Wednesday was a regular day in Haiti. Got up, fed Odessa, let the house boy in, waited on Odessa's nanny to get here and then headed out to Peredo to work. I have been listening to Podcasts on my iPod on the hour drive to the village and back. There is not radio in the truck so this passes the time. Plus it is in English! I speak and hear so little English these days. The podcast I was listening to was about new movies coming out this week, the new Apple TV, and cool apps for the iPod. Homesickness hit me hard. I haven't seen a new movie in months. As a matter of fact, I have only watched kid movies with Odessa and Seasons 8 and 9 of Friends over and over for the past 5 months. I was thinking how I would kill to walk up to Redbox or Blockbuster and rent movies, grab a PIZZA and squeal with joy!

As I drove across the river and bounced all over the truck, holding the steering wheel white knuckled praying I didn't get stuck like last week, I suddenly missed bridges. Blacktop. Ditches. Pavement. Culverts. Cement. Yellow and white lines on the road. You get the picture.

I passed a mother and daughter walking down the road carrying their laundry on their heads and missed my mom. How we stand in the kitchen and fold laundry together. How she folds the towels all wrong and I redo them before I put them in the linen closet.

When I got to the mission property school was already started and I started looking at all the school kids teeth to choose the kids who need to see the American dentist coming next week. (Thanks Dr Adie!)

One of the guys who works for the mission came and said there was a lady here asking for me. Word spread in about 10 minutes that I have arrived in the village and people start coming. I said I would be there when I was done with the teeth and he gave me a look and said I needed to come now. So I went outside and found a young lady, maybe 19 or 20 yrs old sitting in the shade holding a sleeping baby.

She explained that she didn't come begging or asking for anything for herself. She told me how 2 months ago her sister died and left this baby behind. Now she's trying to raise her niece but has no work and of course no money.

What a rough start to life. Born in Haiti to a single mother. Mom dies 6 months later. Young, poor aunt struggling to do the right thing.

Unfortunately, not rare.

The aunt said she heard I am adopting a Haitian child and asked if I wanted to adopt this little girl too. She said it's just too hard to do on her own.

Suddenly movies and pizza were the furthest thing from my mind. Rivers and terrible "roads" were not too big of an obstacle. I realized how while I am here missing my family, others are struggling to keep theirs together.

I saw how clean this Haitian orphan was.
The hat someone had placed on her head to protect from the sun.
Her fingernails and toenails that were neatly trimmed.
Perfect skin-free of infection and odor.
A young aunt's love.

I made her up a goodie bag of baby supplies from the depot including formula. Most of you know I am against giving out baby formula. But this 8 month old was already on regular powdered milk b/c her aunt couldn't buy formula. I told her the mission would supply her with formula every week as long as we had supply until the baby was a year old. I demonstrated how to mix the formula right with clean, boiled water.

She started to say thanks and I explained to her how I did not purchase these things, how Americans sent them to help out their Christian brothers and sisters around the world and they did it with the love of God. I told her to thank God for providing and talked to her how she is not alone. We talked about being single moms. I sat with this girl and talked about being a single mom! I really needed that. Someone else who understood. We are more alike than different and I really felt a bond to her. I told her I would be praying for her and invited her to church on Sunday.

She stood up, readjusted the sleeping baby's hat and started on her way with a bag full of baby supplies.

I stood up, put my sunglasses on and started my way back to the school.