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/
Hansen family of six!
Home with Emmi
Monday, April 21, 2008
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.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Haiti
Since I really didn't know much about Haiti, actually nothing before we started this adventure I thought I would share what I have learned. First of all Haiti is really close to us. It is located below Florida, across from Jamaica, and shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic(the place all the good baseball players come from). The Haitians are originally from Africa brought over to be slaves. Haiti is considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. This was evident in what we saw driving through the villages and city. 50% of all Haitian households live in extreme poverty using 1.00(US) per day. How much do we live on a day, not 1.00. About 4 in every 10 adults cannot read or write. I saw this on the plane when the flight attendent was helping all the Haitians fill out their immigration cards. I did see alot of children going to schools all around Haiti, so it looks like they are trying to solve this, that is encouraging. More than 80% that live in Haiti don't have clean drinking water. What a basic need, one we take for granite. Dirty water means contaminated water that leads to sickness. 1 in 20 Haitians have AIDS. There is 1 doctor to 10,000 Haitians, and many have to walk miles to get there. So I guess the clean water is even more important. Out of 8 million people in Haiti, 1 million of them are orphaned or abandoned. Okay I'm not trying to make you feel bad, just to realized how blessed we are here. What a privilage to live in the United States. I just want to give you a glimps of what is going on outside our little worlds. There are so many ways we can help. One way is adoption, but it doesn't have to be that. There are many organiztions to support with prayer and financially. The organiztion we work with is Chances4children.org. They not only adopt children, they help provide schools, clean water and jobs for local women and men as well as well as much more. There are many more. Maybe God has placed another country on your heart, just be sensitive to what He is telling you and respond. If anything I felt a piece of God's heart just by taking the trip and seeing Him at work. Haiti is such a beautiful place and the Haitians are beautiful people. I loved the palm trees, the brightness(unlike our gloomy weather), and the mountains. But the living situations are anything but beautiful. So, in conclusion Haiti was an eye opening experience and has changed my view on life forever. And now that Haiti is a part of our family history we will continue to learn and reach out however God calls us.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Saying good-bye and hello
Yesturday we had to say good-bye to Emmi. I hadn't thougt too much about what it would be like until later in the trip and decided it wouldn't be too bad because of her age, and maybe she really won't know what is going on. Was I wrong. Madame Coindy told all the kids, with parents visiting, at breakfast that their mommies and daddies need to go back and get their papers before they can take them home. When they get the papers they will take you home. She told us how to say in Creole come back, so I told Emmi over and over "Momma come back". Now for some reason Emmi had decided half way threw the last day she didn't want anything to do with Billy, no smooches or holding. I think she didn't want to share her mommie with anyone, not even the other kids. When it was time to leave they came and got her and she threw a fit, the girl likes things her way. It broke my heart. It was way harder than I thought. I am so glad I have the comfort to know she is loved and cared for. I can't wait to go back. I loved Haiti and the people. Driving back into Port-au-Prince I was reminded of the living conditions outside the Creche. It added to the sadness of leaving.. I will continue to pray for Haiti and the people. There life is so simple and relaxed, unlike our stressed, hurried lives. On the way home we had to make a stop in the Bahammas for 1 1/2 hours. I have always wanted to go there and Billy does joke that the only reason I picked Haiti is for the sun, I do love the sun! So after being up 25 hours and traveling 22 we finally made it home to our kids sleeping in the livingroom waiting for us. I am so excited to be home, yet already miss by baby. I truely believe God brings us through things to bring us closer to Him as well as bless others and be blessed. Emmi has touched my heart in a way only a child can, and daily I will humbly seek God and continue to pray for her, the children, the Aunties and the paperwork! It gives me peace to know in a situation where I have no control, God does! And for now I am called to pray.
Thanks for all the posts, I love to hear from you all. I am going to be printing it out for Emmi's albums, so if you havn't yet, please post. I will update from time to time if you want to continue with us on our journey.
Thanks for all the posts, I love to hear from you all. I am going to be printing it out for Emmi's albums, so if you havn't yet, please post. I will update from time to time if you want to continue with us on our journey.
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