Yesterday was an especially meaningful service. It was Haitian Mothers’ Day, and the children sang to their moms. The inside of the tent was decorated with various balloons that made us laugh, including “Get Well” and American Airlines balloons.

As one of the ladies was talking up front, she suddenly started talking in English, asking “how are you?” It took me a minute to register that she was talking to us three English people. She had each of us stand up and say our names, then told us that if we are mothers (which none of us are), she hoped we had a happy mother’s day. Then the entire church sang their “Welcome, Sisters” song in Creole to us. Their joy and welcoming spirit made my eyes water.

Each of the Sunday School classes, including the adult classes, stood up and recited their memory verses. We sang both French and Creole hymns from their hymnbook, and they helpfully pointed us to the right pages for the songs. We sang “And Can It Be” in French—the tune was even the same as our English version.

The passion of this church is incredible. They start singing songs from memory, repeating the same words over and over like reciting a prayer. Two men got up and led in this continuous song-prayer, a compilation of songs that they sang while they kneeling on the ground of gravel.

The sermon was from Philippians 3:7-8. Even though I couldn’t understand the majority of the sermon since it was in Creole, I did understand a few of the French phrases. It’s so beautiful to hear the gospel preached in another language. They welcomed us as sisters in Christ, and it reminded me how beautiful it is that even though we speak different languages and live in drastically different cultures, we share the most important bond possible—our love for Jesus.

As we left church, we introduced ourselves to one of the girls leaving at the same time. Using our minimal Creole, we found out that her name is Jasmine (the same name as one of the other volunteers), and she’s nineteen, like me. She pointed us to her home as we walked up the hill, what we would call a small shack in the US, and we parted ways. We’re the same age, and we serve the same Jesus.

Cross-cultural unity in the body of Christ is such a precious blessing. I’m so thankful to catch glimpses of it during my time here.

I’ve already been in Haiti for over two weeks, and I realized I haven’t introduced you to my kids yet! This time I’m only assigned five kids, so I get to spend more time with them during the days we don’t go to the older kids’ orphanage. I have four girls and one little guy, and they’re all so precious!

This little girl is simply the sweetest, happiest baby ever. She’s always ready to show her beautiful smile. She loves to make all sorts of little baby sounds. We’re mostly working on tummy time with her to get her ready to crawl.

See that smile? Melts my heart every time. Also, she’s known as the John Legend baby around here because she looks so much like the singer John Legend (who sings “All of Me).

This girl is so precious. She’s a busy little toddler with a mind of her own, and she has the sweetest smile. She doesn’t much like the camera, though, so it’s hard to capture it! Her little voice is so adorable, and she has the cutest toddling walk.

Selfie proof of her smile

This is my oldest girl, the one I mentioned in my last post. She doesn’t like the camera at all, so I can only snap pictures when she’s not looking. She’s been gaining so much confidence and becoming much more comfortable with me. She loves the little wading pool we sometimes put out for the kids, even though she’s scared of it for the first fifteen minutes or so. She loves to say “I lub you” (I love you), and sometimes she’ll just give this little grin that melts my heart. She also likes to sing the first two lines of Jesus Loves Me at random moments, which makes me so happy. Just in these two weeks, she’s blossomed so much. It’s really amazing to see.

This is my one little boy. He’s an absolute doll. He crawls around everywhere, and he’s pulling himself up to standing positions. He’s such a sweetheart and very easygoing. We call him “Grandpa” sometimes because his receding hairline makes him look like a little old man.  

This girl is so precious. I just love cuddling her. She has the most beautiful eyes, and she’s an extremely content and happy baby. Her cooing sounds are heart-melting. She’s getting so, so close to crawling—she actually crawled a few feet yesterday, and I’m hoping she’ll take off by the time I have to leave.

These are the babies that I get to spend my days with, the babies that are making my heart bigger each day.

It’s strange coming back to Haiti after two years. So many things have changed, yet so much remains the same. As we were driving to the orphanage from the airport, I recognized once we got to the road where we walk each morning. I exclaimed to the driver how different it looked because the entire road had been paved on the mile-long walk from the guest house to the orphanage. It’s wonderful to see improvements, like the pavement and several Haitian crews out cleaning garbage off the streets.

The orphanage has changed a lot, too. Only two of my eight kids are still at the younger kids house, and both of them have grown up so much. Almost all the other kids are new, and there’s not as many kids as were there two years ago.

So much has changed, yet so much remains the same. The guys yelling “blanc” at you, the Haitian kids smiling and saying “bonjou” as you walk past, the unique smell of the orphanage babies sleeping on you.

Just in my first week, we have already done many new things. We bought street food for lunch on Saturday, which consisted of fried chicken, plantains, French fries, and pigs’ feet (a spicy cabbage-y salad). Each plate only cost a couple dollars, and yes, it was literally made in a shack open to the street. Only a few people got sick from it.

On Saturday afternoon, one of the missionary guys took a few of us out on a drive into the mountains of Haiti. We rode Haitian style, standing in the back of the pickup bed. We got to see some of the poorer parts of Haiti (the orphanage is located in a rich area for Haiti). I took a lot of pictures on the drive, but pictures can’t capture either the beauty or the poverty of Haiti. Because it’s not respectful to take close-up pictures of Haitians without asking their permission, I didn’t take pictures as we drove through the villages. Some images you can only store in your heart.

We laughed as a Haitian guy snapped pictures of us three “blanc” girls as we drove through a village. I teared up when several young boys raced after us with little bouquets of beautiful Haitian wildflowers and a bowl of tiny wild berries. We bought some of the flowers on our drive down, because the same boys were still there hours later. It’s so sad to see such young children begging you to buy what they’ve worked so hard to get.

Each of the kids tugs at my heart strings in different ways, but one of my girls especially breaks my heart. She hasn’t been at the orphanage all that long, and I’m her first volunteer in awhile. Although the kids usually are clamoring for you to take them out to the balcony, she screams and tries to run away from me. I take her up to the balcony, and after a few minutes she calms down. She’s so sweet and has the most precious voice, and each day she’s becoming more and more comfortable with me. Even though I’ve only heard bits and pieces of her story, I know that she’s had more traumatic experiences in her short life than my nineteen-year-old self could ever comprehend.

It’s so hard with these kids, because you want to tell them that you’ll always be there for them. But you know that you’re only there for a month, and at the end you’ll have to leave them forever. But right now I’m just taking it one day at a time, recognizing that today I can do something. Today I can hug them, play with them, and cuddle with them, even though a month from now I won’t be able to do those things.

“I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”–Edward Everett Hale

It’s the middle of finals week. I’m trying to review the notes I’ve taken on the literal thousands of pages I’ve read over the semester. By 9:00 at night, my brain is crammed. I watch half an episode on Netflix, turn off the lights, and tell myself that I’ll never be able to read a book for pleasure, ever again.

Of course, a little over a month after this scenario took place, I’ve changed my mind. Now that I no longer have three or four hundred pages assigned reading each week, I’ve been relearning the art of reading for relaxation. It’s glorious.

Because I absolutely love the books I’ve been reading, I’ll offer you a five-step program to fall back in love with reading after a stressful school year. The exact titles are negotiable, but if you’re in need of some good book ideas, I heartily recommend these. So, the five-step program (aka a review of the five books I’ve been reading).

1. As soon as you finish throwing away your history notes (and packing your few favorite pages in your overflowing suitcase), grab that book that you picked up somewhere during the school year, the one that reminded you of the good old days when you compiled your own reading list. The best genre for the job? Mystery, preferably by Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot’s last mystery, Curtain, was a captivating read. Just the right mixture of suspense and humor to keep me coming back. And finish it on the plane ride home.

2. When that mystery is finished, go through your Kindle and pick out the most intriguing book out of the 95 you’ve downloaded for free over the last few months. For me, that was Dee Henderson’s Danger in the Shadows. I’d never read Dee Henderson’s books before, but I was impressed with her writing. (Sometimes Christian novels can be, well, a little lacking in their use of unpredictable storylines.) The romance between a woman hiding from her childhood kidnapper and a famous football star was maybe a bit far-fetched, but quite enjoyable. A mind recovering from finals is pretty easy to please.

3. The book title for the third step is absolutely non-negotiable, because everyone needs to read Dear Mr. Knightley. I may or may not have gushed about it repeatedly to my family. At least my gushing did convince my mom to read it, and I know for a fact that she stayed up late at least one night just to finish it. Sam, the college student who constantly quotes Austen and never seems to do anything just right, is such a sympathetic character. Even though her background as a foster child is far different than mine, I could echo many of both her frustrations and interests. One of the signs of a good author is when she puts you in her protagonist’s shoes, and that certainly happened to me in Dear Mr. Knightley. If you’re looking for a book that will make you laugh, cry, and understand yourself better, go read it.

4. This fourth step is an effort to steer you away from modern, easy-to-read novels, back to the classic books you used to love dearly. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell was the perfect bridge for me. I’ve seen the movie version of this book more than any other, thanks to a couple of my friends who always suggested this movie at slumber parties (ahem, Rebekah and Theresa!). The story has grown on me over the years, and after our wing watched it together during the spring semester (and everyone fell in love all over again with Mr. Thornton), I decided I needed to read the book. It’s just as good, if not better, than the movie. Sometimes, if I’ve grown up watching the movie and read the book years later, the book disappoints me. But I loved reading more details about Margaret and Thornton and discovering conversations that the movie left out, all the while still picturing the faces of Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage. Every Gaskell book I read further convinces me to place her books even higher than Jane Austen’s. And that’s saying something.

5. By the fifth step, you should be ready for anything. Even a book that—gasp!—might be assigned in a literature class. I couldn’t resist reading one of my free Kindle books, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise. I read The Great Gatsby in high school, and I enjoyed getting to experience his engaging writing style once again. I actually liked it even better than The Great Gatsby because I could sympathize with a lot of Amory Blaine’s egoist struggles (unfortunately, self-centeredness is something I’ve always struggled with!). To tell you the truth, I saw it recommended on Facebook, of all places. But when someone you respect says that a book is their favorite ever (even if it is said on Facebook), and it’s written by one of the most famous American authors of the 20th century, you are basically obligated to read it. It is quite charming and slightly scandalous if you read as if you were Fitzgerald’s original audience. I love reading books by brilliant authors, and Fitzgerald is one of the greats.

Now I am starting my gift book pile—books from my birthday and Christmas that I am dreadfully excited to read. I’m eighty pages into The Book Thief, and I absolutely adore it so far. Again, incredible writing. I am beginning to think it will be one of the classics of our century. I’ve watched the movie trailer at least three times, and after I finish the book I plan to spend the $1.50 to rent the movie from our town’s one and only grocery store. You’ll probably be hearing more about it—it’s just that good.

So there you have it: five simple steps to help you fall back in love with reading. I’m sure I’ll have to revisit these steps after every school year, but for now I am securely back in love with books. So far that I sometimes walk from room to room with a book or my Kindle in hand, telling my brother about the scary encounters in Dee Henderson’s novel or sighing over Mr. Thornton until my brother rolls his eyes.

I just have to leave you with a few This Side of Paradise quotes:

“Why don’t you tell me that ‘if the girl had been worth having she’d have waited for you’? No sir, the girl really worth having won’t wait for anybody.” (I agree with this quote in one sense, disagree in another. So don’t think I’m advocating something really bad, because that’s the sense in which I don’t agree with it. )

“’I know myself,’ he cried, ‘but that is all.’”

“Often through life you will really be at your worst when you seem to think best of yourself.”

“Beware of trying to classify people too definitely into types; you will find that all through their youth they will persist annoyingly in jumping from class to class….”

“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.”

“…So he let himself go, discussed books by the dozens—books he had read, read about, books he had never heard of, rattling off lists of titles.”—This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald