I don't want to leave tomorrow!

This morning we went to St. Mark church and did our last shoe distribution. This was my favorite one by far. The children were so adorable and well behaved. They came in their absolute best clothing to look their best for us. We put these little headbands when giant flowers on the girls and it just made them even more precious!! I'm not sure how many total shoes we gave out today, but it was quite a few.
After that we went to the mission where there was a man and woman selling their paintings, jewelry, and wood items. Got some pretty awesome things, and I know that it helped them out by purchasing from them.

After eating lunch at the mission we came back to Club Indigo where we are staying, and spent the day on the beach. It was like a tropical paradise. I braved up enough and decided to go snorkeling. It was scarier than I thought especially the farther out we kept getting. But I was able to go deep enough to see the coral reef and some pretty little tropical fish. Definitely worth the high waves and my flipper and goggles falling off several times. haha. This evening we are going to watch a Haitian concert and then have our last Haitian dinner, before going to bed and being up and ready to head to the airport in the morning by 4:15 AM!!! I don't think I am ready to leave yet...

A Broken Heart!

Today I write with a heavy heart. We started our morning going on a bus tour around the city of Port Au Prince that was severely damaged by the earthquake last year. Passing several different tent villages on the way, it was unreal and hard to fathom they were people's homes. There was still rubble on the road, and many ruins of building still standing. The most amazing sites were the cathedral where the cross still stood and the presidential palace where the top of the building caved in but the building was still standing. I bought some paintings hand made by some men on the street right outside of the palace. After this we took a tour of the Haiti history museum. Haiti actually used to be spelled Ayti.. Fun fact!
We ate lunch at a sort of Haitian fast food restaurant where I ordered a hamburger which did NOT consist of rice! haha. Following lunch we went to an Pierre's orphanage in Port Au Prince. My heart broke! :(

Presidential Palace

Sleeping baby in the orphanage

This was not a shoe distribution but a visit just to love on all the children. They were separated by age and the baby room touched me the most. There was tons of babies just laying or sitting in their crib crying just begging to be held. One at a time, I took out a few and just held them and let them hold me. As if I thought it could not get more touching, the children started singing, "How Great is Our God" and "This is the Day That the Lord has Made. WOW!! Today was my favorite so far, but it was also a very hard day. I was fighting for more energy the whole day, and suffering from an extreme amount of bugs bites only on the left side of my body! A large welt in particular was checked out by Dr. Kerr to make sure I was not infected. Good news, just inflamed. Took some Benedryl and should sleep well tonight!

Heart for Haiti

     So yesterday my adventure started out at 3:45 AM when I left for the airport. I left Cleveland at 6 AM and was in Miami by about 9:15. It was a huge airport but I had a little bit of time to kill before I met up with my team at 12:30 at our gate. After stopping to grab two corndogs (yes two) and an orange soda since I haven't had any pop the last 40 days, it was time to meet my team I would be traveling with. Everyone was wearing their matching Soles4Souls shirts so they were easy to find! We boarded our plane thinking the trip would be about an hour and 55 minutes. Little did we know, once we started to head for Haiti, that we would be back in Miami an hour later. Here's the story. I suddenly woke up on the plane to my team members telling me that the plane is having mechanical problems with the wing and that they are circling around in the air to try and see if they fix themselves. Ummm seriously?!? But it only got worse. The pilot came across the intercom telling us that they decided after an hour into our flight over the ocean that we would be returning to Miami so they could fix the problem and that most likely the flaps on the wing would not work so we would come in at a rapid speed and the breaks could burn out. Then he told us not to worry, firetrucks and safety would be waiting on the ground for us. Yes, because knowing firetrucks were there is our plane could not stop made me feel better when I'm thousands of feet in the air!! haha We actually landed pretty smoothly and they had lunch vouchers ready for us as we waited for our new plane.

    A few hours later we arrived in Haiti. Stepping outside of the building was much more humid and muggy and hot that I thought it would be at 8 o clock at night. After going through customs and be overwhelmed with men wanting to help us "carry" our bags, we were kindly greeted outside with police in helmets and holding riffles. ( Kind of scary). We boarded an old school bus and began our two hour ride to our hotel. The bus driver felt the need to drive about 75-80 miles an hour on roads filled with monstrous pot holes and did not think it was necessary to slow down for turns. We went airborne at one point...IN A SCHOOL BUS!!! lol. Once we got to our hotel we had a Haitian dinner and got ready for bed. Our hotel is fabulous. Right along the beach and the rooms have air conditioning!!! Being up since 3 AM, and after a long day of travel, I slept like a baby!

     Today we started our morning at 7 AM, anyone who knows my sleeping habits knows that that was almost a miracle for me to be up and ready before 7. We had a Haitian breakfast and then made our way to the first distribution. It was in the fishing village and one of the poorest parts of the city we are in right now. It was just infants and toddlers this morning, and most of the infants were asleep in their mothers arms as we put their new shoes on. We were able to distribute over 70 pairs in that distribution. We spent the middle part of the day at the mission watching kids sing and dance for us, we painted girls nails, and this is also where we were served lunch. Lots of beans and rice around here ( You would appreciate that Dad). One of our team members made tu tu's and another group at the mission had brought dance shoes. Neither knowing this, that was definitely the Lord at work. It was then time for our second distribution. This one was with older children and teenagers. This one we started by getting to wash each child's feet and then place shoes on them! My favorite was when a girl was trying to teach me how to say things in French and Creole. At this distribution we were able to give away 150 or so pairs.After heading back to the hotel we had some free time to rest and shower. Ironically though, none of the water was working in anyone's hotel room! haha. So the amazing pool was the next resort. Were served another Haitian dinner with tons of fresh fruit and vegetables, and you guessed it, more rice! Today was a very successful but very tiring day so I am off to bed! More to come tomorrow night!!

   Pictures are up on Facebook! 

3 more days!!

In three more days my fasting will be up ( Can't wait to drink a whole 2 liter of Orange Soda!!) haha, and I will be on my way to Port Au Prince, Haiti with Soles4Souls!! My heart is so ready for this trip it is unbelievable! After signing up for this trip I had to put complete faith in God that he could make this possible for me to go. Once I did this, each piece started to fall into place. There was a big scare when I realized about 40 days before I was to leave, that my passport had actually expired last year!! After almost having a panic attack, I sent for a new one and had it expedited and received it in only SEVEN DAYS!!! It was definitely an answer to prayer. I'd have to say the worst part about traveling out of the country is for sure the shots and immunizations :( But I survived and am healthy and so ready to go!

Time to pack!!!

Guess the cat wants to go to Haiti too!

Some toys to take to the kids at the orphanage.

The start of deciding what to wear!

I will try to blog as much as I can once in Haiti for those who would like to follow my trip!!

Changing the World: One Pair at a Time!

Since making the decision to raise funds and go on a shoe distribution to Haiti this month with Soles4Souls,my heart has been very dear to what the non-profit organization out of Nashville does.  I heard about the "Flippin' Goods Deeds Challenge" blogger challenge with Flipflop Wine in collaboration with Soles4Souls, and I had to participate! This includes hosting a shoe drive and then each week giving a total of how many shoes were collected on your blog and see who can get the most in this amount of time!

Since I go to a fashion school, I thought what better place to do a shoe drive! We all have tons of shoes in our closet we never wear! The shoe drive will start October 10th (The first day of Fall Quarter), and will go until November 10th. The drop box will be right in Virginia Marti College of Art and Design where I go to school in Lakewood, OH. However, this shoe drive is not limited to just students and faculty at the college, spread the word to everyone you know!

Since the shipping cost is not covered, they recommend having $1 donated with every pair of shoes donated, or just getting a sponsor for the shoe drive to cover the cost. They accept any kind of shoe from baby shoes to adult shoes. Please help in winning this challenge of raising the most pairs of shoes to Soles4Souls so they can distribute shoes to the thousands of children in the world who may have never owned their very own pair of shoes. This not only will give the opportunity to go to school now, but will keep them from many diseases spread through open wounds on feet. You can change a child's life. One Pair at a Time!

When the shoe drive starts, it will be #019 for the blogger ID number.