more on haiti

Haiti from the air

Hey everyone, it's Kaitlyn with a me update. Well, I definitely got thrown right back into my busy school routine, with an exam and other assignments this week. Every day has been kind of hard. Tuesday morning I was sitting in a lecture and just got totally overwhelmed, thinking there is no way I will be able to get everything done that is left to do this semester. It's scary when I look ahead and see all that's coming up.. so I'm trying to take it one week at a time and not think about everything at once.
Amidst the busy routine, I'm still trying to process my experience in Haiti. This might sound weird, but something I prayed before I went last week was that God would break my heart for the country. I wanted my eyes, my ears, my heart, and my mind to be opened so that I could really see and understand the sad situations I would see there. I don't really know if that happened, I mean it didn't really happen in the way I thought it would. Some of the time I even felt closed off a little bit. I feel like in August I experienced more compassion and emotion towards the children and the things I was seeing. Which is weird, since this time I really wanted to feel and experience with my heart.
God did bring experiences of heartbreaking situations last week. On Tuesday, we visited Mother Theresa's orphanage and hospital. I will never forget the images of the hospital and the feeling I had while I was there. There were rooms with rows of cribs with sick, skinny children, many of them crying. Right when we got to the hospital, I started feeling really sick, so I went to sit in a rocking chair that was right next to the bathroom. That's when a little boy came walking down the hallway, sobbing, and I held my arms out to him and said "veni" (come) and he came to me. His wristband told me his name was Joovenky, and he was 2 1/2 years old. I don't know what sickness he has, but he was really skinny and fragile looking. I spent the whole time with him, mostly sitting with him because I didn't feel good enough to stand. It's interesting that this was the time I started feeling so bad.. in a sense, I got to identify just a tiny bit with these suffering kids. I know when I feel normal, I forget how yucky it feels to be sick, so in a way it was good that I felt bad while I was there. When we had to leave, Joovenky started sobbing again:( It was hard to go.

Naitine

On Wednesday, we experienced another heartbreaking situation. I was sitting outside, and there was a little girl amongst the kids who was crying really hard. I found out from the nanny that her name was Naitine, and she was new and crying because her mom had just left. Naitine let me hold her for a little while, and she fell asleep for awhile. When she woke up, she got right off my lap, and just stood in the courtyard sobbing. She wouldn't let anyone come near her, she was inconsolable. It was so hard to see this firsthand, a little girl left at an orphanage and separated from her mommy because she couldn't take care of her. Naitine's hair had an orange tint to it from malnutrition. By that afternoon, she was doing better, but the next day her mom came to visit. When she had to leave again, Naitine threw a fit of crying and screaming, not wanting anyone to come near her or comfort her. It was heartwrenching. Please pray for Naitine! Pray that she would experience God's comfort, peace, and love in this time where she just wants her mommy. Pray that if she is available for adoption, that God would lead a family to adopt her and restore the love and attachment she had with her mom.