An Introduction to God’s Littlest Angels

How different my life is now!

– Instead of sweating all day, I freeze.
– Instead of cooking and baking, I feed babies.
– Instead of washing dishes, I change diapers.
– Instead of washing and folding laundry, I organize medical supplies.
– Instead of hosting teams, I hold babies and research developmental milestones.
– Instead of suturing, I retrieve beads from noses.

Thankfully, not everything has changed….. I still get to practice Creole, I’m still surrounded by gorgeous mountains, and I still get to eat Haitian food!

Let me start by explaining just briefly about God’s Littlest Angels, the organization for which I’m working. We have 3 locations – the toddler house in Fort Jacques (houses 41 children, approximately 2.5 – 13 years old), the main house in Thomassin 32 (houses 31 children ages newborn – 2.5yrs), and the guest house (about a mile away from the main house.) Today I’m just going to talk about the main house, where I live. I have my own room and half bathroom, and share a shower with several other Americans living here. The other Americans also living on this compound are the directors, John and Dixie Bickel (they started the organization over 20 years ago), their son Steeve, his fiance’ Chelsie (who is in charge of the sponsorship program,) and Miss Vickie (who is the personal caregiver for one of our children.)

We have the NICU/Intensif where the babies live, the nursery/Urgence A where the crawlers live, and the toddler room, where the walkers live. We have approximately 80 Haitian staff, including nannies, nurses, cooks, an accountant, cleaners, drivers, people who do the market shopping, etc. During the day, we have several other Americans who come to work from our other locations.
My official title is NICU nurse…..I’m still trying to figure out exactly what that means. 🙂 When we don’t have critical babies (like now), I fill in wherever I’m needed. Right now, I’m trying to get to know all of the kids, nannies, and nurses, and learn their names. Just a few of my responsibilities these past 3 weeks, in addition to that, included:

– Learning how to give TB tests and working with 2 of our Haitian nurses to give approximately 25 to our babies. They all came back negative, by the way! Praise God!
– Retrieving a bead that was stuck in a nose
– Researching the best way to de-worm babies
– Researching developmental milestones and making notes on what each of our babies should be working on, so our volunteers can help out
– And lots of changing diapers, changing clothes, feeding, holding, rocking, comforting, playing, clipping fingernails, and taking walks.

I’ve been here 3 weeks, now, and I’ve had quite an adjustment. But finally, God’s peace has taken over once again. I’m feeling hopeful and looking forward to the future. I’m starting to get excited when I think about coming back to my babies after my brother’s wedding. I feel like just maybe, I’ll be able to call somewhere “home” again. I still really miss my friends in LaDigue, and I miss going to the market and knowing what to expect each day, but God is good!
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14

This was one of the verses in church a couple of weeks ago, and it was exactly what I needed to hear. It spoke into the chaos that consumed my life, just 3.5 days after moving. How beautiful! God reminded me that I’m here for Him. This is His plan, His mission, and His job. I’m simply the vessel; His hands and feet. Thank goodness.

As I learn more about this mission and my job, I’ll continue to update you. Thank you for following my journey, Friends!
P.S. I just found out I can receive mail here!!!!! It does cost $1.50 a pound, after your shipping costs, so just keep that in mind if you choose to send something. 🙂 It can be sent to

Emily Smith
3170 Airmans Drive
Unit 2081-GLA
Fort Pierce, FL 34946

It can be addressed the same way if it’s shipped directly from a company. (Amazon, Target, Walmart, etc.) 

I’m Moving to Haiti!

Yesterday I announced to friends and family that God has opened the doors for me to move to Haiti! I’ve been offered a summer internship with Children’s Lifeline in LaDigue, Haiti, with the potential of it becoming a long-term position! If you check out my GoFundMe account, I posted more details.

Since I told everyone, I’ve gotten a lot of questions about why I’m fundraising, why I’m not planning to “work” in Haiti (at least not yet), and how I’m going to provide for myself. Here is one of the many reasons!

There are very few jobs in Haiti. The majority of Haitians have training in many various occupations, but nowhere to use their training. The unemployment rate is around 40.6%, with the tax rate at 24%.
80% of Haitians live below the poverty line. The average Haitian who has a job brings home approximately $2 for each full day of work. $2!! There are parents who are dropping their kids off at orphanages because they can’t provide for them. There are children who can’t go to school because their parents can’t afford the $30 fee per month. People die of starvation every single day.

Who am I to come into the country and take one of the already very few jobs? Who am I to expect to be paid enough money to provide for myself? I believe one of my missions is to make it possible for one more family to stay together. I want to keep one more child off the streets. I want to enable one more Haitian to obtain an education. I love these people. I want to help them; not take their resources. I want to give them more resources!

Each dollar you donate not only enables me to go show Jesus’ love, it provides another job. We hire Haitians to help out on the compound, run errands, and to work as security, therefore putting another meal on an empty table and giving hope where there may not have been before.

There are so many worthy causes you could support with your money and I don’t take your support for granted in the least. And as I’ve said before, if you’re not in the position to give, please don’t feel pressured – your prayers are just as important to me and I appreciate them so much. I hope this helps you better understand why your support is so important. It touches not only me, but by extension, the Haitian families I’ll be reaching.

A New Adventure

Looking back over the past few months and thinking about when Aunt Holly invited me to go with her on her first trip to Haiti, I must admit that I wasn’t going to go. I thought, “I don’t know if I want to spend the money and PTO to go somewhere I won’t get to see my friends.” I thought, “this group is so different from the people with whom I normally go.” I thought, “there’s no way I could go on a construction trip.” For some reason, though, God had other plans. For some reason, He wanted me to visit a different organization, meet new people, and try something new.

When we were asked to introduce ourselves the first evening in Haiti, I said I honestly didn’t know why I was on this trip; I was still waiting to find out. Now, with the trip behind me, I still don’t know exactly why I was there – it’s not like I was a huge help at the work site or like I contributed a skill no one else could have. But I am SO grateful God sent me. I got to meet some incredible people. And I got to help build a church!

On Sunday, before beginning our work-week, we got to visit a Haitian-run orphanage. There was one little boy who really grabbed my heart. He was 6 years old, and weighed probably 20lbs. He just laid in my arms and looked around. He eventually even fell asleep. He was so sweet. I wanted to bring him home. 🙂

Through this organization, a different group comes each week and completes the next part of the work project. Our assignment was to finish the final bond beam at the top of the church. I’m incredibly thankful that the leaders included me, even allowing me to get up on the scaffolding to help hang the forms that would be filled with concrete. I know much of the time I probably made the job harder, but it feels so good to look at that church and think about the future it holds, and realize I helped build it!

 

We were a little sad to find that we finished an entire day early! Because the next step is the trusses and we couldn’t start them due to the concrete needing a couple of days to really set up, it opened up another opportunity for us – we got to visit Grassier, the village where this organization built their first houses. Also, in Grassier was a school and an all-girls orphanage.

One tangible way we saw God protecting us – on this day we were supposed to be at the work site. We weren’t supposed to finish a day early. Because we did finish early, we went in the opposite direction to visit Grassier. That day, due to protesting, we got 6 alerts from the American Embassy, 3 of which advised against travel in the exact area where we were supposed to be driving back and forth to the job site. Wow! God’s plans are perfect!

I had many wonderful experiences last week, but I think this day was my favorite. It was so good to hold and love those kids.

A couple of facts about the school:

1. Over 200 children attend the school.
2. The average daily walk to school is about an hour each way.
3. Some of the kids walk over 2 hours each way every day.
4. For lunch, each child has to pay approximately $1 American, which will often be the only meal they get that day (if they can afford to pay the fee.)
5. The price to attend school for 1 year is approximately $30 American.
6. Haitian children often won’t complete school until they’re in their early 20’s, because if they can’t afford the school fee one year, they have to wait until the next year to continue.

We were blessed to have the opportunity to buy lunch for all of the children for an entire week! It was so cool!

On Friday we had a “culture day,” where we visited a museum to learn about Haiti’s culture, we ate lunch at the Overlook, and visited the Baptist Mission. It was a wonderful day and a lot of fun to learn more about Haiti. While we were at the Baptist Mission, our leader received 3 phone calls from friends, advising us to leave immediately, because there was trouble close to home. We left right away and we didn’t see a speck of violence. God’s provision was certainly felt!

Haiti has a lot of needs, but God is moving. It was wonderful to be a part of something like this. I met some new friends, as well, that live both here in the States and in Haiti. I don’t know what God’s plans are for my future, but I can’t wait to find out!!