Emmi is doing good. She is now walking around everywhere, what a huge blessing. She had the flu and a cough but is doing better now. She is now weighing 28lbs, the girl likes to eat, I'm glad, she didn't used to. Since being moved to the toddler room, she hasn't been sleeping well, waking up crying. That breaks my heart. She is a shy girl(I'm sure that will change around us, we are anything but shy) and doesn't like change. It takes her a while to warm up and get used to someone. They said when we were there in January, she wasn't herself, which is actually good news. She was so non-responsive until the last day. I am hoping this trip she will remember me and be more open and comfortable with me.
For the paperwork update, we are still in the same place, no movement. There is a hold up due to an old law that states you can't adopt from Haiti if you have biological children. They just started to reinforce it, to our disadvantage. I know they are working on it though. A family with 3 children who is about a month ahead of us moved out of IBESR so that is encouraging news. Please continue praying.
JJ and I will be heading down to Haiti June 23-27, so please pray for our safety and a great connection with Emmi. I am excited for JJ to share this with me and to experience Haiti. You may be asking "why JJ?". Well, he was the one who wanted to go, except for Sierra of course, that I felt comfortable bringing by myself. I wasn't quite comfortable bringing Sierra without Billy. Willy wants to go only when he can bring his sister home. So it is JJ and I, and I can't wait.
We will be packing our bags full of donations for the orphanage so if your interested in donating please check out the blog for the second June trip donation list and I will be happy to pick up anything. Formula is the main need, but there is other specific stuff they need.
On the homefront, we are baseball and dance crazy. Willy is playing legion baseball through the summer. He hit a homerun the other night, whoo-hooo! JJ had a tournament at Bender and his team got first-ooh yea! Sierra and I continue to refine our dances for the performance this month. Billy is starting his new job at BP tomorrow, lots of changes going on around here. I do have to say, I am sooooooooooooo happy for the sunshine we have had, I love it! And only 2 more weeks of school. I love summer and hanging out with the kids. School is great and all, but I love the no pressure, sunny, no schedule summer. Although I am always ready for the structure when fall comes.
I will try to blog while in Haiti so tune in June 23-27.
Hansen family of six!
Home with Emmi
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Donations for the Orphanage
JJ and I will be traveling to the Creche in Haiti to see our Emiline and help out at the Orphanage. We will be bringing a lot of donations. If you are interested in helping us fill our bags there is a blog you can go to for a list of needs. Just let me know what you get, so we can keep it updated.
Thanks so much for all your support.
http://chances4childrendonations.blogsppot.com/
Thanks so much for all your support.
http://chances4childrendonations.blogsppot.com/
Monday, April 21, 2008
Chances for Children Newsletter
Here is the recent newsletter we got from the organization who runs the Creche in Haiti.
www.chances4children.org/cfc/news_read/spring_2008_quarterly_newsletter/
www.chances4children.org/cfc/news_read/spring_2008_quarterly_newsletter/
Sunday, April 20, 2008
April Update
Unfortunately in Haiti there has been lots of rioting and unsettlement. Many are starving and the food prices have gone up 50% in the last year. Some have died from the rioting. The government offices were closed for a while, but I think they are up and running again. Which meant no paperwork being done. I think the rioting has settled down, but the situation in Haiti is grave, and there isn't much hope there. Everyone who works for Chances for Children and the children at the Creche are safe, a huge blessing. So because of all this and the law concerning having biological children it seems we will have to wait a while longer to get our girl home. We are now looking into fall. I just have to know God is in control and she will be here in His timing. Once again all I can really do is pray.
Amidst all this, there are children going home. Just last Friday a child made it home, God is good!
We have some great news about our Emmi. She has moved into the toddler room, a prayer request we had after visiting in January. She is also taking steps and starting to walk, praise God! I wish I could be there to see it. JJ and I are hoping to be able to go and see her this summer, maybe late June. I can't wait.
On the homefront-So when is it going to warm up? I can't believe we had snow again yesturday. We are still doing the baseball/teenage thing. I do love to watch my boys play baseball, I just really prefer it in the sun. Sierra and I are dancing away. She is taking 3 classes at Dancing for Joy and I am taking one. I have missed a few and look like quite the dork in class. I really need to practice or you can come watch the funny show in June. We love dance, it is so fun and a great way to express yourself, whether you are good or bad. You don't even have to sign up for a class to dance, your livingroom works good. Billy's job is in limbo and we have some decisions to make and would love all your prayers for God direction.
Amidst all this, there are children going home. Just last Friday a child made it home, God is good!
We have some great news about our Emmi. She has moved into the toddler room, a prayer request we had after visiting in January. She is also taking steps and starting to walk, praise God! I wish I could be there to see it. JJ and I are hoping to be able to go and see her this summer, maybe late June. I can't wait.
On the homefront-So when is it going to warm up? I can't believe we had snow again yesturday. We are still doing the baseball/teenage thing. I do love to watch my boys play baseball, I just really prefer it in the sun. Sierra and I are dancing away. She is taking 3 classes at Dancing for Joy and I am taking one. I have missed a few and look like quite the dork in class. I really need to practice or you can come watch the funny show in June. We love dance, it is so fun and a great way to express yourself, whether you are good or bad. You don't even have to sign up for a class to dance, your livingroom works good. Billy's job is in limbo and we have some decisions to make and would love all your prayers for God direction.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Monthy Update - March
I know I am late, but we got a good update on Emmi this month. She is weighing in at 25 lbs, not a skinny one anymore, a definite answer to prayer. She is becoming more active with the other children. They say she is very smilie and playful now. She can walk with the walker independently, which is awesome. One step closer to walking on her own. She did have the flu last month (but who didn't?) and is better now.
Unfortunately our paperwork has not moved at all. We have been in IBESR for 6 months now. There is an old law stating that if you have biological children you can't adopt from Haiti and they are thinking/trying to bring it back, so that may be the hold up? I am ready to move on to the next step, but I need to trust that God is in control and continue to pray. There has been some good news of children going home, so that is encouraging. Also I think JJ and I will be traveling to see our Emmi in early summer, I am excited to bring him to see Haiti and her.I am planning on posting at least once a month to keep everyone updated.
On the homefront in Bellingham, we are doing the baseball/teenage thing. As of Monday all my children at home with be double-digits, can you believe it? I am old, but I feel young. I can't believe we have snow now. Baseball is not supposed to be watched or played in the snow. Something is wrong. I can't wait for the sun. I'm tired of 5 layers and still being cold. I am ready for short sleeves and capri's. We are all busy with school, practices, games and dance. Oh by the way I am an Auntie times 3 now, with a nephew and 2 nieces. Life is good, God is good. Keep smiling!
Unfortunately our paperwork has not moved at all. We have been in IBESR for 6 months now. There is an old law stating that if you have biological children you can't adopt from Haiti and they are thinking/trying to bring it back, so that may be the hold up? I am ready to move on to the next step, but I need to trust that God is in control and continue to pray. There has been some good news of children going home, so that is encouraging. Also I think JJ and I will be traveling to see our Emmi in early summer, I am excited to bring him to see Haiti and her.I am planning on posting at least once a month to keep everyone updated.
On the homefront in Bellingham, we are doing the baseball/teenage thing. As of Monday all my children at home with be double-digits, can you believe it? I am old, but I feel young. I can't believe we have snow now. Baseball is not supposed to be watched or played in the snow. Something is wrong. I can't wait for the sun. I'm tired of 5 layers and still being cold. I am ready for short sleeves and capri's. We are all busy with school, practices, games and dance. Oh by the way I am an Auntie times 3 now, with a nephew and 2 nieces. Life is good, God is good. Keep smiling!
Friday, February 8, 2008
When is our Emmi coming home?
That is the question of the year and many are asking. Unfortunately we are at the mercy of the Haitian government. There really is nothing we can do here but pray. There are many steps the paperwork has to go through in order to bring her home. My educated guess may be by the end of the summer, but so many things can happen, and we really have no control. They can close down Haiti to adoption today if they want and open it back up tomorrow. We will continue to pray and practice patience, I guess more character building, we never get too old for God to work in us. It is a good thing I can have some peace and can rest in God's timing, knowing He is in control.
Seattle Times Article
Haiti's poor feed on cookies baked with dirt
By Jonathan M. Katz
The Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.
With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies.
Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.
The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cité Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too," she said.
Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher prices for oil, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.
The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports, and food prices are up 40 percent in places.
The global price increases, together with floods and crop damage from the 2007 hurricane season, prompted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency to declare states of emergency in Haiti and several other Caribbean countries. Caribbean leaders held an emergency summit in December to discuss cutting food taxes and creating large regional farms to reduce dependence on imports.
At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.
Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared with food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy.
Merchants truck the dirt from the central town of Hinche to the La Saline market, a maze of tables of vegetables and meat swarming with flies. Women buy the dirt, then process it into mud cookies in places such as Fort Dimanche, a nearby shantytown.
Carrying buckets of dirt and water up ladders to the roof of the former prison for which the slum is named, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt. Then they pat the mixture into mud cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun.
The finished cookies are carried in buckets to markets or sold on the streets.
A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.
Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can contain deadly parasites or toxins, but can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy, the scientific name for dirt-eating.
Haitian doctors say depending on the cookies for sustenance risks malnutrition.
"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothée, executive director of Haiti's health ministry.
Marie Noël, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.
"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good
How to helpThese agencies accept contributions for the poor in Haiti:
World Concern
19303 Fremont Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98133
www.worldconcern.org/
World Vision
P.O. Box 9716
Federal Way, WA 98063
(888) 56-CHILD
www.worldvision.org
InterAction, a coalition of aid agencies, lists other agencies that take contributions to help Haiti's poor. Call 202-667-8227 or go to www.interaction.org.
By Jonathan M. Katz
The Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.
With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies.
Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.
The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cité Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too," she said.
Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher prices for oil, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.
The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports, and food prices are up 40 percent in places.
The global price increases, together with floods and crop damage from the 2007 hurricane season, prompted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency to declare states of emergency in Haiti and several other Caribbean countries. Caribbean leaders held an emergency summit in December to discuss cutting food taxes and creating large regional farms to reduce dependence on imports.
At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.
Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared with food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy.
Merchants truck the dirt from the central town of Hinche to the La Saline market, a maze of tables of vegetables and meat swarming with flies. Women buy the dirt, then process it into mud cookies in places such as Fort Dimanche, a nearby shantytown.
Carrying buckets of dirt and water up ladders to the roof of the former prison for which the slum is named, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt. Then they pat the mixture into mud cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun.
The finished cookies are carried in buckets to markets or sold on the streets.
A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.
Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can contain deadly parasites or toxins, but can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy, the scientific name for dirt-eating.
Haitian doctors say depending on the cookies for sustenance risks malnutrition.
"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothée, executive director of Haiti's health ministry.
Marie Noël, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.
"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good
How to helpThese agencies accept contributions for the poor in Haiti:
World Concern
19303 Fremont Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98133
www.worldconcern.org/
World Vision
P.O. Box 9716
Federal Way, WA 98063
(888) 56-CHILD
www.worldvision.org
InterAction, a coalition of aid agencies, lists other agencies that take contributions to help Haiti's poor. Call 202-667-8227 or go to www.interaction.org.
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