December Newsletter
Merry Christmas!
We hope you are enjoying this holiday season. We are excited to send out an update and share about what we have been up to the last few months. We have many things to share about Haiti and our family and the kids.
Haiti’s current political situation has become increasingly dire this year, with the past few months being particularly problematic. It is difficult to explain clearly and, from an American stand point, it is difficult to understand. In short, the people in Haiti are raising up to fight corruption. There is a lot of money missing from the country after the previous president had been in power for 10 years. The country is now having extreme fuel shortages which causes many problems for everyone in the country. (Think electricity, transportation, cooking, cell service and many other problems that trickle down from there.) The people have been trying to remove the current president from power since the summer of 2018 after he had been in power for only 6 months. The president does not want to step down, and the people say they will keep protesting.
As for our family, our current circumstance has been complicated due to the instability in Haiti. In February, Xander and Lauren traveled to Ohio during a particularly bad period of unrest. After there was shooting on the street outside our home in an effort to scare an organization into distributing food, we decided it would be safest to have us leave. Chedner came to be with us in April because he has residency in the states and needs to be in the US often to maintain his status and we were expecting a baby in July.
Chedner has been working at a couple different jobs since arriving in the spring to make an income for our family and be able to send money to the orphanage. We are staying at Lauren’s parents’ home in Plain City, OH. We welcomed Zayla to the family in July and we have loved every day with her since.
The kids are all doing very well. Our friend, Alix, has been staying with the kids since April. (See Alix with 10 of our 17 kids in the picture on the left.) Things have been going well with her there. Chedner’s brother, Mardoche, also lives at the orphanage and helps when needed. This year all the kids passed their final exams. They were happy to have the summer off. As you can imagine, summer gets a little crazy with everyone home for months. In August they enjoyed attending a summer day camp for a few weeks that Mardoche helps host at the school where he works. Day camp includes music and crafts and games and lunch and other activities.
In September, Chedner went to Haiti for 4 weeks to get the kids enrolled in school. Usually, school in Haiti starts the first week of September, but due to unrest that started in September, many schools have not started yet. Most schools are hoping to start by January. Due to this, we have hired two teachers to come to our house to work with the kids. With summer end ing, they needed some structure, and we didn’t want them to fall behind. Once school starts again, the teachers will continue to come to work with the kids who have special needs who are home during the day and provide tutoring after school.
The kids are looking forward to their upcoming Christmas party. Chedner has had a Christmas party for the kids since 2012. In 2016, we opened the party to the children in our neighborhood. The party has grown every year. We are expecting to welcome 150 children this year for Christmas dinner, music, dancing, games and gifts. It will be a good break for everyone during all the struggles that are going on in Haiti.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout the year. We appreciate each person who has chosen to give to us through their time, resources, and prayers. It really does mean so much to us, and we can’t wait to share more about some projects and things we have coming up in the new year.
Blessings,
Lauren and Chedner