Blog - Haitian Children's Home

HCH Mangine update - Sad Days

2010-10-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

(from Nick)

We've had a lot of sad days in Jacmel lately. You've heard about a few of them. Unfortunately, I have to let you know about a few more.

Last Thursday, Danny showed up with the police and impounded all of Joy in Hope's vehicles. He went to Mikey and Georgette's and did the same. He did these because the Joy in Hope vehicles are title in his name. We've been without our vehicles since that day and have scrambled to do our regular shopping and to get our kids to church.

Today is another sad day. In order to get our vehicles back we have been advised we have to take legal action against Danny and this is something we never wanted to do. One of the biggest disappointments for me is that we are may be forced to take all the vehicles back, including the vehicles we have allowed Danny to continue using since his termination and desire to gift to him permanently. Even though there is nothing we can do about these legal realities, I assure you that we will work as quickly as possible to get all the vehicles titled correctly and get the proper paperwork in place to be able to return the vehicles to Danny's family.

Please pray the Danny will not use this as an opportunity to attack us publicly. We are trying desperately to walk with integrity, but our reputation and our livelihood are put at risk every time he writes another attacking email/post.

Please pray that we will be able to move past these things soon, and get back to the work that God is doing through Joy in Hope.

HCH Mangine, August 2010

2010-08-19T21:34:00.001-04:00

Hello family and friends,

I know I always start my updates this way, but wow, HAITI IS HOT. I keep telling myself that we're halfway through the summer, but wow, October seems a long way off. (For the record, September is just about as brutal as August here, so you probably have at least one more month of my complaints.)

Our schedule has been jam packed for the last month with a lot of really neat things happening. My mom ("Mama Nana" as my kids have come to call her), a sign language interpreter, came for a visit and started a program where she has taught several deaf students in Jacmel how to make seaglass jewelry and is helping them sell them to support themselves and the ministry of Joy in Hope. She also taught our kids some basic sign language classes and had them perform a song, "Shout to the Lord" in church. Since her first trip here, my mom has had a heart for the large deaf community in Jacmel, and it's neat to see her reaching out to a community who has been largely marginalized here in Haiti.
Along with my mom came our longtime friend, Israel. He is a photography/art student in college and came down to help us document our lives a bit and take sponsorship photos for our kids. Our staff also had some portraits done, which was great fun for them too.

The next week Joy in Hope hosted a vacation bible school in Jacmel in a new location. I am not sure what the final count was, but it was a big hit. Nick and I actually had very little to do with this VBS, and our newest team members, John and Jennifer Hancock really stepped up and jumped in with both feet. It's great having them here!

After that Nick and I had the pleasure of hosting a two person team from our home church, Crosspointe. Two of the pastors came down to visit and just sort of minister to our souls. It's been the first time we've really been able to connect since the earthquake, and the time was precious to us. We continue to love and miss our community at Crosspointe, and are looking forward to visiting in November.

Nick and I accompanied that Crosspointe team back to the states where we headed straight to Indianapolis for a week. Nick and I got to attend the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, meet with our counselors, speak at a couple of churches, visit with some friends and eat WAY too much. One of the big purposes behind this trip was to make a connection with a counselor who specializes in attachment issues in children. This was excellent time for Nick and I and we walked away not just with some great take aways, but the potential for an ongoing relationship with someone who really does understand what it means to parent at-risk children. We'd like to publicly thank Danny and Leann for watching our 3 American kids and Anise and Frantzo (a couple from our church and long time Joy in Hope team members) for watching our 7 Haitian kids.

The day after getting back to Haiti we had a joint team come in from Florida and llinois. They came to help repair and paint the earthquake damage to the Pye's home. While we were blessed to be able to spend some time with this team, again we want to thank our team members (the Hancocks and the Rigels) for diving in and getting the work done.

While this team was here, Joy in Hope FINALLY received our container of supplies from the United States. This was after about 5 of hard work and determination from volunteer, Cheri McDonald. She did an amazing job filling the container and getting it shipped to Haiti for free! We were able to get a great deal on purchasing the actual container, where it now sits on our land where it will serve as a construction depot.

Meanwhile, Pwoje Konekte continues to grow. We've had an overwhelming response and have been able to expand the diaper distribution part of the project to 90 families per week. All of the day to day operations have been put into the hands of Haitian staff. Things ran very smoothly during our absence. Several families from Pinchinat have been moved to a new, better planned camp. We're now working in both places as we try to determine where we can fill in the most gaps. The Konekte project has become even more personal to us lately as we've agreed to help a friend foster Edwinson, one of our favorite Pinchinat babies as she works him through health issues resulting from severe neglect and malnutrition. Having a baby around the house these past few days has been fun for everyone. Konekte has been and continues to be a very satisfying way to serve the community, but it's exciting to me that it can now run completely independent of me.

Wow, just reading through all of this made me a little dizzy. We have been busy. (In addition to all of this, my computer was stolen, and I am just working on an Ipad while I await the delivery of my new laptop-- (thanks again Crosspointe.) I am so sorry to be behind on emails again. I assure you I am slowly but surely getting them answered.

In the midst of all the travel and the teams and the projects, we continue to love our first calling the most--our family. Our kids are growing and thriving. They continue to test boundaries and act out at times, but they also are learning to grow in love and trust with us more each day. I am so proud of them and I cannot imagine what my life would be like without each one of them. I don't have any idea when our family might grow again. It could be tomorrow, it could be next year. That's kind of exciting and terrifying all at the same time. But we know that because of the Lord, our team, our amazing family, friends and supporters, we're not in this alone. Thank you for your faithfulness in support and prayer so we get to live this life. It's harder than we ever imagined, but more fulfilling than we ever dreamed.

With an ever-grateful heart,
Gwenn for the entire Mangine crew
Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico, Josiah, Fritzie, Jean Louis, Yves, Jerry, Sanndi, Prisca, Wildarne
(and Ann David, Felecia, Hugues and Esther too!)

Remember, you can also get more connected to us at:
Our blog- www.mangine.org
Our facebooks: Joy in Hope, Nick Mangine, Gwenn Goodale Mangine
Email: nick@joyinhope.org, gwenn@joyinhope.org

Here are a few pics-- sorry there aren't more... my computer was stolen!

The container arrives at our land!


VBS Brema


Me and my mom, Denise.

HCH Mangine update, April 2010

2010-04-17T12:02:00.008-04:00

Hello friends,

For all of you who follow on my blog (www.mangine.org) or on facebook, you know I am frequent writer. I enjoy knowing that I am doing all I can to keep my friends and family “there” in touch with what’s going on “here.” Thanks for being readers. It is great. Also, let me tell you how excellent it was to meet to many people during our sabbatical that told me that you’re followers of the blog. It was actually kind of hilarious because it seems no matter where we went, we had someone “recognize” us—whether it was the mall, the bagel shop or at the park. It was a hoot. We got a kick out of it. So thanks for coming up and introducing yourselves and encouraging us. During a time like this your encouragement has been so key.

All of this to say, I realize that since the quake while I feel like I’ve tried to keep people in the loop in terms of casual communication, I’ve not done a great job with “formal” communication. It’s been hard to talk about things in a more structured way as it requires much more brain energy, something I find myself a bit deficient in lately. So I thought I’d take some time today to give you a formal update somewhat Christmas letter style.

In terms of the Mangine 5, we just returned from a nearly 3 week sabbatical to the states. It was a refreshing time of rest and an excellent opportunity to connect with friends and family with no pressure.

Our Haitian kids seem to be doing well.

Fritzie (15) is really transforming into a beautiful and servant-hearted young woman. She’s matured so much in these past 6 months, really transforming from a little girl to a lovely young lady. She has a happy spirit and we have been praying for ways that we can help get her more connected with children her own age as she’s significantly older than our other children. She’s going to start youth group at church tomorrow. Wow. I have a kid in youth group. !?!

Jean Louis (12) is our comic. He’s a riot, or, a better way to say it is that he THINKS he’s a riot. He’s very conscientious, a hard worker and good in school. He and I have developed a special friendship- I think it’s because we are both energetic (read: loud.) His energy used to drive me a little crazy, but we are learning how to channel it into useful projects for him.

Yves, (12) our newest child has only been with us for about a month or so, and much of that was time we were in the states. However, we’ve been very intentional about giving him individual time both before we left and since we’ve been back. He is our only child who really experienced heavy trauma in the earthquake, having his home fall, his guardians killed and experiencing life as an orphan in a refugee camp. This week Nick and I took him out for a “date” and just talked about what it was like to be in the quake, how he feels these days, how he’s fitting in in the family, etc. It’s really going well. One of the things he likes to do is visit Pinchinat (the local refugee camp) so he can see the family he stayed with after his family was killed. I like to visit Pinchinat too, so I often bring him with me.

Jerry, 8, lives with great fluctuations. He’s endearing and sweet. But he’s also got a very hard, angry side to him. We’ve seen a lot of his tantrums subside, but he still struggles with wild tantrums occasionally. This week we pulled Jerry out of school for the rest of the school year. He’s not been doing well, has been acting out a lot and it’s clear he needs more individual attention. I am going to home school him (with the help of my staff) for the rest of the school year and then give it a go again next school year. Jerry and Yves have become good friends, although being the “little brother,” Jerry often finds himself the butt of Yves and Jean Louis’ pranks. Thankfully, he’s a good sport.

Prisca (7) is great. She likes anything girly and continues to long to be more grown up. One of the main things we want to do in our family is provide a place where children can be children, so in some ways this concerns Nick and I. We’re diligent about reminding her that she’s a child. She does very well in school and shows a lot of imitative with her school work. She’s fun to be around and a great dancer.

Wildarne (6) is our baby girl. Completely opposite from her sister (Prisca), she’s very interested in little girl things. She’s the most likely one to be playing with her doll or with a Barbie. She plays imaginative games both by herself and along with Nia. Wilarne struggles with being truthful at times, but she is making progress. She’s cuddly and adorable and just cute.

Our staff is doing pretty good for the most part, but they have started to express some of the fear and grief they are feeling about the earthquake. Nick and I are trying to figure out ways to love them and provide a place to talk about these things as well as encouraging them to get back to doing pre-quake activities they were interested in like Bible studies, singing with the choir, etc. I continue to do English classes twice weekly with my staff. It’s been a nice time. I used to dread class because it was just this other THING I had to do. But I wanted to do something nice for the staff, so even though I didn’t have a good attitude, I did it anyway. That has changed. Now, I’ve come to enjoy it and it has helped form a better friendship between us. I also think it’s helping me with my Kreyol.

Thank you, as always, for your faithful support. As we get back to normal, we are trying to be extra intentional spend extra time with our family to help replace the time we were extra occupied during the two months following the quake. We are re-learning how to eat Haitian food all the time, sit down with our kids for meals, have regular devotions and just BE A FAMILY together. When you have so many children, just being a family is a full-time job, and I am trying to embrace the stay-at-home part of being a stay-at-home mom. The more I do it, the more I love it. This is not possibly without YOU! So thank you. You are helping these children really, truly experience redemption.

With an ever-grateful heart,

Gwenn for the entire Mangine Crew

Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico, Josiah

Fritzie, Prisca, Wildarne, Jean Louis, Jerry, Yves

Nahomie, Esther, Hugues, Anndavid + Felicia

Yves (far right) visits some of his friends at Pinchinat.

Wildarne, being her sassy little self.

Prisca, collecting sea glass

Jerry, a bit contemplative

Jean Louis (and Hugues) show us the new shelves they made.

Fritzie and Dev

Mangine Family Update- February

2010-02-18T07:22:00.003-05:00

*** Sorry for the delay in updates. Life has taken a hard and unexpected turn since the January 12th earthquake.***

Friends, family and faithful supporters,

Wow. Where to begin? In less than one minute of time one month ago, our entire lives changed. It’s hard to think about how to compress all this into a page.
I guess I should start by saying that we are so thankful for God’s protection on our family and our organization. You’ve probably all seen the pictures in the news—the fact that we made it through with not only our lives, but with no injuries and our houses standing is a miracle.

The afternoon of the January 12 my whole family and all of our staff were at home. I had come home from working outside the home and was tired so I went upstairs to take a nap. While I was laying there, I heard a noise beginning that sounded like a big truck dumping a load of rocks. Loud noises around here are nothing new so I just disregarded it but then the whole house started shaking. And I jumped up and started running. And by shaking I mean rolling beneath my feet. Rolling such that I could barely walk because it was tossing me over. My first thought was not earthquake. My first thought was that our house was collapsing. That happens sometimes randomly in Haiti—these huge block buildings will collapse due to poor construction. I thought that’s what was happening. And the thought passed through my mind, “I am probably about to die.” I ran outside and down the stairs, trembling with fear. I grabbed my children to me and tried to make sure that we were all accounted for, still not sure what had happened.

It was Nick who first said, “Wow, we had an earthquake.” Up until then it didn’t register. And then when it did, my ears opened to the wails of those around me on the street. I vividly remember making a conscious choice to push the fear aside and clicking my head into go mode. And for the most part, that’s where we’ve lived since.

I could spend time briefing you on all we’ve done, but truthfully, you can follow the day by day chronicled events on my blog: www.mangine.org. You’ve seen the pictures on the news, so to tell you that our city is broken would be redundant also. (Incidentally, we have received quite a bit of media coverage of what’s going on here in Jacmel. My cousin is compiling a bunch of the articles on a blog you can check out here- http://manginehaiti.blogspot.com/) if that interests you.

What I’d like spend the rest of the time telling you about is how we’re doing now—a month later. The truth is, how we’re doing changes from day to day. Actually, sometimes it changes from moment to moment. Our heart grieves for this country we love and now call home. The latest I heard is 212,000 are now confirmed dead. In a country of 7-8 million people, that’s an excruciating number to absorb. Our own little city of Jacmel, we’ve lost nearly 10% of our population. At other times, we’re incredibly inspired and in awe of the spirit of the Haitian people. They are strong and tenacious. They grieve and rebuild at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it.

From a spiritual perspective, we are in a time where most of us on our team feel pretty spiritually dry. It’s hard to see God here with us at times, but we know he’s there. As you think about us and pray for us in the following days and weeks and months to come, please pray for us. I have spent days on this update trying to think about what to ask you to pray for, but the truth is, I just don’t know. So much is happening that writing out a bullet list of needs just seems like something that would be unending. It seems so daunting, and not something I can wrap my mind around. So please just pray as the spirit leads you to lead for us.

It’s customary for me to close my updates with a thank you for all of the ways you have supported us. As you are probably not surprised to hear, there’s been an increase of financial support coming in through Joy in Hope lately to help us our communities in this disaster. For this, we are so very thankful. However, I am even more grateful to all of you, our regular supporters, who have always been there for us, giving generously and sacrificially from the beginning, in a PRE-earthquake Haiti. Your commitment to us before this tragedy encourages us and helps us believe that there are people who will be in it with us once the story completely disappears from the news.

We love you. We’re thankful for you. We need your support and encouragement, but mostly your prayers.

Love,
Gwenn, for all of us

HCH Mangine update-- 2009 in photos!

2010-01-08T11:40:00.001-05:00

This has been, without exception, THE craziest year in the life of the Mangine Family. Rather than a clever and wordy update about what happened, (because my brain is too fried to do clever and wordy), I thought I'd let the pictures and captions do the talking for me...

Enjoy our year!

JANUARY

The Mangine Family, January 2009.

The year began with a wedding! My sister(ish) Jenny got married to Melody's brother-in-law, Josh. It was a great wedding and a fun time to celebrate with the family.

And, of course, licking the chocolate fondue fountain made things memorable. (Disclaimer-- we didn't ACTUALLY lick it...)

January brought us some snow! That was fun for our kids, knowing they were headed for a snow-free life!

FEBRUARY

Knowing the chaos about to come, Nick and I tried very hard to spend GOOD, QUALITY time with our kids... Here's Nick and Nia all gussied up for the "Daddy Daughter Ball"

And me and Nico, ready for our Mother/Son movie night-- SPIDERMAN!

And I did crazy-extreme things back then to connect with my kids, like hold them... (sarcasm alert!)

MARCH

We made some initial good-bye trips-- here we were saying goodbye to Nana's house and all the cousins there...

At Crosspointe, the kids sent us off well with tons of supplies for the orphanage! I miss these kids!

We headed out to Colorado for missionary training at MTI-- what an amazing experience for our family.

And we of course spent some awesome time with downtown Andrew Brown... had my first of many melt-downs when saying goodbye. (Hey Andrew-- WHEN are you coming for a visit???)

APRIL

If you recall, this is the month we moved to Haiti-- but not until the very end of it! Prior to that, I headed down to Haiti with my mom, my sister, and Nia and a team of people who went down to help get our house ready. Unfortunately that house fell through, but we still had a great week working together.

We had many, many tearful goodbyes-- including to these people-- our very much loved and missed life group.

And we're here in Haiti! We jumped right into the tasks at hand, and into our new community!

MAY

May hit us hard and fast. I experienced a fun little bit of Haitian culture early on when I took some of Danny's kids to Haitian motocross.

I laughed harder than I have ever laughed when this team came in two weeks after us moving here.

We moved to Port Au Prince to start language school.

And we spent a lot of time in the hospital with my Danny and Leann's son, Woody, after his accident. I love that kid.

JUNE

Our family took a day trip to Wahoo Bay! Great (overpriced) beach. Great food.

Had a cultural "experience" when Nahomie prepared chicken feet for us.

We finally moved to Jacmel into short-term house... it was great.

JULY

Our kids were scarred for life when they saw a goat they "knew" butchered and his head boiled in a pot for soup.

We spent a lot of time with a couple street kids-- pictured here is Jocelyn.

We visited Nico's old orphanage in TiMache... Here's Nico with his former preschool teacher, Jean.

On the same trip, I got to FINALLY meet in person my long-time friend, Vivian!

AUGUST

VBS Chabin was a huge success in August!

We discovered that we had been flim flammed on the purchase of a "new" mattress that was NOT, in fact, new.

In a frustrated state, I chopped Josiah's pacifier in two-- and we became a pacifier-free home!

Fritzie, our first HCH Mangine child joined our family! What a great day that was!

SEPTEMBER

School started in September.

And Prisca and Wildarne became part of the Mangine family!

Bigsby, our puppy, joined our family too!

OCTOBER

October was a crazy month-- had a great Crosspointe music team come, followed by my mom visiting.

I got to attend my first birth in October. This is Anise.

And this is Max, my godson, the product of her labor!

We ended the month by receiving our Haitian residency-- JUST IN TIME!

NOVEMBER

The beginning of November was our furlough. We saw tons of family...

and friends!

While we were gone our beloved puppy, Bigsby died... we still miss him!
We arrived home to meet our newest son-- Jean Louis!

DECEMBER

We started the month with RIDICULOUS water problems...

That situation became much better when we moved into our BEAUTIFUL NEW HOUSE!

We welcomed Jerry into our family.

It was a great Christmas including a visit from Nick's parents!

Thanks Grandma for the new stockings!

The Mangine Family, December 2009

HCH Mangine update-- December 15, 2009

2009-12-14T19:12:00.005-05:00

Hello all!

Every time I start an update, I always think about starting with something like, “wow, we’ve been busy.” I am trying to think of something more original to say, but the first thing that always pops into my head is how busy we’ve been. And it’s always true!

Before I get into things in earnest today, I wanted to mention a few quick things that I don’t want to forget! First, I wanted to make sure you all knew that while I do official updates twice a month (or, gulp, once a month—sorry—the Dec 1 update kind of got away from me!) I update our family blog- www.mangine.org almost daily. That is a great place to go to hear more of the day-to-day things happening in our family and about our kids. Additionally both Nick and I are on facebook and regularly update our friends there with photos and stories of our kids. If you’re on facebook, join us over there too!

One other housekeeping item:
The end of the year is coming! Many people have asked us about donation receipts for tax purposes. In January 2010 our administrative offices will send out donation receipts for all donations made in the 2009. If you’d like to make a year-end donation to be credited towards the 2009 year, it needs to be postmarked by December 31, 2009 if sent via the postal service OR you can donate online up until December 31 as well.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the REAL reason I am updating you today. Our family! It is getting HUGE these days. We moved into our new house on December 1 and since our last update have added 2 children and 2 full-time, live-in staff.

Jean Louis came home to us at the end of November. This kid is a riot. He NEVER, EVER, EVER stops talking. He’s constantly joking around and he’s got a very distinctive way of speaking that’s INCREDIBLY difficult for Nick and I to understand. We’re not really sure exactly where he’s from in Haiti, but his accent would suggest somewhere north of here. He’s a real joker, and many times, doesn’t understand that he’s taken a joke too far. That’s been our biggest struggle with him. Even when we’re correcting him, he’s smiling and laughing—which is frustrating at times. While he is outgoing and loud, at other times he shows us that he’s just a scared little boy. We’re trying to love him well and teach him that his attitude is an example for the younger children and so he needs to respect us.

Jerry came to us on December 5th. It’s been a LONG week with him. He’s a sweet boy. I can tell he does love us and he likes being in our family, but he has so much going on in his little head that he just doesn’t know what he wants sometimes. He has LENGTHLY tantrums. VERY lengthy. Hours at a time. But even so, we love him. He’s very affectionate (when he’s not trying to bite, kick, or hit us.) He loves to be cuddled and comes up to kiss me several times each hour.

It’s interesting. All of our kids are very much in need of positive physical touch. They all like to be held and hugged and kissed. They fight over who gets to sit next to us or on our laps during a movie or car ride. And while in theory, we want to shower them with this, because they SO need to have it, both Nick and I at times find ourselves exhausted from constantly having children hanging all over us every waking moment. (And sometimes during sleep too if someone’s sick or having a tantrum.) That being said, we’re happy they want to attach to us in this way, and we are trying to discourage them from showing too much physical affection to others during this time of attachment—especially visiting teams, as it only exacerbates the feelings of loss as people so frequently come in and out of their lives.

The other two additions to our family are our old friend, Hugues and our new friend, Anndavid. Both are excellent additions and are helping us tremendously.

From a child protection standpoint, we were hesitant to hire a male employee to live with us. But when we found out Hugues was interested in a job, we jumped on the opportunity. We’ve known and loved him for years and he was hired to help with various things around the house—cleaning, yardwork, washing the car, toting water, general maintenance, keeping the electricity running, pumping water, filling the generator with gas, etc. He’s very servant-hearted, reliable, a very good example for the children and an incredibly hard worker.

Anndavid is from St. Marc and she was referred to us by Nahomie’s father, who is a pastor there. Anndavid is a nanny and she helps with the cleaning, cooking, washing, ironing, etc. She is a graceful woman who has an incredibly sweet spirit. She’s a hard worker and she has a beautiful singing voice. She’s very good with the children—firm but loving. She’s a hard worker and does things joyfully without complaining. Her personality is a perfect fit for our family. We love having her here.

We’re all settled into our new house and WE LOVE IT! I cannot imagine loving a house more. I am at the point where I am actually a tiny bit sad about the prospect of moving when God blesses us with the funds to build on our land in Raymond. (I willl get over that I am sure!) I am thankful that God has given us far more than contentment with where we live, he’s given us all an overwhelming sense of joy to live here.

We’re looking forward to the holidays. Nick’s parents are coming in to celebrate with us. We can’t wait to see them and share the joy of Christmas with them as they experience Haiti, this place we love, for the first time. Pray for a safe and happy time together!

As you gather together, whether in person or just spirit, know that our hearts are with you. Know that we’re praying for you and that we’re grateful for your support. We love our lives. We love being this busy. We love what we get to do. We love what God is doing through YOUR faithfulness in supporting our family. Thank you!

With very grateful hearts.
Gwenn for the entire Mangine 14
Nick, Gwenn
Nia, Nico, Josiah
Fritzie, Prisca, Wildarne, Jerry, Jean Louis
Nahomie, Esther, Hugues, Anndavid

Jerry with Nick the day we picked him up!

Nick at the new house!

Hugues our new staff member

Anndavid, our new nanny

Gwenn with Jean Louis... we took him into Port with us last weekend.

Contact info:
Phone in Haiti: 011-509-3878-2886
Facebook names: Gwenn Goodale Mangine, Nick Mangine
Gwenn's blog: www.mangine.org
Nick's blog: i-jat.blogspot.com
Email: nick@haitianchildrenshome.org
gwenn@haitianchildrenshome.org

HCH Mangine Update-- November 19, 2009

2009-11-19T15:15:00.004-05:00

Hello all!

I am writing today from the comfort of my beautiful new kitchen table while my kids are working on their afternoon lessons beside me. Thanks to all of you who gave over and above to make this table a great place not just to eat, but to gather for any number of things. I LOVE IT!

We returned from our furlough in the US yesterday and words cannot describe how VERY MUCH we loved coming home. Don’t get me wrong, it was a GREAT trip. We loved seeing so many family members and friends, but to quote Dorothy Gail from the Wizard of Oz, “There is no place like home.” Seriously. It’s great being home. We collapsed into bed last night absolutely exhausted, but SO glad to be back here. Weird huh? It’s only been six months, but our concept of home has changed so much.

We did a lot and saw a lot of people on our trip—spending some time in central NC, some time up in central NY and then also some time on the Outer Banks. Thank you to all of you who made our furlough so wonderful. We appreciate you opening your homes, lending us your cars, preparing us such great food, buying us fun new presents, and just generally loving us well.

A lot of people have been asking us what it was like to be back in the States after Haiti for the past 6 months. The two words that come to mind to describe it are comfortable and overwhelming! It was very nice to enjoy some of the comforts we never realized we took for granted while living in the states—things like being able to brush your teeth with tap water and having machine washed/dried clothing and sheets. And, of course, hot showers. It was also overwhelming to have SO many choices on so many things when we’re used to so few.

We ate A LOT of furlough. In fact today Fritzie said to me, “Mommy Gwenn, ou pi gwo konye a.” (which means, “you’re bigger now.”) True story. All five of us are. And she said it as a compliment, which is hilarious if you ask me.

Our kids thoroughly enjoyed visiting the US—they got to do a lot of fun things. Seeing grandparents and cousins, Monkey Joe’s and Chick fil A… they enjoyed it all. They weren’t particularly looking forward to returning. However, they are also doing very well being home. They were getting tired of being pent up in the house, especially while Tropical Storm Ida visited while we were on the Outer Banks.

Danny met us with our three girls yesterday when he came to pick us up at the airport. It was a long ride with 10 people in the cab of the truck on the way home, but I am SO glad they came. I just kept smiling and exclaiming over and over how glad I was to be home.

Mikey and Georgette (and Nahomie and Esther!) did a fantastic job of running the house in our absence. They were very good to our children, and led well through some tough circumstances, namely the death of our dog, Bigsby. We’re so grateful to them.

Today I got to meet our newest addition, Jean Louis. He’s staying with Nixon and Sandra until we move into our new home on December 1. He’s AWESOME. I love this kid already. He’s got an engaging smile and is a charmer. A very active little boy, I can’t help but dream about the time when we’re able to live on our land in Raymond, where he can run and jump and play to his heart’s content. Someday…

As we settle back into “normal” here at home, it will be anything BUT normal. We’re moving into our new (rented) house in less than two weeks… which is also when our new boys will be coming home to live with us—Jean Louis and Jerry. We’re going to be picking up some extra responsibilities with children’s church and Friday night church during the holidays. We’ll be hiring a new nanny and preparing our home for the Advent/Christmas season.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We need you and you are very much appreciated. As we celebrate Thanksgiving with our family, team and staff next week, know that we’re ever-mindful of the way God has used YOU in our lives to bless us and provide for our growing family.

May you experience good times together with your families as you gather and I encourage you to thank our God, without whom nothing is possible.

With a grateful heart,

Gwenn, for all the Mangines
Nick, Gwenn
Nia, Nico, Josiah
Fritzie, Wildarne, Prisca
Jean Louis, Jerry
Nahomie, Francette and Esther

Visiting our friends, Gilliams

Our new house, we move in December 1

My kids, my niece Evie, and my dad

The Mangine cousins

Our three girls with Jean Louis!

HCH Mangine Update-- November 3, 2009

2009-11-03T07:14:00.003-05:00

Hello family and friends,

Instead of writing this update from my muggy, mosquito-y living room in Jacmel, I am writing it wrapped up in cozy pajamas and a fleece bathrobe at Nick’s parents house in Raleigh, NC. The whole Mangine 5 is back in the States for our first regularly planned furlough of sorts. We arrived last Friday and we will be visiting different places here in the US until November 18. We’re very thankful to Mikey and Georgette Rigel (our team members in Haiti) who are watching our home, supervising our staff, and loving our three girls—Prisca, Wildarne, and Fritzie.

As I look over our past month, my head spins. It was easily our busiest month in Haiti so far.
October started off with us bringing Prisca, age 7, and Wildarne Pierre, age 6, in to our family. It was a good transition, but an emotional time of goodbyes to their aunt, uncle, grandmother, and cousins they left behind. They have settled in well. We’re loving discovering their personalities. Nia especially. She’s LOVING having three sisters.

The second week of October was our busiest to date—Nick lead his first official team. It was a really great week, and a very special time for us since the team was comprised of many of our old friends from Crosspointe church. The team was the first of its kind—they lead 2 day music camp in Jacmel, visited children at a local orphanage, held a free concert/community feeding event at a local night club, lead a pastor’s conference and took over Friday night English church for one night, giving leaders on the ground a night off! It was a whirlwind week that also included a trip to the beach, a trip to Basin Bleu, a walking tour of Jacmel, a night out at a local restaurant, and most of the team members going home with the flu!

The next week we had more down time and it was something of a time of refreshment for our family as my mother visited for a week. She brought down the first of a WHOLE bunch of the clothes/supplies you donated for our new children. It was SO exciting for our kids to get new clothes. THANK YOU! During that week we were also able to bring our whole family out to the land Joy in Hope owns in Raymond to show Prisca and Wildarne where they will be living once capital expenses are raised for houses. It’s a beautiful piece of land and such a joy to be able to share the dream.

The month closed with preparations for our trip to the states. We were blessed with smooth travel, and we even met some people in the airport who we have the inkling might become long-term friends!

We’re very much enjoying our time here in the States. We’ve enjoyed seeing our family and friends, and we’d be lying if we didn’t fess up that we’re also loving hot showers, machine-washed clothes, and American food. Even so, our hearts miss our home in Haiti… especially our three girls. Please pray for our entire family currently spread over two countries—that this time would pass well on both sides.

Here are some specific things you could be praying for our family over the next few weeks:
· Please pray that our time in the US, while busy, would be refreshing for us. Please pray that God would give us GOOD time with the people we need to catch up with.
· Please pray for safe travels as we drive all over the east coast visiting churches and families.
· Please pray that God would continue to call people to join us in prayer and financial support. Living as a missionary, this is an on-going journey.
· Please pray for our family and our team-members back in Haiti. This has been a challenging month for all of us on-the-ground in Haiti.
· Please pray for the current financial situation of Joy in Hope/Haitian Children’s Home.

We’re always thankful for your support. It’s been an on-going goal of ours to stay in touch on a personal level with you. We’re looking forward to being able to do that on a more one-on-one level. Thank you for all the ways you help us and provide for us.

Our hearts are grateful,
Gwenn for the Entire Mangine Clan
Nick, Gwenn
Nia, Nico, Josiah
Fritzie, Prisca, Wildarne
Nahomie, Esther and Francette

CONTACT INFO WHILE WE’RE IN THE STATES:
Phone: 919-412-0139
Email: nick@haitianchildrenshome.org
gwenn@haitianchildrenshome.org

Prisca and Wildarne saying goodbye to their aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Prisca and Wildarne's first night home-- pictured with all the Mangine kiddos.
(Left to Right: Nico, Wildarne, Josiah, Nia, Fritzie, Prisca.)

Preparing food for 600 during the team from Crosspointe.

My mom, Denise, visits and brings surprises for ALL the kids (and staff too!)

Fritzie is EXCITED about the new clothes!

Our whole family standing in front of where our house will be in Raymond one day. (Sorry for all the squinting-- it was REALLY sunny!)

Letter from Rick Smith, the new Joy in Hope Director

2009-10-04T14:18:00.001-04:00

Hey all--

One more quick thing. I wanted to send out a quick note from our new Joy in Hope Director, Rick Smith. Our office is in the process of transitioning to Cary, NC. Details below.

Thanks for your support!

-The Mangine Family

************

Greetings from North Carolina!

Please pardon my interruption of a regular family email but I feel it is important to communicate what has been going on this past month.

We are currently finishing up the transition of Haitian Children’s Home, a ministry of Joy in Hope from Florida to North Carolina. Things have been going well this week as Jennifer and Jon Hancock packed up the office in Florida and drove everything to Cary. As you maybe aware, Jennifer is transitioning off of Joy in Hope staff so that she and Jon can begin preparations to be house parents in Haiti. This is an exciting time for their family and I appreciate all they have done for Joy in Hope for the past couple of years.

While I am talking about the new offices of Joy in Hope, we have some new contact information for you.

Our new mailing address is:

Joy in Hope

2731 NC Hwy 55

#251

Cary, NC 27519

Our new office phone number is 919-439-7038. Please feel free to contact us anytime.

Now that you have the new address and phone number, I’d also like to introduce you to the new Director of Operations of Joy in Hope, Kristi Daugherty. Kristi will be working out of the new Cary office and will be coordinating all operations for Joy in Hope. She will be very busy over the next few weeks as she leaves her current job and also is on her way to Haiti for a short-term trip. She will be fully onboard after October 19^th and can be reached at the Joy in Hope office or kristi@joyinhope.org.

Lastly, while it maybe uncomfortable to talk about, you will find that I don’t shy away from tough conversations – especially where it comes to finances.

I would like to thank everyone for your faithfulness to this organization in the past. Joy in Hope wouldn’t be the Light and Hope of Haiti without the sacrifices of many of you. The reality of the situation is that the economic factors of the past year have caught up with Joy in Hope and, especially over the past 6 months, we have seen a dramatic reduction in support for the ministry. The team in Haiti has had to make tough decisions in regards to finances – either deferring necessary purchases or using emergency funds to buy food, fuel and other items. At this point of the year, Joy in Hope is approximately $40,000 behind where it should be financially.

I say this because I know as a supporter of Joy in Hope, you want to know what it currently going on. Many of you are very faithful with the commitments you have made to the children and families of Haiti and I thank you for continuing to fund the journey we have all been called to. For some of you, maybe it’s a matter of catching up your monthly commitment. For others, you maybe able to do a little more to help. It’s an individual decision but I feel it is important to let everyone know the situation and be frank and honest in regards to finances.

Lastly you can send all checks to the new Joy in Hope address listed above or if it is more convenient, you can donate online at http://www.joyinhope.org/donate.asp.

I am looking forward to meeting everyone eventually – whether it’s in Haiti or in the US or Canada. I am always available and can be reached at the Joy in Hope offices in Cary or by email at rick@joyinhope.org. Please feel free to contact Kristi or myself anytime for any reason.

Grace and Peace,

Rick Smith

Director

Joy in Hope

HCH Mangine Child Sponsorships NOW OPEN!

2009-10-02T16:36:00.004-04:00

Fritzie, Prisca and Wildarne are all available for sponsorship! If you're interested, read on for some answers to Frequently Asked Questions...

What is the cost to sponsor a child?
The short answer is $32/month. The long answer is $160/month. Here’s how it all works out. The cost of care for each child per month is $160. We understand that not everyone is able to afford that kind of monthly payment, so we have structured our program so that each child has five $32/month sponsors. It is the Haitian Children’s Home policy that 100% of your money goes directly to meeting the needs of your child. It supplies him or her with food, clothing and shoes, education, salaries for the nannies who care for them, medical treatment, and housing costs including utilities, building maintenance, and various home upgrades. We find it’s a good way to do things. Not only does it give more individuals the opportunity to participate in giving, it lessons the financial strain on the Haitian Children’s Home should a sponsor determine that he or she is no longer able to participate in the sponsorship program.

Expense Breakdown
Cost per month per child
Housing $32.00
Food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. $40.00
Nanny Salary $8.00
Tutor $1.75
Housekeeper $1.75
Tuition $12.50
Electricity $12.50
Propane (for cooking) $7.50
Water $9.00
Building Maintenance $2.50
Medical $5.00
School Supplies (Uniforms, school books, admission fees…) $9.00
Staff Bonuses (Mandated by Haitian Law) $1.25
Birthdays (party for your child on his or her birthday) $1.04
Christmas $4.17
Clothing $5.00
Emergency fund (major medical or facility emergencies, etc.) $7.04

Total-- $160.00

Is my participation in this program tax-deductible?
Yes! You will receive a receipt every January to use for tax purposes for the previous calendar year.

How often will I receive updates on my child?
You will receive three email updates per year. You will also receive an annual “snail mail” update with a photo and a copy of your child’s report card each year. It's one of our biggest goals to improve communication with child sponsors over the upcoming year.

Can I write letters to my child? Will he or she write me back?
Absolutely! We encourage you to be in contact with your child. Our children LOVE getting mail! Feel free to send letters and we encourage you to send photos of your family. We encourage our children to write back. Because of translating/lack of mail service, it may take several weeks to receive these replies. You can also send an email to your child by emailing the houseparents.

I would prefer to pay one lump sum annually rather than monthly—is that an option?
Yes! We can set it up monthly, semi-annually, or annually.

Can I send gifts to my child?
You already are! As you can see above, part of our monthly budget for each child is a birthday and Christmas fund. Because our children live in close proximity to one another, we try to handle gift-giving occasions with a certain amount of equity. We give each child a party on his or her birthday with cake for everyone, homemade cards from all of their “brothers and sisters” in the orphanage, and a small gift. On Christmas, we have a similar party and each child gets 3 gifts: a pair of new shoes, one clothing item and one small toy. Additionally, we have an end-of-school party each year where we celebrate graduation to the next grade. We want these children to know that they are valued as a member of our Haitian Children’s Home family, and we believe that celebrating them individually on special occasions teaches them important lessons on how families function. In addition to this, you can send letters with flat gifts like stickers, paper dolls, temporary tattoos, photos, etc. Finally, you are always welcome to send community gifts that can be shared by all of the children in the orphanage. Popular items include soccer balls, inflatable rafts for the beach, hair beads, elastics and snaps, and craft supplies like string and beads to make jewelry. In order to pay for customs and shipping (from our US address to Haiti), for all parcels sent, please include a check for $3 per pound made out to Haitian Children’s Home.

What happens if I am no longer financially able to sponsor my child?
We understand that family dynamics change. Please just let us know and we will work to find a new sponsor for your child, no questions asked! You are still welcome to write letters to your child and stay in contact.

What happens if I miss a payment?
We understand that there are times when things get a little tighter financially; however, we are counting on sponsorship commitments to meet your child’s needs. If you miss a payment, simply resume the next month. If you are able to make two payments at once the next month, that would be great, but if not, that’s okay, just pick up with the new month.

Can I visit my child?
The Haitian Children’s Home offers short-term mission trips to Jacmel to work on various projects in and near the orphanage. Check out our Mission Trips page for more information on scheduling a trip.

How long do the children stay at the Haitian Children’s Home?
We’ve committed to caring and providing for these children through the completion of their high school education. However, high school education in Haiti is not like high school education in the United States. We believe that our children will leave high school with the tools they need to support themselves and contribute to the community. The typical child in our care will complete high school in their mid-20’s.

Can I pay by electronic debit?
Yes, we can help you set up a regular subscription with Paypal.

How do I ask more questions or sign up?
Email me: gwenn@haitianchildrenshome.org ! Looking forward to hearing from you.

PS-- I *think* that there are currently sponsorships in the Pye home too... Email me for more info! It's our goal to have ALL HCH children FULLY sponsored.

Prisca, age 7

Wildarne, age 6

Fritzie, age 15

HCH Mangine Update-- October 2, 2009

2009-10-02T16:35:00.000-04:00

Hello friends!

Things don’t always go the way you plan. That’s a universal truth, but one that seems to be true much more often than not here in Haiti. We’ve been battling DAILY problems with electricity. If it’s not a problem with our power getting cut, it’s a problem with our inverter, or our generator, or … it amazes me how something that should be so simple, can be so complicated here sometimes.

In my most recent update, I told you about Prisca and Wildarne Pierre, the newest HCH Mangine kids who were scheduled to move in with us in December, after we move to a bigger house. As I said earlier, things don’t always go the way you plan. And as the situation with Prisca and Wildarne began to develop, we could see that it was getting increasingly tricky. They were living with their uncle, whose family began to experience increased difficulty caring for them—job struggles, landlord problems, run-ins with the law… and on it goes. We became concerned for the stability of Prisca and Wildarne’s immediate situation. And so the short story is this—they are moving in with us on Sunday! Yes, this Sunday! We’re excited and all hurried in a hundred different directions as we prepare to add two more to our numbers!

Our family has embraced these girls already as they’ve been coming over every day for a meal for the past three weeks. They are comfortable in our house and we are all comfortable with them. We hope that will make this transition a bit easier for all of us—but please keep our entire family in your prayers as we adjust.

We have sponsorship openings for ALL three of our girls! I will include some detailed info about sponsorship in another post today.

We have one additional need. We realized the other day that we don’t have a large enough table to fit our whole family now that Prisca and Wildarne are moving in. We’ve been holding out on getting a new one as we’ve been waiting for a team to come in to build one, and save us some money. However, we really feel that it’s important that we have enough space for our whole family (of 10 people) to be able to sit down for a meal together. Therefore, we’d like to go ahead and hire someone to build a table and benches large enough for our family. This will cost approximately $300. Please email me at gwenn@haitianchildrenshome.org if you’re interested in helping meet this need. If we had 6 people donate $50 or 12 people donate $25—we’d be there!

All three HCH girls are doing well in school. Met Frantzo (their teacher) is very pleased with the progress they are making and says they all work hard. He’s an excellent teacher, and we’re extremely grateful God made a way for us to hire him! Frantzo’s wife, Anise, has worked for the HCH Pye family for many, many years and is expecting her first child, a son, later this month. One of my recent “side” projects is taking Anise to her midwife appointments. I love it. Her midwife, Sarah, is a new friend of mine here in Jacmel and she’s been teaching me a ton. Last week I was able to find the baby’s heart tones without her help. It’s SO cool. Anise is due in three weeks and I am praying that she delivers before we leave for furlough 4 weeks from today. I really want to be able to attend the birth.

Nick has been busy trying to fill the “assistant to the regional manager” shoes while the Pye’s have been in the states for the past two weeks. I think he’s doing a great job, but I think we’ll both be glad when Danny arrives home and reclaims his job. : ) He’s also preaching at Friday church for the next two weeks and working to coordinate the next team, coming in a week from tomorrow. This is our first “official” team we’re leading and we’re pumped because it’s a team from our home church containing several members of our former small group. They will be doing a music camp in Jacmel, a pastor’s conference, and working with a popular, local band, “So Nice” to put on a big concert/community feeding.

I always say this, but I continue to mean it wholeheartedly, so it bears repeating. THANK YOU to all of you who give sacrificially so that we get the honor of living this life. It is not always easy—in fact many times it has stretched me farther than I thought I could stretch. But it is such a GOOD life. It’s indescribably good to be able to walk in the purpose for which we were created. Thank you.

With very grateful hearts,
Gwenn, for the entire Mangine family
Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico, Josiah
Fritzie, Prisca, Wildarne
Nahomie and Esther

Sarah, a local midwife, allows Anise to listen to her baby's heartbeat.

Nia, Prisca, Fritzie and Wildarne

Nick with Josiah and Nico

Breaking News! New HCH Mangine Kiddos arriving soon

2009-09-23T11:43:00.000-04:00

Okay, I can't hold it inside any longer and now that it's "official" I am excited to make another announcement! HCH Mangine has accepted two more children that will be moving in with us December 1. Prisca and Wildarne Pierre.

Seriously, these kids are PRECIOUS.

Prisca is 7. She's a REALLY spunky little girl. (To quote Nick Mangine, "Great, cause that's what we need in this family... another spunky female.") Her birthday is in June, so she just turned 7.

Wildarne is 6-- we just celebrated her birthday September 11th. She's a bit quieter than her sister and the first thing you'll notice about her is her short, short hair as she suffers from a fungal infection on her head that necessitated shaving off her hair.

The girls are biological sisters. They lived with their mother until about two years ago when she passed away. (The father had abandoned the family before the mom got sick.) The girls were placed in the same orphanage that Fritzie lived in in Jacmel until it closed down earlier this year. At this time, they went to live with their uncle. He knew that he couldn't care for them long term and came to our door asking for help.

We knew we couldn't accept the kids until December because we simply don't have the room, but after much pondering, we realized that we had to do something to step in to help this family. The uncle does love the girls, and is trying to do the right thing. But he simply does not have the resources or room for them, though he has a job and works hard to support his family (a wife and two kids.) Therefore, we decided it would be a benefit to this family, to the girls, and ultimately to our family long term to start the girls in school. They started along with Fritzie on Sept 7th and are doing well. They come over to our house every day after school to eat lunch (our big meal of the day) with our family. After that, we drive them back to their uncle's house, about 15 minutes away. This way we know they are getting nutritious food. We were also able to provide them with new backpacks and books, new shoes and socks, new underwear and new school uniforms. The first day of school I sent them home with toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo and medicine for Wildarne's scalp. THANK YOU to all of the people who donated items! They are making a difference with the kids who need it the most!

In addition to schooling, we've been spending some time on the weekends with Prisca and Wildarne when we can. They got to go the beach with us and the team last weekend-- which they LOVED.

I already have a lot of stories about the girls and I am excited that I get the chance to share them. Here are a few pictures and just one final thought about them for today--
These little girls have been through A LOT of major transitions. When their mom died they went to live at an orphanage. When the orphanage closed, they went to live with their uncle. Now they are in this weird transition for the next few months and then will live in our home. One of the "silver linings" about this story is that for the past two years in the orphanage, they lived with Fritzie-- basically as sisters. Haitian Children's Home exists to build and save families. I have learned in the past several years that the word "family" doesn't relate as much to biology as it does a state in your heart. I am glad that though these girls have had many, many losses when it comes to family, we get to be a part of resurrecting a tiny bit of their previous family in ours-- their sister Fritzie. Praise be to God who makes broken things whole.

Fritzie, Prisca, Wildarne and Nia

Wildarne at school

Gwenn and all the Mangine and HCH Mangine kids eating lunch after school

Nia, Prisca and Wildarne

HCH Mangine Update-- Sept 15, 2009

2009-09-15T17:46:00.000-04:00

Hello friends—

Life has been fast-paced and exciting lately—the good kind of excitement for the most part! We’re into a good groove in terms of a schedule, and many feelings of chaos we’ve been experiencing are starting to fade. Haiti feels more like home everyday. The temperature is cooling down (meaning the low 90’s instead of high 90’s) which makes a HUGE difference. We’ve finally been getting regular afternoon rains that cool off the day and make sleeping more bearable.

School started for all the Mangine kids last week. Every morning at 6:50AM, Nia, Fritzie, Nick and I head out the door to go over to the office where we do school. Fritzie meets downstairs with her teacher, and Nia and I do school upstairs in team housing. Nick spends his mornings in the Joy in Hope office doing “desk work” (or, more likely, dozens of around town errands.) We finish school at noon, when we head back to our house for lunch—our big meal of the day—which Nahomie prepares everyday. We’ve started eating a mostly Haitian diet—which is a big change. We eat things like pitimi (a grain) with okra sauce, ble (another grain—wheat-derived) with beans and Haitian salami (DON’T ASK!), mai moulet (corn meal mush) with bean sauce. It’s taking some getting used to, but we’re making it. Nia TERRIBLY misses American food and so every Saturday it’s American food at the Mangine house. And we’ve started a tradition of bacon and pancakes every Sunday morning!

Today I thought I’d take some time to give you all an update on each member of our family individually. This might give you better ideas on how to pray for us specifically. So here goes:

Nick: From my perspective, Nick is thriving as a missionary. He’s very good at problem-solving, a quality that serves him well in this crazy setting. Lately he’s been busy as it’s been an active time for the Joy in Hope Board of Directors, (check out the Danny’s announcement explaining the changes!) but he’s doing a good job of balancing work and family—which gets confusing when your job IS your family. Sunday he had a bit of excitement (not the good kind) when he was involved in a small accident. He opened the door of the truck into the street and a motorcycle crashed into the door. The motorcycle driver fell off of his motorcycle and was scraped up a bit, but other than that, no one was hurt. We’re so thankful for God’s protection for Nick, our kids (the boys and Fritzie were in the car), and the motorcycle driver. We’re thankful for Nixon who was our voice for us, negotiating with the driver and making sure his needs were attended to. (And the car didn’t really suffer any major damage either… just a dent in the door.)

Gwenn: Things are going great for me. I love homeschooling and I love doing it outside of the house. Being an extrovert, it’s nice for me to see other people on a daily basis. By doing school at the office/team housing, I get the chance to see a lot of people pass through. I have started helping more with teams—assisting Leann with cooking on Sundays and rising early Wednesday mornings to make breakfast and give Sandra a morning off. We have a team of 18 here from Minnesota now—they are a lot of fun.

Nia: Nia has settled into school well. She’s a good student and generally pretty easy to teach. She also loves teams. She’s become very outgoing with teams and begs to spend time with them whenever they are here. It’s actually something we’re trying to figure out. We want her to spend time with visitors, but we’re also aware that she has many, many people coming in and out of her life. We want her to make healthy friendships but it’s hard doing that one week at a time. Does that make sense? Pray we can show discernment and that Nia would find a true “best friend” here in Haiti.

Nico: Little Nico is having a hard time lately. He’s not been enjoying us being out of the house in the mornings, and he’s been exhibiting a lot of “attachment” behaviors that have been difficult for our family. We’re trying to meet him where he is and adjust our lives appropriately. We’re praying that God will give him a sense of peace and come to know that we are truly his forever family. It’s definitely a process. We’re striving to slow down with him and spend good, quality time with him every day. And we recognize that all of these new experiences and people must be very, very confusing for him. Heck, things are confusing to us and we’ve not had to experience a fraction of the loss he’s had to experience.

Josiah: Josiah is two. That pretty much sums it up. He’s an extremely strong-willed child. Extremely. We love Josiah to pieces, but by the end of the day (multiple days of the week,) we are doing all that we can do to hold it together. He’s a lot of work. We’re praying that God would give us the wisdom to understand how to channel his “energy” into something amazing. We know that strong, determined kids like him end up being world-changers. Plus he’s really cute these days, and talking up a STORM, in English AND Kreyol. (Usually in the same sentence.)

Fritzie: I know this is what you’ve all been waiting for—an update on sweet Fritzie. She. Is. Fantastic. We love this girl. We are so incredibly thankful God brought HER into our family. Her specifically. She is a gift. She has a hearty joy-filled laugh and a sweet, tender spirit. She’s also very clumsy. Very. Every single day she trips or spills a drink or a plate of food, or something like that. At first we just thought she was clumsy (like me), but we now have a more definitive diagnosis—she only has vision in one eye.

Last week we brought Fritzie to the Dr. Ryan Price in Christianville to have her eyes checked. He confirmed that she has almost no sight in her left eye. She can see a little bit of light and some shadows, but when he covered her good eye, she couldn’t even see his hand right in front of her face. The good news is that in her right eye, her vision is perfect.

So, this brings up kind of a series of events we need to investigate. Ryan said that when she had cataract removal surgery earlier this summer, it led to a bunch of inflammation inside her eye, as well as some “debris” that has grown on the artificial lens they implanted. Because she went so long (nearly 15 years) without being able to see in that eye, the pathways in her brain are “set” so that it is extremely unlikely that she’d ever be able to see out of that eye, even if we were able to clear up the residual problems she has. On top of that, there is the issue of her eye being crossed. That can be repaired with a muscle tightening surgery. But even if we were able to find a way to get that done (no one in Haiti does the surgery, so we’d have to take her out of the country), it would only be cosmetic.

That being said, we do see the merit in trying to find a way to do the surgery, even if it’s only for appearances. We think that it would be incredibly useful for her self-confidence, as Haitians are generally pretty harsh about anyone who is different. They are usually pretty quick to point out differences and tease… even adults. In fact, this past weekend, we were driving to the beach and Nick was in the back of the truck with Fritzie, and people on the side of the road were pointing and shouting out (in Kreyol), “Bad eye! Bad eye! Bad eye!” Nick said it broke his heart. Please pray that we might be able to find a way to help her get corrective surgery, and please also pray that we could show Fritzie that we love her and care for her just the way she is. In the meantime, we’re going to order her some stylish glasses with protective lenses so that we can protect the vision in her good eye.

I need to wrap this up—but let me just give a quick update on Nahomie and Esther as well. (They are our staff members.) Nahomie is thriving in her role of “head nanny.” She’s learning how to shop weekly at market and plan meals. She likes having Esther around, whom we hired full-time to assist Nahomie in running our home. Like me, she likes to be in charge, so having someone “under her” works very well for her. And I think it works well for Esther too. I still teach English classes twice a week to Esther and Nahomie, but I fear that once we start taking in more kids (in December) that this is no longer going to be logistically possible. So we’re going to look into some options for local English schools around here that we can send them to. That will make me sad, because I really do like teaching the classes, but it’s a change I know is inevitable.

Thank you for your faithful support of our family and Joy in Hope. We love the life we get to live. We know it’s because of you, sacrificially giving and faithfully praying.

With grateful hearts.
Gwenn, for the Mangine Many
Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico + Josiah
Fritzie
Nahomie and Esther

Nick and Fritzie trying to harvest keneps.

Josiah on the move.

Nia and Fritzie on the first day of school.

Out for a family walk.

Nico, Josiah and Nia-- sound asleep! Ahhhh!

HCH Mangine-- Sept 1, 2009-- Welcome Fritzie!

2009-08-31T11:05:00.005-04:00

Hello friends and family—

We have some great news to share! Today we are accepting our first HCH kid into our home. Our family is so excited. Her name is Fritzie and she’s 13 years old.

This wasn’t something we were originally planning until December of this year, but some extenuating circumstances arose, and we felt like this was the best scenario. Here’s a little of her story:

Fritzie is the youngest of 5 children. Her mother left the family a long time ago and her father is not mentally stable. He tried to support her for a while, but she found herself living on the streets about two years ago. She was taken in by a local orphanage at that point, but recently that orphanage closed down, leaving 16 children without provision. It was a very sad situation. Most of the children were able to be taken in by family members, but not Fritzie. Some of the orphanage staff members agreed to take her in temporarily, but as their date to leave the country drew near, there was no good situation for Fritzie.

There were three things that exacerbated this situation in our minds.

First, Fritzie has problems with her vision. She recently had a large cataract removed from her left eye that had rendered her blind in that eye. She is now able to see out of that eye, but it is still very crossed. She needs to have an additional surgery to fix it. In Haiti, children who are different in anyway are often teased mercilessly, even by adults. Having any sort of “disability” makes it very difficult for them, and we knew that the likelihood of her being accepted anywhere else with her eye situation was slim.

Second, Fritzie is 13, actually almost 14. A sensitive age for ANY young girl, we know that in Haiti, if she was sent back to her birthfather, she would again end up on the street, which is terribly dangerous for a girl of this age. Her options would be to become a restavek (slave) in someone’s home (where she would likely be beaten/raped), or turn to prostitution , which is very prevalent here in Haiti. As you could imagine, neither option seemed good to us.

Finally, Fritzie is nearly 14 and only in 3rd grade. She’s had to work the majority of her life, and there was no option for her schooling in her family of origin. She attended school while in the orphanage, but she still has a lot of catching up to do.

After considering all these factors, we spent a lot of time talking and praying about the situation and felt like it was the best option to take her into our home a little bit early. We think it will be a good “phasing in” process for our family, and for Nahomie. Also, Fritzie comes from a background of always having to work, even while in the orphanage. We think that the next three months before we take in other children will be good for her to learn how to be a child. To be in a situation where she doesn’t have to lug water for hours, or doesn’t have to supervise other children, where she doesn’t have to prepare the meals or do the laundry for her family. Yes, of course she will have regular chores like all our kids have. But she will be free to play, and go to school and learn how it’s supposed to be when you’re a child.

We’ve been busy getting all the plans in place to make this happen tomorrow. We got her bed, and picked out sheets and towels and clothes. We visited with her yesterday afternoon for a few hours, showed her around and talked a little bit about what to expect. My kids (especially Nia) couldn’t be MORE excited.

We’ve set her up with a private teacher for her first year of school. It’s more costly to do it this way, but we have hired an EXCELLENT teacher, and believe he can catch her up at least 2-3 years over the next year. We believe this will be best for Fritzie. It will help her self esteem to advance a few grades at her age, and we are also happy that it will allow her more time each day with our family during this big life change.

There are many other things happening within our family and HCH/Joy in Hope right now, but I thought it would be best to just focus on Fritzie today. So, as you pray for our family during the next couple of weeks, please pray for this transition.

· Please pray for Fritzie’s heart to be gently eased into our family. In addition to this being a hard age for girls, Fritzie has been through trauma and loss that we cannot even begin to imagine. Please pray that we could be patient and show her unconditional love. Please pray that over time, she’d come to see us as family.

· Please pray for Nia, Nico and Josiah during this time of transition- learning to share their parents and their “stuff” with Fritzie.

· Please pray for Nick and I. Pray that our marriage would stay strong during the first of many times of adjustment and “flux” for our family as it grows. Pray that we’d have the wisdom to be intentional about spending time together in God’s word and in prayer.

· Please pray for Nahomie, as she begins to work in the job she was hired to do—head nanny. We’ve been working with her to get systems in place—meal planning, preparing clothing, bedding, supplies, etc.

· Please pray for the language barrier. We feel like we are all doing well with Kreyol, but it takes everything to a new level to have a child who speaks a different language. Please pray we can understand and be understood.

A couple of people have contacted us about child sponsorship recently. We are in the process of getting Fritzie input into the system and I will make and “announcement” when all that is up and running.

Thank you for your prayers and support. It’s MORE THAN exciting to us to see our family making this transition. We’re happy. We’re excited. (In fact, I had trouble sleeping last night I was so excited.) We’re nervous. And we are always mindful that we are here, getting to do this because of you, living lives of generosity.

With a very, very grateful heart,

Gwenn, for the entire Mangine clan---

Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico, Josiah, Nahomie AND FRITZIE!

Contact info:

Nick: nick@haitianchildrenshome.org

Gwenn: gwenn@haitianchildrenshome.org

Our blog (updated several times a week): www. mangine.org

Josiah, Nico, Nia and Fritzie

HCH MANGINE CLOTHING DRIVE!

2009-08-15T16:59:00.001-04:00

The Haitian Children’s Home is a family style home for orphaned and abandoned children in Jacmel, Haiti. We exist to build Haitian families. As we anticipate new children arriving into our home in the next few months, we are in need of new and used clothing/shoes in excellent condition. We will also need school supplies. Our needs are extensive, but we know that as summer ends soon in the US, many of you will be discarding clothing from this previous season. It’s also a great time for clearance sales on summer clothing!

A couple of things to keep in mind:
• We will be accepting children between the ages of 6-12, but most children will be in smaller sizes than children of corresponding ages in the US. Therefore, as you see, we will be collecting clothing from sizes 4T-children’s XL.
• Remember, we can only use SUMMER clothing. (It’s hot here year-round!)
• You can also send giftcards for Walmart and Target. 100% of this will be used for new clothing and supplies for our children.
• Culturally, we need to honor the customs and traditions present for Haitian Christians. Therefore, we cannot allow our children to wear bikinis, spaghetti straps or short skirts/shorts. Please only select modest clothing.
• We will be collecting clothing and supplies until the end of October.

NEEDS:
Girl’s Black shoes:
Size children’s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Boy’s black dress shoes:
Children’s sizes, 4,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Girl’s flip flops:
Size children’s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Boys flip flops:
Size children’s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

Church dresses for girls (no strapless, no spaghetti straps):
Sizes from 4T- girls XL

Knee length (or longer) skirts for girls:
Sizes from 4T- girls XL

Girls Shirts: (no spaghetti straps, no strapless)
Sizes 4T- girls XL

Girls SUMMER pajamas (no long sleeve, no flannel, etc.)
Sizes 4T- girls XL

Boy’s dress pants:
Size 4T- Boys XL

Boy’s dress shirts:
Size 4T- Boys XL

Boys athletic shorts:
Size 4T- Boys XL

Boys tee-shirts:
Size 4T- Boys XL

Boys belts (black is preferred):
Boys small- XL

Girls bathing suits: ONE PIECE bathing suits—no bikinis. Tankini’s that cover entire stomach are fine.
Size 4T- Girls XL

Boys Bathing suits (trunk style, no speedo style)
Sizes 4T-Boys XL

School supplies:
20 backpacks
20 packs of pencils
20 packs of crayons
10 packs of blue pens
10 packs black pens
100 folders
20 packs of notebook paper
20 1-subject notebooks
20 (individual) pencil sharpeners

We will have two drop off locations in North Carolina—one in the Triangle area, and one on the Outer Banks. If you are not local to either of these areas, I can provide you with addresses for shipping.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

Please email me at:
gwenn@haitianchildrenshome.org with any questions or for drop-off locations.

August 15, 2009-- Mangine Family HCH Update

2009-08-15T16:22:00.005-04:00

The Mangine 5
(left to right: Nico, Gwenn, Nia, Nick, Josiah)

Hello all.

***Please note: you will receive TWO messages of correspondence today. This one will contain our regular bi-weekly update, and we will be sending out another, separate message with info about our clothing drive for the orphanage.***

I hope this summer has been treating you well. I have heard it has been very HOT in many areas of the States this summer… I sympathize! We’re doing very well here in Haiti—we love it here and are so happy to call this our home. There are many, many things to mention in this update, so I will keep this as brief as possible. Always feel free to email us at nick@haitianchildrenshome.org if you have any follow-up questions.

Since my last update we had an EXCELLENT team of youth visit us here and work VERY, VERY hard in the nearby village of Chabin, running a Vacation Bible School for children. I don’t know the number of children who attended—several hundred. It was a joy to see children being loved and served so well. There was a special comfort knowing that several hundred members of a community would not go bed hungry those four days. Our own children, (Nia, Nico and Josiah) enjoyed the VBS too—it was especially rewarding to watch our daughter, Nia, serve so joyfully and selflessly. She has a very tender heart and I love that she has numerous opportunities for developing the compassion that is just a natural part of who she is. We LOVE being able to serve together as a family!

We are in the midst of working on a solution for getting more content about our family and what we’re doing for HCH/Joy in Hope back up on the web. Look for major updates to our family blog: www.mangine.org in the next two weeks!

Yesterday Nick and I took a ride into Port Au Prince to bring Mackendy, one of the Pye’s children, to the dentist. He had a few bad cavities that were giving him a lot of pain. We are fortunate to have connections with an excellent dentist in Croix de Bouquets who was able to take care of this. We’ve also had some concerns with a few of Josiah’s teeth and some discoloration we’ve noticed. We were able to get that checked out also which was great. Our friend (and fellow missionary,) Kyle, tagged along for the ride and was able to get two fillings as well. So it was very much worth driving nearly 8 hours (total) to visit this particular dentist—she does excellent work!

Another big development during the last two weeks is that we’ve had some serious conversations about some serious needs we’ve been confronted with. It is too soon to make any major announcements as we don’t have everything in order yet, but we are very close to making decisions on accepting children into our orphanage. As soon as we have more information, we will be getting YOU that information, as we need to find sponsors for them! We need all the word of mouth we can get!

Speaking of difficult needs—we’ve had several more requests lately that just break our hearts. Two nights ago at about 8:30PM, Jocelyn, (one of the street boys that we occasionally hire to help us, )came by and was asking for money. He claimed his mother was dying and he needed money to buy meds for her. Nick and I were so very confused as to what to do. We wanted to be able to help this family if this was a legitimate need, but we’re very leery of just handing out money, especially right in front of our gate. (We live in a pretty busy section of town and get several requests daily—we’ve been encouraged not to give anything out directly in front of our house, as it set a precedent for begging in front of our gate. We’ve seen this firsthand as we try to navigate these new waters.) We didn’t just want to send Jocelyn away, so we told him to get a list of the medications she would need and we would purchase them for her. So far, Jocelyn hasn’t returned. Please pray for his mother.

The same day, Esther, the lady that washes our laundry, approached us about financially helping her continue school. Again, we’re torn. We want to be able to truly help and support our staff members, but we know we can’t say yes to every need. Please pray for us as we try to discern the best way to be of service to the families here… it is extremely difficult and there are many factors to consider.

School starts for the HCH kids in less than a month, and while we were initially encouraged to wait 6 months before starting school with our children, we feel like Nia is ready, and it would serve her best to commence when the other children around her are beginning. So, we’re officially “back to school” on September 7th. By following the same schedule that the HCH kids will be using, we can break when they break and have school when they have school. We think it will set us up well for the future to start now.

I have been promising an update on support for a while now! Nick has started a pretty extensive financial audit of the past three months, as he prepares to share with the Board of Directors how things are going for our family financially. We are happy to report that during our first three months here, we have received 88% of our budgeted need. (We came here with about 92% pledged.) While this serves our family well at this point, we realize that overall within our organization giving is down. The economy is causing our organization to often receive notification that families in North America are no longer able to support the work being done here. This is causing a lot of stress as we (as an organization) need to determine what to continue to fund, and what we are going to need to let go… Please pray for provision for Joy in Hope.

Finally, please pray for Haiti as the Atlantic hurricane season is finally beginning to show signs of potential trouble spots. While this is a far bigger deal for many Haitian people than for us, we have a very leaky kitchen roof, and are not sure our roof can withstand much in terms of rain and wind.

We grow more in love with Haiti and it’s people every day. As we begin to feel more and more at home here, we are ALWAYS mindful of the people who sacrifice to make this life a reality for us. Thank you for your giving, for your prayers and for your encouragement.

With very grateful hearts,
Gwenn, for the entire Mangine 5—Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico and Josiah

Because of the team from Crosspointe, we were able to feed a community for 4 days!

Recipients were appreciative!

Jocelyn

Nia helping me clean out the wet cabinets after a particularly bad rainstorm. Pray for our roof during the upcoming tropical storm season. Thank GOODNESS for Tupperware modulars!

August 1, 2009-- Mangine Family HCH Update

2009-08-01T20:16:00.003-04:00

Happy August 1st friends + family,

I am writing you tonight from my humid kitchen. I just washed a mountain of dishes and Nick has taken the kids on a water and diesel run. It has to be done every other day—hitting the gas station to fill up a tank with diesel for our generator and refilling our 5 gallon water jugs from the reverse osmosis plant in town. We’re finding that the “simple life” is sometimes very far from simple, but we do seem to be settling in well. We’re within ONE bin of having our Jacmel house unpacked—a real challenge in a small, two-bedroom house with ZERO closets.

As usual, since my last update, much has happened. Our director, Danny Pye, returned to Haiti from a whirlwind 5 weeks in the US, attending to some stateside business and speaking at the “Summer in the Son” conference. It’s great to have him back—it helps our family tremendously… and it helps his family too! Leann, Danny’s wife, planned a surprise birthday party for Danny last week at the land in Raymond. She came over earlier in the week with their daughter Riann and some of her HCH girls, and together with my kids, we made and painted 3 pinatats. We love spending time with our team and the HCH kids. My kids especially enjoy playing with the younger kids… and all of us have a soft spot for Woody after spending so much time with him when he was injured.

Speaking of Woody, he’s doing great with his cast off. He’s getting around with just one crutch and today he went in the ocean to swim for the first time since his accident, almost 2 and a half months ago. He and Patrick (another one of the older HCH boys) came over this past week to help Nick sand and finish a bunk bed that John made for us. Those boys are hard workers! They made the job go very quickly!

Today a team of youth from our home church, Crosspointe, arrived for a VBS in nearby Chabin. We’re all excited to spend Monday through Thursday in Chabin with the team and children in the community. In addition to Bible teaching, games, crafts and music, we provide a lunch meal each day for the children. We’re thinking we could have up to 300 children.

The frequency with which we’ve been receiving requests to take in children has increased. We met yesterday with a man who is caring for his two nieces. His sister (their mother) passed away two years ago and the father abandoned the children prior to the mother’s death. While we know and make it clear to everyone who inquires that we cannot accept children until December, Nick and I have started to try to discern how to handle these situations we’re faced with. Please pray for clarity as we strive to help build Haitian families.

A few specific prayer requests:
• Please pray for landlord negotiations. We think we might have found a good house for our orphanage home starting in December.
• Please pray for our health. We’ve all been doing relatively well but our immune systems are still adjusting to Haiti!
• Please pray for our family. This is a good time, but also very stressful, Please pray for unity and encouragement and grace with one another.
• Please be praying patience with continued language learning. We’re doing well, and realize the rest will come with time and practice!
• Please be praying for us as we begin to plan a “clothing drive” during the next few months to get clothing ready for our new kids! More details will be coming in the Aug 15th update.

We are ever-mindful that we cannot be here without your support. Thank you for loving us and trusting us with this mission.

With grateful hearts,
Gwenn, writing for the entire Mangine 5—Nick, Gwenn, Nia, N

Mid-July HCH Mangine

2009-07-20T12:21:00.004-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Too much time has lapsed since our last update, and I am sorry. I have a new resolve to get my updates out on the 1st and 15th! Hold me to it.

One important housekeeping update!
You may have noticed our family website (www.haitianchildrenshome.org/mangine) has changed, and most of our content is gone. This past month the Haitian Children’s website has been redone, as we’ve recognized that HCH is doing so much more than the children’s homes we have! Therefore, we’re in the process of “rebranding” the larger organization as “Joy in Hope,” with Haitian Children’s Home being one of the ministries part of it. Check it out at www.haitianchildrenshome.org.. And also www.joyinhope.org. One of the things we’ve run into with this migration is that right now there is not currently a way to sign up to be on our support team. So, until we can get the rest of the content migrated, please feel free to email us at nick@haitianchildrenshome.org. We can email you all the info you need. We are still looking for people to commit to pray for us and support us financially. Thanks for being patient with us as we work to make this information better and more accessible to you.

This past month has been full of many ups and downs! One of this biggest struggles we faced this past month was that I got very sick at the end of June. I had some labwork done here in Haiti and was told I had malaria and a stomach infection. Even after treating for both, I remained sick. When two weeks of being sick had passed with little improvement, Nick and I made the choice for me to return to the US for a week to get some medical care and rest. It was a nice relaxing time. I am all better and SO HAPPY to be back in Haiti with my family. Many thanks to Nick’s family who took such great care of me, Darla Gallentine, who saw to my medical care, Kris Stoner, who met me in Miami, and Crosspointe, who helped us afford the trip!

We are starting to get into a groove here in Haiti—learning how to do things without calling the Pyes or the Altidors every five minutes. ☺ We’ve hired a woman named Esther who comes twice a week to do laundry. And we’ve also “hired” a coupe local teenage boys., Stanly and Yoslen, to come in and clean up our compound area (under direct supervision, of course.) With so many trees, there’s always a ton of leaves to be swept. They do other odd jobs too—like wash the car, and “fix” the kid’s bikes, clean the drains, and pick cherries, keneps and mangoes. I put the word “hire” in quotes, because we pay them about $1.25 each once a week for a day of work. And it helps keep things tidy around here.

Today is a special day in our family, as we celebrate having Nico in our family for TWO YEARS! Last week we took a trip to his former orphanage to visit his teacher and some of his old friends. We really do think that Nico remembered things a little bit. It was really fun.

As the days and weeks and months pass (we’re currently a week shy of being here three months,) we look forward to December when we hope to be in a place to accept children into our home. The depth of need here is overwhelming at times. We’ve already said, “no” to 11 children.. Everyday we have several people ask us for food or money. Young and old alike. Life is heavy here some days. But it is also very rewarding.

We ask that you’d keep our transition in your prayers. We’re still trying to come to a place where Haiti truly feels like our home. It is feeling that way more each day.. One of the hardest parts of the transition is that our children have been needing a lot of extra attention. At times we struggle to be gracious with this. Please pray we can love them and support them in all the ways they need to be loved and supported while retaining our sanity.! ☺

We love you and are every-thankful for you—

With grateful hearts,

The Mangine 5—Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico and Josiah

The new sign on painted on our front gate-- thanks to Jennifer, Carrie and Patrick for their careful attention to detail!

Yoslen, 13, a neighbor boy, helping to "fix" Nico's bike

Stanly, 14, another neighbor boy, with his big supply of kenep

Nico visiting his former orphanage. Pictured here with his old teacher, Jean.

Esther, our new employee who works really hard on our washing!

June 18 update

2009-06-18T22:08:00.000-04:00

Hello family and friends,

I am writing to you tonight from stormy Port Au Prince. I think the rainy season is here to stay in Haiti. It’s been raining every afternoon, storming actually. This is a blessing for many here in Haiti as they rely on collected rainwater to survive. It is a difficulty for many here in Haiti because it is greatly deforested. Even a little bit of rain sometimes produces great flooding and landslides. This leads to problems and makes roads at times nearly impossible, if not impossible, to pass.

This is our last night in Port Au Prince. Tomorrow we finish language school and move back to Jacmel. I am excited about this move for many reasons.

First, I am excited because it means we’re finished with language school! Mesi Jezi! (Thank you Jesus.) Language school has been a good experience for us, and we have learned a lot. We are both able to speak and understand Kreyol with some proficiency, but we both still need a lot of practice. Language school (and trying to live in a country where very few people speak English) has been exhausting. We’ve been in classes for 3.5 hours per day 5 days a week. Add an hour or two of homework everyday, and we practically had a full-time job just with language school. But, as life goes, ESPECIALLY in Haiti, language school became one of the MANY, MANY things that have been occupying our days.

Second, we’re excited to return to Jacmel to get settled into a home where we will stay (and NOT move out of) for the next 6 months. Since the last update, we were able to find a small home in downtown Jacmel that serves our purposes well. It is small, (2 small bedrooms, 1 bathroom), but it has a small, efficiency-type house in the compound where Naomi will be living, and where we will have access to a lot of storage. One of the unique things about this house is that we have an actual YARD, which is unheard of a city in Haiti—particularly in a downtown area. From our patio in the yard, we can just see the waterfront Port in old Jacmel. It’s very beautiful. We are happy, and very glad to be moving into one place semi-permanently. We will be looking for a larger home to rent starting in December when we will begin accepting children.

Third, we are excited to get back to Jacmel as we’ve been feeling a bit disconnected from our team. Although we have made some new friends in Port Au Prince and many of our team members have come visited us in Port Au Prince, it’s not the same as having them as our neighbors. And at this time especially, we’re feeling like we need to be pouring ourselves into community. We’re starting to feel a little homesick and honestly, a bit overwhelmed at the pace of life here in Haiti.

Let me explain that last statement a little more, because it’s not something I FULLY appreciated until living here. It’s hard to say this without sounding like I am complaining, but please know I am not. Life is just more difficult in Haiti. Everything, even simple things, aren’t simple in Haiti. For example, we need to remember to go get diesel and drinking water every day or so. If we forget and it gets too late—we’re just out of luck. No drinking water or fuel for the generator (we haven’t had reliable city power here in Port lately.) That’s not a huge job, but it takes probably (start to finish) a good 35 minutes. Because of the lack of reliable power for refrigeration, we have to shop for very little (perishable) foods at once. That takes time, and I am still at the point with language where I need Naomi with me to go to the market. That takes at least an hour and a half to accomplish several days a week.

Last week, tired of spending countless hours hand washing our clothes, we hired someone to come wash our laundry for us. Now, that seems like it made our lives easier. And in many ways it did. But then we didn’t have any water at our house. So we had to tote her (and all our laundry) over to team housing so she could have access to water. When she was done (literally, 10 hours later), we had to go pick her up (along with all our wet laundry) and bring it home to hang on our lines. The clothes took a day and a half to dry. It’s these kind of things that we’re adjusting too. Life is much more MANUAL here. We’re having to learn how to make do. For instance, the other day we really needed a plug to be able to plug in our generator in Jacmel and the hardware store was closed for the day. So we had a choice to make. Do we wait until tomorrow (and have no fans) or do we try to work something out? Nick chose to “work it out” and ended up using a printer cord, which he cut and spliced to the generator to make it work.

Finally, we’re really glad to be returning to Jacmel, because that is HOME for us. That is where we will be working together with our team to build Haitian families, and give life and hope. We’re excited about moving closer to the time when our family will expand. We’re looking forward to the time when we will be able to parent motherless and fatherless children. We’ve already had a few people express interest in placing children with us. (Which, incidentally, will not happen until December.)

We have had several answered prayers over the past few weeks:
• We were able to secure (and move into) a home in Jacmel that is within our budget.
• There was a team last week and this week that helped get our home cleaned up and repaired (as it is an older home.)
• We’ve (almost!) finished language school. God has given us grace as we’ve started to be able to understand and use the language.
• Our hearts have bonded with our helper (and future HCH Mangine head nanny) Naomi. We’ve had a few small miscommunication due to language, but for the most part, she understands us and we understand her. She has been very helpful in encouraging our kids to speak Creole. It’s getting nearly as likely that a Creole sentence will pop out of Nia’s mouth as it is likely that an English sentence will!
• God has provided safety and happiness for our family during our stay in Port Au Prince. Even in the midst of a few political scuffles in the city here and there (as tend to happen) we’ve personally witnessed NO violence or danger. God is our protector.
• Woody is home in Jacmel, and is doing very well. He’s able to walk short distances by himself with krutches.

We also have several requests as we move ahead with this next chapter in Jacmel!:
• Please pray for a safe and quick move tomorrow, with good weather and no problems or danger. (And no carsickness!)
• Please pray for our final transition. Our souls are weary from all the moving. Please pray that we’d allow our hearts to open to our new home and neighbors.
• Please pray that we’d continue to learn Kreyol quickly and come to understand the culture here increasingly everyday!
• Please pray for the Pye family.
o Yesterday they marked the one-year anniversary of the death of their precious son, Jabez
Please pray that God is near to their hearts as they are processing this difficult milestone.
o Danny will leave Haiti tomorrow for 5 weeks in the US to represent HCH at the “Summer in
the Son” conference. Leann will have the opportunity to join him for two weeks in the
middle of his trip.
• This length of time out of the country leaves some gaps in the ministry. Please pray for
our family as we try to stand in the gap, with Nick serving as Interim Leader.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We are going to do a more thorough financial accounting for you in July to let you know where we are financially. But just as a preview, know that things are going well for the most part. We’re currently receiving about 80% of our budgeted expenses in donations each month. That is a very good number, but we know for longevity, we need that to be closer to 100%. Please pray that God would provide that need, and I humbly ask you to consider joining with us in this way. For more info, email me at gwenn@haitianchildrenshome.org.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

With grateful hearts,
The Mangine Five
Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico + Josiah

Our new house

Our yard in Jacmel!

Nick, maneuvering through the chaos that is Delmas.

Beautiful Naomi with our kiddies!

The living room of the new Jacmel house.

June 5, 2009 update

2009-06-05T06:37:00.002-04:00

Hello friends-

Over a month has now passed since we’ve moved to Haiti—and when I look back on that month, it feels far longer. FAR longer. It’s been an eventful and trying two weeks since our last update.

First let me update you on Woody, one of the HCH boys who is in the hospital awaiting surgery for a severely broken leg. Woody has now been in this hospital for over nearly four weeks. Until yesterday when he had his surgery, he was in traction so he was not able to move around and was extremely uncomfortable. Still, God has been faithful and he’s had his final surgery yesterday. He’s doing well and hopes to go home possibly as early as this weekend. This event has taken a pretty steep emotional and financial toll on the Haitian Children’s Home and the Pye family. In addition to the cost of Woody’s medical care, HCH has had to foot the bill for someone to stay at a nearby hotel to care for Woody since the accident. Haitian hospitals are nothing like North American hospitals. Patients are responsible for having someone bring them food and water, bathe them, help them use the bathroom, change their bedding, bring them hygiene supplies like soap, washcloths, toothpaste and toothbrushes, towels, etc. Having had the chance to spend some good time with Woody over the past few weeks and meet some of these needs (he’s only 50-some blocks away), I can tell you this for sure—I am thankful he’s alive and going to be well soon, and I never, ever want to be in a Haitian hospital if I can avoid it. The total cost of this unanticipated expense is daily increasing—and well into the several thousand dollar range. If you’d like to be a part of helping to meet this need, you can give online or send a check in the mail to HCH PO BOX 384 Ellenton, FL 34222. Be sure to put “Woody’s surgery” in the memo so that money is correctly designated.

We’ve had a pretty discouraging turn of events this past week. The short story is this-- we lost our house in Jacmel. We’ve been having struggles with the landlord for over a month now—and the date for occupancy kept getting pushed back further. The final occupancy date for us was slated to be May 28. (After getting pushed back since May 1.) On that morning, we received a text message saying there were still problems with the existing tenant and that we weren’t going to get the house. Today, nearly a week later, we received our initial deposit back, and were supposed to receive a portion of the money we’d spent getting the home ready to move into. However, the landlord has not been true to his word and now it appears that we will not get any of the funds returned that we used to improve this property -- we repainted the ENTIRE interior (as well as all the outdoor depots), put in brand new counters, built a concrete outbuilding to house the generator, and fixed the concrete that was broken in the compound. Additionally, we did SIGNIFICANT cleaning to the property, both inside and out—including clean out one room that had been used as a pigeon coop. The total cost for these repairs and additions exceeds $2000. So as it appears now, we are going to lose that money unless we decide to pursue legal action to try to get it back. Which, we’re not sure we really want to do as the new folks in town. We have some leads on a few other houses in Jacmel, but at the moment, nothing is looking particularly promising. Being that we only have 3 weeks left here in Port Au Prince, we’re really having to go on faith that God has a plan.

We’re now nearly 3 weeks into language school and wow! It’s INTENSIVE! We’re speaking a lot of Creole already and having Naomi as part of our family is helping us to learn quickly. In addition to language, we’re learning a lot of interesting things about Haitian culture in language school. For instance, I did NOT know it was rude to whistle in front of Haitian people, unless they are small children. Who knew?

We’re managing well in this new culture, but it is taking some getting used to. The majority of Port Au Prince (where we now live for language school) has been without city power for over a week. There was a fire at the power plant and they expect it to be several more weeks until the problem is resolved. This house did not have a functioning generator and our inverter recently died too… so we’ve been spending a lot of evenings in the dark. Without fans. I am not going to lie to you—it’s been difficult. Difficult enough that Nick made the 6 hour round trip today to Jacmel to pick up the (600 LB!) generator we purchased for our home in Jacmel, so we’ll at least have ½ time power. We’re hoping to find someone to come fix the inverter as well so we can get back to full-time power, but with the majority of the city not having power, generator + inverter repairmen are hard to find! One of the benefits of the majority of Port Au Prince being without power is that now that we have a generator, the internet is much faster, since very few people have electricity! So we’ve been able to talk to our families often via skype! It’s been great.

Another big culture difference is driving here in Haiti. It’s basically a free-for-all. The biggest/fastest/bossiest wins. It was initially intimidating, but we’re both learning to feel comfortable getting around. It is an HCH requirement that new staff members spend a minimum of 6 weeks living in Port Au Prince to get used to the city/learn the language/learn to get around in a setting other than what we know and are comfortable with in Jacmel. Honestly, we weren’t looking forward to this time, as Port can be kind of “overwhelming,” but I am definitely thankful for this opportunity, and see the incredible wisdom of our directors for requiring it. I already feel much more prepared to living in Jacmel after living in Port Au Prince.

Our kids are doing well with the transition for the most part, but they’ve been definitely having their moments of chaos. We’re trying to always be mindful of the difficulties they are having with this adjustment, while still requiring obedience. It’s a hard line to walk at times. We’re thankful for the 2 little boys who live downstairs from us—our kids have tireless playmates! It gets confusing since they are from the Dominican Republic and don’t speak English OR Creole. But we’re making do! Kids have a way of doing that it seems.

Josiah turned two this past Monday and we celebrated his special day with some swimming and ice cream. Since he’s allergic to eggs, we couldn’t purchase a cake and our small oven here in Port Au Prince does not have actual temperatures. Just low, medium and high. That worked for us since ice cream feels good in this climate. The mosquitoes are still having a hayday with us. I feel certain each of us must be down at least a pint since arriving!

While we walk in this new life God has given us, things have been complicated, but we remain encouraged by the faithfulness of our friends and family, who have been so faithful in their prayer and support. Thank you for loving us like you do.

Ever grateful,

Gwenn, Nick, Nia, Nico and (the TWO YEAR OLD) Josiah!

May 16, 2009 Update

2009-05-16T16:22:00.004-04:00

Dear friends,

This morning as I was reading in Psalm 43, I read this, “Give me your lantern and compass, give me a map, so I can find my way to the sacred mountain, to the place of your presence…” And those words became my prayer. The past two weeks have been filled with highs and lows as we have made numerous (too numerous to count) changes in our lives. Nick and I have made sure all the batteries in our flashlights and lanterns are good, since the electricity not always a sure thing. We've checked the map dozens of times to try to figure out how to get places... Everything is just so... well, foreign. Even though we’ve visited Haiti several times, the eyes with which we look at things are so different knowing this is a long-term home. Today I prayed that even as I put a lot of energy in to learn how to live in a totally different place, I would spend an equal or greater amount of energy trying to learn how to walk with and love my God. It’s not easy when the distractions are so many—and I am learning that I will have to fight for it if it’s going to happen.

These past two weeks have been filled with many events—
-We watched the HCH house for nearly a week while Danny and Leann took some time for much-needed refreshment together on a vacation. We love their family and was glad to be able to serve in this way. Being substitute “parents” to 20+ kids was constantly busy and it seemed there was always some sort of figurative “fire to put out.” Good training!

-We helped welcome a team from our home church, Crosspointe, shortly after Danny and Leann came home. THEY WERE SO MUCH FUN. I honestly do not know if I have EVER laughed as hard as I did during their time here. They were a very flexible group of people—taking on a whole new project after we determined we’d NOT be able to completely occupy our Jacmel house due to landlord struggles. (More on that below.) But even with a last-minute change of projects, this team came in and loved and served and showed us Jesus in very real ways. THANK YOU! Please pray for this team as they readjust back to life in the US. Pray that God would use this experience to spur them on to love and know God better.

- One of the reasons that it was SO good that this team was so flexible is because on their second day here (last Saturday), one of the Pye’s sons, Woody, was in a bad motorcycle accident and badly broke his leg. The closest hospital able to deal with this kind of injury is 3 hours away in Port Au Prince. So that night Nick and Danny drove Woody into a Doctors Without Borders hospital. He has since had one of two surgeries necessary to correct the damage. He has had a few complications since the first surgery and is in a lot of pain. We hope his next surgery will be early next week. Danny has been in Port with Woody since the accident and he is ready to be back with his family in Jacmel. Please pray for Woody. Please pray for his complete healing. Please pray for Danny as he’s had to be away from his family for such a long stretch of time. Please pray for Leann, as she’s had to run the home (of 23 kids) without Danny’s physical presence. Please pray for provision to cover this unexpected and costly event. The Pye’s anticipate that the surgery and all related costs will be over $2000. If you’d like to make a special gift to help with this need, please donate online, or via mail at: Haitian Children’s Home, PO Box 968, Ellenton, FL 34222. (Be sure to write “Woody’s surgery” in the memo so the funds are correctly designated.)

- We STILL do not have full occupancy of the home we’ve rented in Jacmel as there is a tenant downstairs who has over-stayed his lease and doesn’t seem too motivated to move out. It’s incredibly frustrating. I am thankful to the Pye’s for letting us crash with them while we wait on this. We’re hoping for some movement this weekend. Please pray that the downstairs tenant would vacate the house and that we could be given full occupancy of our house this weekend. Please also pray that the landlord will quickly honor her end of the agreement and complete projects she has agreed to complete before we can move in. (Putting up razor-wire and getting electricity hooked up.)

-Yesterday we moved into our home in Port Au Prince where we will live for the next six weeks (during the week—weekends we will return to Jacmel.) Here we will be attending classes for 3.5 hours a day to learn Creole. We start Monday. We’re excited and nervous at the same time… (which pretty much describes all of our experiences in this country so far.) Please pray that we’d come to understand how to do life here in Port Au Prince. Pray that we’d continue to connect well with Naomi (the woman we have hired to help our family with our children and home while we are in school). Pray that God would knit her into our family beautifully. Please pray that our generator here in Port Au Prince could be repaired so that we can have reliable 24-hour a day electricity.

-Today we had our family’s first “medical need” since coming to Haiti. Josiah woke up with a 104.6F temperature this AM. Because of where we now live, our first thought was malaria and so we made arrangements to see a team of US doctors that had just arrived at CSI in Port Au Prince. They were amazing and the care was quick and efficient. It turned out it was NOT malaria, just a bad ear infection. He was prescribed antibiotics and started them today. This does not OVER-concern us, but it does concern us since Josiah has had to have ear tubes in the past because of recurring ear infections. He recently lost the tube in that ear, (which is to be expected over time.) We’d like to try to obtain a quality otoscope to monitor this in the future. (Plus, it would be great in a house full of 23 kids to have one!) Please let us know if you’d be able to help meet this need. Please pray that Josiah would quickly and completely heal from this infection without need for further medical intervention.

Thank you for your prayers and support. We are ALWAYS mindful that we are here because of your faithfulness to us.

With very grateful hearts,

Gwenn, Nick, Nia, Nico + Josiah (and Naomi!)

Our family eating a meal on our porch in our Port Au Prince house... (Sorry Nick's on the phone... that's pretty much the drill these days.)

Nick and I's bedroom.

The kid's room (those colorful things are their mosquito bed nets)

Josiah-- please pray for his healing.

The most excellent Crosspointe team!

May 1, 2009-- We're home!

2009-05-01T09:19:00.006-04:00

^{May 1, 2009

Hello Friends.

Well, thanks be to God—we made it. After an excellent send-off by our family and friends on Sunday. On Monday, we left the house at 3:30AM, and rolled into Jacmel about 15 hours later. As you can imagine, traveling for that many hours with three rascally kids was a bit of a challenge at times, but we were truly given God’s peace and presence, even amidst our frustrations. The trip was smooth—no delays with the flights (unheard of lately!), all our baggage arrived and made it through customs in tact, and even our drive from Port Au Prince was fairly simple, with little complication.

Right now we’re staying at the home of Danny and Leann Pye (houseparents of the Haitian Children’s Home) while we get the final details hammered out with our lease and some last minute drama with our new home. We’re hoping things get ironed out all the way by Monday, so we can move in, in earnest, next Friday. Between now and then we will remain here at the Pye’s home while they leave Haiti on a short vacation. We’ll be acting as relief house parents for their 23 kids in their absence. The past few days have been relaxing and busy at the same time. Nick has been out and about quite a bit—traveling overnight to Port Au Prince again on Wednesday and Thursday with Danny to get some things set up for our family as we will be moving to Port Au Prince in about two weeks for a month and a half of language training. I have been mostly staying home with the kids and helping them with their adjustment to their new country.

While I have been a stay-at-home mom for nearly 6 years, this is a new learning curve for me. Being extremely extroverted, I am not used to the “at home” part of stay at home parenting. This is a much simpler culture. Which, don’t get me wrong, I love, but it is forcing me to engage my creativity a lot more… there are none of our “regular” hangouts—the park, museums, playdates, etc. to pass the time. And even if there were places we could go, we share a vehicle, so transportation would be an issue. I hope it doesn’t seem like I am complaining… I am really not. It’s just a part of the adjustment that stretches me a bit. I think learning more about our city and learning the language will be good for me, and help me discover ways to connect with others. In the mean time, I have picked up my guitar to entertain myself and the kids, which I haven’t played “for real” in probably 8-9 years. There is a LITTLE bit of it that’s coming back quickly, but I am finding I am having to re-learn a lot of it… and my fingertips are very sore!

Our kids are doing great for the most part. Their transition has been interesting to observe. Nia, who is almost 6, has been a trooper. She’s trying very hard to participate in the culture and seems the perfect age for this kind of transition. She’s eagerly embracing “Haitian” things—like cold baths, trying to use the language whenever she can, etc. She’s been writing in her feelings down in her diary the past few days and the words that come up most often are “happy,” “excited,” “a little sad,” and “tired.” She’s loving being around all the kids, but being a mostly introverted child, I know she will do well to be in our permanent house here, where she can get some quiet time away from all the noise every now and then. One other newsworthy thing to note with Nia is that she’s really had something “click” in her head and is reading all the time. I came outside today after putting the boys down for a nap and she was reading “The Giving Tree” to Nerry (one of the HCH boys) and Nadedge (one of the nannies.) It was cute and they stayed there patiently during the whole book.

Nico is really thriving. I am loving watching his reaction to Haiti and Haitian culture. It’s more pronounced than on either of our two previous visits here with him prior to the move. (Just to bring everyone up to speed who may not be aware—Nico is our 4.5 year old son who we adopted from Haiti nearly 2 years ago.) It’s very obvious being here that Nico is proud to be Haitian, which makes us very happy. Having heard some horror stories from various people, we weren’t expecting this transition to go as smoothly for him as it is going. Thank you for your prayers for him. I truly believe he knows at the core of him that we are mom and dad—something I don’t know if he knew just a month or two ago.

Josiah is… well, Josiah. He’s as rough and tumble here in Haiti as he is in the US, but he’s met his match a bit in Riann (the Pye’s daughter.) Like Josiah, Riann is outgoing and strong-willed, and the two of them together are a HOOT. (Or else they are driving me and Leann crazy breaking up fights!) Our biggest struggle with Josiah’s transition is that the mosquitoes seem to LOVE him. He’s getting dozens and dozens of bites despite the fact we’re using applying insect repellant in ridiculous quantities. He’s adjusting well- but I have to admit, he makes me tired.

Nick seems to be thriving here—lots of new experiences for him! The first day was a bit rough—within an hour’s time he drown his phone in the ocean and forgot to put on sunscreen, leaving him quite red and uncomfortable for the past few days. He’s jumped in to driving, which, in Haiti is a WHOLE different thing than in the US. It’s a stressful thing, and I think he’s doing a great job!

Thank you for your prayers and support. They are SO appreciated. We’d ask for your continued prayers for our family during this transition.

We have a long list of needs this time, so thanks for bearing with us:
- For hearts willing to be molded and stretched by God here in our new home.
- For a spirit of unity between Nick and I. The transition is straining our patience with one another at times.
- For our children to experience peace during this time of many, many changes.
- For the details of our lease on our Jacmel house to work out over the weekend so we’re able to move in by the end of next week.
- For us to quickly learn the language and understand the culture.
- For our transition to Port Au Prince, and that all of the details there can be worked out (namely, a currently non-operational generator!)
- That we’d be and feel safe in our new country.
- For Danny and Leann to have a GREAT vacation together, and that we’d manage the house and children well in their absence.

During these past couple of weeks, I’ve been daily focusing on two passages of scripture, and I thought I would include them. I hope in some way, God will encourage you with them, as he has with me.

Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.

2 In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to [a] those he loves.

3 Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.

5 Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

With an ever-grateful heart,
Gwenn + Nick
(and the three kiddos!)}

Nia reading.

Josiah, Nico and Riann play in their "baby pool" to keep cool!

Josiah shows off his new bike-- thanks Nana!

Nia's diary page-- her feelings.Nico gobbling down a mango!

April 15, 2009 update

2009-04-15T19:57:00.003-04:00

Hello from Haiti!

This is Gwenn here. I am in Haiti as a part of a team of 11 people comprised of my family and friends and we are getting everything ready down here in Jacmel for our move. It is SO exciting. I finally was able to see our new house and drive our new truck! It's a dream.

With a lot of elbow grease, an unanticipated kitchen remodel (LOTS of water damage), 3 gallons of bleach, 25 gallons of paint, hardcore weeding, some masonry repair, power washing, and just general hard work-- it is looking great. I LOVE this house. I REALLY love this house. It is going to be perfect for our family and our family to be! I am incredibly grateful for the hard work of this team, plus several local missionaries, and community members who have come out to give of their time and talents to make our home comfortable.

I have to tell you, even though I really miss Nick and my boys (Nia is here with me), I am grateful to be here at this time. It's nice to move down knowing that our living space is so well prepared for us! It also came at a good time as I was starting to get overwhelmed with the grief of goodbyes. But God, being so gracious, knew exactly what I needed, and nearly the moment I walked off the plane, I remembered the unspeakable joy it is for me to be in this country. I love Haiti. I especially love Jacmel. I love the entire HCH family (about 40+ of them these days between children and staff!) I love being a part of this journey on which God has called us.

Please pray for the remainder of our trip. Please pray we'd get done all that needs to be done in time. (It's looking good that we will!) Please pray for our safety as we travel to Port Au Prince on Saturday to work on cleaning our apartment where we'll stay during language training. Pray for easy travel with no interruptions. I *may* be driving for the first time in Port... Yikes! (We're staying in a guest house there.) Pray that there are no complications with our flight on Sunday afternoon.

Please pray for our family. The next time we update you we will ALL be in Haiti. For good. Wow. At times it felt like this time wouldn't ever arrive. But we're extra thankful for you as we think about the future, but we're also extra sad as we grieve the loss of regular contact with our friends, family, and church in the US.

Please pray for our initial transition-- we fly from Raleigh to Haiti on April 27!

Please pray that God would provide the remainder of funds we still need and that we will be able to live within our budgeted means.

We love you all. Thank you for your part in making this dream God planted in our hearts blossom.

Always grateful,
Gwenn (and Nick + the kiddos too!)

HCH Mangine! Check it out!

Vicki paints Nia's "loft" (it's actually a salmon color even though it looks orange in this pic...)

My sister-in-law Kristi prunes the hedges with a leatherman. (Nothing like the right tool for the job, eh?)

Our new truck! Woo Hoo!

John and Mikey work on building kitchen cabinets.

April 1, 2009 Update-- T minus 26!

2009-04-01T10:07:00.002-04:00

Our DEAR friends,

Wow! When I think of God bringing us this far, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. (And, honestly, just a little overwhelmed!)

26 busy days are left until our family relocates to Haiti. Here we go!

The past two weeks we've made a lot of headway in terms of practical tasks. We've started selling our possessions. By the way, not having a table/chairs when you have a one-year-old is not necessarily the best plan. :) But we're looking at it as an "adventure." Even so, it has been hard on the kids to say goodbye to so many things that have always been in their lives-- their toys, their bikes, their furniture... Nia especially has been getting a little weepy. What she doesn't know is that Nana has funded, and Danny Pye has arranged for there to be NEW bikes in Haiti for them. It's a surprise that is going really make them smile. Shhhhhh! Don't tell!

I wanted to let you know where we are in terms of funding, since many of you have asked recently. Honestly, with the tasks of the previous 2 weeks, we haven't had much time to think about it. We are about at the same place-- 90%+ of start-up expenses, and around 87% of on-going. Although with the economic climate we are, that number is not 100% firm, since we know of a few different people in crisis with their employment situation. So, like always, we know this is an on-going job of funding this mission. We "can" move at our current support level, but we'd appreciate prayers that God would provide the additional one-time and monthly amounts we need to be fully funded. We do plan on setting aside one day per week when we are in-country to work on raising finances.

In other news, just yesterday, we received Nico's US Passport! FINALLY. He's been home for over 20 months now-- it's ABOUT TIME! He's had a Haitian passport and greencard since he's been home, but it's always been our desire to make the adoption process final in the US, and make sure he's a US citizen prior to our move. Just in case. And now, finally, he is! It was a LONG, complicated process. (He came in on a residency visa rather than a citizenship visa like many foreign adopted children.) We still do have one more official step in the process to receive his certificate of citizenship. Which is more hoops to jump through, and of course, more cost. But... oh well. He's MORE than worth it! The irony is not lost on us though, that we are collecting documentation and doing paperwork for Nick and I to become Haitian (residents), while we're trying to help Nico become American.

In just over a week I (Gwenn) am traveling with a team of friends and family down to Haiti to work on our house and get things ready. I am excited to see (for the first time) our new home and vehicle. I am excited for our friends and family to see where we're going to live and experience Haiti. I can't wait. During that time, Nick and the kids will begin our stay with his parents so we can get things wrapped up at the apartment!

We've been asked lately if there's "anything we need." We were very fortunate to receive SO many items from the Kidspointe supply drive, that we are actually in pretty good shape in terms of things we are collecting now. But there have been a lot of "last minute" things we're needing to buy so we can always use giftcards to Target, Walmart, etc. Since they don't expire, we can use them now or later (online.) As we think about the transition, we will learn to live with Haitian items in time, but will probably be trying to ship some American stuff to help us while we learn how to do that... ie-- diapers, razors, shampoo... etc. While a lot of these "American items" are available in Port Au Prince, (about 3 hours from where we will live,) we will pay a PREMIUM for American items in Haiti. (Probably about 3-4 times as much.) So we're trying to stock up now so we're prepared.

We're also going to be listing our vehicles for sale very soon. We have a White 2002 Ford Focus Station Wagon with 111,000 miles on it. (We're going to start by asking $2,275.) And we have a Green Kia Sedona EX minvan with about 96,000 miles on it. (We're going to start by asking $3,850.) If you know anyone local looking for used vehicles, let us know! Both vehicles are in pretty decent condition, and we will disclose everything we know about them that is "wrong" with them ahead of time! (And just FYI-- we're starting with around the Kelly Blue Book Trade-In Value for the cars.)

Thanks for sharing this journey with us. We need your prayers and support and remain SO grateful. We know we face many unknowns in the next month. As we walk in this plan God has for us, we ask for your prayers for the following things:

God's spirit of peace to rest upon us.
God's provision for our family.
God's protection for our bodies and our hearts.
Our hearts to be turned towards God at all times.

With very grateful hearts,
Gwenn + Nick (and all three of our crazy kiddos!)

March 15, 2009 Update

2009-03-15T07:33:00.005-04:00

March 15, 2009
Hello friends,

Thank you for your partnership with us in this amazing journey. We are seeing God more and more as we walk in His plan. Here's an update on our family... I will warn you-- it's pretty long! (photos at the end!)

We're back! We left MTI in Colorado on Friday at noon and got home in North Carolina after 2AM on Saturday morning. Suffice to say, it was a long day of travel with three little kids. I was thankful that our kids all slept on the last leg of the trip from Dallas back to Raleigh. Yesterday we all slept in until almost 10AM and tried to just take it easy and have a day of Sabbath as we (the kids especially) adjusted to being back in North Carolina.

I don't know how much to say about our 3 weeks at MTI. There's a large part of me that feels like I should keep a bit more tight-lipped with details to preserve the experience for others who I know will go after us as missionaries. So forgive me if it seems I am being vague as I describe what we did. The main thrust of the program was self-awareness; understanding who WE are so we can know how to adjust in the culture we will enter soon. There was a large focus on community-building and we covered topics like team building, moral purity, values, Sabbath, and the paradox of feelings we often live with in the mission field. We had very little idea as to how the program would impact us ahead of time. One of the things that was said was, "We're not trying to discourage you, we're trying to disillusion you." That happened. It was a challenge at times (most times) requiring us to do hard work. But we both feel the training was INVALUABLE. I simply cannot imagine us going to the field NOT having had that training.

One of the best parts of MTI was the program for our children. Our kids (even down to Josiah) were learning many of the same concepts that we were learning in their classes. It was a JOY to hear the same truths we were learning coming from their mouths at the end of the day. The staff does an amazing job of teaching the kids in fun ways that are age-appropriate. All five of us made great friends with the 20 adults and 21 children at the program-- 11 families in all going to 10 different countries all around the world.

We had weekends "off" of official training and we got to see more of the beautiful state of Colorado. The first weekend visited New Life church and then hit the Garden of the Gods. The second weekend we went up past Denver to visit our dear friend Andrew Brown. He hosted us very well and played the part of tour guide... taking us to visit the Flatirons as well as Rocky Mountain National Park. We also visited his church, Flatirons Community Church. Our whole family LOVES Andrew and it was a JOY to see him again. We made our first "real" goodbye when we left him, and it wasn't easy.

Now that we're back we have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it! In 43 days, we move to Haiti. Danny and Leann Pye (HCH Directors) have been doing a lot of leg work in Haiti getting ready for our move. They've secured housing in both Port Au Prince for our language training, and in Jacmel, where we will live until we are able to get housing built on the HCH land in Raymond. They've shopped around for vehicles, and this week are picking up our new truck! We're so thankful to them for their continued work on our behalf.

There's a lot to do here on the North Carolina side. Most notably, we have to pack, sell/give away all our stuff. And we need some help. Would you consider any of the following? If so, email nick at nick@haitianchildrenshome.org

We're having a large yard sale on April 11th, (at the flea market in Raleigh-- WE THINK!) We need help that day (help lugging everything out there and getting it set up, during the sale, and afterward taking everything left over to the Durham Rescue Mission) and in the days preceding it to get everything ready.
We will have an ongoing need for childcare on and off until we leave so we can pack. And more than just childcare, we need people to LOVE our children-- people who will play with them, and engage at their level. This move is hard on them, especially Nico, and we want them to KNOW that they are loved and cared for.
We need someone to help us organize/prioritize/inventory/weigh the stuff we're packing so we can have stuff sent with mission teams after we leave.
We still need to work on securing funding. We're over 90% of start-up funds and are over 80% of ongoing expenses. We're getting close, but still have some ground to cover! Haitian Children's Home is a non-profit, 501(c)3. More info here.

Please be in prayer for our family. Rather than give you a bullet list (that would be pages and pages long), I just ask that you pray as you feel lead.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
As we work towards our goodbyes here in the US, we anticipate with joy our hellos in Haiti. And we know we cannot do this without you.

Much love,
Nick, Gwenn, Nia, Nico and Josiah

Nico on the playground... MUCH time was spent here!

Nia and her new friend, Hannah

Nick and Gwenn up at Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park (Longs Peak in the Background.)

Our friend and host- Andrew Brown. (About to pelt one of us with a snowball.)

A big herd of elk we saw heading up the mountain...

Worshiping together on the last night.

The Mangine 5... Flatirons in the background.