Trying 3D Tv at NFM

Happy Birthday Grandma VZ!

Mushroom Hunting

Sofia and I went on a quest and found 3 morels! :)

First Toad of Spring

Happy Earth Day

Baz and I ate sunchips from the worlds first 100% compostable chip
package today to celebrate! :0)

From Bazzy To Papa

:0)

It's my Dad's Birthday!!!

The kids are ALL excited to talk to you!!!
We'll call you later!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Hope you have a WONDERFUL day!!!!!!!
We love you! :0)

SO excited!!!

I'm being interviewed today by Omaha.net about Artists For Hope. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. I think the most challenging thing in all of this has been trying to get people to know about AFH. But whenever I start to stress about this...something always seems to happen. Love that!

Even better than being interviewed is that I'm being interviewed by one of my friends! So not only is it exciting but it will be fun! My friend Shawn wrote this wonderful article about her hairless rat Wuzzy and they loved it so much they are now giving her free reign to do her own interviews. They were looking to write about some local charities and she told them about AFH. They were excited about it and then asked her if she would do the interview. Love it!

So...today at 12:30 I'll be doing our first official interview. :O)
Hoping and praying that this will make people in Omaha aware of a simple and creative way they can help starving children in Haiti and that they will be excited as well and get involved!!!

Hunting For Worms

Soon we will be fishing! :0)

Baz and Dinesh

At spring husker game today with the Dads. :0)

Costco Frenzy

Wanna see what charlotte will be wearing for her birthday next month?
There was truly just a frenzy at costco over these. The price was
great and they were super cute. People had five or six in their carts.
So funny! I knew charly would love them. Now I just have to decide
what color... ;)

Zoo Fun With Friends

Best Dessert EVER

Yum Yum Yum

It's almost morel mushroom season! We are just a little excited about this! Ok we are a lot excited!

Mia even wrote a paper about it:

My morel looks spunge and brown.
Morels smell fresh and steamy.
Morels taste wonderful and great.
Morels make me feel eager and happy.

Morels make ME feel eager and happy too.
Hoping we find more than 4 this year!

Crazy Child

Yes...Charlotte DID crawl into the shoe bucket while I was organizing
the shoes and she DID fall asleep. She is such a crazy kid! LOL!!!

Diaper (and Sweatshirt!) Cuteness

Remember the diapers we made in our Mom's Group?
I was able to bring a couple to Haiti to try on some actual cuties at the Rescue Center. It doesn't get much better than that!

This little one is Brianna and she was so itty bitty when we were there in December. She is so healthy now and super cute.

I wish I could remember this cutie's name. If anyone knows, let me know. He was such a little ham!

The perfect model.
Plus you have Darlens in the back, who doubles the cuteness!

I think this baby's name is Rose Manie. Hard to keep track when there are 40 plus kids...but she was also in the RC in December and she has a severe club foot that she will have surgery for in the future. She's too cute and I decided she just HAD to be one of our diaper models.

This diaper was one of my absolute favorites because it's so colorful. They loved the design and they make the babies look even cuter!

A really nice lady named Connie from our church also made some adorable sweatshirts for the kids. We sent a bunch down on the crate, but I also snuck one in for pictures. I'm just sneaky like that. ;)

We needed some one REALLY cute to model this...so obviously Darlens was the perfect choice!

They said these would be wonderful for the kwashiorkor babies. They get chilly when they loose all that fluid weight and they are recovering, so these adorable sweatshirts will help keep them toasty warm during that process.

Thank you to everyone who helped with the diapers and to Connie for the sweatshirts. You have truly blessed the kids and the staff at the RC!

Painting Fun In Haiti

Did you know that painting with
oil based paint is not very easy???
It's necessary because of the humidity in Haiti and the need for it to be VERY washable since there will be 60 kids eating next to it for many years to come...but it's sticky and doesn't blend and it's STICKY. Just so you know. ;)

Despite the sticky~ we had so much fun painting. My self-proclaimed non-artistic hubby even got in on the fun and did quite well! Anna painted with us and kept us entertained with her crazy cool music playlists on her ipod and great conversation. I love people with big hearts and who are doing something to make a difference in the world and Anna has a HUGE heart and does SO much at the Rescue Center. It is amazing!!! You can see a video of our masterpiece HERE on Anna's blog.

You might notice that the paint fumes started to get to us after awhile and there were a few things added in that we thought were hilarious and we hope will confuse people who visit the RC for years to come. Let me know if you notice anything... (hee hee)

My favorite creature (beside the manatees of course) was my octopus. Had that lovely paint not been so sticky...he probably would have had more detail, including suction cups~ but the sticky got to me and I decided he was JUST fine with out suction cups. ;)

Aren't these whales adorable?
And the baby??? Come on! So cute!
My now artistic hubby did these and I love them.

Anna did so many cute things, but I love this crab.
He's got personality.
We decided that he must be pre-cooked since he's red. Possibly the PERFECT crab!

Kris also did this cute little clam. If you watch the video, you will see he is looking up at the sherbet jelly fish. Very special.

The kids seemed to really like it when it was finished and we're happy for the staff that it will make things much easier to keep clean. Hopefully some of you will be able to see it in person someday!!!

Sodlyne

This is Sodlyne.
I was able to spend time with her this week at the RC, and for some reason she's always on my mind since we got back.

This picture was posted on the RHFH blog a couple weeks ago. Obviously there is something that is not "right" going on with her stomach.

You can read more about her arrival at the RC here.

She truly didn't seem to be in any pain. It was kind of amazing to see her walk around and play with things. I had hope that there would be some way that she would be ok.

Her Mom told her that she believes this is a voo-doo curse and she's going to die. It was obvious from some of the things Sodlyne said that she comes from a voo doo family. So heart breaking that Satan has such a hold on people to make them believe that things like this are a curse and there is no hope for the future. I'm thankful that she is in the RC where she can see the love of JESUS and know there is hope for her future. Even if she does die soon, her future would be Heaven!

I just heard tonight that she isn't doing good. She isn't eating and she's throwing up everything she drinks. Lori has been worried from the beginning that it's cancer and they will do everything they can to help her. Will you please pray for her? Pray for her health. Pray for her to get better and to not be in pain. Pray for her heart and her soul to know that Jesus loves her and that he believes she is perfect in every way. Thank you.

Some kids we saw in December...

Misconnections

We were delayed super long with our flight in Haiti...which means we
are standing in line waiting to talk to the airline about how we get
home. I'm sure we will get home tomorrow sometime. Hoping to upload
some more pictures tonight from the airport. I'm feeling much better
and yesterday was too busy to blog. Really looking forward to seeing
our kids.

Tuesday

This morning started out NOT so good.
I mentioned yesterday that I wasn't feeling good. Well, I don't know if it was from the super sick stomach or from infection...but I started having spasms in my stomach and upper chest that we so excruciatingly painful that I seriously didn't know if I was going to make it. They would come in waves and bring to my knees and then I would almost pass out. Not fun. I freaked out slightly and prayed like crazy. Lori gave us some ideas of what to do and Kris found whatever drugs he could to make things better, and thankfully after about an hour or so the horrible pain turned to tolerable pain. I slept for about an hour and by 11am I was back to painting. SO thankful!!!
We even made it for a walk to the market...

Remember the meat "counter" pictures from last time?
The dogs were all waiting around in hopes for something to be dropped or tossed to them. I love the market and all the people and action. So fun!

I like to take pictures from my hip when walking around so people don't even notice and I don't draw so much attention by photographing everyone. This is all the people coming and going from market. It was the perfect weather outside. Sunny, hot, and breezy. Perfect.

I saw this little girl on our walk back and I asked her if I could take her picture. I wish I could have gotten her a pair of shoes. :(

This picture is for my kids.
Can you guys see the big lizard in the very center of the picture, behind all the leaves? He was really big and pretty colors. I wish I could have gotten a picture before he ran behind the trees.

This little girl was here last time.
She so super cute!

This little guy had meningitis and definitely has some issues that are a result of that. He's adorable and way smaller than he should be for his age.

We finished the mural today! This is before it was totally done, but I new my kids would like to see the manatees. AND the sea turtle and eel. :) It was such a fun project and Kris and Anna did a ton too. It was fun to see it all come together. I'll get lots of pictures tomorrow.

Kids....we'll see you Friday! We miss you tons!!!

Bracelets and Sickness

We painted this morning and I did the class with 10 ladies teaching them to make bracelets that we'll sell in the states. The only problem is that I'm sick. Like...I can't keep anything in me sick. Not the funnest when you have such a busy day.

This was my blogging buddy last night.
Isn't she cute???

This guys stopped by today with his friend because he had heard from someone (very Haitian!) that there were people in town looking to buy handmade items to possibly sell in the states. He make chairs and bags from packing strips that he buys off of some guys who take in shipping containers in Port Au Prince. Very resourcelful!

He's very talented and I uploaded a picture of the bag he made but it's not here for some reason and I'm too worn out to find it. I'll post it later. :)

The ladies picked up the concept of making the bracelets pretty easily and it was wonderful to be able to provide work for some women who were so eager to learn something.

Here is my group. We finally got them to smile in the last picture.
A productive day and I'm really hoping I feel back to myself tomorrow.