Success!

We got approval from Haitian social services today! I'll be taking Steven back to California with me tomorrow!!! When I think about all the uncertainties and all that COULD have happened this week, I'm just in awe and so grateful that God moved his hand and accomplished all this. Two patients through all the legal processing to get to the States with nearly impossible deadlines. Awesome stuff. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Tomorrow night Steven's host family will pick us up from the airport in LA and take Steven from there. I'll miss him, we had some good bonding time this week, but plan on visiting him often. :)

After that, I'll be home approximately 30 hours before emarking on a road trip with my sister to Texas for a family reunion. The timing of it all is amazing. Thanks for being a part of this journey with me!

MORE Good News :)

Today Jacky got on a plane headed for the States and will be landing in North Carolina in just a little while. He'll get to have surgery soon! It'll be a long road for him, as they will most likely resect his jaw and we don't know if he'll be able to talk or eat again, but to him it's worth it to take these risks rather than living in misery and pain at his home in Haiti. I have to admit that up until the last moment, I was holding my breath waiting for one last thing to come up to delay things, but he got out just fine. Praise God!

On the way to bringing Jacky to the airport, Steven, his mother and I were dropped off at the embassy for Steven's visa appointment. I've said before that I thought we were pretty well prepared, but considering how his last visa application went, I really had no idea what to expect and didn't stop praying. After the embassy officer looked through Steven's new papers (he was already familiar with Steven's old papers), he called us up and actually complimented us on having everything so well put together this time. He did want one more paper, but I explained how something else covered that requirement and he was satisfied with that and granted us the visa after about 2 minutes of talking! When I asked him if we could pick up the visa today, he said he didn't know if it was possible because they close so early, but he'd put it in the pile to be printed.

With the pick-up slip for Steven's passport with the visa printed in it, we headed over to the Haitian social services office to get started with proceedings there. (We need their approval to take minors out of the country.) This is the office that has historically taken about 3 days and has shown some horrible heartlessness -- they even told the Bustins that the baby they'd been working with who had hydrocephalus should just be put outside to die. They normally would never start proceedings without a visa, but since my friend that was with us said he had a friend there, we went anyway. Walking into the office was like going to a family get-together, EVERYONE there knew my friend and were so happy to see him. They cooed over Steven and showed compassion about his myelomengiocele. I didn't have half the papers they asked for, nor did we have Steven's visa or passport, but they went ahead and processed our papers and said all we need to bring tomorrow is copies of the visa and passport, as well as two pictures of me (as I'll be taking Steven out). We don't know for sure, but this seems like a done deal!

After the IBESR, we made the hour-long treck back to the embassy. As with Jacky, Steven's visa wasn't there when we walked in, but the same officer was willing to make a call to get it printed, and went to pick it up himself a few minutes after closing!

All in all, this week has been just amazingly blessed by God! He clearly went before us and paved the way, making the impossible happen.

Steven's mother, Janise, will be heading back to her home tomorrow morning. Overall she's held up really well throughout everything. She's seemed happy this week and was even glad when we got Steven's visa today, but tonight she's been crying a bit and taking it hard that she will have to give up her son in order to for him to have what he needs. I really can't blame her for this, I know I'd be crying if it was my child. She has every picture I ever took of Steven in an album as well as a frame to put her favorite one in. She also has a picture of the family who will be caring for Steven over the next months. We'll be communicating from time to time to let her know how Steven's doing and hopefully can send pictures. Hopefully this will help, but how do you make it easier for a mom to give up her child?

Anyway, that's the update for today. As always, thanks for your prayers!

Hey Everyone, I'm happy to be writing this with great news. We got the medical visa for Jacky, our 28 year old patient with a large facial tumor, to go to the States for surgery! He'll leave tomorrow!

It was incredible. On Monday, after we still hadn't heard about having the needed embassy appointment on Tuesday, a US Senator's office called the embassy on Jacky's behalf. By the end of the workday on Monday we still didn't know what the results of that call were. On Tuesday, not knowing if we had an appointment or if we would be kicked out, we went to the embassy and after explaining our situation, we found out that sure enough, Jacky's name was on the list and we were ushered right in! We entered the embassy gates at 8:30am and by 9:30am we had the visa secured and instructions to pick it up around 2pm.

Shortly after 2pm we returned to the embassy and were told that Jacky's passport with the visa in it was not there yet and to come back the next day when it would be ready ('if God wills'). After double-checking for me, the officer made a call and told us that they would print it out for us and bring it right then if we wanted to wait a few minutes. We got the passport and visa at 2:55pm and the embassy closed at 3pm!

Steven's visa application appointment is set for tomorrow at 11am, central time. We have one day to get the visa and one day to go through the Haitian social services before our scheduled flight out on Saturday. It'll be tight (especially because of the problems Steven's application had in the past) but we're well prepared and if God wants this to happen, nothing will stop it. Thanks for your continued prayers!

Exciting News

Once again, a lot has happened since the last posting and I've been delinquent in communication.
First of all, our last few days in Haiti went wonderfully. The kids at the orphanage really enjoyed the VBS and learned a lot. It was impressive to listen to some of the older kids answer theological questions!
On Monday, my cousin and I flew back to the States.The first leg of that journey, a flight between Cayes and Port au Prince on a tiny plane with Tortug'Air, is always exciting. There's invariably a couple times during the flight when you're sure you won't land in one piece. But it sure does have scenery.
It's wonderful to be home with my family and loved ones but I'll miss Haiti a lot, and not an hour goes by that I don't think about it. Surprisingly I haven't been experiencing a huge amount of culture shock for someone who spent over three months in a third world country - especially since nearly all of that time was spent in a mountain village four hours away from any native English speakers other than the Bustins.
Last Friday we received wonderful news from my sister, Jana. She and some others had been searching faithfully for a hospital or organization that would take on Steven's case and fund the surgery for his myelomeningocele (the outpouching of his spinal cord through his vertebrae). Through some contacts, she was put in touch with Mending Kids International, an LA based charitable organization that helps fund surgeries for children from all over the world. Mending Kids agreed to take Steven's case! This is an answer to so many prayers. We all hated leaving Steven up there in the mountain village with no medical care accessible should anything happen to him and it's important for his future health that this surgery be accomplished as soon as possible. After we found out about Mending Kids, the word was put out that we needed a family to house Steven and be his guardians through this long process of getting him the medical care he needs. At least 5 families in Orange County stepped up and were willing to host Steven. I was just humbled and amazed at this. So many people have been praying and helping him that have never even seen him. He will be staying with a wonderful Christian family that lives about 10 minutes from where I live so I'm pretty excited about the prospect of being able to see him regularly.
A few days after we found out about Mending Kids accepting Steven, we got word that another patient that the Bustins and some others have been trying to get to the States for about a year now was likely to be accepted at a hospital in North Carolina to have his surgery without cost. Jacky is 28 years old. Up until 2006, he was a school teacher at the Bustin's mission. At that time, he developed a large facial tumor. He had the tumor resected in the States, but it grew back about a year ago and is now large enough that it is squeezing his wind pipe. This picture was taken last March of Jacky with the neurologist who worked on getting him surgery both in 2006 and this time around, along with his daughter. Since then, the tumor's gotten so big that we got word it's starting to press on his eye. He's one that just breaks your heart to look at and imagine how painful it must be.
We are waiting on paperwork from both cases, but if all goes well, I'll be going back to Haiti in a couple days to work on getting their visas and returning with them to the US possibly as soon as next Saturday. There are still so many factors up in the air that could determine how soon we are able to get Jacky and Steven out, so we could use a lot of prayer still that things would be expedited.
God is good. I'll try to keep updating on our progress.

Back to the Mountain

I had to do some follow-up with a couple patients back on the mountain, so on Monday Chip and I found a ride with a friend who is part owner of a camionette (MACK truck used for transport). Fortunately, we were able to sit up in the cab of the truck so the ride was actually more comfortable than other treks I’ve made up the mountain sitting in the back of SUVs in the past. Other than one minor break down and a fight that broke out amongst a few passengers, the trip was pretty smooth. Once again, Chip impressed me with his willingness to go along with the whole Haiti experience.

It was wonderful to be on the mountain again. Things weren’t the same without the Bustin family, but it was so good to get to spend a little more time with everyone up there. We packed a lot into a couple short days!
It was a blast getting to see the kids again. We brought a few gifts with us for the 10 kids who live at the mission and they had a lot of fun, especially with the bubbles! Natasha, one of the 10 kids, invited us to her grandmother's house and we spent a little time visiting with her as she prepared the evening meal.At another friend's house, we were offered some sugar cane and Chip got to hone his skills with a machete.

The neighborhood girls have started their own soccer team. While the bigger girls played on the field, some of the younger kids caught tadpoles.

Thanks to a generous donation, there is enough money to keep the feeding program going for the next month! It's pretty amazing seeing these kids enjoy full bellies when it's not uncommon for kids here to wake up hungry and go to sleep just as hungry. We're so grateful for God's provision! These are some of the ladies who prepare the food for 300 children 6 days a week. They show up at 7am, work at preparing the food until the meals are served at around noon, and stay until about 4pm cleaning up. The camera wasn't blurry here, the area they work in is just incredibly smoky because of all the cooking fires.

Next Phase

I had a wonderful break last week in Port au Prince at Haiti Children’s Rescue Mission, an orphanage in Petionville. It might sound a little strange to describe 3 days at an orphanage as a break, but having nothing to do but some grocery shopping and playing with kids was a wonderful reprieve from my normal daily responsibilities. I got into town on Tuesday, June 3 to find out that it was a good thing we had chosen that day because there was a city-wide demonstration planned for Wednesday that would essentially grind things to a halt for the day. I was told that the demonstrations were to push for the death sentence for kidnappers, as kidnapping has continued to be a big problem in Haiti. I found myself trying not to think about the high crime rate a couple days later when I was brought into a bad part of town to buy some meds to bring back up the mountain. Fortunately, I didn’t realize just how bad the area was until after we had gotten back into the car and the driver, native to Port au Prince, said, “Yeah, this neighborhood is not so good. I always avoid it, this is my first time here in 5 years. Just right now before you got into the car, I saw a lady being robbed from the back of a tap-tap. She looked really frightened.” Apparently, God had his protective hand on us that day!

My cousin Chip arrived in the country on Friday and we flew to Cayes where we’ve been doing a VBS at a small orphanage there. Chip is incredibly gifted with working with the children. I’ve been so impressed with his adventurous spirit and am grateful for his flexibility. On Sunday we got to join a missionary family as well as some local Haitian youth for an outreach that they’ve been doing every week for a few months. They go out to a slum of Cayes and do Sunday school and pass out meals for about 500 kids there. It was great to be a part of things that day. Of course, wherever I go, medical emergencies seem to follow me, so we ended up bringing a little boy back to town to go to the hospital for stitches after slicing his foot open.

Phil 4.4

For those of you who haven’t gotten my emails, here’s the latest on Steven and brief re-cap of what’s going on out here. I haven’t had the greatest internet access lately so haven’t been able to keep this blog as updated as I’d like…

Well, it looks like things are at a standstill for getting Steven to the States. For now. The US Embassy absolutely will not grant him a medical visa until we have proof that the costs of his medical expenses are covered. This means we'll either the hospital will have to waive his fees or we need to wait until the funds are raised. Despite the frustrations of the past couple weeks, to have gone through so much work only to have this door closed, I believe God has to have had a bigger plan here. This does give us some more time to pursue leads on other hospitals that may be able to do the surgery for free or offer us a much reduced rate. Steven and his mother, Janice, will be staying in the room we've rented for them next door to the mission for awhile longer so someone can continue to see him everyday and be able to get him help if he gets any worse, but he does appear stable at the moment.

In a few hours, I'll be driving down the mountain to Cayes with the family I've been staying with. The Bustins will be heading to the States for two months and I'll fly into Port au Prince and spend a few days at an orphanage until my cousin Chip joins me, then we'll fly to Cayes and work at an orphanage there, doing VBS-type activities with the kids. After that, we'll head home on June 16.

I'm faced with mixed emotions thinking about leaving this mountain. It'll be a nice change of pace to be back in a larger area but it's so hard to think about leaving the many wonderful people I've gotten to share in the lives of out here. I've also grown a lot in the area of healthcare working out here, I even put my first sutures in yesterday! (I think I put on a pretty calm front for the patient, but inside I'll admit I was just about ready to freak out.) I have to admit though, I am looking forward to being able to walk in public without people coming up to me saying, "Mis Estefany, souple bay mwen ti cado gren pou..." or "Nurse Stephanie, please give me a little gift of a pill for...(insert anything under the sun here from 'pain' to 'help my baby to start walking')". Every day after I've finished working and am heading back to the house, during that 3 minute walk about 8 people will come up to me asking for something. It's interesting, they'll sit for hours in the mission yard, not saying anything while I work with other patients. I'll even purposefully wait outside the pharmacy for a few minutes before closing up to give anyone a last chance to ask me for something, but there is always a group of people who waits until I close up and head home to make their needs known. I've learned to only keep a small amount of money in my pocket because whatever I have I won't be able to resist giving it away when people ask people ask me for money, especially when it's kids asking for money for food. The mission is able to do a lot, but it's hard when we have a whole mountain full of people with hunger pangs that I can't even imagine, and not being able to feed them all. RaeLeen's had a tough week because she got an email a couple days ago saying that the lady who's been giving the $2,000 needed each month to provide a hot meal everyday for the 300 children on the nutritional program is no longer able to continue to support the program. There is enough food left for about 2 and a half weeks. This program has made a huge difference in the community, the villagers remark that there are hardly ever funerals for children anymore now, when they used to be so common place. As many verses as there are in the Bible about feeding the hungry, I believe this work is very dear to God's heart and as He's been the one making provision for it all along, I look forward to seeing how He will provide next. "Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as non. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring." Isaiah 58.10-11.

Have a wonderful week!
Stephanie

"Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again--rejoice!" Phil 4.4