BBQ, and Snakes

So we are slowly getting back on track, school's in full swing, we have a place to live for now... and life is good and rainy. There has been amazingly beautiful mornings, a bit cold and hard to get out of bed, to super hot by mid afternoon and then pouring rain. The rain usually starts right before we are about to head home, and driving on a motorcycle in the rain is not one of my favorite activities, Kristin's either.
Well we had our Wyldlife kickoff party last Thursday night which went great, about 35 kids showed up, most of which were first timers. Wyldlife is kind of like youth group in the states. It consists of 3 parts- club, campaigners, and camp. Club is a lot of fun and games and the kids hear about who Jesus is. Campaigners is for those kids that want to dig in a little deeper into the word. And a big part of Wyldlife is Camp which will be coming up in Febuary.
This week at club we played a couple games, and had a barbeque for the kids it was mostly just a time to meet and greet the kids and a way to hang out and talk. We had a great turn out, and it was exciting to see the kids excited about it. Here are some pics:

Watermelon seed shooting contest

A relay to see which team could dig out all the skittles from the jello first without using their hands

School has been crazy. I've been working with limited supplies, and a ton of classes. Since there are more students this year than ever in the school they had to open a number of new classes. There are now 2 first grades, 2 second grades, 2 fourth grades, and a ton of Prek2-3-4 and Kindergardeners. I teach a total of 16 different classes through out the week so I have had my hands full. Some are more fun than others. Below are pictures of snakes we did in Mrs. DeYoung's 1st grade class working with patterns, some got it, some were out to lunch.

Snake patterns

In my defense (Santa)

I am truly sorry of all the pain and suffering my owners had to go through, but while they were up in Michigan enjoying their summers, I was here with some idiot of a dog sitter having to suffer.

Do you have any idea what it is like to be locked in a bedroom that is only about four times the size of my crate for days  unend with little food or water? Talk about horrible! So when there wasn’t much to do, these were a few of my favorite things I liked to do to pass my time:

First of all, after not eating or drinking for a few days, the saltiness of butt sweat on a seat cushion begins to sound and smell quite appetizing. The straps, well they were okay, but they got caught in my teeth, however later on they worked as great dental floss. For dessert, I liked to top it all off with the wood arm rests on the chair, they gave my palate the earthy sensation of being outside playing in the woods (which I rarely had the chance to do this entire summer).

Also, have you had the pleasure of bouncing up and down on a giant inflatable toy? It makes me jump an entire 6 inches higher at the very least! Not only that, but it does break my fall when I do slip. It was okay to sleep on it too I guess. I slept there for, oh about a week I think, it was nice. I think that’s what my owners used it for, they called it something like an “air mattress”?? However the real pleasure came when I sunk my teeth into it for the first time. It was a bit scary at first, it sounded like a cat, which really made me jump to my feet and fight back with all my fury.  But once it stopped making the hissing sound it gave me hours and hours of chewing pleasure. It was by far the biggest, mouth watering chew toy I have ever sank my teeth into.

Well being left alone for hours unend things got extremely boring, so I would try to stay as active as possible. Since my dad wasn’t around, playing Frisbee was out of the question. The next best things accessible were these little plastic miniature Frisbees. Though at first I must admit they didn’t look that appealing, once I figured out how to open up the small plastic cases there was a world of fun to be had. These miniature flying discs provided hours of fun. Tossing them up in the air and catching them and sliding them around on the tile like a hockey puck was so amusing I would get caught up for hours playing with the little silverfish reflective discs. Not to mention in the sun they would make all sorts of rainbow colors, my Frisbees don’t do that. I was able to find an entire box of these discs to play with before my “dog sitter” came home. He took away the fun and hid them from me in a closet…. but does he really think I’m that dumb? I found them again the next day when he was out, and proceeded to tear into six complete box sets of them, what a blast!!! He must not have known my dad trains me by hiding my toys and making me find them, this dog sitter what a joke…..

One night I was left alone at the apartment and the doofus who was supposed to be taking care of me forgot to close the door. Since we live in the mountains, an underfed inactive dog will get cold very quickly on a tile floor. So I really had to go back to my basic survival instincts and since my mother isn’t around to cuddle with the next best thing in my arsenal was these bright yellow curtains. I really didn’t want to do it, and yellow really isn’t my color, but I figured if I tore off just the bottom foot and half, my owners wouldn’t notice it was missing….. I was wrong. It did work though for all you dogs out there who need some ideas for keeping warm.

All that being said, again I’m so very sorry I had to put my owners through this, but the guy they had watching me was a real jerk. Since Dave and Kristin have been back my life has been sooooo much better though. I think I am really starting to warm back up to them and they to me. Who can stay mad at me Santa dog? I mean seriously, who would bring there smelly dirty shoes to their owner if he asks me for them? Me Santa.

Who will get my own leash for me if I need to go out and potty? Me Santa….

Who will tell there master they’re hungry, not by barking and begging, but simply bringing him my dish and waiting patiently for him to fill it? Me Santa…..

And when I’m thirsty I don’t whine like other dogs, I get my water dish and wait patiently with it.

Not to mention when my owner needs to blow off some steam and throw around a ball or Frisbee, who is the fastest, baddest Frisbee catching dog besides my mother on this entire Island….. You guessed it….

I just wanted to clear a few things up, I think you might have gotten the wrong impression of me on the prior post. And really Kristin does sound mad at me, but I think in time she will hopefully get over it????.

Hitting some rough patches

Hi friends and family,

I know that stretches between my blog posts keep getting longer and longer.  I have been struggling with what to write in an update, trying to think of the positives instead of just sharing every week from my heart like I used to.  So I’m going to try to get back into doing that every week as my goal for this year, without or without the pictures, as upbeat or depressing as they might be, though lack of electricity and internet can sometimes be a bit of an obstacle here in terms of weekly blogs so they may be less frequent. :)

So yes, for those of you who didn’t already know, you can probably guess that that means we are back in the DR for another year.  Here’s what been going on in the past few months since my last blog:

We had a good end to the JCS school year despite some of the hard times you’ve all read about already.   The last month of school was full of celebrations, long hugs, and some sad goodbyes, especially to two of our favorite couples – Tim and Laura & Mark and Kristina, two couples who have been such great friends and amazing blessings in our lives down here.  Dave put on an art show displaying his kids’ best work from the year, we had an end of class celebration with my English class from church, my girls’ dance class put on a spectacular recital, we had an end of the year reward trip to McDonald’s and the zoo with my OANSA class at church, and a glow in the dark dance party and water day with the firefighters for the last day of school.  Dave also threw me another magnificent birthday party with colorful decorations and the neighbors, especially kids from church, filled our apartment with loud Dominican laughter. 

We flew back to Michigan on June 14th for the summer.  Dave got a job working at his old workplace Velocity in Grand Rapids for the summer, and I lived with my dad in Troy, while “working” as assistant for my dad’s new girlfriend Debbie who is an occupational therapist.  I say “working” because it was more hanging out, having fun together, and her being my own therapist than anything else.  She works with clients with traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries, who have some of the most inspirational stories of love, strength, and perseverance I’ve ever heard.  I can’t say enough how much of a blessing she has been to me and how happy I am she is becoming a part of our family.  I also was able to meet my new niece Zoe, who is full of smiles and who I fell in love with just as quickly as my other adorable nephews and niece, just one of many reasons that made me want to move home to Michigan more than ever.  I also was able to stand in my beautiful best friend Melissa’s wedding in August and take part in all of the wedding festivities – from bridesmaid dress shopping to the shower to bachelorette party scavenger hunts to a glittering carnival celebration of a Panamanian-American wedding reception.  That said, this summer was not the easiest one.  I think the longer I am with Dave, the harder it becomes to live without him.  Though they say absence makes the heart grow fonder and prior to summer I envisioned romantic weekend reunions that made the time apart all worth while, it just wasn’t all that glamorous and being apart really took a toll on both of us and our marriage.   Keep in mind that for all of the 9 years I’ve known him, my husband has hated talking on the phone – easy to deal with you live together, but not so much for long distances.  But thankfully I have family and friends who support and love me unconditionally, drop everything they have going on to tend to my needs, listen, and pick up our relationships just where I left them even after two years away and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.  The longer I am away, the more I realize how much I want to come home to these special people who will always be a huge part of my life.

To be honest, coming back to the DR really wasn’t anywhere in my plans for this upcoming year.  I applied for teaching jobs in Michigan, contacted Michigan adoption agencies, investigated getting back into refugee foster care, drooled over American houses up for sale, and even starting researching the world of travel again with the funds I would have from an American job.  We even interviewed to help with developing a new orphanage in a Mexican border town that our friend John Shinsky started (which is amazing by the way and so worth supporting if you want to check out this amazing youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8PBmUqkDSI ).  But when push came to shove, I found myself shoving beanie babies, classroom decorations, bottles of contact solution, and all the other American goodies we can’t find down here into a suitcase and fighting tears as I boarded the plane.  Sometimes in the world of missions, plans aren’t as clear as they appear from the outside.  Decisions are tough.  Sometimes two spouses have two hearts yearning for two different things.  Being far away from each other and not being able to talk enough complicated things this summer a lot more.  And while there has been a bit of kicking and screaming on my part, the most important thing is that we’re together again now here.  My friend Johanna showed me the cutest video on youtube the other day of a father and daughter singing a song together called “Home is wherever I’m with you.” (see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L64c5vT3NBw – I am in love with it) and I think that even though it’s cheesy, it is the truth.  So we are home because we are together again – even if it’s not the home I want to be in.  And though this transition has been a tough one, I can say it does feel so good to finally have my husband back again and I could never imagine being married to a more amazing person and there isn’t anywhere I wouldn’t follow him to.

So about this transition…. While we have definitely been warmly welcomed back by friends, neighbors, fellow teachers, the kids, the gorgeous mountain scenery, and delicious avocados and mangoes that I’m so thankful are now in season and that I have been devouring non-stop, we have been hitting some road bumps. 

While we thought finding a dogsitter with three German sheperds himself who was willing to care for Santa in exchange for free summer rent in Jarabacoa was a God send, I think he may have just been sent from somewhere else.  I think Santa did more damage than Hurricane Irene could have, and we have added up around $700 in damage so far, including two dining room chairs, our IKEA living room chair, an air mattress, our curtains, over 30 DVD’s, and many more miscellaneous items.  Santa was sickly skinny and she has developed a new habit of pooping and peeing in the guestroom as that is where she seems to have been shut in all summer to do it.  No pictures this time of all the damage because we had an angel of a friend come over to kick the dogsitter and his girlfriend out and clean up who knows how many days of poop, pee, a bajillion other destroyed items, and even used condoms stashed underneath our bed.  We are still finding Santa’s summer destruction, even things like dishes under my bookshelves?!  Okay I’m done talking about that, cause my friends here know I could go on foreeeeeever with this topic.

Shortly after arriving back, we were also told by our landlord that we were being evicted from our apartment, which was not a big surprise considering what our apartment looked like and must have smelled like this summer while we were gone.  We have been looking and looking with no luck so far and have to be out by next week. 

I met my class and while they are all precious little 6 year olds, they are a challenge and a half.  While 19 kids doesn’t seem like a lot for a first grade class in the states, they fill the classroom and many don’t understand one word of English.  And while I get so frustrated with them for just not sitting quietly sometimes, I try to put myself in their shoes.  What if I was 6 and sitting in a desk for over 7 hours for the first time in my life (not tables or carpet areas like an American classroom), unaware of the clock and how it works, asking over and over and over is it time to go home yet, while some strange foreign woman stood at the front of the room talking and singing in a language about as familiar as Mandarin Chinese is to me – would I listen?  Well, maybe, considering that at age 6 I was still a pretty perfect kid, but probably not.  Oh and I think I forgot to mention that the curriculum and kids’ workbooks were shipped late and haven’t arrived, and I had all of one day after hitting the ground to unpack and get my classroom set up before starting teaching (thank you to all my friends, teacher aide, and husband who helped!)  And I really can’t complain because my husband has an empty classroom with no furniture, and the 3 year old classroom has 20 kids, can you imagine that?  Luckily they are fabulous teachers who I know will get by.  Oh the joys of teaching in the DR.

Today I’m sitting home from work with a spider bite and my foot propped up trying to self-diagnose online as I often do here (though it IS healing on it’s own, yesterday I couldn’t walk and today I can, gracias a Dios :).  Just another road bump in our less than 2 weeks back.

I know I shouldn’t complain.  I know we are so blessed.  I can see that everywhere around us, especially here, that we have been granted with so much.  But for the first time I can remember, I am really homesick (home referring this time to the imaginary one I dream of back in Michigan that doesn’t exist yet).  I miss my friends and family there.  I miss hot showers.  I miss being able to get in my car and drive to go buy something right when I want it.  I miss being able to afford buying a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.  I miss going to the chiropractor and the movie theatre and yoga classes and to Panera Bread.  And the truth is more than anything else in the world, though I love the kids I teach and minister to here, I just want my own kids at home with me – whether from my own belly, from a teen mom who can’t care for it, from the foster care system, from an orphanage in Africa, from a refugee camp on Burma’s border, or all of the above, I am just so ready.  Someone was right when they said that after a miscarriage you see pregnant women and babies everywhere. you. look.  I still cry my eyes out every time I get my period each month.  And I get frustrated with the parents around here too.  Women who ask why I don’t have kids at my age and that it’s so weird and ask me everyday if I'm pregnant or when I’m going to get pregnant (not cute or funny anymore).  My next door neighbor who lets her kids scream at her and in return calls her kids the Dominican version of the F-word what seems like every five minutes.  My favorite little girl Jelenyi from church who has no dad in the picture and a mom who got married this summer and moved away with her new husband and baby to a house that is too small to fit Jelenyi in and left her behind with grandpa and grandma who live around the corner from us - Jelenyi and other kids from the neighborhood who just can’t get enough love are constantly on our doorstep and it breaks my heart. The families who sell their girls into prostitution and sex slavery who then start getting pregnant as pre-teens delivering babies who are thrown into the cycle of poverty and trafficking or orphanages all over again.  The woman who works for the adoption agency here who tells me that my husband and I are just not old enough to start a Dominican adoption here despite all the time and effort we have put into this and all the while, there is a 12 year in my town who is pregnant with her third, yes third, baby and gets to keep it.  And while one part of me wants to scream at all these people, I think the bigger part of me is just scared too.  Scared to have a baby in this country, scared to have another miscarriage, scared to have another D&C performed by someone who doesn’t speak a word of English.  It’s not always just a fun adventure here, and I’m not as fearless as some people seem to think I might be.

So please pray for us in this transition period.  I know God has a plan for us, and that He will take care of our needs.  I can’t say enough how much your prayers and support mean to both of us.  Please pray for our marriage, for this upcoming school year, that we can find a new home, and that we can bring Christ’s love and joy and peace into the lives we encounter, even when we might not be feeling so joyful ourselves.  Also I just found out that a former co-worker and friend, Miss Amanda from Bay Cliff Camp passed away this month at the young age of 25 from ovarian cancer.  Please pray for peace for her family.

Forgive me for being out of touch for so long, and for the waaay too long and less than upbeat blog entry (kudos to those of you who made it all the way to the end :)  Please keep writing with updates of what is happening with all of you in the different places you are reading from.  Thank you again for all of your love and support all the time.

Love, peace, and prayers,
Kristin

Coming home.....

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

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)

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

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.

View of the feeding center from the outside

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!

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.  

 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! :)

How could you turn down a smile like that?

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