It's Friday :)

It's already Friday, and even though the week was great I am ready for the weekend. Ready to spend more time with the kids downstairs, and just have two days without school. We have had fun now that Carmelo is back from his trip to the states talking about everything he did there and enjoying some of the art supplies they brought back for school. The boys LOVE a bag of sponges and we had some fun sponging stars onto eachothers' faces.

Trey:

Henley:

Carmelo:

I have been a little sick, possibly why I am ready for a break. My whole body broke out in a rash- red dots covered me head to toe last Saturday. Then we went to church on Sunday, we drove into Port for service. Half way through I got really dizzy and went to lay down outside on some grass. The rash got worse and didn't start to go away until yesterday. It was accompanied by a fever which I was able to keep under control with Tylenol. I felt better around Tuesday and then spent all night Wednesday throwing up, so Thursday was a long day- not much energy on my side and overflowing on the boys' side. Haha. Today I am feeling 98% and last night was a blast. The container that the Rescue Center has been waiting for finally arrived and we got our first truckload to go through. Everything from meds to fabric to clothing, canned food, school supplies for the community, soap- SO MUCH STUFF! It was exciting and took a while to go through everything, tonight we'll have more.

Nickenson is doing AMAZING. Well, considering I thought he would die the day he got here his progress has been miracle after miracle. He coos now when I talk to him and gasps in excitement when I kiss him. His ribs are filling in and he is starting not to vomit everything he eats. He is no longer losing weight, and has actually started to gain. He is now 10 months and just over nine pounds. His fever is under control and his muscles have started to relax. He will open and close his hands and look at them- HUGE progress. I take him every day after school and have started to mix his meds with yogurt and feed him pieces of cheese which he loves. He hasn't vomited any of his meds on me for 3 days now PRAISE GOD! He has become a distraction to my online class... this pic about sums up how I write essays... or rather what I do instead:

Yesterday we had a little boy come in whose eye ball had exploded. Malnourishment is not a pretty thing people. It was SO sad. His other eye was close to doing the same, and he could not see. His hands were freezing and his feet and legs were swollen with kwash. He was lifeless, and didn't even cry in pain despite the CRAZY amount of agony his body must have been through. After being here and hour or so he started gasping, and we all knew he was dying. His mom had come with him, his little sister and his older brother and was lying about everything. The situation was chaotic and sad. His name was Peterson and he died about 5 hours after getting here. They will bury him this morning, as his mom left right after he died- not wanting the responsibility of washing and dressing him and digging a grave for him. I've been told this is pretty common...

We have many creature friends here in Haiti, but this one was picture worthy. Disgusting, and it may look small but think of the size of a toilet. This thing was at least 5 inches long.