Ripe Mango Chronicles

Many months ago I had an encounter that significantly impacted me. We had a group of friends over for dinner, a pastor was among them. At the end of our meal (pumpkin curry of course) he began to speak these beautiful words of encouragement over me. One thing he said that has stayed in my mind was how much better it is to be celebrated than tolerated, and that we should gravitate to places we are celebrated instead of staying where we are tolerated. tol·er·ate ˈtäləˌrāt/ Accept or endure (someone or something unpleasant or disliked) Allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference. Be capable of continued subjection to without adverse reaction  Tolerate comes from the latin word tolerare which means endured. cel·e ·brate ˈseləˌbrāt/ Publicly acknowledge (a significant or happy day or event) with a social gathering or enjoyable activity. Honour or praise publicly. Celebrate comes f

The other day I came home from work quite upset. I walked in, quickly greeted everyone and immediately made my way to my room. Once there I collapsed on the bed face down, doing my best to hold back the tears. One by one my children slowly made their way into my room to see what was going on. "Hi mom." "Hi." "Are you sick?" "No." "Are you mad?" "No, not really." "Are you sad?" "Yeah, I'm sad." At which point I start crying. I just couldn't hold it in any longer. "It's going to be ok, I just need to cry for a minute. You don't have to worry, everything is going to be fine." I said as tears poured down my face onto an ever growing wet spot on the sheets. The younger boys quietly left the room after a few minutes. But not Joshua, Joshua stayed by my side until I pulled myself together and got out of bed. He sat at the end of the bed the whole time, lovingly rubbing my f

Dear Jubilee, You, my dear daughter, are a true source of joy in my life. You are the happiest person I have ever met. From the moment you wake up in the morning you instantly start bringing joy and life into our home. You wake up singing, or pounding your feet on the side of your crib (which makes an insane amount of noise!) or just calling out your brothers names one after the other. You can't quite pronounce their names yet, but you have a distinct name/sound for each of them which you are using more and more often these days.  Your voice is loud and deep. You don't know many actual words yet other than a handful of names, plus hi and bye. You'll be talking any day now though, and I can already tell once you start there will be no stopping you! You are so incredibly independent, and were since day one. I'm proud of you for your many accomplishments, and for how fearless you are. I hope that doesn't change, be brave and confident Jubilee. Right now, you get ra

Orphan care. A simple term meaning the act of caring for orphans. Right? I'm sorry dear reader, but you are so terribly wrong. Coming into this journey many moons ago that was my belief, but very soon that idealist bubble was burst and my rose coloured dreams spilled out. You see, I naively assumed an orphanage was made up of a group of children who had no living parents. I very quickly learned that in Haiti this is not the case. Orphanages are mostly made up of children who have at least one, but often two, living parents. I processed this and came to the conclusion that these children, although not true orphans, were 'economic orphans'. In my mind this meant they were in desperate need. I imagined families living in huts, with dirt floors, their cheeks sunken in, bloated bellies and brittle orange hair. And yes, this is sometimes the case, however, in my experience, this is the exception. I would estimate that I've been "offered" at least 200 child