/month.

The Adolescent Program

In addition to the children in the orphanage, many adolescents have been put in the care of Village of Vision for Haiti. These are boys and girls ages 7-17 that have been displaced or are the only survivor of their family due to the earthquake. Village of Vision for Haiti was given custody of these adolescents to help them put their lives back together and establish a life plan. Village of Vision for Haiti is the only family these kids have right now. They are in need of food and housing, as well as social-psychological help. Currently Village of Vision for Haiti has 15 adolescents in their program and is in need of sponsors for these adolescents. The cost to sponsor an adolescent is $50/month.

Here is one story of one of the girls that came into the adolescent program:

Rose Sneegooka ALEXIS is a 16 years old female teenager. She was the natural daughter of Mr. Duval Alexis and of Ms. Fifine Bien-Aimé, both deceased. Before the January 12 earthquake she lived with her mother, nine year old brother and 7 year old sister; her father is died since 2006. She was at school at the time of the earthquake and fortunately the school resisted the shake; but when she ran to her home she was horrified: the house broke down with her entire family in it. She lost her mother, her two siblings, and everything they possessed. The corpses were extracted and buried after four days.

Sneegooka found herself in the streets of Tabarre at the end of March 2010. She was taken in by Mrs. Martha Etienne who attempted to use her as a slave. She ran away, slept in the street again until she was found on April 12 by a patrol of the Minors Protection brigade of the National Haitian Police that took her away to IBESR. IBESR organized her transfer to the accommodation home of the Village of Vision for Haiti foundation where she is living since April 14, 2010.

Sneegooka is severely affected by the loss of her family particularly of her sister she was unsuccessfully attempting to save before a wall piece collapse. We think she is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress disorder: sometimes she has ‘‘flashback’’ of the traumatic event or nightmares in which she sees her mother warn and threaten her for misbehavior. This child needs a psychosocial accompaniment to help her emotional and physical healing. Since she has no known living family, arrangements have to be made in order to outline a life plan for her and have her gone back to school.

9 Weeks Home

You gotta love little girls. I came in the room to find this:



Time flies - I have so much to update. Cute little things happen almost everyday and I think to myself, "I should write about that on the blog", but then I don't get to it, so hopefully as I look through pictures for this post I can remember some of the funny things that have happened with the kids in the last 4 weeks.

It is amazing how quickly Valencia has picked up English. She can basically say what she wants to get by now. It's not perfect sentences and sometimes she is grasping for the right word and she still has a thick accent which makes it hard to tell what she's saying, but for the most part she is doing great. She picks up little phrases from Tallie and the latest one is "mom, can I tell you something?" She says that to me every time she has something to say and I think it is so cute.

She has a new hairstyle since my last post - here is the before (with the beads):
(we're at the zoo and she was TERRIFIED of the animals - I made her pose for this picture and that was as close as she was getting to the bears)



Here is the LONG and PAINFUL process of taking out the braids:
braids are out - her hair is only about 2-3 inches long so here she before we got her hair done again:
(Jared reads books to the girls every night before bed)

and here is the after:


It wasn't at all what I had asked the lady to do to her hair, and to be honest I was horrified by the new hairstyle -- it's cornrowed on the sides and meets at the middle and looks like a mohawk if left alone. But I discovered that if I pull her hair up it looks really cute.

One thing that has been fun to watch is to see how the girls influence each other. I check on the kids every night before I go to bed and a few weeks ago I just had to laugh because Valencia was asleep in bed with at least 10-15 toys. That is Tallie's influence -- that is just what she does every night, but when Valencia first came home she didn't want to sleep with ANY toys -- even if we tried to give her one at night she REFUSED to sleep with it, so it just made me laugh. Also because of Tallie some of the first English words she learned were "princess" "beautiful" "unicorn". On the other side, Valencia has influenced Tallie as well. One of the first things she did was teach Tallie how to fake burp. They used to stay up at night burping and giggling (which was pretty funny but did start to get out of hand so we made a no fake burping rule - one of those funny things you have to do as a parent). She's also really helped Tallie become more outgoing. Valencia isn't shy at all and she's really helped Tallie open up and talk to people. She's also helped Tallie be more brave physically -- trying to climb on things, jump off of things, etc - Tallie was SO timid to try things like that, but now she wants to keep up with Valencia.

(I made rolls with the girls and left the room for one minute and this is what I found when I came back in).


This video is soooooo cute - at Valencia's school they say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning and then sing "God Bless America" so she usually has it in her head during the day and sings it around the house. I recorded her singing it and it is so cute -- I'll try to post the video - I sometimes have problems getting it to work so hopefully it will.




Tonight we watched some video Jared took when he visited the Creche (the orphanage) almost 2 years ago. Valencia LOVED watching it and seeing herself and all of her friends. Just within the last week she's started to talk to me about her life -- I think because she now knows enough words to be able to tell us things. It's been so great to reach this stage because it's really helping us get to know her. We drove past the airport last Friday and she started talking about how she flew in the helicopter. After the earthquake when they were getting the kids out the roads were in such bad shape they actually flew the kids in helicopters from the creche to the airport. It was fun to have her tell us about it. Anyway, tonight when we turned off the video of the creche she started to bawl. I think it was hard for her to see it and realize how much has changed. We're not sure if we should watch more with her at this point.

Here are some pictures from Easter - we made a garden tomb out of food -- the girls were quite proud of their work:

Tallie LOVES artichokes. In fact, I can't take her to the grocery store because if she sees them we HAVE to buy them for dinner. She wanted them for Easter dinner. She decided she couldn't wait and went straight for the heart:

A cute shot of my little guy:
Beckett is getting SO close to walking - I had to grab the camera for this - we thought it was SO CUTE!



And finally, my 2 dancing princesses (whew, I think this catches me up on blog posting)

5 Weeks Home

I don't always find the time to update the blog, but I know our family and friends are interested in how things are going, so I am trying to give semi-frequent updates. To be completely honest, things are going very well now. Valencia had a full week of school last week and she was a different kid -- I don't know if it's thanks to school or because she's been home for several weeks now (probably the combination of both), but she's really adjusting and her behavior is soooooo much better and she just (for the most part) acts like any other kid. It's hard to even explain what I mean by that because it's so many little things -- now when we come home she wants to go play with her toys and go play with Tallie, but it wasn't like that before. Or if I ask her to do something small or to not do something small, like "can you hang up your jacket", or "put on pants -- it's cold outside", etc, there's not a big to do reaction of protest with crying, pouting or major defiance. The meltdowns could happen over anything - the wrong color of spoon, so we just never knew what to expect.


She's catching on to how things work in our house and her new life, and what behavior is acceptable and what is not. And understanding that and having well defined rules seems to give her security and allow her to enjoy herself and just be a kid. We're not 100% there -- she still constantly asks what is and is not ok to do, funny things, is it ok to drink some of my water, do I need to eat this before I eat that on my plate, and she points out everything (and I mean everything) Tallie and Beckett do - to make sure they're doing what is right. So from my 5 weeks with her I really think she is a good kid and wants to do what is right, but she doesn't always know what that is, even when it seems obvious to us, and she has 2 1/2 years of orphanage life and the way the kids there behaved that influences her behavior. But she's getting there and it's amazing how different she is now from when she first came home -- and it's only been 5 weeks! It's also amazing how much English she knows. She is able to say the basics and get by -- the other day she was trying to tell me something and I could see her frustration. She was using the words she knew but they weren't exactly what she needed and she knew it but she was trying to make due and I was just not understanding what she was trying to say. Moments like that are hard because you see what a big change this is for her and how frustrating it can be. But kids are AMAZING and resilient.

Everyone always asks me how Tallie is handling the change to our family. She too is amazing. She has been blessed with the sweetest personality and naturally loves everyone. I hope it is something that will always stay with her. She adores Valencia. They definitely have their moments as all siblings do, but overall she loves it. We colored valentines back in February and after her third one for Valencia I suggested she make some for other people too. I was writing thank you notes the other day and Tallie wanted to write one too. She said Valencia did something nice for her that day so she was going to make one for her. I took Tallie and Beckett to the gym to play one day while Valencia was at school and Tallie made friends with a little girl there and in their conversation the girl said she was 5 and Tallie immediately responded "my sister is 5." And the funniest of all was one night when I went to check on the girls after they were asleep. I was fixing Tallie's covers and she rolled over and said "Valencia" in her sleep. I think she's very proud to have a sister.


The girls decided to have a pajama party with their toys -- it's 2 in the afternoon.

A game they invented is "church" -- they get out scriptures and say prayers and line up their toys for a lesson. Pretty funny to watch. Notice the tap shoes - gotta love that.


Last night after dinner Jared made the girls go outside and run laps -- they had WAY too much energy and were driving us crazy so he thought this would help.



I have to include a picture of my cute little guy: