I Can Still Hear Him

This was Oct. 2000 in #Haiti. 

Five very brave friends embarked on a journey that would change their lives forever. 

#comewhatmay 

Technically, he was the baby of the five children. 

His tiny body was swollen from malnutrition. 

#foodinsecurity 

It hurt to look at his tight skin, his breathing was labored. 

To this day I can still hear him crying in my head. 

It is a sound no child should make, know or understand. 

I wondered about just how desperate his mother had to have been, sending him on a boat with five women she had never know. 

His story would be layers of complicated as well, 

A puzzle if you will. 

His father,  his mother, created boundaries that blurred lines between what was right and what was wrong. 

Only hints of the truth could be heard, mixed in the brokenness of my language in the early years. 

Oh such a tangled web we weave.

#brave #haiti #neverthesame #friends#missions #adoption #grateful

All Dressed Up

This was Oct. 2000 in #Haiti. 

Five very brave friends embarked on a journey that would change their lives forever. #comewhatmay 

Truthfully, this trip just started an argument in my head. 

#missions #justice #empower 

Two hours from home and nothing was ok. Nothing! 

I had a choice #change or live in denial. 

It was now mine. 

Here is what I do know, never would I live life the same. 

We all agreed we would live a better story because of them, the other children and their brave mothers who let them go with us that day. 

#brave #haiti #neverthesamefriends #adoption #grateful

Candy seemed like a good idea

This was Oct. 2000 in #Haiti. 

Five very brave friends embarked on a journey that would change their lives forever. 

#comewhatmay 

Her name is Shirley, she was dressed in her best. 

Traveling alone, oh so tiny and such an old soul. 

She didn't say a peep, ever. 

Her hair seemed red, a sign of severe malnutrition we would learn much later. 

For some strange reason it seems like a good idea to bring huge bags of suckers for the kids. 

Candy, it proved to break the barrier between us, like an unspoken language. 

She liked #hugs, always smiled, never complained. 

How?  

Looking at her, her story may seem carefree. 

And yet, in my mind I know it to be the farthest thing from the truth. 

How do you leave your family? 

Yet, she did, like so many others.

#betterstory#brave #Haiti #neverthesame #friends #adoption #grateful 

No One Believed Us

This was October 2000 in #Haiti.

Five very brave friends embarked on a journey that would change their lives forever. #comewhatmay 

She was the sickest of the five children. 

Her story, well, it's hard to explain. 

It is layers of complicated. 

There are many highs and lows. 

When we got to PAP #Port no one #believed she was real. 

It... 

All of it, still has a sting.
People pointed.

The questions still hang in my mind, for Haiti, Africa, India.

All the places I have been have a thread that pulls them, lumps them into a space and place that seems like it shouldn't be real. 

#foodinsecurity #diabetes

Time worked against us on this trip, this one and others. 

Her life would hang in the balance more than once.

Her life set a fire in motion deep within.  

#morale #brave #haiti #neverthesamefriends #adoption #grateful 

The Boy, my boy

This was Oct. 2000, five brave friends embarked on a journey to #Haiti. On this journey they would cross paths with five #miracle children. 

He stood in his tiny mountain village with his family watching us with curiosity as if nothing was wrong. 

Nothing, outside of the fact that his leg had literally burst from within because of raging infection lingering from a break several months prior to our visit. 

He is now grown. 

He calls me "mom". #blessed 

He knows his story well, I have lived it with him, walked the same dirt roads with him and actually met his family. 

His story has tested my faith to the core of my being. 

His story has given me hope, compassion and the ability to fight for something outside of myself. 

#betterstory #brave #neverthesame#friends #grateful  #neverthesame#missions  #grateful

Five Friends

These five #brave friends left #Atlanta in October 2000. 

We booked our tickets for #Haiti after collecting, well begging for stuff to sell at garage sales to earn money for our tickets. 

We now hate garage sales! 

Buy your clothes at the Goodwill the haters told us, we believed them.  #fools 

Once in Haiti our leader said, "you will see what God sees every day. It will be a gift, it will change you." 

We had zero experience to prepare us for what would come. #comewhatmay #adoption #grateful#brave #missions #neverthesame #hope

Come What May....

This was October 2000 in #Haiti. 

Five very brave friends embarked on a journey that would change their lives forever. #comewhatmay 

 One of those friends will take this tiny little girl (now grown) and her #forever #family back to the place it all began. 

She will hear her story as we know it, walk the same dirt roads and meet the people who live in that tiny little place high in the mountains where all of our lives changed. 

We all agreed we would live a better story because of her, the other children and their brave mothers who let them go with us that day. #brave #haiti#neverthesame #friends #adoption