Kilee's First Blog Post

Since moving to Haiti many people have asked us how our children are adjusting to life living abroad. We wanted to share a little piece of that here.  Kilee received a Hello Kitty camera for Christmas and we received it this afternoon through MFI (Missionary Flights International-They fly our mail over each week.) and these are a few of her first videos taken along with some of her friends here at BHM.

Christmas Week Part 1

As I sit here in the 70 degree weather of mountainous Haiti (you wish you were here, don't you?), I am deciding that rather than try to sum up our Haitian Christmas in a post, I am going to divide up the events of the past week over a couple of posts, lest I leave out some piece of vitally important information... :)

Christmas week has been a busy one up here on the mountain!  We have had a lot going on here at the mission with Christmas events, birthdays and the like.  Since the week was so packed full, we ended up celebrating a certain little girl's sixth birthday on Wednesday the 19th!  We baked a cake and had a celebration with all of the mission staff after dinner that night.  It was so much fun!

 

Blowing out 6 candles on her Hello Kitty cake!

 

Opening gifts from friends.

 

Hugging sweet Naomi after receiving a handmade gift.

 

We made a "Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty" game.

 

 

The next day was a busy work day for Scott. He had to work really late, but he had a Haitian friend pick up some of my favorite flowers (like the ones I carried in our wedding) he brought them home that night. What a stud.

 

 

 

Then, the next day we got to see the Crossings college staff mission team who came up the mountain after their week ministering in the Montrouis area. We were so excited to see them!!!!! It's always good to see familiar faces when you are so far from home.

 

Friday night, while the Crossings team was enjoying a bonfire, Scott and I got to have dinner with several of the Haitian pastors in our area and meet their wives.  It was hosted by our Field Director and his wife in their home and it was such a fun time!  After that was over, we got to chat with David Rouse, Patrick Greer, and Quentin Matthews, some of the Crossings staff we worked with in the states.  We had so much fun hanging out with them.

 

Saturday was busy morning until night.  I have absolutely no recollection of the specifics of what we did, but it was a busy day. 

Moms out there, you know what I mean? 

 

Then, on Sunday we celebrated the REAL birthday of our dear sweet Kilee Anne Bidwell!

Can you believe she's 6?

 

 

Daddy and Bub made PINK pancakes for her birthday breakfast!

 

 

 

She got some cool stuff: A stuffed poodle, a Kouri Deye necklace from her bub . . .

 

. . .which he received a giant hug for!

 

And a vintage "fashion plates" toy like I had when I was a little girl.  Does anyone else out there remember these? 

 

All in all, we had a WONDERFUL "Part 1" of Christmas week.  Stay tuned for "Part 2"!

 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

It's starting to look like Christmas up here on the mountain!  Thanks to some borrowed decorations, stuff sent from family, and Haiti's natural beauty, we are enjoying some normal American traditions as well as some new ones!

 

We were blessed to be able to borrow some garland from our neighbors and we ordered a little tree off of Amazon for $10!  We call our tree the "missionary model."

 

Then, our upstairs neighbors had an extra string of lights, so we decked out the kitchen!

 

The kids made little foam gingerbread houses I got from Oriental Trading Co.

 

Our stockings didn't make it to Haiti, so my mom picked out some fabric to send us and I made the kids some stockings.  It was so much fun and the kids really like them!

 

And guess what Christmas flower grows wild up here on the mountain? :)

Gotta love Haiti in December!

 

Merry Christmas!

Joyeux Noel!

Visiting a Local Orphanage

This past week has been a flurry of activity!  One of the best things we got to do last week was visit an orphanage that is really close in proximity to the mission.  A sweet young lady named Leahna was visiting the mission for the week and she accompanied Kilee and me. 

Haitian orphanages, by and large, have a terrible reputation because they are often associated with corruption, fraud, and trafficking of children.  The orphanage we visited, however, is a shining example of integrity and compassionate love.  They take wonderful care of the little ones entrusted to them and have a very high adoption rate among the children they care for.  We were very impressed with all we saw.

No matter how respectable and nice an orphanage is, it still doesn't change the fact that an orphanage exists because tragically, children do not have a mother and father to care for them.  As we approached the rear entrance to the building, a dozen toddlers were peeking between the bars of the enclosed outdoor porch.  Behind them, inside we could see rows and rows of cribs.  I held back tears as we walked in.

We met a sweet lady named Ryan who serves there and she gave us a tour of the facility.  It was very clear that they take great pride in providing a clean, safe, loving environment for the children.  Haitian women (nurses or nannies) were rushing everywhere, mopping the floor, making bottles, caring for the very small babies in the the neonatal unit, and changing diapers.  Ryan knew each child by name and how that particular child was doing.  Most every child we saw was already in the process of being adopted.  There were several special needs children that had no waiting families, but we were very encouraged to know that 2 out of 3 of the babies with Down Syndrome that they care for had families waiting for them!  Still, there were many that were waiting for a family.  We spent a little bit of time playing with the babies in the crawler room!  There were also a few toddlers in the room that had specific health needs that needed to be cared for in a room where they wouldn't be romping with other toddlers.

Ryan asked if we had time to play with some children.  Of course, we were excited about this!  One of the wonderful things about the orphanage is that each child gets 1 hour of one-on-one time with a volunteer or staff member every day.  They spend this time on the top outdoor floor of the mission in a huge play area.  Several children are up there playing with their particular volunteer at one time.  Parents who were there to visit their children during the adoption process were also up there playing with their sons or daughters.  We had the pleasure of bringing two sweet little ones up to play with us.  We will call them Miss A and Baby J. 

Miss A had been born extremely prematurely at a dangerously low birthweight.  She had been brought to the neonatal care unit at this orphanage in hopes that she would survive.  She strengthened, but over time the staff began to realize that her brain development was incomplete and she had quite a few special needs.  She was such a joy to spend time with!  She has been at the orphanage for 3 years or so and still has no family waiting for her.

Baby J was just a little cuddlebug!  I did not know if he already had a family waiting for him or not, but we were overjoyed to have the opportunity to spend the morning with him!  He really enjoyed the hanging bouncer!  Leahna spent most of her time with him while Kilee and I hung out with Miss A and another little boy.


We were so honored to have the opportunity to spend time with these precious little ones!  It was such a blessing for me to watch Kilee love on them.  She is growing up so fast!

I'm sure we'll be visiting again in the near future. :)