Living Haiti

One of those Haiti days...

Some days in Haiti you just feel like nothing works the way you want it to. I have a 7 year old girl who is waiting on a medical visa for heart surgery in the USA...That is not working the way I want it to. The Embassy for some reason has decided that they have a bajillion questions that really aren't relevant and keep making us chase all around for answers. It's been over a week now.

I got word from some people in the United States who have two Haitian children who were evacuated on humanitarian parole following the earthquake. The adoptive families in the States didn't have the proper paperwork and now those two children have been taken to a detention center in Florida...they are 5 and 6 years old. I cannot move quickly enough in this city to help them get the proper paperwork because everything here takes so blasted long. I know it's not my responsibility but now there are two children spending Christmas in a detention center without anyone they know. Sometimes things just don't work the way you want them to.

We had a container with Christmas presents for our children that were supposed to be here alraedy. We even had word that they arrived. We went on Monday to pick them up from the place, but we were told that we couldn't go in on Monday...so we went back yesterday. We were shuffled around to many offices and the consensus was that our container WAS there but there wasn't anything for us on it. so I have been scrounging around looking for presents for all the kids. Unfortunately some of them will get not-so-awesome presents because it's just stuff i have pulled out of closests, because I want them all to have something to open.

And...my fiance is coming to Port Au Prince...in fact as I write this, he is already here...but the car for the guest house here is not an hour and a half later than they said it would be and my fiance is sitting on the side of the road somewhere waiting for me.

some days you feel like you can't win. BUT...it's Christmas. I will think on God Incarnate, and remember that the children will have fun no matter what...AND I will celebrate the fact that I have successfully cooked a turkey today in an oven with no numbers on it, and without the proper equipment I would usually use. It smells delicious and looks beautiful. My father would be proud!

I'm heading to Les Cayes to spend Christmas with the future inlaws...should be nice. I will have limited internet access...we're hoping they hold off on any more election findings until after New Years. We'll see.

Merry Christmas to you all. This year, more than even I am feeling so blessed to have such an amazing community of family and friends (even on days when it seems like nothing goes right!). Thank you to all, and I wish you every blessing in the coming year. I will probably try to write some posts while I am gone, but probably won't post until i have internet connection. Take care!