Ripe Mango Chronicles

Sorry it's been so long since I've written. There is so much to share with you, there just hasn't been any time to sit down and put it on the screen! Kenol and I are doing great, the boys are here and LOVING life on campus. I was shocked today to find out that they already know all the Hope House kids names. I knew they knew all the kids their age, but 3 of the teenage boys popped in this evening and they knew them too. They're having so much fun playing with all their buddies and are in LOVE with Katie Anderson, the Activities coordinator at the orphanage. All three of them have major crushes on her! I've been adjusting to life as in instant full time mom. It's been way  more of an adjustment than I ever imagined. The most shocking part of it  all is how the boys moving in full time has affected the Hope House  kids. They're having to adjust to sharing my attention and it has been  quite the challenge for everyone.  We've also bee...

The Village of Hope kids have all been through some sort of trauma, how else does someone end up in an orphanage? At the very least they were abandoned or suffered the loss of a parent, which is much more than a child should have to deal with. When we bring a new child in we do our best to welcome the child with open arms, make them feel safe, help them feel like they belong and are an important part of our family, but some of them still have emotional struggles. We recently had a therapist visit who works with children struggling with abandonment issues. We knew we had lots to learn from her so we planned a 3 day seminar for our full time caregivers. It was time well spent. We all learned a lot about our children, and some of their underlying issues. How we can support them and the importance of our role in their emotional health. The mommies and daddies were fully engaged in the seminar, absorbing all the information we had to share and asking incredible ...

Two years ago if you would have told me I would be the mother of a 7 year old today I would have told you to double check your math skills but SURPRISE here I am momma to not only Olivier who turned 7 this weekend, but also Joshua (8) and Joseph (4). God likes to keep us on our toes, that’s for sure! This weekend was a special one as Friday was Olivier’s birthday! We planned his birthday party for Saturday night at 6:00. Apparently the Hope House boys didn’t get the message as they were giggling at our door at 4:00 with their toothbrushes carefully stuffed into their pockets!! After a dinner of banana pancakes and peanut butter the party officially began. All 10 little boys sat at our dinner table where we played some games; they were actually English lessons on opposites, but they won candy so they didn’t know the difference!  Once everyone’s pockets were full of candy it was time for cake and coke before we opened gifts. I love that all Olivier needed to ...

My afternoon job today was bringing donations down to the orphanage. I headed to the guest house, loaded up the truck and bumped my way down to the orphanage depot. In the donations I found a suitcase full of AWESOME baby stuff so I decided I would hand deliver the super cute onesies.…an hour and a half later I had rocked both Soudline and Soudnel to sleep, spent some quality time with Pierre, joked around with Jeremiah, and watched the toddlers get completely covered in mango juice as they each devoured their very own mango. They were literally covered in mango juice from head to toe! It was pretty hilarious. After they were cleaned up I decided it was due time for Julien and Gilner to have a haircut. They are one of three sets of twins in the baby room, the other two sets are boy-girl. Thankfully we only have one identical set, as it’s pretty hard to tell them apart. It doesn’t help that they both answer to either name! A month or so ago we decided it was time for a h...

Today was a special day for a number of reasons. For one, today is a Haitian holiday. It’s either Labour day or Agriculture day. I never quite figured out which; one is today and the other is tomorrow.  Kenol and I decided that we would celebrate both by labouring in our new garden! It was a perfect combination in my books. Some of you may know that I enjoy gardening, and have for a few years now. The garden in my old yard was looking pretty good after a few years of serious trial and error. Gardening in Haiti is so much different than Canadian gardening! I still don’t have it all figured out, but I have a much better idea now.   Since moving to our new house we have started a few new projects, specifically in the yard. We unfortunately had to cut down three beautiful and humongous bougainvillaea’s as they were literally ripping the metal fence down. One they were cut down and the fence welded back together we bought a load of rock, 3 truck loads of ferti...

 Wow! April has been a busy month for Birthday’s at the Hope House. We had 9 birthdays this month ranging in age from 4 to 18. Birthday’s in Haiti are a little different than back home. Most children don’t get birthday parties, or much of a birthday present. We of course want birthday's to be something special! However, with so many children we have realized we can’t have a party for each child as there would have been 4 in one week this month so we have one big party every month for everyone born in that month.   The kids ask regularly when the birthday party will be. We mix it up, sometimes at the beginning of the month, sometimes the end, and sometimes in between. Stevenson asks all the time what day the party will be in December (when his birthday is). He cracks me up. We have our very own way of screaming out, “Haaaaappppppyyy Biiirrrthdaaaay” to each child as they walk in the door. We light candles (sometimes birthday candles, sometimes regular o...

One thing I love about Haiti is that at any moment, even in the simplest of circumstances something amazing can happen. Every Saturday morning I force myself to get out of bed early to be at the orphanage devotion, which starts at 7:30am. On a Saturday ! Did I say that already?!? I can only blame myself though as I was the one who planned it, and to be honest it has become one of my favourite activities and is worth the early morning. All the kids and staff gather together in Maggie's Kitchen to worship together, pray together, grow spiritually and then close with a family meeting where we cover things going on in the upcoming week. The kids lead worship which is AWESOME and myself, Kenol or one of our staff members usually shares a mini message of some sort. This week, the kids were all excited because they each got a piece of candy on their way out of the kitchen.  I don’t know if it was the sugar, something in the air, or the chance they might get a second piec...