Enjoy the moments...

First of all, I just realized from looking at my 1st two posts that they were both written at about 2:30 a.m and now this one is no different!  Obviously, my sleeping patterns are a little off schedule.  Not too smart because when 5 a.m rolls around and the kids need to be woken up, I can't think of anything else except café con leche. 

Davidson and I left the hospital yesterday!  Thank you for all of your prayers and support.  I am so grateful to God that we were able to get him to a private hospital with good medical care.  I remember listening to Danita's stories of the early days, having to go to public hospitals (which is another story), trying to sleep in metal chairs.  When I first moved to Haiti, I went to those hospitals in the DR on numerous occasions as well.  So, the past couple of days, being in a hospital room with a semi-comfortable couch, has made me grateful to God…once again!  I have learned to come prepared on every trip, especially when it is one with a child…baby wipes…check…plastic bags…check…snacks…check…digital thermometer…check…pepto-bismol and Motrin…check.  So, this time I brought a Gameboy and Connect Four.  Davidson and I played 11 games straight of Connect Four in the hospital room.  He won 8 and I won 3.  The sad part is that I did not let him win for the sake of being a nice "mami."  He is just that good.  As you can tell by my face, I was not too happy.

 

He has not had any breathing problems since Sunday night and we are hoping and praying that it stays that way forever!  He is still on some medication and nebulized medicine to prevent asthma attacks, but all is well…thank you, Lord.  After we were discharged from the hospital yesterday, we came back to the hotel here in Santiago.  I wanted to keep him here for a couple of days just to make sure there were no more problems.  It is always fun seeing our children enjoy their "firsts!"  He had pizza for the first time in his life today!  He went to an arcade in a local mall for the first time in his life today and I taught him how to play Skee-ball and air hockey!  He had so much fun and had the biggest smile.  But when I asked him if he wanted to go back to Haiti tomorrow, he said "Yes."   And I agreed…you can only take so much of excess and then your heart aches for simplicity and familiarity.  

One of the biggest misconceptions about what we do in Haiti is that we sit around and play with children all day.  The truth is: we long to do more of that, but there is so much work to do besides spending time with the children.  Paying our weekly bills, paying the staff, ordering construction materials, negotiating contracts, solving immigration issues, repairing generators and inverters, paperwork, filing, coordinating mission trips, making reservations, writing newsletters, communicating with donors, Won by One sponsorship program, email correspondence, and the list goes on and on and on.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing all of that and it comes with this life.  So, when it comes to the children, I have learned to enjoy the moments!   All of that to say, I had a moment yesterday, all because of Davidson.  I will preface this story by saying that he is NOT a talker.  He will talk if you engage him, but he is a little man with few words, yet he shows his love in cute homemade letters and acts of service.

Yesterday afternoon, I ran by the grocery store and picked up some heathy essentials…Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread) and crackers.  We came back to the hotel room, sat at the table, and ate dinner.  Then I had some emails to work on, schoolwork to do for one of my college classes, and had about 3 phone calls.  In the midst of doing this, I was not even aware of what Davidson was doing.  After about an hour, I had finished my phone calls and looked over to the left and was SHOCKED.  He had cleaned the table and set it up for the two of us to eat dessert!  He had found plates, glasses, ice, and a placemat and put the Nutella and crackers on the table.  So, we ate our dessert together and then he stood up, took my plate and washed it for me!  It was one of the sweetest moments of my life because of his simple act of love.  Another reminder that God uses children to teach us the greatest lessons of life...

Tonight, I asked him to pray before we ate and in Creole, I heard him say:

 "Lord, thank you because I am not walking the streets anymore."

  Thank you for reading this and thank you for your prayers.