Church, Beach, Big Surprise, and a Difficult Good-Bye...

Today was an AMAZING day.  The children at the orphanage are filled with so much love and laughter.  I have learned so much from them and they have filled my heart with joy.  Saying good-bye to my sweet friends was the hardest thing I have ever done  I am definitely coming home a different person than I was when I arrived.  Come with me and I will again share my day with you in pictures...

 Today we attended church at the orphanage.  It was unbelievably special and beautiful even though we couldn't understand what was being said.

 There was cuddle time at church, too.

 I am thankful for David.  He was our  main translator.  He has a teaching degree and teaches English in Haiti.

 After church, our team and the older kids at the orphanage took a drive to the property.  This is where the orphanage will eventually be moved to.  It is beautiful and the kids will have so much more room.

 Here is a view of the property  They are still building on it.  There are a couple of buildings up behind me.

 Later, part of the team stayed behind to decorate the orphanage for a big surprise luau that we planned and threw for the children  The other part of our team took the children to the beach.  I, of course, wasn't about to miss out on the beach opportunity.
 

 OH MY GOSH, the children had a blast playing in the water!

 There was plenty of time for making more crazing faces for the camera.  This is something the kids love to do...(I'm not gonna lie, I really like making crazy faces for cameras, too).

When we returned from the beach, SURPRISE!!!!  Time for a luau!  The kids jumped and cheered  when we arrived back from the beach and they saw all of the decorations.  We served the children luau snacks and taught them how to limbo.  Then the children performed a dance.

 Here we are doing the limbo.

 Some of us found some more time for cuddles.

 I absolutely love this little girl.

But then it was time to say good-bye...Oh boy does my heart hurt to leave these kids...

We Love Music!

Today was another wonderful day at the One Vision Orphanage.  I had the opportunity to do some music lessons with the kids and they loved it!  There was also more time for cuddling!   Again, the pictures are worth a thousand words!

Every time we pull up to the gate the kids are all standing on the other side waiting for us. They jump and cheer as soon as they see our bus.
























The kids had so much fun in music today.  They loved the rhythm sticks.  Thank you to my dad for making them for me to take with me.







 Here's another look at the kids enjoying the rhythm sticks

 We made egg shakers out of plastic eggs and beans and played them to music. They LOVED it!  We had lots and lots of smiling!


Look, we can play egg shakers and cuddle at the same time!

 Onchie never stops smiling and loves to help me carry my bags.   I am very thankful for my little Onchie and all of her help!





 If I could take one of these precious kiddos home with me, I would take my sweet Srylanca. I wish I could just cuddle and rock her all day. 



And more loves and more cuddles!

 In-between cuddling and playing music, we did some serious finger painting!

Saying good-bye for the day is very difficult for all of us.  The kids are so sad when we leave (and I am so sad, too).  They stand and wave good-bye to us...  

Then it is time for another beautiful Haiti Sunset! 

So Close, Yet So Far

I have been trying to think of the right words to describe this precious country but I keep finding myself speechless.  Those of you who know me well will know it is a rare occasion for me to not talk everyone's ear off.  It is so hard to believe that these sweet kiddos are only a 90 minute plane ride away from Miami yet they have so little. The moment I met these precious kids, they stole my heart.  They are so full of love and take nothing for granted.  I have already learned so much more from them than I could ever teach them. The best way to share my experience so far is through pictures.

 I had the opportunity to spend all day with the little kids at the orphanage, ages 0-4.  I am so glad I had my iPod and iPod docking station. The kids loved singing and dancing.  Most of all, they wanted me to hold and love them.  When I rocked them they zonked out in my arms.  I felt like I rocked babies to sleep all day long.  My arms are so sore - but I cherished every minute!

 Andrew got Jobe to smile!  First smile we had seen from him since we arrived.

 I'd like to introduce you to Palo and Rebecca!

 Look at these two little cuties!

 We had a lot of fun with stickers today!

 Just rocking and cuddling.

 Such a happy smiley girl.

 My sweet little Rebecca fell asleep on my shoulder several times today.  She is a cuddle bug!  I adore her.

 Silly boy!

 SMILE!!!

 We had lots of fun taking pictures of our crazy faces!

 Britt and I with our sweet little friends!

 Along the street in Haiti.

Thunder storms, naps, and spontaneous road trips, OH MY!

On Friday I started on my next grand adventure. I have the opportunity to spend 5 days in New Jersey working for Destination ImagiNation and 5 days in Haiti teaching music at an orphanage. I am beyond excited!

Those of you who have followed my blog the past two summers will be relieved to know that not a lot has changed when it comes to my luck (or should I say lack of luck) with traveling. I'm very much still ME! My flight out of Pasco was delayed, which was a little bit worrisome since my layover in Minneapolis was only 50 min. Just when I assured myself everything would be fine, the captain announced that the Minneapolis airport was closed due to thunderstorms. REALLY Mother Nature? Not cool, not cool at all. At that point, I just had to laugh. The good news is that the airport DID open and we only landed about 50 min late. I figured that since the airport had closed, there was a chance my next flight had also been delayed. I took off SPRINTING through the airport and reached my gate just as they were closing the door. The flight attendant saw me coming and held out her hand for my ticket. I literally ran right onto the plane and nearly pummeled the flight attendant on board because I had a little trouble slowing down. Oops, let's just say my middle name probably should have been Grace.

I MADE IT TO PHILADELPHIA around midnight. Unfortunately, my luggage wasn't so lucky. My sweet friend, Britt patiently waited for me as I made arrangements for my luggage to be delivered the next day to my hotel. Even though it was almost 1:00am by the time we left the airport, Britt greeted me with a huge smile and open arms!

How I've missed my Britt!

When I arrived at the hotel I was so tired that I barely even noticed there was no air conditioning and the elevators weren't working because the power was out and they were running on a backup generator. I literally went straight to bed! Good thing I'm such a hard sleeper.

Apparently Mother Nature was still throwing a fit the next morning because it poured rain all day on Saturday. I was so relieved when Britt asked how I felt about a baking and movie day in our jammies at her apartment. ARE YOU KIDDING?! I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO JUST HAVE A LAZY DAY!! Pretty sure I haven't done that since I was in my mom's tummy 23 years ago. I was also relieved because jammies happened to be the only thing I packed in my carry on and my luggage wasn't schedule to arrive until late afternoon. This rainy Saturday turned out to be the best EVER:

We started with a little shopping at Wegman's. We don't have these grocery stores on the west coast but Britt said that with our Starbucks drinks and shopping carts we basically looked like stereotypical white suburban moms... minus the kids. 

We did a little baking in Britt's TINY but adorable kitchen!

I would be lying if I said I didn't TERRIBLY miss my TWO kitchen aid mixers that I have at home. 

We did more baking in that cute little kitchen than Britt has done since she moved in three years ago! :)

Apparently back in the day when Britt's oven was made (must have been about 900 years ago), they blessed ovens with the rare ability to turn perfectly good cookies into sponges. Britt thought the cookies tasted great but I felt like I was eating a sponge shaped like a cookie. I'm really glad my oven at home was not blessed with this same rare talent. 

A little later, our dear friend Andrew came to visit! We put on the movie Hercules but within the first 5 min our movie day turned to nap time...

When we woke up at the end of the movie, it was still pouring rain outside so we found ways to entertain ourselves indoors... 

So we sat on the couch...

When sitting got boring, we put on a performance....

Then Andrew entertained us with some dramatic readings from the book, "My Blind Date Went Blind."

Around 10:00pm after a very productive play day inside, we decided to take a spontaneous road trip to the beach.Turns out the beach is only about 45min away! We picked up our friends Matt and Ben and off we went!

Yay for spontaneous, late night road trips! Did I mention that we blasted Disney music and sang at the top of our lungs the whole way?

We had so much fun walking on the beach!

I've missed Andrew so much!

Britt and the guys. Clearly we had four different pose memos going on. 

 Love love love my sweet Britt!

Reunited at last! It's been way too long!

 Baywatch? Typical Andrew... 

This is us "acting natural." Why does our "natural" look so UNNATURAL?

Me with the guys!

Manly...

After getting a bite to eat, we went back down to the beach to build a sand castle. The police who were walking/patrolling the beach came up to tell us the beach closed at 10:00pm. OOPS! We went ahead and left out the part about how we weren't even on our way to the beach yet at 10:00. We could tell they thought the fact that we wanted to build a sand castle was so hilarious that they wanted to let us stay but apparently that wouldn't be fare to all the "juveniles" that they just kicked off the beach. 

Naturally, as soon as the police walked away, Andrew used his curly fry bucket to build a very sad and small sand castle. At least we can say we build one!

We then jumped in the car and drove back to Cherry Hill. Can you say ADVENTUROUS SATURDAY?! 

So, what'd you do?

Stay tuned for more epic adventures. It's only going to get better!