CLASSROOM REVEAL

I’ve been back in Haiti for two weeks now and I am pleased to say that life has settled back to normal…well, as normal as life gets around here.

As I’m settling back in, the number one task on my to-do list is…that’s right…back to school prep!  Preparing for the new school year is a daunting enough task as it is, but this year, on top of the normal cleaning, organizing, and planning, I also had the GIGANTIC task of moving classrooms.

It was with the weight of this task on my shoulders that I walked into my old classroom Monday morning and was greeted with 6 weeks worth of dust, bugs, and rat droppings.

…great…

But I was also greeted with something else.  Ten smiling faces and twenty hands willing to help.

My new classroom used to be the computer lab, so while my high school helpers moved out the computers and furniture, my younger helpers got started on moving book baskets and wiping down anything and everything they could get their hands on.

Here was my new classroom first thing Monday morning.

Those high school boys made quick work of it and before I knew it, Jhaskiline was sweeping the floor and Melissa was washing away the cobwebs from the walls.  Pretty soon, it looked like this.

 But that was the easy part.  We still had all of this in my old classroom to deal with.

My helpers were more than happy to take care of that.  Here they are wiping down literally everything.  (I had to stop Kayla from turning every page of The Beginner's Bible to wipe them all down.)

After all that hard work, they deserved a play-break.

3 days, 10 helpers, 2 large buckets of water, 4 dirty rags, 2 spilled bags of stickers, and a million pieces of scattered glitter later... here is the final product...

Colors wall, school supplies bookshelf, craft shelves, toy tubs, and classroom library.

Student table, number signs, letter signs, and WELCOME sign.

Carpet (to be) area, focus board, morning meeting board.

Teacher chair, morning meeting board, Whole Brain Learning rules.

Behavior management.

Daily schedule.

The whole enchilada.

Who? What? Where? When? How?

Answering Your Adoption Questions

After announcing my adoption, I was flooded with questions from friends and family.  Thank you all so much for your love, concern, and interest.  Here are some of the questions I have received, and the best answers I can give right now.

Where are you in the process now?

I am in the very beginning stages of the process.  I have spoken with IBESR (Social Services in Haiti) as well as a number of hospitals and orphanages.  Before I can dive deeper into this process, there are two things I need to do.

1-Fundraise (I am in need of both one-time gifts and monthly sponsors)

2-Move.  I absolutely LOVE my current house…but it isn’t a situation that would work for a family.  I am currently looking to rent a home closer to the Kids Alive campus.

Once I have finished fundraising and moving, I will be able to continue in pursuing the adoption.

What children will you adopt?

I don’t know yet.  I won’t know for a while.

How many children will you adopt?

I am praying for two.  I know it will not be easy for a child to be adopted by an American mom in Haiti.  I think the kids would really benefit from having another person who is “in their shoes,” walking the journey with them.  Someone who understands them on a level that even I can’t.  A partner, playmate, and sister.  That’s my reasoning behind praying for two…but I’m leaving it up to God and trusting that His judgement is better than mine!

How old will these children be?

I would love to have young school-age children (two-and-a-half or older) because it would mean I could continue teaching as I am now.  However, there is a very real possibility that they could be babies.  Whatever daughters the Lord gives me, I will embrace them with arms wide open.

Is the adoption through Kids Alive?

No.  Although I am working very closely with my bosses at Kids Alive, they are supporting me through the adoption, but not orchestrating it.  The kids that live at the Kids Alive Children’s Village are not adopted out of the ministry.  Once kids come to us at Kids Alive, they are not orphans anymore.  With us, they find homes, families, mothers, fathers, and siblings.  My adoption will be separate from Kids Alive.

Do you have a timeline?  When will the kids come to you?

That is entirely dependent on how long it takes me to fundraise and move.  If I am able to raise funds quickly and settle into a new house in the near future, the process will be shorter than if those things take a long time.  Once those two things are complete, I may have a better idea of how long the rest of the process will take.

Will you continue teaching at Kids Alive?

I love teaching kindergarten and I would love to continue teaching.  Of course I will be taking some time off when the girls first come to me (forming attachment after adopting is crucial to both parents and kids).  After that “maternity leave,” I hope to continue teaching kindergarten, but only if my girls are school-age.  If God gives me babies, I will continue to work at the Kids Alive school, but my role may temporarily change to one with a more flexible schedule that would allow me to both care for my children and impact the lives of the Kids Alive kids that I love.

It Takes a Village

How you can help bring my family home.

There is SO MUCH that I want to tell you about the adoption process, and don’t worry!  I plan to answer lots of questions in another blog post coming soon.  But first, I want to answer one major question that people are asking:  How can I help support your adoption?

Well, thanks for asking!  Here are a few ways you can help support my adoption TODAY!

1.       Pre-order a tee-shirt.

Want to look good and change the world?  Just send me an email and I’ll give you all the information you need on how to purchase this personalized adoption tee-shirt.

erinahiggins@gmail.com

2.      Make a one-time donation or become a monthly sponsor.

Did you know that for just $20 a month, you can provide for one child’s adoption fees?  For just $40 a month, you can send her to school.  A one-time gift of $80 provides her with a bed while a few people chipping in $500 provides for connecting power to her home.

Whether you can give a one-time gift of $10 or a commitment for $100 a month, your donation is SO important to me.  No donation is too small!  To give securely online, Click here:

https://secure.kidsalive.org/p-2501-erin-higgins.aspx_ga=1.62234159.2050691254.1468069216

Don’t want to transfer money online?  No problem!  Just send me an email (erinahiggins@gmail.com) and I’ll get you information on donating in a way that works for you!

3.      Pray for me.

Never underestimate the power of prayer.  I can tell you with great certainty that there has not been a single day on the mission field that I have not needed your prayers.  I value your prayers more than I can put into words.

Pray for me through this process.

Pray for my future children.

Pray for God to provide all the funds we need to become a family.

Thank you so much for being a part of this journey.  It takes a village to raise a child – and in this case, it takes a village to bring a child home.

Called to Adopt

How I knew adoption was the next step for me.

I will be the first one to say that adoption was not my Plan A.  It wasn’t my Plan B.  Or my Plan C.

As a matter of fact, I think I’m all the way on Plan Q by now.

But the beauty of this is that God often uses closed doors to lead us to what He has for us.  When I started this journey months ago, if someone had told me “you’re going to adopt,” I probably would have said, “nope.  Not ready.  Not gonna.”  But now, because of the journey it took to get here, I can say with 100% certainty that I am ready to say YES to adoption.

Here’s how the journey began…

I love my job.  I love my ministry.  I love Kids Alive.  Ever since I moved here, I have felt that it has been a great fit.  But in April, I started to feel like something was missing.  Actually, I felt like something had always been missing, but I was only now beginning to realize it.

The more I thought about this missing piece, the more I felt the depth of its presence in my life.

When I first moved to Haiti, I felt called to minister to orphans and vulnerable children.  And that is exactly what I have been doing.  But three months ago, God revealed to me that I am not here to simply minister to them and teach them at school – I am here to care for them in a deeper way.  That was the missing piece.  Caring for orphans.

I didn’t know what this would look like, but I was ready to pursue whatever God had for me.  I prayed hard, sought out counsel from friends and family, and started working with Kids Alive to figure out how to go about this.

I prayerfully made a plan.

God said no.

I made another plan.

God said no.

Every time a plan fell through, I felt a combination of discouragement (is this ever going to happen?) and peace (God’s got something BIG planned, I just don’t know what it is yet).

Finally, one evening in June, I got an email from Kids Alive with the following suggestion: Adopt a child!

When I read that line in the email, a dull sense of numbness took over my chest and began to spread.  Maybe I had read it wrong.

I read it again.

Adopt a child!

Nope, it was still there.  Black text on a white screen glowing up at me from my phone.

I skimmed the rest of the email, then scrolled back up and read that line again.

Adopt a child!

It was still there, suggesting the same thing.  The numbness inside of me slowly changed to excitement.  Uncertainty.  Willingness.

I wasn’t sold on the idea yet, but I was getting there.

After meetings with IBESR (Social Services here in Haiti), conversations with other organizations, and afternoon talks with adoptive families who have been through (and are currently in) the process of national adoption, I finally got it though my stubborn head that YES, this is what God has for me.  And YES, I am all in.

It has been a crazy journey to get to this point, and I know that the journey has only begun.  If you want to know more, feel free to email me at erinahiggins@gmail.com 

Also, keep your eyes out for another blog post soon about how YOU can help bring my family home!

The hardest part about Haiti.

I am often asked the question “What is the hardest part about living and working in Haiti?”

The truth is, there are a LOT of hard things about life in Haiti.

The heat.

The language.

The home-sickness.

The cultural barriers.

The fact that everything takes twice as long.

The heat.

The line at the bank.

The market.

Did I mention the heat?

It’s true, these things can make daily life quite challenging.  But none of these things are how I respond to that question.  None of these things even come close to the HARDEST part about Haiti.

For me, the hardest part about Haiti is the orphans.

Tonight, my heart is burdened with the weight of that hardship.  Because tonight, there is a little boy in tears with a heart full of loneliness and longing because he has been rejected yet again.  There is a girl who wants nothing more than the touch of her mother…a mother who abandoned her two years ago.   There is a child sleeping in the street under the light of the stars.  No home.  No family.

When I think of these kids, my heart shatters into a million pieces.

I can’t tell you exactly what the purpose of this blog post is, other than to simply say that my heart is weary and hurting from being broken over and over again by these stories, these faces, these tears.

I wish I could change the world for these kids, but all I can do is wrap my arms around them and tell them that they are loved and valued.  Tell them that God has not forgotten them.  Tell them that they are complete in Him.

Recently, I came across this verse.

And if you give yourself to the hungry

And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,

Then your light will rise in darkness

And your gloom will become like midday

And the Lord will continually guide you,

And satisfy your desire in scorched places,

And give strength to your bones…

-Isaiah 58:10-11

What a beautiful reminder of my call here in Haiti.  My call is simply this:  To give myself to the orphans.  To give them the love and attention and care they desire.  And in doing so, God’s light will shine in this dark place.  His Truth will light up their desperate situations.

No, that doesn’t make my job easy.  But there is also a beautiful promise for my weary heart.  If I am faithful to serve the afflicted, God with guide me and strengthen me.  He called me to a difficult job, but He didn’t call me to do it alone.

Love is in the Little Things

The hot afternoon sun beats down on me.  I can feel sweat building up on the nape of my neck, and I wish I had thought to pull my hair into a ponytail before we embarked on our journey.  But now my hands are occupied and I am cherishing the feel of the girls’ hands clinging to mine too much to let them go.  So instead, I endure the heat and the sweat and the sun as I lead my students home after school.

It’s a long walk to Synthia’s house.  As we go, I can feel dirt getting kicked up off the ground and clinging to my legs.  I can feel tiny stones slipping into the cracks in my shoes.  Again, I endure – too content in what I’m doing to stop and dust off my legs or shake out my shoes.

We pass by cows grazing on the almost non-existent grass beside the dirt path.  We sidestep dozens of mango pits that dozens of school children have discarded on their way home from dozens of different schools.  We greet the road-side merchants who are selling everything from charcoal and rice to toothpaste and baby clothes.

This is a typical afternoon walk in Balan, Haiti – the small poverty-stricken area in which I work.

Finally, after twenty minutes, we turn down an even smaller, dustier dirt road and find our way to Synthia’s house – a small one-room building made of cheap cement.  I stop at the entrance to her yard to say goodbye.  Synthia’s brother hurries into the house without a second glance, but Synthia hangs back.  Soon, her face is buried in my skirt in an awkward waist-high hug.  Kneeling down to her level, I kiss her cheek and let her wrap her arms around my neck in a tight embrace.  I stay like that – crouched in the dust with Synthia in my arms – for a few minutes.  Finally, I convince her to let go.  I wish her a good afternoon, let her kiss me on the cheek one last time, then return to the road with Millie.

Our journey continues.

At first, Millie and I walk hand in hand, but soon, her gentle voice rises to my ears.  “Madame Erin,” she says quietly.  “Mwen vle ou pote m.”  I want you to carry me.

I open my mouth to say "no, not this time," but then I remember that a mile is a long walk for little legs.  Smiling to myself and thinking about all the ridiculous things I do for my students, I stoop in front of her and scoop her into my arms.

As I carry Millie home, a gentle breeze kisses the air.  I cherish the feel of the wind on my face, a child on my hip, and a smile on my face.  It’s a good combination.

When we reach Millie’s house, my arms are tired and my back aches, but my heart is full. 

Sometimes, my head tries to tell me that holding Synthia’s hand when we walk home, greeting the merchants when we pass, and carrying Millie when she’s tired are little, insignificant things.   But as I trace my steps back to school after dropping the girls off at their houses, God reminds me that these little, seemingly-insignificant things are the ways I show them love.

Because love is in the little things.

Love is in the daily things.

Love is in the dusty things, the hot things, and the ridiculous things.

*               *               *

Let all that you do be done in love. – 1 Corinthians 16:14

Friday Five

Five Fun Things We Did In Kindergarten

1. Played new games and read new books.

We started off the trimester with some fun new things.  The new file folder games and new superhero books were a huge hit!

2. Celebrated 100 days of school.

To celebrate being "100 days smarter," we ate 100 jelly beans, made necklaces with 100 Fruit Loops, played a relay race with 100 stickers, and made sunglasses with the number 100.

3. Had our first PE class.

What do you do when you find you have an extra 20 minutes before recess?  PE class!  My kids absolutely loved the spur-of-the-moment activities.  Obstacle course relay races on the playground was a favorite for everyone!

 4. Started studying Mexico for our Around the World Unit.
I really value the importance of learning about other cultures around the world.  Our Around the World unit in social studies has been great for that!  This week, we started studying Mexico.  We had a lot of fun making Fiesta decorations for our classroom.

5. Learned that militon is NOT an animal.

This is militon.  It's an everyday vegetable in Haiti, much like potatoes and carrots.

To give my students a break from sitting on Friday, I had everyone stand up for a quick round of Act Like An Animal - a game in which I call out an animal and everyone in the class acts like it.

Me: "Act like a kangaroo."

Class: *hops around the room*

Me: "Act like a lion."

Class: *roars loudly*

Me: "Act like a......"

Synthia: "MILITON!"

Five Moments to Cherish

1. A silent question.

It's 7:30 and the school day is dawning.  My feet trace the dusty path that leads to the school building and I begin preparing my mind for the day that is about to unfold.  As I make my way into the building, I am surprised to find my path blocked by Synthia, who has her hands in the air and a silent plea in her eyes.  Hold me? she asks without saying a word.

And suddenly her legs are wrapped around my waist and her arms are tight around my neck and her head is nestling into my shoulder.  Again, her silent plea is louder than words.  Love me? she asks.

My rocking arms and gentle embrace give a simple, yet silent, reply.  Always.

2. A crisis averted.

Davis has managed to make it through nearly 4 days of school without any major outbursts or fits - a huge accomplishment for this tantrum-prone five-year-old.  Unfortunately, the streak has to break eventually...so I'm not surprised when I turn around to find him pressed against the wall, sobbing loudly, with large tears rolling down his cheeks.

Glancing from him to his virtually-untouched lunch, I know the problem without having to ask.  Stooping in front of him, I wipe the tears from his face and speak quiet words of encouragement in his ear.  Soon, he has allowed me to coax him back to the table where he reluctantly lets me to spoon warm corn into his half-open mouth.

When the tears have dried and the food is gone, I tell him how proud I am of him for finishing his lunch - but even more so for conquering his tantrum.  I keep him there a minute longer - just to savor the moment - before sending him to the carpet to read with the rest of the class.

3. A family moment.

Like any normal afternoon, the Green House is full of the inevitable hustle and bustle that ensues when you have 13 kids.  I'm sitting at the dining room table with Edline, the lioness of the house.  Strong, passionate, and full of love, Edline definitely qualifies as a hero in my book.

As I talk with my Haitian mom, Melissa's hands are weaving in and out of my hair.  Lousna is running back and forth, popping in and out of the room forgetfully.  Velise is learning to cook spaghetti in the kitchen while Esther tries to convince me to stay for dinner...in five hours.

In the presence of my Haitian family, I wonder if anything in the world could be better than the simple beauty of life they have discovered and fostered here in this house.

4. Beautiful conversations.

Dance Worhsip - a ballet class for little girls that I teach in my home - is something I always look forward to, but never more so than today.  Recently, our devotions have centered on the topic of beauty.  After warming up and stretching, I call my young dancers to me and have them sit in a circle on my living room floor so that we can begin our devotions for the day.

We talk about beauty - both inner beauty and outer beauty.  We discuss the importance of outer beauty and the fact that we are made in God's image.  That He created our skin, our hair, our eyes, and our bodies.  He created them and He loves them - and that makes them beautiful.  Then we discuss the importance of inner beauty - the way we love God and love others.  The way we treat people.  Faith points out that when we are beautiful on the inside, it shines through and people can see it on the outside.  My heart overflows with love for these girls and with the joy of having the chance to help shape their understanding of beauty.

5. A sleepy reminder of my call.

It's a warm afternoon.  The air is stiff and heavy around us.  The large hallway, which is full of benches and chairs for Friday chapel, is crowded, making it especially hot. I can feel Ana in my lap fighting her sleepiness.  As we close our eyes to pray, Ana looses the battle and is carried off into a dream.  I shift her carefully into a more comfortable position.  I can feel her breath against my chest, slow and free of worries.  Rocking her in m arms, I am reminded that this is why I came to Haiti.  To care for the orphans.

I can't think of anything I'd rather do.

Five Things I'm Excited About

1. I finally got around to hanging some pictures on my wall. =D

2. I've been working hard to sort, organize, and label ALL of my classroom books, so that we can have a new classroom library!  (Pictures to come when it gets set up!)

3. 7 years ago, my mom and I got on a plane and went to visit my brother in New Orleans.  Now, she and I are planning New Orleans: Round 3 to go see my brother graduate with his PhD from Tulane University.  I couldn't be more proud!

4. This song that I heard for the first time and really love.

5. For a few months now, I have been taking an adult dance class in town three days a week.  I LOVE dancing and I am so excited for our recital coming up in June!