Hi all,
I know I'm overdue on an update but there's no time for one tonight, so will just say we are coming home June 14th to Michigan! Getting very excited! Here are some things I am looking forward to/want to do while home:
1. Hang out with friends and family and play catch up
2. Stand in my beautiful best friend Melissa's wedding
3. Meet my new neice Zoe
4. Drive
5. Take hot showers that are not out of a bucket
6. Shop in American stores - Target and the Teacher Store especially
7. Eat American food - PF Changs, Panera, Mongolian BBQ, Qdoba, Buddys Pizza, Applebees (maybe not all exactly "American", but anything besides beans and rice)
8. Work as an occupational therapy assistant for the first time for my dad's awesome girlfriend Debbie
9. Go to Michigan Adventure or Cedar Point
10. Go to Lake Michigan
11. Go to the movie theatre (I figured out it has been over 2 years now)
12. Watch television
the list goes on...........
Hope to see you all next week! :)
Love,
Kristin
Jun 5, 2011
May 10, 2011
Therapy for Two
Hi all,
Will start by saying thanks for the emails, kind words, encouragement, support, prayers, meals, visits, phone calls, and more that I have gotten from near and far in these past few weeks. I can't say enough how much it means to me and how much it has helped me to get through this experience.
As crazy as it sounds, this experience has in many ways made me realize how truly blessed I am, and again what all I take for granted. To not only have such great love and support during difficult times, but simply having the money and resources to be able to receive decent healthcare in a clean facility and having needs as basic as anasthesia met during the procedure following my miscarraige, something that so many women, or should I say most women (some of whom I have found include my closest friends) weren't able to have during their D&C procedures - being fully awake and having to not only see, but fully feel every excruciatingly painful second of it is something I could never imagine enduring and gives me one more reason to admire the incredibly brave Dominican women I know.
Speaking of those who have it worse off than I do, I've been spending a lot more time lately with my neighbor Ruben. Some of you may remember me mentioning my 66 year old neighbor from our apartments who was a news reporter and was recently diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. I'm not sure where I left off on updates because I've been horrible with updates, but he had surgery to have the tumor removed and became blind in the process. So now he stays at home trying to navigate his way around with a cane (sudden blindness is not easy to adapt to), and has generously given me his moped as a temporary gift (temporary in case he ever experiences a miracle) though this past month has not been the one where I'm up for that kind of learning to drive a moto adventure, soon though I swear. So not seeing me around for a while after the miscarraige, I finally made it around to visiting. Because I'm not sure how else to put it into words, I'll put it in his words instead:
Ruben: Kristin, I hear you're not doing good and you were in the hospital, what's going on with you?
(I explained the miscarraige, D&C procedure, etc.)
Ruben: Oh but Kristin, eso no es nada ("that is nothing" said with a chuckle) - come on Kristin, my wife used to have those all the time.
(I was pretty shocked, though there have been some rude comments in these past weeks, this one topped the list, but I thought it was fair enough from a diabetic who recently went blind having a brain tumor removed)
Ruben: Wait a minute, legrado you said (Spanish word for D&C), oh I had that word confused with something else. My wife didn't have one of those, I was thinking of something else. That is hard, but don't worry Kristin, the sun will be shining in your eyes again and you'll be pregnant before you know it.
(sounds like a better answer right?)
Me: (after finding out he couldn't eat any of the meals we were bringing him due to his diabetes) Would you like it if I came over and read to you every so often? I have a Bible in Spanish I could read with you if you would like that? That would help me with my Spanish too.
Ruben: Sure you're more than welcome - I listen to anyone who wants to come preach to me - they all come and read to me all the time, I invite them all - Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Catholics, Protestants - I listen to them all. You can preach to me whenever you'd like. (this made Dave and I laugh thinking of all the different door to door missionaries in this country)
Me: (realizing he had the wrong idea and me wanting to show him Christ's kindness and set doctrinal differences aside for later) I don't want to preach to you, I want to spend time with you and read to you. Is there anything else you would like to hear?
Ruben: Get that book over there (I pick it up) - Shakespeare's Greatest Works - Shakespeare is my favorite.
Me: (thinking what did I get myself into, but proceeding) Which one is your favorite?
Ruben: Othello.
So Othello it is, and not just in Spanish but Castillian Spanish where I struggle over every other word and he explains in detail each paragraph to me, which makes for loooong reading sessions. And when I think I am done, he says "Not yet Kristin, read me another scene, your Spanish still needs much more practice". So yes, my newest hobby is reading Shakepeare in Spanish to a blind man every night.
And that's not all... though I'm not sure what all I can believe, this man is one of those walking encyclopedias, if you've ever met one of those? He knows everything there is to know about everything, and on top of that he has an opinion and conspiracy theory about everything too. So I get to hear lots more than Shakespeare. And I think as some type of side effect of having a portion of his brain removed, it all seems to operate on shuffle (though you're probably saying Kristin your brain does the same thing every time you write a blog or email - this is like a seriously accelerated shuffle). Imagine Wikipedia shuffling through facts and stories about Fidel Castro, Linden B. Johnson, World War II, the Panama Canal, the art of human relationships, the Berlin Wall, and the current situation in Libya - this all happens in a ten minute conversation, complete with names and dates, all the facts fascinatingly easily retrieved from his memory and not in any way tied together. That's what a nightly visit with Ruben is like. I've only told one person so far the book fact that had me saying "I think I hear my husband calling" early the other night and it won't make it in this post, so if you want to know you have to email (and have to be a good friend of mine too :)
So that's what's new here (well not really - there's school, church, dance, friends, always something new there, but the weekly emails with every last detail of my life are long gone and I figure this enough for tonight). I thought this was cute enough to share, and it is nice to be needed by someone who also feels like I need him (the need to perfect my pronunciation of Shakespeare in Castillian Spanish is serious business and no laughing matter to Ruben :)
Please continue to pray for us, for Ruben, for our students, our church here, the orphanage, and all the beautiful souls here that change our lives every day. Hope to see many of you in Michigan next month. :) Thanks again for all the love and support that means so much to us.
Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin (and Dave and Santa too)
Will start by saying thanks for the emails, kind words, encouragement, support, prayers, meals, visits, phone calls, and more that I have gotten from near and far in these past few weeks. I can't say enough how much it means to me and how much it has helped me to get through this experience.
As crazy as it sounds, this experience has in many ways made me realize how truly blessed I am, and again what all I take for granted. To not only have such great love and support during difficult times, but simply having the money and resources to be able to receive decent healthcare in a clean facility and having needs as basic as anasthesia met during the procedure following my miscarraige, something that so many women, or should I say most women (some of whom I have found include my closest friends) weren't able to have during their D&C procedures - being fully awake and having to not only see, but fully feel every excruciatingly painful second of it is something I could never imagine enduring and gives me one more reason to admire the incredibly brave Dominican women I know.
Speaking of those who have it worse off than I do, I've been spending a lot more time lately with my neighbor Ruben. Some of you may remember me mentioning my 66 year old neighbor from our apartments who was a news reporter and was recently diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. I'm not sure where I left off on updates because I've been horrible with updates, but he had surgery to have the tumor removed and became blind in the process. So now he stays at home trying to navigate his way around with a cane (sudden blindness is not easy to adapt to), and has generously given me his moped as a temporary gift (temporary in case he ever experiences a miracle) though this past month has not been the one where I'm up for that kind of learning to drive a moto adventure, soon though I swear. So not seeing me around for a while after the miscarraige, I finally made it around to visiting. Because I'm not sure how else to put it into words, I'll put it in his words instead:
Ruben: Kristin, I hear you're not doing good and you were in the hospital, what's going on with you?
(I explained the miscarraige, D&C procedure, etc.)
Ruben: Oh but Kristin, eso no es nada ("that is nothing" said with a chuckle) - come on Kristin, my wife used to have those all the time.
(I was pretty shocked, though there have been some rude comments in these past weeks, this one topped the list, but I thought it was fair enough from a diabetic who recently went blind having a brain tumor removed)
Ruben: Wait a minute, legrado you said (Spanish word for D&C), oh I had that word confused with something else. My wife didn't have one of those, I was thinking of something else. That is hard, but don't worry Kristin, the sun will be shining in your eyes again and you'll be pregnant before you know it.
(sounds like a better answer right?)
Me: (after finding out he couldn't eat any of the meals we were bringing him due to his diabetes) Would you like it if I came over and read to you every so often? I have a Bible in Spanish I could read with you if you would like that? That would help me with my Spanish too.
Ruben: Sure you're more than welcome - I listen to anyone who wants to come preach to me - they all come and read to me all the time, I invite them all - Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Catholics, Protestants - I listen to them all. You can preach to me whenever you'd like. (this made Dave and I laugh thinking of all the different door to door missionaries in this country)
Me: (realizing he had the wrong idea and me wanting to show him Christ's kindness and set doctrinal differences aside for later) I don't want to preach to you, I want to spend time with you and read to you. Is there anything else you would like to hear?
Ruben: Get that book over there (I pick it up) - Shakespeare's Greatest Works - Shakespeare is my favorite.
Me: (thinking what did I get myself into, but proceeding) Which one is your favorite?
Ruben: Othello.
So Othello it is, and not just in Spanish but Castillian Spanish where I struggle over every other word and he explains in detail each paragraph to me, which makes for loooong reading sessions. And when I think I am done, he says "Not yet Kristin, read me another scene, your Spanish still needs much more practice". So yes, my newest hobby is reading Shakepeare in Spanish to a blind man every night.
And that's not all... though I'm not sure what all I can believe, this man is one of those walking encyclopedias, if you've ever met one of those? He knows everything there is to know about everything, and on top of that he has an opinion and conspiracy theory about everything too. So I get to hear lots more than Shakespeare. And I think as some type of side effect of having a portion of his brain removed, it all seems to operate on shuffle (though you're probably saying Kristin your brain does the same thing every time you write a blog or email - this is like a seriously accelerated shuffle). Imagine Wikipedia shuffling through facts and stories about Fidel Castro, Linden B. Johnson, World War II, the Panama Canal, the art of human relationships, the Berlin Wall, and the current situation in Libya - this all happens in a ten minute conversation, complete with names and dates, all the facts fascinatingly easily retrieved from his memory and not in any way tied together. That's what a nightly visit with Ruben is like. I've only told one person so far the book fact that had me saying "I think I hear my husband calling" early the other night and it won't make it in this post, so if you want to know you have to email (and have to be a good friend of mine too :)
So that's what's new here (well not really - there's school, church, dance, friends, always something new there, but the weekly emails with every last detail of my life are long gone and I figure this enough for tonight). I thought this was cute enough to share, and it is nice to be needed by someone who also feels like I need him (the need to perfect my pronunciation of Shakespeare in Castillian Spanish is serious business and no laughing matter to Ruben :)
Please continue to pray for us, for Ruben, for our students, our church here, the orphanage, and all the beautiful souls here that change our lives every day. Hope to see many of you in Michigan next month. :) Thanks again for all the love and support that means so much to us.
Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin (and Dave and Santa too)
Apr 26, 2011
Haiti
Not sure where to start with this one. A lot of people have been asking me how was Haiti, and to be honest I had what may have been the most terrible experience of my life. This is not to say Tim and Paola weren't the best hosts ever and that I didn't love playing with my precious neice, but it still hurts.
Our first day there at breakfast after church we shared our secret with Tim and Paola, we were pregnant and due in November, a couple weeks before them. The next 24 hours were full of baby talk, and hoping our deliveries might be together in the DR. Until I started bleeding and cramping, and was told in a Haitian clinic that we weren't going to have a baby anymore and it was over.
I expected before I even went to come back from Haiti feeling hurt - for the people of Haiti, from seeing the poverty, the aftermath of the earthquake, the tent cities, the hunger, the disease that is such a constant in that country - not to feel so much hurt over losing someone I have never even met, I'm not sure how it can hurt this much?
So I know this wasn't what you were expecting, and neither was I. I honestly have been anticipating my blog about the pregnancy everyday since we found out, images in my head of baby clothes and sonograms, brainstorming new ideas of how I could creatively present this announcement online, unable to think of anything else to blog about -I didn't see this one coming.
One of the first people who came in my mind to write when I got back to the DR was Maria, my beloved teaching assistant and close friend from the orphanage. I remembered she had a miscarriage back in the fall and another one a few years ago to twins when she was 7 months pregnant. I can't understand now how she ever got through that. A tia at the orphanage delivered 3 stillborn babies. Our custodian at the orpahange had 9, yes 9, miscarraiges. How do people survive this? How do they go on? How can life be this unfair?
I think the toughest part is trying to understand living on an island where teenagers are so frequently getting pregnant, drinking and lacking any pre-natal care through their entire pregnancy, and then delivering healthy babies only to discard them on the street or in an orphanage, or worse, sell them into slavery or prostitution as soon as they're old enough, why this would happen to us? Or why adoption, which we have investigated thoroughly during our time here, is almost impossible for us when we are oh so ready to love one of these kids whole-heartedly, only because we don't have sacks of money to hand over to a corrupt government? Why?
I know only God has the answers to these difficult questions. And I know He will get us through it as He has before, this was actually not my first miscarraige, though this one was definitely much harder than the first one. Maybe I sound like a drama queen and I know life goes on, but it really does hurt that much. So please pray for us during this time, and thank you to the people who already have. I know I have a great support system of prayer warriors out there just waiting for the opportunity. Oh and as a sidenote to reassure you - not that I didn't already know I had the best husband ever, and not to boast - but I have been getting the best care ever at home - from my favorite flowers to my favorite food to my favorite candy to my favorite ice cream to even him finding the recipe online for Panera Bread's Cream of Potato Soup and creating a copycat version for me just because I missed it, and watching hours of Lost DVD's together so I don't have to think about the only thing I can think about, anything at all to make me feel better - I do have to say there is no one else on earth I would rather have, or even lose, a baby with.
Thank you all for your consistent love, prayers, and support. Hope to see you all in Michigan in 6 weeks.
Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin
Our first day there at breakfast after church we shared our secret with Tim and Paola, we were pregnant and due in November, a couple weeks before them. The next 24 hours were full of baby talk, and hoping our deliveries might be together in the DR. Until I started bleeding and cramping, and was told in a Haitian clinic that we weren't going to have a baby anymore and it was over.
I expected before I even went to come back from Haiti feeling hurt - for the people of Haiti, from seeing the poverty, the aftermath of the earthquake, the tent cities, the hunger, the disease that is such a constant in that country - not to feel so much hurt over losing someone I have never even met, I'm not sure how it can hurt this much?
So I know this wasn't what you were expecting, and neither was I. I honestly have been anticipating my blog about the pregnancy everyday since we found out, images in my head of baby clothes and sonograms, brainstorming new ideas of how I could creatively present this announcement online, unable to think of anything else to blog about -I didn't see this one coming.
One of the first people who came in my mind to write when I got back to the DR was Maria, my beloved teaching assistant and close friend from the orphanage. I remembered she had a miscarriage back in the fall and another one a few years ago to twins when she was 7 months pregnant. I can't understand now how she ever got through that. A tia at the orphanage delivered 3 stillborn babies. Our custodian at the orpahange had 9, yes 9, miscarraiges. How do people survive this? How do they go on? How can life be this unfair?
I think the toughest part is trying to understand living on an island where teenagers are so frequently getting pregnant, drinking and lacking any pre-natal care through their entire pregnancy, and then delivering healthy babies only to discard them on the street or in an orphanage, or worse, sell them into slavery or prostitution as soon as they're old enough, why this would happen to us? Or why adoption, which we have investigated thoroughly during our time here, is almost impossible for us when we are oh so ready to love one of these kids whole-heartedly, only because we don't have sacks of money to hand over to a corrupt government? Why?
I know only God has the answers to these difficult questions. And I know He will get us through it as He has before, this was actually not my first miscarraige, though this one was definitely much harder than the first one. Maybe I sound like a drama queen and I know life goes on, but it really does hurt that much. So please pray for us during this time, and thank you to the people who already have. I know I have a great support system of prayer warriors out there just waiting for the opportunity. Oh and as a sidenote to reassure you - not that I didn't already know I had the best husband ever, and not to boast - but I have been getting the best care ever at home - from my favorite flowers to my favorite food to my favorite candy to my favorite ice cream to even him finding the recipe online for Panera Bread's Cream of Potato Soup and creating a copycat version for me just because I missed it, and watching hours of Lost DVD's together so I don't have to think about the only thing I can think about, anything at all to make me feel better - I do have to say there is no one else on earth I would rather have, or even lose, a baby with.
Thank you all for your consistent love, prayers, and support. Hope to see you all in Michigan in 6 weeks.
Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin
Apr 3, 2011
Feeding Center Up! :)
As I mentioned in a previous post, our church has been in the works starting a new children's feeding center in the community. After 2 children from our church passed away from malnutrition, our pastor decided to start putting the center up without any funds to do it, working on faith alone. Many of our Haitian church members have been working everyday on a volunteer budget (and by that I don't mean the $65 a month that I used to make). Their pay is not monetary, but in the future promise for their children, children with smiling faces and full bellies. Here in the DR, it is estimated that over 8% of the children will have irreparable retardation because of the hunger they suffer. The number of Dominicans across the country who are living in hunger surpasses 2 million, and that number grows by approximately 2,500 people each year. And while that statistic is nothing compared to our neighboring Haiti who continues to suffer beyond belief, that number does include many beautiful faces that faithfully attend my Oansa class each Saturday, showering me with hugs and kisses, giggling at my stories, singing their hearts out to each praise song, and flashing their beautiful smiles regardless of what great obstacles they might have against them outside the church walls. For that reason, this feeding center has me overjoyed and I just had to share with each of you.
Though the details are yet to be determined, for around $50 US dollars per month, you can sponsor one of the children from the community who are living under the poverty line and may otherwise suffer from malnutrition. They will be provided with 2-3 meals a day for the whole month. Please let me know if you're interested in helping! :)
Hope all is going well back in Michigan and all the other places this is being read from, and hope to see you in a couple of months when I come home for summer. And please let me know if anyone can use a teacher, tutor, nanny, or any type of worker this summer, I promise I work hard - our bank account is dwindling and we need to save up money to make it through another year of service next year in the DR! :) Have a great week!
Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin
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| View of the feeding center from the outside |
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| View from the inside - hopefully Dave will be alongside some of our high school students doing a service project to get this place ready very soon! |
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| Since some of the students from my class at school are from middle to upper class families, I have them participate in service and giving projects integrated into our Bible curriculum as often as possible. This past week, I taught about Jesus teaching us to help widows and orphans, and children who were able to brought in canned foods, beans, and rice to donate to the new feeding center. Even at six years old, I am so proud of their willingness to serve and give. |
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| How could you turn down a smile like that? |
Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin
Feb 20, 2011
If Only, If Only
A phrase I find myself saying all the time here - if only there was electricity, if only I had a car, if only we had more money, if only the copy machine was working... but most often, it's if only we had internet, and when we do have it, it's if only our internet was fast enough!! Fast enough to skype, fast enough to download movies - fast enough to upload my photos and write my blog! Though I know I am so truly blessed and have no room for complaint, I will use our record slow internet as our excuse for not blogging in forever and a day. Honestly I have started this blog about 100 times now, but the internet just won't open the pictures, or they take 30 minutes each, or it won't let me write anything because it's frozen, or most often right when I'm getting in started with my ideas, it all just shuts down mid-blog - and I scream at the computer and get frustrated and say I'm so done with it, and then start the process over the next week, this has been going on for about 3 months. Soo I will stop complaining now, but here is my update, if you can take it all in one reading (or viewing, cause it will mostly just be photos) from Christmas to Valentine's Day, with lots in between, as well as all our new and exciting plans for the new year 2011.... (and I know Christmas is waaay over, but since each photo took so much of my time to upload, you get to see these ones anyway :)
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| Christmas party with my class at Miss Craig's house - we made Christmas cookies and drank hot chocolate, made birthday presents for Jesus, Christmas cards, nativity scenes, and Christmas ornaments - very crazy but fun! |
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| Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree - our friends gave us a small Christmas tree for our house, and since we didn't have any ornaments Dave found all kinds of junk from around our apartment to decorate with, from tea bags to hair scrunchies... the neighbors were as confused as all get out - I tried explaining my husband did it to be funny, and though they attempted a courtesy laugh, their exchange of glances made it clear they did not think it was at all as funny as we did. :) |
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| Cristal was our "mamacita" for the school Christmas program, they were all so cute! If you don't know the song, look for Mamacita Donde Esta Santa Claus? on Youtube... the kids all came in their jammies, Mamacita sat in her rocking chair scolding them, while one my other first graders snuck around the stage dressed as a big stuffed Santa with his hopping reindeer - they were so stinking cute! |
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| Two of my first graders getting ready to sing Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer for the school program |
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| I manned the girls dressing room while Dave took on the 20 some first grade boys in the other one for the hour and a half wait til our turn - I think I got the better of the two rooms :) We had a blast! |
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| Stealing a kiss under the mistletoe after the school program - notice all the styrofoam snow for our white Caribbean Christmas! |
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| Helenyi is one of our neighbor girls who I am mentoring and absolutely adore - she made a beautiful angel! |
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| All my little angels waiting backstage for their turn to go on! |
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| Andy is a boy from Haiti who is truly an absolute angel, sweet as can be, I wish I could take him home with me! |
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| Melia is a missionary kid in town who's parents run a school for low-income children and orphans, she is a sweetie pie and so is her friend Allie on the left - they are all beautiful little angels!! I just couldn't get enough photos of them all! |
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| Acting out the Christmas story for our program - they did a great job!! |
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| After the program and taking off our costumes, all the kids from the Oansa program came back on stage for their Christmas presents - each bag had a pencil, crayons, some candies, and a small toy - they were soooo excited!! |
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| Guess who dressed up as Santa Clause this year for our school Christmas banquet? |
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| Notice the long white skirt I wore under my costume - Mrs. Clause is apparently quite sexy in the DR! |
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| Before we left for the states, our neighbor Dinelia's family from my church prepared us a very special dinner of chicken, rice, chickpeas, and soda. They were very excited to share with us and we felt so blessed to spend this Christmas meal with them! |
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| Family! And Dave's family too of course though I didn't get a picture with all of them together. And all of our wonderful friends as well. We were very lucky to have been able to fly home for a white Christmas with the people we love most! |
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| Enjoying an American Christmas! |
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| We were very blessed to receive donations of toys and art supplies to use with the kids here - many of them did not get a single Christmas present, so you can't imagine the joy just a simple toy like this could bring them! |
Since we've been back things have been going good... we are back into the swing of things and have had a few visitors too...
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| Our roommate Kristina from the orphanage last year (the actress from New Zealand) came up to visit with her boyfriend for our long weekend. We had lots of fun showing them around Jarabacoa... (Dave is so great at posing for pictures) One of the great things about having visitors is seeing Jarabacoa through new eyes.. here are some great photos they shared with us of their time here |
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| Flowers in the park |
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| Santa is getting big and up to all kinds of new tricks! |
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| Dave and Mark found this friend at the top of the mountain El Mogote that Dave climbed for his 4th time now |
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| From the top of El Mogote |
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| Next we had two couchsurfers from Poland - they were so fun!! And I couldn't believe the amount of gifts they brought for us - we now own everything Polish you could ever imagine - jewelry, CD's, bookmarks, pens, magnets, you name it! This picture was after 5 hours being lost on a mountain trying to find this waterfall - the one on the right is an experienced mountain climber so I trusted her instead of my instinct when we came to a sketchy looking tube to climb across - but they were so great that we had a lot of fun being lost together anyways! |
In our community ministries, Dave's Wyldlife group and my Oansa group, we are loving life....
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| As you know Dave is one of the leaders of Wyldlife, an English speaking youth group for Dominican middle school students. Thanks to your donations Dave was able to go spend a weekend with them at camp where God did some amazing things and they were able to participate in all kinds of fun adventures! Here's all the leaders and kids - can you find Dave? |
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| Dave and two of his middle school boys from his cabin |
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| As I've shared before, my community ministry has been with Oansa at church - a Spanish speaking ministry for mostly low-income Dominican children where we have games, songs, messages, and a feeding program for the kids on Saturdays. Here they are playing beauty shop for our "Crazy Hair Day" competition. |
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| Here are 3 of our church's missionary kids on crazy hair day - the two in the middle are both in my class at school and won first and second prize! I am so happy to be back with my kids after Christmas - I know I sound like a nerd, but I even miss them just on the weekends so long breaks just always feel too long! |
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| Here's my first graders in our crowns celebrating 100 days of school! We had all kinds of fun with lots of 100 type activities! |
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| Right after our 100's day celebration, we celebrated Valentine's day! The kids loved making heart crowns, valentine cards, heart baskets, exchanging cards and candies, dancing to the Cupid Shuffle, making Love books, and playing "Hot Valentine" with the class! I was very blessed this Valentine's Day with tons of gifts from students and friends, flowers, candy, and a card from Dave, and a pizza night together. I used to hate V-day but now I think it's the best! :) Some new news... |
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| As some of you may know, Dave now has his own room - he did an awesome job painting, decorating, and making it a fun place for the kids to learn art! |
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| Here's his class full of fifth graders learning - notice he still only has a small handful of chairs that he had to find himself - please pray that he will get chairs soon as he has been without them since December now and it is difficult to teach when half the kids are standing up! |
Something else new we have been doing since we came back from Christmas is "Dinner and Discipleship nights" with the kids from church and around our neighborhood. We invite a few kids over each week to teach them how to make dinner, cook together, read Bible stories, play games, and mentor them. Here's one of our pizza nights with the neighborhood girls...
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| Dave teaching the girls how to make pizza! |
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| Helenyi serving up slices! |
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| Though my favorite part is hanging with the kids, this is Dave's favorite part of these nights, of course! |
Another ministry that I am getting involved with here is called Priceless International, which works to fight human trafficking and especially child sex trafficking, which is rampant here in the Dominican Republic (exportation of prostitutes is the fourth highest in the world here). Two weeks ago, a friend and I went on a research trip in the south of the country to interview various ministries and people in the communities involved in human trafficking. This will probably have to be whole entire blog in itself, but we are excited about the possibilities and our long-term goal is to start a refuge house for child sex workers in the DR.
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| Here you can find me with my pen flying as I interviewed Alison, an incredible lady who you can only see the backside of in this picture, but she started a dress shop, jewelry shop, school, and home for prostitutes from San Pedro and Juan Dolio who want to leave the sex trade and find a better life. If you want to learn more about her ministry, you can visit http://www.drvision.org/ |
"Kristin, you give classes to the Haitians?!?"
"Yes," I responded, "They are wonderful and beautiful, I love teaching them, just like I love teaching the Dominicans the same way".
She thought about this for a minute, and said "You know, we're really all just the same - God made us the same and loves us all right, no matter if our skin is light or dark right? He thinks we're all beautiful and equal right?"
I didn't know whether to smile or cry, so I did a bit of both - "Exactly right Helenyi." :)
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| Here's our first night of English class! I love them all! |
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| I don't know if I've ever had such dedicated students who are so enthusiastic about learning - they ALWAYS study and are actively participating - I can't imagine a more perfect class. I even overheard one girl my age talking to a friend saying "I love English class, I just LOVE it!" Who actually loves going to class that much? Even though it makes Thursday a long day, it's so cool to teach people who are so eager to learn! |
One last piece of exciting news - I get to be a bridesmaid this summer for my beautiful friend Melissa (the angel from Panama who came to help in my classroom in Owosso three years ago and has been a huge part of my life ever since). They got engaged on Christmas Eve, the same as Dave and I, and are getting married August 13th, two days after our anniversary. I can't wait and am so excited for them!!
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| The happy couple! |
I started my tutoring club back up and now have four students I am tutoring every Monday in math and reading after-school.
I started another dance class this semester but am teaching dance to 6-8 year old girls instead, while Johanna continues dance classes with the older ones... so we have lots of Jonas brothers, Disney, and fun girly dances planned - let me know if you have any ideas!
I am still teaching Spanish to the Haitian parent of one of my students - this has helped us to develop a special relationship with her and helps me to keep up my Spanish!
I am almost finished with my online graduate class - one more paper, my final project, and I'm done! I can't wait to be done and able to renew my teaching certificate!
Dave started a cycling club with the kids in town to bike together two nights a week but no one has signed up yet - hopefully the kids will soon (Dominicans are late with everything!)
Yes, I know what you're thinking and yes, I already know I'm nuts, but please pray that I don't lose my head with this crazy lifestyle, and that I stay sane and healthy. I usually love everything I do but sometimes it makes me a little crazy. I'm trying to remember how to use that word "no" too, but it's really hard for me - it just doesn't come easy. Please pray for our marriage, our students, our church, our activities, and especially the new refuge house we are trying to start here in Jarabacoa. Oh and for Santa - I splurged and finally bought new shoes after losing 4 of my favorite pairs, if she doesn't break these habits I might just break her! :)
Anyways, sorry again for being away so long, and for writing such a long blog too, but love and prayers to all of you back home, miss you all, please come visit us soon!! Oh and shout out to my best friend Lauren of (almost) 29 years, she may be the only one who finishes these blogs and her birthday is tomorrow - I love you Laur!!!
Love, peace, and prayers to all of you,
Kristin xoxoxo
Jan 12, 2011
Christmas letter
Dear friends and family,
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s 2011! Thank you to each of you for all of your love, encouragement, prayers, and support throughout this past year. The year 2010 has been an incredible one, full of wild ups and downs, joys and losses, and we couldn’t have made it through it without you. Many of you probably remember a year ago at this time – we never realized what a ride the year ahead could hold for us. After our fundraiser we had bringing in the new year one year ago, we flew back to the Dominican Republic just a few days later to see the world had been turned upside down when the earthquake took place in our neighboring country of Haiti. It was a scary time as Dave’s brother and his wife were there in the middle of Port-au-Prince, and there were many other friends who we were not able to contact and did not know if they had survived. Thank God our family made it out okay, but our “sister orphanage” in Haiti lost a hospital, a guest house, and a special needs school, and many staff and volunteers were found both dead and alive in the rubble days later. In the aftermath of the quake, Dave, his brother, and other NPH volunteers were able to use the money that you donated at our fundraiser last year to fill truck after truck with food, water, and medical supplies and drove back and forth into Haiti to the NPH hospital which was still standing. You can only imagine the things he saw being in a hospital in Haiti only days after the earthquake. Dave was there for the largest 5.9 aftershock where people poured out of buildings screaming onto the streets, and was later hospitalized for several days when he came down with a severe case of malaria which doctors were not able to identify. Our days were full of anxiety and fear, but also extreme gratitude and even excitement for all that all of you who supported us allowed us to do in the country of Haiti during heartrending time. For months after the quake, our house, which was usually home to 16 of us international volunteers, housed dozens of doctors and aide workers from around the world, as well as Haitian refugees who came with devastating stories of loss, some of whom are still our closest friends. In March 2010, we said good-bye to Raquela, one of three of the children we worked with in the orphanage who died during this year of various causes from AIDS to cancer – tragedies difficult to comprehend; and we also met a new member of our family, our niece Ana Leah DeYoung who was born on March 22nd in Santo Domingo and we were able to be there for her birth. In June, we said our tearful good-byes to the children in the orphanage before flying back stateside for the summer, where Kristin took graduate classes to renew her teaching license and Dave worked hard each day to pay for these classes. Though it was great to spend time with our family and friends, we knew our work in the Dominican Republic was far from over. And so in August, we flew back once again to this little Caribbean island, first to visit our “little brothers and sisters” in the orphanage, and then onto our new home and new jobs in the small mountains of Jarabacoa, just a few hours from there. We are now working at Jarabacoa Christian School, where Kristin teaches first grade and Dave is starting a new K-12 art program, mostly using recycled materials and whatever he can find. In our “spare time”, we are keeping plenty busy with both after-school activities and ministering in the community. After school, Kristin is teaching dance classes and Spanish, as well as tutoring three students with learning differences, and Dave coaches American football for middle and high school and gives private art lessons. Dave also works one-two days a week planning games, activities, and messages for “Wyldlife”, Jarabacoa’s first English speaking youth group for middle school students which started this year. He also spends much of his free time chasing our newest member of the family, a Belgian shepherd puppy named Santa. Kristin teaches the youngest group (ages 3-7) for “Oansa”, a Saturday children’s ministry at our church, which involves many needy children from our neighborhood who spend lots of hours in our home as well (or the neighborhood “orphanage” as Dave likes to call it). She is also starting the first ESL program teaching English for our Haitian church, in order to help those who would like to learn English but aren’t able to pay for language school. She is working with the pastor and other missionaries on starting local projects including a feeding center to fight child hunger, as well as a refuge home for young victims of sex trafficking. When we able to, we like to spend weekends traveling back to the orphanage to visit with the kids who became our family in the past year. Kristin’s former teaching assistant and close friend Maria is doing a superb job running the special education program she founded last year, as well as attending university on partial scholarship, again thanks to each of you, our faithful supporters. Our other very close friend Cristel (a former orphan from Haiti who we helped last year after losing both her parents and her home in the earthquake) is now running a home for 13 Haitian children with cancer, in memory of Alberto, the Haitian boy from the orphanage who died in August of leukemia. Both of them are an incredible blessing at the orphanage and we are so proud of them.
Love, peace, and prayers,
David and Kristin DeYoung
Jan 10, 2011
Home sweet home?
So after our 6p.m. flight out which arrived at 3a.m. in Santiago without too many hassles, we got a taxi with an American girl who said we could split cab fare with her, but instead she bolted out of the taxi and jipped us without paying her share. Then we got to the bus station around 3:30 and found out the schedule online was wrong and the first bus to La Vega didn't leave at 5a.m. but actually at 7:30 a.m. so we hung out on park benches for 4 hours chatting it up with a guy on the street, then waited another half hour in La Vega for our next bus, got to Jarabacoa around 10a.m. in the middle of the craziness of King's Day, got a taxi to our apartment, hearing from the neighbors all the way to our door about all the problems and we could smell our apartment coming up the stairs... these photos don't quite do justice to what we found.
She found all kinds of other furniture to use as chew toys too... and though we are now home, Santa has continued to eat about a third of our bed, more of the chairs, and gobbled up many of my new treasures from the states into pieces. We found two weeks worth of pee and poop in all kinds of places you would never imagine she could even get to, and our landlord says 4 neighbors are refusing to pay rent until he evicts either us or our dog. Any ideas for a name change? Somehow "Saint" just doesn't seem to fit...
She found all kinds of other furniture to use as chew toys too... and though we are now home, Santa has continued to eat about a third of our bed, more of the chairs, and gobbled up many of my new treasures from the states into pieces. We found two weeks worth of pee and poop in all kinds of places you would never imagine she could even get to, and our landlord says 4 neighbors are refusing to pay rent until he evicts either us or our dog. Any ideas for a name change? Somehow "Saint" just doesn't seem to fit...
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