The Team

Kevin, Amy, Casey, Angela, Katie, Bob, Lena, Eric, Helayna and Mallory

Some final pictures....

Kevin and Stephania

Mallory and Daniel

Donated diapers

Just some of the donations from PCC

The new and improved schoolroom

Schoolroom

Casey and Kevin, hard at work on the roof

Bethany and Helayna

Hanging out with the kids

More hanging out with the kids

Eric and Jean, accepting a donation from PCC for his boys/girls club

Lena, hugging one of her boys, Steeve

Amy with Jonathon and Reece

One of the cooks using her new stove

Lena, Helayna and the nannies doing projects with the kids

The new roof being built

The "old" roof

Working on the kitchen

The "old" stove

working hard to improve the cooking conditions

Katie and Katia

Arriving at the airport and trying to fit the new grill in the truck

Friday, 11/27/09

They have landed!!!! About 20 min. ago, which is about an hour late. But, they are HOME!!!
I will post pics in the next couple days...
Praise God...everyone is home safely....

Thursday, 11/26/09

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, I hope you had a wonderful one and spent it with loved ones.

I talked to Eric tonight and they are VERY busy....getting ready to leave the orphanage at 7am tomorrow for the airport and their 3 flights from Haiti to Miami, from Miami to Dallas and from Dallas to Phoenix. They don't get home until 10pm, so they will be TIRED....

They had a wonderful Thanksgiving. They cooked a "real" Thanksgiving meal, with turkey, stuffing, cranberries, etc. and instead of the staff serving it, the mission team served the nannies, the orphanage staff and all the kids. They brought a bunch of tables outside and they all sat down together.

They were very grateful and everyone had a wonderful time.

The team and staff were all sad when it was time to leave. I heard there were even some tears shed.

I know that they appreciate it so much when Parkway and friends come down there and I also know how much the team loves helping them and that there are definitely bonds being made.

Personally, I cannot wait to see my husband and daughter and hear all the stories and see the pictures and videos they took.

I will post some of them this weekend.

Please continue to pray for safe travels home for all.

Thanks for following their journey....

Wednesday, 11/25/09

Written by Helayna-

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Hi mom!

Today we woke up early to get ready so we could be ready to leave at 8am. But OJ(the driver) didn’t come till 8:30 so we could have slept longer. Haha!

We ate breakfast then Abby came to the guest house so she could come with us to Mother Teresa’s Hospital for Children. Lena and Bob stayed behind so they could have the whole day with Steeve and Jean Baptist(the boys they are adopting). So we all piled into the van and drove for about 30 minutes.

When we walked in, some of the parents were there visiting with the sick kids. There are about three rooms with kids in them. One has the really sick ones with IVs and stuff… The others are for the rest of them. When we first came in and were looking around, a little girl came up to Katie with a little car and was rolling it up and down a little ramp. She was so cute.

Then, everywhere Katie went she followed herJ.I went into one of the rooms and saw a little girl in a crib whose parents weren’t there. So I fed her some lunch and then picked her up. I found out she was 22 months old. And she was TINY!

I sat on the floor with her for a while and she had no expression at all. I tried to tickle her and she pushed me away, so I kept holding her. I kept on trying to make her smile and finally she didJ She was adorable! Then after that she was laughing and smiling and acting like a normal kid. That was really cool. Then later she peed on me. Haha!

Dad found the cutest little boy and played with him for a long time. He loved his watch and would hide it in the cribs and then laugh so hard when dad would find it and take it back.

Mallory found a little girl walking around. She had this real sad face and Mallory tried to talk to her but she just kept saying the same thing in Creole. We asked Abby’s friend, Kez, who came with us to translate (she speaks fluent Creole) and she told us the girl was saying "my mom is coming to bring me something good to eat." Visiting hours were over so we guessed that her mom had said that and never came.

So today was pretty rough, so after Mother Teresa’s, OJ drove us to a resort so we could kind of recover from the day. It’s really nice. It had a pool and we ate lunch there. Most of us got cheese burgers and fries! SOOO GOOD!!! Then we went in the freezing cold pool, but it felt really good. After the pool we all laid out on the chairs by the pool and we all fell asleep. We slept for a good hour. Then we woke up, me and Mallory had ice-cream, and then we went back to the guest house.

Well tomorrow is our last day at the orphanage. It’s gonna be really hard to leaveL we’re just gonna play with the kids all day and spend time with them as much as we canJ Well byeJ

Monday, 11/23

From Helayna(13 yrs old)-

So today was fun! We woke up and got ready… Then me, dad, and Mallory got Sebastian and tried on his new clothes. Then we played with him and realized we were missing prayer/music time. So we went into the baby room and sat with the kids while the nannies sang and prayed:) that’s probably my favorite part of everyday.

Then we took the kids outside, played until Erick(the driver) and the rest of the group came and we played some more. Mallory got her hair braided by Lude-mia(a nanny). Then it was lunchtime so we went back to the guest house for lunch… Sandwiches as usual.

Then we rested for an hour. Erick took us back to the orphanage and we got to work (it’s easier to work when the kids are napping so that’s when we get most of it done) Katie and Angela took pictures of all the sponsorship kids at the school and had them make Xmas cards for their sponsors. Amy and Lena painted the supply closet. And me and Mallory redid the schoolroom/wall. They have their songs, verses, calendar and stuff up on the wall and Abby wanted us to re write them and laminate them so they look nicer.

Then we rearranged the wall and made a sign that says school with the kid’s handprints on it! So much fun!!! Abby and the nannies LOVED it!!! All the nannies stood and watched us while we finished it and they kept on saying “bell”(pretty) I was so happy to make them happy:)

As for the guys, they are done with the grill so they worked on building a roof over the grill so it’s not so hot. It was so fast! We looked over one minute and they were cutting wood, and the next minute it was finished! So that was cool.

Oh! Me and Katie did school with the older kids today also! It was really fun. They are so smart!

I have a bunch of fruit snacks still so me and Mallory took a couple bags downstairs and gave each of the kids a few. They were so excited and kept saying they didn’t get any while they had like three in their mouth:) then we took them on the jungle gym, as we do every night. We hung out for a little bit and Bethany taught me a hand clapping game (idk what to call it) She’s adorable:)

Then it was shower time for them and dinner time for us. We had lots of guests tonight. A bunch of Abby’s (the intern who lives at the orphanage) friends came for dinner. It was sooo yummy! After we had dinner we all played "catch phrase":) FUN!!! And hilarious.

Then they left and we took showers and that’s pretty much it. Tomorrow we don’t really have any work to do so we’re just going to relax with the kids all day. I will write more tomorrow. BYE!

From Kevin Jones-

The trip so far has been very productive and fun. Today we completed the kitchen and canopy goals so we're going to be able to spend even more time playing with the kids (YEE-HAW) Amy as well as all the girls are so awesome with the kids and trying to teach,play,nurture,cuddle,and just plain ole love them,it's really cool to watch. One of the boys ,Daniel ,was calling me "Damon's Papa" today.

(Damon is Kevin's son, who visited the orphanage a year or so ago with the team, so the boy remembered them)

Monday, 11/23

Katie, teaching the kids


Reggie, who works for the orphanage



Helayna and Mallory making a new sign for the school

Casey and Kevin building the roof
The completed kitchen!!

Building the new roof
Angela and Amy, painting the pantry

Helayna and her baby brother, Sebastian