I'm Back..............

At the zoo last weekend.

She looks sweet & innocent - but don't be fooled!

One year home party & Nelson's cheesy grin.

One year home.

Wow having no computer at home since mid-December has freed up a *hit load of time. Quite honestly I haven't missed it much; since I am on a computer all day at work & it was a nice reprieve for the eyes not to sit in front of the computer every night once the kids were in bed. I did sadly miss some home comings of several children; who's parents journey I had followed for a couple of years. So if I haven't commented on your blog about it or congratulated you on your childs homecoming - let me say it now - Congratulations! Every childs home coming represents one less child in an orphanage, and we all know that is a good thing. I have lost all my favorite blogs & will need to try to find everyone all over again.

Life is crazy busy. At work we go full tilt every day & then I have a couple of hours with the kids in the evening & I am ready to crash out shortly after they go to bed. Our days just seem to blend together as the weeks & months roll by.

I am so sick of winter weather here I could scream. I blame being a miserable, nasty, short-tempered *itch on the length of our winters. We have had a couple of nice weekends in a row & the kids & I spent our days outside playing or at the zoo all day & my spirits were noticeably unlifted. It put a smile on my face, a bounce in my step & other spring urges for days afterwards. But then again today snow fell from the sky in a nasty spring storm causing my mood to turn more sombre.

I hate shopping & have never taken the kids to the mall; so today I needed to go buy some new under garments; possibly spurned by the above noted spring urges, & thought I would take advantage of the nasty weather & spend it inside getting my shopping done. Note to self: leave small children in someone elses capable hands at home when shopping. Dieunelson went crazy in LaSenza & oohed & awwed at all the different panties & bras. He would scream out "this is a pretty Mama or do you like polka dots"? Over & over no matter how much I asked him to quiet down. The change room was no better as I fielded comments from the peanut gallery as I tried on various ensembles. The kids had a good time - me not so much. :) They are definetely staying home when I go swim suit shopping.

Christolla has really changed since December. I was very concerned about her ability to learn - the last assessment she fell below normal on everything except for gross motor skills. She could not copy her name, write out or recognize any letters or even copy shapes that we drew. I thought she would probably always have difficulty learning. I am not sure what or how it happened but all of a sudden it seemed as if the connections in her brain were made; that makes her capable of learning. She can now write her name on her own, knows her alphabet & can draw anything asked of her. The changes are profound & now she is probably much closer to her peers in what she can do. I am very proud of her as it hasn't been easy for her to get to this point. Now that things are clicking for her she is eager to soak up more & I can see her confidence growing. We will take the training wheels off her bike this summer & see how she does with that. Christolla has two wiggly teeth - top front & bottom front (opposite each other) so she should be pumkin girl in no time. She turns six in July & she is turning into a big kid & leaving the small child phase in her wake. It makes me sad I missed so much of her childhood & wasn't there to influeance the forming of her personality or her brain development (maybe that is a good thing - depending on who you ask).

Dieunelson hasn't experienced the same difficulty learning but I believe it was because he came home younger & has had more stimulation. He is a typical little boy & loves talking non-stop about bums, penises, vaginas, boobs, poop, farts and burps; all of which he finds incredibly funny & manages to insert in just about every sentence. So for his age I think he is right where he should be - it's weird they never really progess past this stage. He has not lost his fascination with bums & can be caught checking out womens bootys all the time. We walked past a very large women at the grocery store one day & he looked at me with his mouth hanging open & his eyes wide with awe & said "Mama, did you see her bum?", he was soooo impressed - big or small he loves them all. He can ride the big trike this year by peddling with one foot as both feet can't reach the peddles at the same time but he can really go quick even with one foot.

I managed to procastinate doing my taxes for yet another weekend - even though it was yucky outside & a perfect time to get them done. Well I still have four days so I guess there is no panic yet. YIKES, I say this every year - but I HATE tax time. I also always say I won't leave filing my taxes till last minute - last year it was the night before the due date, but it seems I won't be doing any better this year. I can say I didn't have a computer to do my taxes on until now - but this weekend kinda blows that excuse too. Did I mention how much I hate tax time & deadlines - next year I will file earlier, for sure. I could be / should be doing them at this moment in fact, but instead I put it off, as updating the blog took priority. What can I say?

And now it is bedtime............... Good night.

One Year Home

March 5, 2009 - Kids have grown so tall, check out how small they were one year ago

March 5, 2008 - At the airport arriving home

February 29, 2008 - The kids look like little guys.

Time flies, I can not believe the kids have been home for a year already. Why didn't the wait for them to come home from Haiti pass so quickly.

There have been so many changes in them in the last year it is unbelievable. They are growing like bad weeds & their English is perfect. Kids amaze me how quickly they can learn a new language & adapt to a whole new lifestyle.

I am going to post this as I am still having computer & internet issues so I don't want to lose this. I will try to add more photos if the computer allows it.

Computer Issues

Sorry for the lack of blogging - it isn't that I have nothing to say, I am having major computer issues at home. One is down for the count & it holds all my favorite blogs so I am unable to follow along.

We have all been sick for what feels like forever now. One cold / flu bug circulating constantly. It has been a real drag.

We are not even close to being ready for Christmas. I haven't bought one present yet, & don't intend to even start until about December 19 when I am off work. That will leave plenty of time :) I don't buy a lot for Christmas anyway so we should be able to complete it easily.

My Sis is flying in on Dec 18 & staying two weeks with us. We are all so excited!! She has not met the little kids yet so it will be lots of fun.

Christolla & Nelson are so excited about Christmas. We set up our tree last weekend but I felt too ill to decorate so it is sitting there bare with only the lights on it. Kids are thrilled - but they don't know that there is more to come at some point. Santa came to visit their pre-school this week so they were both vibrating about that.

The last two days it has been on the plus side of the thermometer (just maybe +3 or so) but we are about to be plunged into the deep freeze. BRRRRRRRRR Listen to this:

Currently today it is -3 celcius but by rush hour tonight Environment Canada has issued a Winter Weather Warning & the temp will drop to -23 & expect 10 – 15 cm of snow with wind 40 – 60 km per hour - bbbbbrrrrrrrr

Saturday – 23 c w/ wind chill expect -35 thru -40
Sunday -27 c
Monday -24 c
Tuesday – 7 c

Sounds freaking bone chilling!!!! Winds will be super strong & make this one nasty storm, for the whole weekend of course. The little kids have never experienced this kind of cold before. Oh well we will just cozy up at home & wait this one out.

Stay warm everyone.

Hugs, Laur

On A Lighter Note

My butterfly & reindeer - they loved getting their faces painted.

I took lots of photos as a comprise to get them to wash their face to go to bed. :)

I thought at first he was an alien, but I should have known by the red nose who he was.

Kids with their friend Noah.

Dieunelson admiring Christolla's art.

Saturday was the Christmas Party for the IAFA - International Adoptive Families Association that we attended. The kids had lots of fun & it was nice to meet some of the other families of children adopted from all over.

I stayed home from work today sick - this is week number two of this illness. Last week all four kids were sick for four days & I managed to avoid getting ill. Friday I started to get a little sick which escalated all weekend. Everyone else is feeling better but still not 100%. Hopefully by the end of this week everyone will be back to normal.

It's 8:30 & the little kids are in bed & I am heading there too. Night.

UN Haiti appeal: British agencies call for more support for Haitian farmers

Saturday, November 22, 2008

UN Haiti appeal: British agencies call for more support for Haitian farmers -British Haiti Advocacy Platform

For immediate release. 21 November 2008

A platform of British development agencies and solidarity organizations has today written to the United Nations to express its concern about the poor international response to the joint UN/Government of Haiti Flash Appeal to help Haiti recover from the devastating series of hurricanes that hit the country in August and September.

In a letter to John Holmes, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, the British Haiti Advocacy Platform notes that, as of 21 November 2008, only 33% of the total appeal amount of US$108m had been raised. (The Flash Appeal was launched on 9 September.)

More worrying still for the Platform is the very poor response to the part of the Flash Appeal concerning the rehabilitation of Haiti's vital agricultural sector. Around two-thirds of the Haitian population derives its livelihood from agriculture.

As part of the total requested by the UN and Haiti's government, an allocation of US $10.5m was requested by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to:
- help rebuild the livelihoods of the farmers most affected by natural disasters,
- rehabilitate the irrigation network in the main areas affected by flooding, and
- help prevent the spread of disease among surviving livestock.

In the letter to the UN's John Holmes, the Platform deplores the fact that, so far, only US$828,000 - just 8% of the amount originally requested for agriculture - has been provided.

The letter states: "If Haiti is to avoid the prospect of wide spread famine in the near future, there needs to be a major effort to support Haitian farmers so that they can grow the crops and rear the animals to provide food for the population."

It continues: "The fact that the response to the agriculture section of the Flash Appeal has been so disappointing suggests that once again that the international aid machine remains wedded to the short-term and has scant regard for lasting solutions to Haiti's problems.

"The Platform appealed to John Holmes to raise the issue of international donor support for Haitian farmers as a matter of the highest priority.

Anne McConnell, co-ordinator of the British Haiti Advocacy Platform, said,"While it is great that the Flash Appeal recognized the importance of repairing the damage to the agricultural sector, these good intentions are rendered meaningless if the rich donor nations decline to support this part of the Appeal."

The Haiti Support Group solidarity organization is a member of the Platform, and its director, Charles Arthur, added, "Six or nine months from now, when the images of starving Haitian children are broadcast on North American and European television, people will ask how the situation in Haiti was allowed toget so bad. If Haitian farmers don't get help, we are looking at the strong possibility of a terrible famine."

Background

Decades of under-investment and the reduction of import tariffs have left Haiti's agricultural sector in a dire state. As a result, Haiti has moved from a situation where local farmers could provide most of the country's food requirements to the the current position of reliance of food imports. Recent increases in international food prices have pushed the cost of many everyday food staples out of the reach of country's poor.

This precarious situation has been compounded by the damage caused by the recent series of hurricanes and floods which destroyed crops, washed away fields and livestock, and obliterated the rudimentary irrigation network.

Haiti's peasant farmers - tens of thousands of them united in regional and national peasant organizations - are now trying to rebuild and rehabilitate the agricultural sector.

People Who Do Make a Difference

This is a note from the creche (COTP - Children of the Promise) Christolla & Dieunelson lived for several years:


We are seeing worse and worse situations. We had a little boy abandoned at the local hospital severely malnourished. Last week they thought he would die, this week he has more hope. When he gets better he will come to live with us. We, Americans, are starting to get hit with "hard times" and this in turn is effecting the children and people all around the world, but in particular, Haiti. Our wallets are getting tighter and its getting harder to give, but this is a time we need to give more. I won't hide that we are out of funds to feed these children. We want to continue giving them the quality of care we have been and what we desire for these children. No orphanage is the best option for a child to grow up in, but we sure want to make it the best place for them to be in transition to their family, whether that is back to their biological families or adoptive. Please pray for the children of Haiti and please consider helping in any way you can.

http://www.childrenofthepromise.org/

These two ladies are amazing - one sister runs the rescue centre & the other is an RN - they do amazing things for the people; as well as work community projects rebuilding roads & planting trees to help the flooding & soil erosion problems. Go back & read their old posts they are making a difference in the lives of so many.

http://haitirescuecenter.wordpress.com/

http://www.xanga.com/haitinurse4life


Heartline Ministries run several projects to help the people of Haiti.

One is their Womens Program, there they teach the women:

1. Prenatal Class
2. Early Childhood Development Class
3. Literacy Class
4. Sewing Class (help women create & then sell items to support their families)

They also run an orphanage

& recently started a Talapia Project a fish farming endeavor to feed the children in the orphanage & the women program.

The fellow also has a blog & is pretty humorous. You can find his blog on one of the tabs on their home site below.

http://heartlineministries.org/default.aspx

There are many many NGO's working in Haiti trying to make a difference. These are just ordinary folks who couldn't turn their back to people in need & have been working tirelessly to help one person at a time. Not everyone could live in a third world country for years on end in difficult, dangerous regions but these folks have all been in Haiti saving lives for years. I just believe that for those of us that can't; we should at least financially support those that can & are.

Gloomy posts but this is reality & if everyone gave just a little it would make a huge difference & save many lives.

I have several more links of other reputable organizations that I will post another time.

Another news article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081121/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_haiti_food_crisis

Hunger Plagues Haiti After Storm Wipes Out Crops, Livestock

This is reality, it makes people uncomfortable to talk about & to see the photos (see the link) but we have to pull our heads out of butts & do something - many people are dying everyday. Most of the deaths are between 2 - 5 years, that is the age of my little ones. There are so many great organizations that help the people of Haiti please support them in anyway that you can. I'll post some links of organizations / missionaries that I follow that do great things & rely on donations to perform their work. It may only be a drop in the bucket in the big scheme of things & will never eradicate the poverty & hardship Haiti is facing but they save many. Post to follow soon.

Thursday , November 20, 2008


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,455584,00.html


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The 5-year-old teetered on broomstick legs — he weighed less than 20 pounds, even after days of drinking enriched milk. Nearby, a 4-year-old girl hung from a strap attached to a scale, her wide eyes lifeless, her emaciated arms dangling weakly.

In pockets of Haiti accessible only by donkey or foot, children are dying of malnutrition — their already meager food supply cut by a series of devastating storms that destroyed crops, wiped out livestock and sent food prices spiraling.

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,5741,00.html (Warning: Graphic Material)

At least 26 severely malnourished children have died in the past four weeks in the remote region of Baie d'Orange in Haiti's southeast, aid workers said Thursday, and there are fears the toll will rise much higher if help does not come quickly to the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Another 65 severely malnourished children are being treated in makeshift tent clinics in the mountainous area, or at hospitals where they were evacuated in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere, said Max Cosci, who heads the Belgian contingent of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti.

One evacuee, a 7-year-old girl, died while being treated, Cosci said, adding: "The situation is extremely, extremely fragile and dangerous."

At a makeshift malnutrition ward at a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the capital, 10 emaciated children were under emergency care Thursday, their stomachs swollen and hair faded by pigmentation loss caused by malnutrition. Several had the puffy faces typical of kwashiorkor, a protein-deficiency disorder.

Five-year-old Mackenson Duclair, his ribs protruding and his legs little more than skin stretched over bones, weighed in at 19.8 pounds, even after days of drinking milk enriched with potassium and salt. Doctors said he needed to gain another five pounds before he could go home.

Dangling from a scale mounted from the ceiling, 4-year-old Venecia Lonis looked as limp as a rag doll as doctors weighed her, her huge brown eyes expressionless, her hair tied with bright yellow bows.

Mackenson's grandmother, who has raised him since his mother died, said she barely has a can of corn grits to feed herself, the boy and her 8-year-old granddaughter each day.

"These things did not happen when I was growing up," 72-year-old Ticouloute Fortune said.

Rural families already struggling with soaring food prices in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, lost their safety nets when fields were destroyed and livestock wiped out by the storms, which killed nearly 800 people and caused $1 billion worth of damage in August and September.

U.N. World Food Program country director Myrta Kaulard said she fears more deaths from malnutrition in other isolated parts of Haiti, and search and medical teams were fanning out in the northwest and along the southwestern peninsula to check.

The World Food Program has sent more than 30 tons of food aid — enough to feed 5,800 people for two weeks — into the remote southeastern region since September, and other groups funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development have sent food as well, she said.

But the steep, narrow paths and poor visibility make it difficult to deliver the food to the mountain communities where hunger is worsening. In one case, a WFP truck flipped over while struggling up a hill and slid into a ravine, killing an aid worker.

"There is always a bottleneck. The same situation that the people are facing is the same situation we're also facing," Kaulard told The Associated Press Thursday.

The mountain villages have long suffered from chronic hunger, growing only enough staples to feed themselves less than seven months out of the year, she said.

But families normally have enough to last through December. This year, Haiti's agriculture ministry estimates 60 percent of the harvest was lost in the storms nationwide. Land quality is already poor and farmers lost seeds for next year when the storms hit, Kaulard said.

Effects of the storms vary widely from village to village and even family to family. In some places, food supplies seem intact. In others, Doctors Without Borders has found rates of severe malnutrition as high as 5 percent.

Aid shortages may soon compound the problem. Donor countries have funded only a third of the U.N.'s $105 million aid appeal for Haiti following the storms, and resources could run out in January, Kaulard said.

At the hospital Thursday, Enock Augustin sat beside the bed where his 5-year-old daughter Bertha was sleeping. The fragile-looking child was evacuated by helicopter Nov. 8 with vomiting and diarrhea. When she arrived, nearly a quarter of her body weight was due to fluid retention, a sign of severe protein deficiency.

The swelling gradually receded as she was fed nutrient-enriched milk and treated with antibiotics and anti-worm medicine; she shrank to just 21 pounds.

She has since gained about two pounds but can't go home until she reaches 26 pounds, doctors said.

For months, the Augustin family had gotten by despite the soaring prices of corn grits and imported rice because they grew potatoes, which they could eat or barter for plantains, yams and breadfruit that did not fluctuate with the world market.

But then, in August, Tropical Storm Fay hit, followed by Hurricane Gustav, Tropical Storm Hanna and Hurricane Ike.

"Every time a hurricane came through, it killed our animals and plants," said Augustin, a father of six. The road was washed out, markets became unreachable and "the price of everything went sky high."

The entire family subsisted on two cups of corn grits, and Bertha began shrinking — and then swelling — before his eyes.

"She was really bad. We put her in the helicopter and they brought her here," Augustin said. "I hope the government will hear about us and bring more support."