MY REAL HEROES

Greetings my friends. It's been a couple of weeks in the works, and I'm finally able to post the blog for my relief effort trip to an orphanage in Haiti.

But this really isn't a blog. I wasn't able to post daily while in Haiti; so this is simply a collection of a few simple stories and a lot of photos.

I was in Haiti March 21 through 26 with a group of volunteers organized by the Florida Baptist Children's Homes. My brother Jerry is the CEO of that organization. He was on the trip as well, and it was great to spend such a life-changing week with my brother. Our goal was to complete as many construction-oriented projects as possible and spend as much time as we could with the children of the orphanage.

The orphanage is located in the town of Ouanaminthe, on the Haiti and Dominican Republic border with a population of approximately 100,000 people. The town was not ravaged by the devastation of the earthquake. However, the orphanage took in children from an orphanage and a community school located in Port Au Prince. Needless to say, the orphanage in which I worked was overflowing with the most beautiful children in the world.

When Pam and I concluded our blog of our last adoption trip to Ukraine (to get Katrina), we closed with one final statement: Every child deserves a childhood. Now, the notion of a childhood may mean different things to different people, but to us it's about having a warm and safe place to sleep, a full tummy, a reason to laugh throughout the day, and someone to offer unconditional love.

As I spent the week in the orphanage in Ouanaminthe, it occurred to me that the real heroes of this world are children who don't have a childhood given to them but still are full of energy, have an unquenchable thirst for life, and possess the ability to melt your heart with a simple smile.

Such are the children at the orphanage in Haiti.

Please enjoy a few photos of my heroes, the children.

Worm Hole Wall

One of my group's primary responsibilities was to build a restraining wall around a series of worm holes. These worm holes were directly adjacent to where many of the kids played soccer and volleyball.

The wall was only about 150 feet in length. At first glance, I figured we could easily finish the project in a day. But that wasn't true. What I quickly found was that progress was slow when you didn't have the right equipment or the right materials. In one of the photos below, you can see the wood pile from which we gathered our materials.

Images of the City

My Favorite Job - Spending Time with John

John is somewhere in the 4 to 6 year age range (no one really knows) who suffers from cerebral palsy.

Each day at meal time, John's care taker (a wonderful volunteer who was with John 24x7) would bring him to the table. It was my true pleasure to eat quickly and then spend the remainder of meal time holding John, walking him around, and telling him all about the snow in Colorado.

He made me smile every day.