It's all about the little things.

With so many things going on and so much to say, I guess I will mention a few of the little things I've noticed. I will let you see the significance. To me, each of these things is equally important, although they are small. 

• A family fervently prayed over their child and the leaps and bounds he is making in improvement
• The way I find that not many people I make eye contact with will smile with me. I feel that this is mostly because they know great loss here. GREAT LOSS. They have most likely lost multiple family members, quite tragically, by the time they are my age. 
• The lady that cleans the rooms, Rosie, smiles every time I see her. Every time. 
• That Rosie goes to each unit in the morning, before beginning her work, to see the patients and sing and pray over them. 
• Ricardo, the oxygen tech, has made it his mission to teach me a new word/phrase of Creole every day. 
• An orphan that every volunteer fell in love with is now in a safe place with people who love him. It may only be an orphanage, but the staff made sure he went to a place that would take care of him. 
• I am normally always the cold one at home, but somehow I manage to be hot at night when I am working. It is even funnier when I work with Julien. She is always cold and I always hot, but we just laugh about it and do our best to adjust the A/C as to not make the other miserable. 
• On Saturday, I wanted to purchase a Haitian cell phone, to better communicate with some friends here running an orphanage. The security guard changed into a t-shirt and out of his uniform shirt, went into the street with the money I had given him, and purchased the phone for me. He didn't have to.
• Although I missed connecting with the friends from the orphanage, they brought me chocolate chip cookies! SO sweet! It is amazing what you will cherish. I think there were 6 in the bowl and there are still 4 of them left. I will eat them sparingly. 
• I love the storms here. They are majestic and strong. The lightning puts on a show almost every night. With the city power being off almost completely by 7 PM, it makes viewing such things even more riveting. 

I'm sure if I sat here and thought for another couple of hours, I could write a hundred things. These are just a small piece of what graces every day that I spend here. I hope I have given you an adequate picture of some of the things I experience. I will leave you with a verse that I feel is appropriate for these experiences. 

Colossians 1:16,17 - For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

The Beauty and the pain.

It's been almost a week since my last post. I can say there is much good reason for that. Some good. Some not so awesome. The group that was here the last week, well, they were amazing. The personalities and the tender hearts were all wonderful. I am so thankful for the time we shared. They made the initial "I'm really doing this" shock a little easier to handle. We have a new group this week and they are nice, although I haven't met some of them or can't remember their names. They are overall just nice. Except that one... 

This morning after three and a half hours of helping to resuscitate a 2 year old that we have no way to diagnose, I heard one of them say, "Yea, there's someone here for 3 months. Clearly, they're delusional. I couldn't be here longer than a week." Yep, you know me, I turned to her and said that I, in fact, was the delusional person she was talking about. This broke my heart. The people in Haiti need people who want to help, who want to be here, and want them to have the best things available. I can deal with the complaining about how we don't have enough supplies, because that means that individual wants it to be better and wants to do their job to it's fullest potential. 

On to less rant-type things, we went to the beach this past Wednesday. It was glorious. God DEFINITELY did amazing creating this island, let me tell you. It was amazing. Paddleboarding in the Carribean Ocean just after snorkeling some nearby reefs! Yes, I do believe those activities will exist in Heaven. 

I know this is a bit random, but I haven't written in days and I wasn't able to journal for about 4 days. 

We lost a baby last night. One that we suspected would not make it, but it is still a sad thing. The Lord led me to a scripture this morning. It was most helpful when I was journaling and feeling rather defeated. 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Psalm 103:2-5

Thanks for your prayers. I covet them.  

So, can I just say...

God is amazing!!

So many things have happened between the day we got here and now. A 1.7 kg baby lived through the bursting of a few vessels in her lungs, a nasty clogged ETT tube (she needs that to breathe), and a well-run code by a very nervous PICU doc from FL. 

Francois is going home! He has been an orphan at the hospital for almost a year now. One of the interpreters, Oberto, and his wife are adopting him. The CNO says he should be going home any day now. Good news is that there is a little cutie that is just as fun and giggly as he is. 

There are neurosurgeons coming in less than two weeks to operate on our kids with shunt infections. YES! They are most of our peds patients right now. 

I, also, have an amazing group here this week. My roommates consist of an awesome Aussie Peds doc (my bunkmate), a PICU doc from FL, OT student from MI, and two Adult ICU nurses from CA. The rest of the group consists of a couple of Canadian nurses with TONS of experience in everything, a British ER nurse, Canadian ER nurse, Peds nurse from CA, and a trauma doc and PA from MO. Everyone is awesome and SUCH hard workers. They are taking everything in stride and I haven't heard a single complaint. 

So, yes, God IS amazing. He came before us and prepared the way. Everything is not perfect, but His provision is everywhere around us. 

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God." 2 Corinthians 9:8-11

AMEN!! 

Preparations.

In just 3 short weeks, I will be on my way to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. I feel, in some small way, that the sum of everything in my life has led me to this point. In the coming weeks, I will be leaving my job in Connecticut, moving out of my apartment, and beginning a 3 month mission trip in Haiti. It feels weird to say that. Upon my return, God and I will be "figuring things out". For those of you who know me, that is not my personality in the least. A leap of Faith is what some may call this, at times it feels more like a cliff.
 
But God...

• Gave me this great passion to serve those less fortunate than myself
• Gave me great nursing experience to prepare me for anything
• Gave me an opportunity to combine those two things in to one great adventure for Christ

 
It hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine. There has been a lot of sacrifice. A lot of pruning. I look to scripture for times when I feel like all of this may be too much. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3-4
 

My mom brought this song yesterday and I thought I'd share it with you. Thanks for your support and prayer in this endeavor and forgive me if this feels disjointed, I'm not a pro at this blog thing. =)