The Growing Family

26 March 2010

Part of my job at the orphanage is investigating prospective children’s current circumstances; to find out if the child really is in need, to see if the story we were told about the child’s circumstance is accurate and to see the condition in which the child is currently living. When I went to investigate Galaxon and Iverson’s story I knew right away that these boys were in need. Their home had been destroyed in the earthquake; all the walls had crumbled, only a few wooden posts and the doorways remained, which amazingly enough were holding up the roof. The children had been living inside the building with a few extended family members. In the front yard was another house, made of cardboard, tarps and sticks where their grandparents, their caregivers, were living.

Their father passed away a few years ago. They had been living with their mother, a faithful member of our church, until just a few weeks ago when she too passed away. From what I have heard of their mother’s illness I highly suspect AIDS was the cause of her death, but cannot be sure. People here don’t like to talk about HIV/AIDS. If someone does have the disease they keep it extremely quiet. It would be very difficult to find anyone willing to admit that they knew someone who had died of the disease, even though Haiti is in 28th place for highest HIV/AIDS population in the world.

There are many degrees of poverty. This is something I never gave much thought to before moving to Haiti. I just assumed if you’re poor you’re poor. This, however, is not the case. In Haiti the degree of poverty can be based on many things, for example; the number of meals one might eat in a week, whether or not a person owns a pair of shoes without holes or the amount of water which leaks into a house when it rains. In our area pretty much everyone is living in poverty, but living amongst the poor are the poorest of the poor. The grandparents of these boys would definitely fall into this category. There is no way they were able to feed the boys on a regular basis, let alone feed themselves.

I knew we needed to take the boys in.

Once the decision was made that the boys needed our help I brought them in for medical exams. Our doctor thoroughly checked them out, and ordered some blood work, testing for a number of things including HIV. I was relieved to hear that other than a bit of a cold and a possible (easily treatable) parasite they were given a clean bill of health. I was even more relieved when I got their test results and saw ‘HIV: negative’ written on both their papers.

The next day I asked the boys and their grandmother to come to the mission. I brought the grandmother into my office and explained that we would be willing to take the boys into the orphanage if she was willing. “Praise the Lord!” was all she could say. I filled out the paperwork and then asked her to sign the papers. Looking at the floor she told me she couldn’t write her name. I assured her this would not be a problem as she was not the first person to sign a Hope House entry form with a squiggly “t” instead of a signature.

I then had the boys come in and explained to them that they would be coming to live at the Hope House. They looked at each other as smiles stretched over both their faces. “When?” was all they wanted to know since they both knew all about the orphanage from living in the area.

I told them I would be picking them up the next day just after noon.

The boys were both waiting by the side of the road for me the next afternoon. I walked with them along the narrow path to their home to pick up their things and to say their goodbyes. The boys were bouncing with excitement.

The Hope House kids were waiting for us when we pulled in. Our kids seemed to be just as excited as the boys were!

Once the boys had been seen their rooms, met their ‘mommies’, had some lunch and had been introduced to the kids and the rest of the staff I brought them into the supply depot to give them a few things. I started with a pair of sandals each. Green flip flops for Iverson and blacks Crocs with purple straps for Galaxon. They were beaming. I said, "Ok, now we need to find you boys some running shoes." They looked at each other and giggled. After trying on a few pairs they were both happy with their new running shoes. Moving on down my list I told them, "Next we need to find you boys some church shoes." Iverson, wide eyed and bursting with curiosity practical yelled, "After you give us church shoes what will we get?!" I laughed out loud and said, "Underwear!" Galaxon jumped in the conversation then asking, "And after underwear will we get more stuff?" It was so much fun watching their reactions as I happily informed them, "You'll be getting all sorts of things today! Shorts, jeans, dress pants, t-shirts, dress shirts, long sleeved shirts and probably even pajamas!"

Have I mentioned yet how much I love what I do? These boys have been through the wringer. They’ve experienced more pain and loss than many of us will endure in our entire lives. How exciting that that changes now; these boys now have hope, they have a bright future now. I thank God for choosing these boys. I thank God that we always have room for one more, somehow even when we have long ago claimed to be “full” there is always room for more.

Praise God for blessing us with two more children.

Peace, love and an always-growing family,

Rachel