Prayerful Monday

Here's what we're praying about this week:

• Update @ 1:12pm: One of the students needs stitches (no idea what happened at this point), so Arold is taking him to the Baptist Mission Hospital. Pray that the student will get the medical care he needs in a timely fashion. 
• Saturday was the last day of clinic for 2012. This week the team saw some patients with pretty intense issues. Pray for their healing. The next clinic team will arrive in early January.
• Isaac is 7 weeks old today. Praise the Lord for our healthy baby. He is truly a blessing!
• Pray for smooth travels as the current team makes the long journey back to Northwestern U.S. and Prince George, Canada. It's a 2.5 day trip for the Canada group.
• Please pray that we will hear from the US Embassy today! We need to move forward with this visa application.
• We're thankful that Isaac's US passport and certificate of birth abroad (proving US citizenship) arrived this weekend. Now he can travel out of Haiti when we are ready.
• Pray for wisdom as we are in the process of hiring someone to stay with Isaac while we are working. We are both a little nervous about leaving him, but we're praying God will give us peace when we find the right person.

Kissy Lips

Sometimes our little guy gets to snuggle in bed with Mommy after Daddy goes to work. Who can resist those sweet little kissy lips?!?

Golden Nuggets: Curing Baby Hiccups

If you have kids, you know how freely other people give advice about raising them. Apparently everyone has strong feelings on how babies should be be taken care of. This unwarranted advice can be helpful, but most new parents find it irritating. This phenomena of giving new (and not so new) parents advice about how to raise their kids seems to transcend cultures. At least, I've found it happens in Haiti as well as the U.S.

I've found that raising my son in another country means that I not only get advice from friends and strangers alike, but I also get very... interesting advice. I've heard all of the following:

• babies younger than 1 month old cannot be held in an upright position because they are too young to sit
• babies need to wear a hat to keep their head warm (remember 70* is a LOW temp here)
• babies cannot suck on their hands/fingers or they will be "distracted" later in life (my husband's family seems to think Isaac will have a lower IQ if he sucks on his hands, which he does a lot)
• if a baby cries, he's hungry--just feed him

But my favorite advice so far as been about curing baby hiccups. So without further ado...

The Haitian Way to Cure Baby Hiccups

1. Take a thread from the mother or father's clothing. If the parents are away, the caregiver's clothing will do.
2. Lick the string.
3. Place the string on the baby's forehead between his eyes.
4. Leave the string there for as long as it takes.

Let me know how you fare in getting rid of baby hiccups with this method.

Video of our Ministry

One of our supporting churches recently asked for a short video of our ministry that they could share during their Missions Sunday services. We were given a time limit of 2 minutes, and I think we were able to capture all the different areas of our ministry in that time. Here's a quick look at what we do in Gramothe. Enjoy!

Prayers for the Week

Here's what we're praying about this week:

• Still waiting to hear from the Embassy. Please pray they'll call us soon.
• Praise God for the Oregon and Canada team that is here this week. They are working in the clinic and  building benches for the school. Pray for the patients that will come through the clinic and the providers who will treat them. 
• This week is the last clinic of 2012. Our next clinic week is in early January. Pray that all the people who come to the clinic this week will be able to be seen.
• Praise God for our health and well-being. Arold recently had a cold, but he's better now and Isaac and I didn't get it at all.
• Arold's after school computer classes are going really well. 
• We've recently been discussing some new ideas for our ministry here to Haitian young people. Pray that God will guide us and give us wisdom as we think about the future.

singing in the rain

Well, I don't know that they were singing as they walked down the mountain during Hurricane Sandy's rains, but its fun to imagine, right?

 I found these pictures that my hubby took last week. I'm really glad I wasn't with them!

little friends

These are some of Arold's littlest friends at school. He visits them on their playground several times a week. Aren't they cute?