You just never know...

My 36 year old cousin Laurel passed away just as our plane wheels touched down in Port-Au=Prince, after a battle with metastatic breast cancer. She died on 3.31.11. Later that day I got online to find that Rose, one of my lettuce customers also battling cancer, has been put on hospice care as well. That evening we welcomed a new life into the world. A sweet little boy whose mama had lost her only other baby. She sang him out, through her pain. The circle of life-death and birth repeated again. Being in Haiti reminds me how fragile things are...how it is a miracle that any of us survive. And yet gives me hope...

The day we arrived I got out of the car and first saw Djenie (one of the teen moms, with her son Kenny-always glued to her hip), she said “How are you? How is your family? Your mom?” etc—this is a typical Haitian greeting. Then she said something that surprised me “Thank you for sending me the book of photos” (I had put together a mac photo book of picture of Kenny's birth and first year of life). She did not say “when are you coming over” or “what did you bring me”, she said “Thank you”! In a world of poverty where having “not enough” creates issues with hording, fighting and a demand for 'things', this simple acknowledgment of thanks/gratitude spoke volumes to me about what is happening at the Harbor House. To read more about it or get involved, go here: http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2011/03/harbor-house-people-place.html

It has been amazing and humbling and beautiful to see the growth that has happened in the lives of these girls in the 2+ months since we were last in Haiti. Not that there isn't drama—these are teens, with babies—but I can really see them growing, maturing, learning...and craziest of all, doing it together.

A few days ago I took a fairly involved art project over to the Harbor House. One where they had to share supplies and paint. I wasn't sure how it would go. I saw one fight coming and intervened early, and all was well. Every single one of them finished the project, while sharing supplies, smiling!! That may seem like a small thing to most of you, but to me, it was GWO (big)! They are learning to share, they are learning that there will be “enough” (they don't need to hoard things for the day there isn't enough) and my heart was encouraged. It's still a difficult road ahead for these girls, but I have so much hope for them!

My buddy Rosemond, who the students from Eagle Rock Elementary have been writing to, send me some “Grandma mail” today. He put some drawings in a special plastic box and sent them with his grandmother to work today (she works at the place where I am living). It just blessed my heart to see these carefully colored pictures, placed securely in this plastic box. I'm sending it home with his grandmother tomorrow with a note and some photos from December. I don't think I will see him on this trip, but I like that he's initiated a connection. It is humbling how loved I feel by the people of Haiti. They give generously of what they have. They make me want to be a more generous giver...

Today I pulled out some oranges from my farmers market for the workers to try. It was really sweet to see their reactions. Oranges in the US are much sweeter than oranges here—Cherline said “It's like candy”! :) Super cute. Then she pulled out the goat head that was boiling in the pot next to me. Not so cute. But even so, I like that we are learning about each others' food and sharing the sortof ordinary details of our lives.

Today we went to the embassy, the grocery store, and looked at various medical issues going on at the Harbor House. It was perhaps the most productive morning I've ever had in Haiti. Usually a trip to the embassy is a day in and of itself. We didn't get what we hoped for regarding the adoption of Sarah's niece and nephew but we did get the contact information for someone state-side who can help.

We then did an HIV test for a little boy...it was negative! And as we were finishing that up, a lady came to the gate in labor. She has 5 boys at home. A few hours later, a beautiful baby girl entered the world. There was much celebration and rejoicing! Then some famous photographer lady came by to take pictures of the mama and baby. An hour or so after that, the presidential election results were announced and the world around us erupted in cheering. Everyone in Haiti seems happy. And that makes me happy. If there's anyone in the world who deserve a night of happiness—it's the people of Haiti! I hope they can milk it for a full week of happiness!! And a couple of people I know and love share this birth day--with that tiny baby girl and with this new chapter in the life of Haiti. There is much to be celebrated tonight (And I like it when there is overlap between my worlds! :) )

After the birth and all the celebrating, we had a wonderful conversation with Cookie the midwife. She told us that there is no Creole word for “overwhelmed”. There is just no place to even acknowledge that sort of thing in this culture. It reminded me how language develops according to cultural norms/needs. I just found it interesting. We sent this new mama home to her husband and 5 boys, on a crazy election night. She was beaming and happy. I couldn't help but think, if I were in her shoes, I might be a little 'overwhelmed'!

I also went over to Harbor House to do a few more crafts tonight--we watched Tommy Walker's DVD "Heal our Land" and the girls kept asking if he was in Haiti. (It's a DVD of his time in Africa at various worship venues). It was really interesting to see their reactions and hear their questions. And they sang along whenever they could. We were also working on some stained glass butterflies and "Sparkle/Bling Runway" models as the DVD played and their babies toddled/crawled around...and the irony of all this was not lost on me.

I'm off for an early morning run tomorrow-and looking forward to it. Photos will have to wait for another day as they take about a bah-jillion hours to upload.

It's been another great day in Haiti. The time is going by too fast...and you just never know what a day will hold :)

Dimanch/Sunday: trauma to tinsel

Another great day in this wonderful place!

We were privileged today to attend a training here at Heartline for a trauma/grief group they will be running with the teens moms at Harbor House.

The Heartline folks were being trained by a group of experienced facilitators from Oregon, and we were able to join them for a day of learning. The fact that this was the one subject that was not well covered in our Spiritual Direction training program was not lost on me. God seems to provide things in interesting ways. The training was a full day,and while it was long, I feel so blessed to have learned from these facilitators and to have had a chance to get to know the Heartline folks in a different way.

We spent a bit of the evening with some pretty amazing missionary kiddos here, tied in some hair tinsel in order to bring our coveted California fashion to Haiti, and made a trip out to a nearby clinic for a reunion with Barbie...a brilliantly gifted PA who is working here in Haiti.

I am still reliving the beauty of the birth from the other day. I feel so thankful for the welcome we have been given here and the chance to have my love for midwifery and birth renewed. I love all birth, but something about birth in Haiti in a birth center with the woman surrounded by support and care is so fulfilling to my midwife heart. This mom - Franchette - was minutes away from birth and broke out into a song of "All I need is you Lord". Moments later a lovely little boy slid out into welcoming hands. I wish all births could be like this.:) Sometimes I just need a bit of a reminder that these kinds of births do still exist.

Tomorrow I am making a trip to the US Embassy to see if there is anything that can be done to help speed the adoption process for my niece and nephew. It is a long shot but would love your prayers that I might be able to find out something about the needed paperwork.

Thanks to all of you who so faithfully support the work happening here in Haiti. We are so blessed to be here.

Sarah O

<--The Harbor House girls

Another C-section funded 3/13/11

Assiane & Baby Girl born safely February 13th via C-Section -- funded by those of you who donated to our half-marathon raising money for c-sections. Thank you!

Nou la! We are there...

We are here in beautiful Haiti among the people and place we love. We flew through the night on Wednesday and arrived early Thursday morning on a calm flight to a beautiful sunny day in Port-au-Prince. We found Collins, our driver easily, and were greeted with lots of hugs and even some dancing from Cherline when we arrived at the women's center! :) It feels great to be 'home'...though we definitely miss Beth and Jonna (friends of ours who live here-but are in Oregon at a midwifery conference this week).

We jumped right into a full day of the Women's Program and prenatal classes. Cookie (another midwife who lives here) had us over for dinner that evening. Her friend, also named Sarah, is visiting and helping with births. We unpacked our stuff and slept soundly.

Friday we woke up early, helped with the Bible study and family planning clinic that Heartline offers free of charge. Franchette, one of the women from the prenatal program, came to the Birthcenter in early labor. There were more reunions: Antoinette & Eden, Olez & Rose, Agathe's girls (Gracie & Bernie), teen mom's Djenie and Ernege. We did the first of many crafts. It was a very full day, culminating in the birth of a healthy baby boy around 10pm. Sarah x3, Tara, Cookie and Winnie were in attendance, and Sadrack, the dad came in to give his wife an occasional pep-talk throughout the more difficult parts of labor. At the end of the night the mom 'sang him out'. It was quite lovely. We checked on her throughout the night and she left for home early this morning.

After finishing up some projects here, we went to the teen mom house and did an project with them today. It has been fun to see the growth that has happened over the last few months for the teen moms. They shared paint and art supplies and no major fights happened. Did you read that correctly? Yes, we said “No major fights happened”. This is major progress when we consider where they have come from and patterns that were in place when we first met many of them. This is what “thy kingdom come” looks like in a very tangible way.

Being here reminds us of the simple power of relationships to transform lives. Not only the lives of those on the receiving end. We love that God's kingdom is one where both parties are changed by relationship—that it is not one sided, passive giving-receiving. We are so SO blessed to be here—especially since so much was 'going south' in our lives in Los Angeles before we left. It is nice to have a true break from all of that.

There have been a discouraging series of events in the last few weeks at Heartline (the ministry we are now working with in post-earthquake Haiti) and so one of our hopes is just to be a source of encouragement for the families who live here full time. They are some amazing, courageous, lovely people. Our hearts hurt when theirs hurt. We are grateful to be able to do some practical/tangible things...and also to just “be” around them.

You can check out their blogs at:
(links don't seem to be working so there they are un-hyperlinked:)
http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/
http://allthingshendrick.blogspot.com
http://johnmchoul.wordpress.com

We've had power all afternoon and are stocked up in case of any funky stuff when the election results are announced tomorrow. But overall we are content to be just exactly where we are right now. In this busy, crazy world we know what a gift that is—and we receive it with our hands held open.
With gratitude-
O & D
!