Story #8

The Guys

1-3



I just wanted to tell you about all of the team and what roles they played, from my point of view.

Adam

Adam and Jameson. This was taken on Friday, right after he had handed out his player card to all the kids.

Look at all that sweat! :) This is Adam and Wendy (Yes, Wendy  is a boy) This was taken on Friday while we were watching the other team from California perform a skit.

Adam on the way to the orphanage.

I really love this picture! Its just so full of, joy, love, happiness, and beauty! This was taken on Tuesday during the party. :)


Adam was such a wonderful man of God. I personally thought that out of all the people on our team he was the one who spent the most time reading his bible and studying what he read. Adam was very energetic with the kids and very concerned about their well being. We did not spend very much time together but he was definitely buddies with all the guys.  I'm very thankful to him for helping my mom when she needed someone. Now I guess I should tell you that Adam is the starting linebacker for the Tampa bay buccaneers. Poor guy did not know anyone on the team except Reza, and Reza was not at there until Saturday.  The first time we had to cross “the bridge”, which is supper scary, everyone was freaked out. The thing that comforted me was Adam. I told myself, “if Adam cam make it across the bridge and not break it then it wont break for me.” Even then I was still scared, but thanks to Adam it did not bother me too much :)  Like I mentioned earlier God took the heat away from me after I asked him to and somehow Adam found out. So one night Adam said to me, “Man you need to pray for me cuz I’m always on fuegeo.” I laughed and kept saying fuegeo. He said, “Man I live in Florida, I have to keep my Spanish up.” Gosh it was supper funny! I prayed for him but he felt no relief from the hot sun.

Ben

This is Wendy, the boy who with Adam on Friday.

Ben and Battina, She is such a cuttie!!

                                                            
Ben was my airport buddy, he was my protector, and my comforter. When we were at the airport in Denver I told Ben that I was his airport buddy and he was like cool. Then he said, “I need a Kleenex.” And I was like, “ I have some.” As I was digging through my “mommy bag” he said, “ You’re an awesome airport buddy.” So we started off the week well. :) Then when we were in Dallas he helped me get some food, since my breakfast was horrible and my lunch fell on the ground. When we were in Fort Lauderdale, Shawn, Brenda, Mack, my mom, Ben, and myself went to Taco bell. (not the best meal but we were starving!) While we were there Brenda, who works at the Harmony preschool, was talking about her job. Something came up that made me say I went there and Ben looked at me like super shocked and said, “How old are you?!?!?” Haha. Of course I told him that I am 15 and he was just super freaked out. It was hilarious! Then while we were flying to Haiti I was shaking my legs    and hands it looked psycho! I was just super excited and my nerves were going crazy! He leaned over and asked my mom, who was sitting next to me, if I was ok. Haha his airport buddy is a psycho! Then when we landed in Haiti I asked him, “What does your personal bubble look like?” He was confused at the question so I told him, “As soon as we get out of the airport I’m going to hold on to you.” Then we got to “customs” Ben’s green card was rejected because he filed his out with a pink colored ink pen. So as he was filling out a new one I had to go to the mean man that just rejected him and state my case. Finally everything worked out but it was not very pleasant. Then all the guys loaded up the luggage on to 6 carts. After all the carts were loaded we went out to “the runway of death” I was told it would be a lot worse then it was but it was still scary. So, as we left I put my hand on top of Ben’s hand, which was pushing the cart, and as we went down further I put my hand around his arm and then, when it got super intense, I squeezed his arm so much, I cant believe I didn’t hurt him! Once I was squeezing him so tightly that he knew I was scared and tried to calm me down, even though he was confused too. I found out latter that my nails where pushing into his skin. Sorry Ben…  Then when we got into the Bus he tried to comfort me by telling me that the hardest thing for him to handle when he is in other countries is the traffic and how crazy the traffic is. How nice of him? :) Then on Friday, when we were at the orphanage for the first time. He saw me talking to a translator named Daniel. When Daniel left for a moment Ben came over to ask me if I was comfortable talking to him. I was caught off guard because I hadn’t thought of the translators hitting on me. But I was very thankful for his watchful eye. Then on Saturday morning Daniel made me very uncomfortable with some of the things he said. So when he left I told Ben that I was not comfortable and he helped explain that to some of the other guys. In fact Ben talked to Daniel on Saturday and I think that he told him not to return. I’m not sure I did not see Daniel until Tuesday and when I saw him he saw me and then like ran away. So I’m not sure if he told him to leave me alone but I am sure that he helped me a lot! On Sunday morning Ben was hot and needed a fan so I gave him my fan that sprays water. Haha he used that all the time! I asked him on Wednesday if he was planning on giving it back. He didn’t really answer but I just told him to keep it.  During our debrief on Sunday I cried a lot!, and as I cried I rubbed my tears away but I forgot that I had just put  mosquito repellent on a few minis earlier. So when I finished crying  I said, “I’m sorry but I have mosquito repellent in my eyes.” So I left the debrief but I couldn’t see so Ben and my mom lead me to the kitchen and then Ben took me out to the mini balcony and poured the water from his water bottle in my eyes. He was having a hard time keeping my eyes open so he said, “just look at the water. I promises I wont pour it, but just look at it.” Then  I told him to go for it and he totally drenched me! But he cleaned my eyes out. :) It was very nice. Then on Monday night, we were making a piñata. Ben was telling me a story about a famous Pr., and as he told me about this pastor this thing climbed onto the roof and I was like, “What is that?” He kept talking and then it started getting closer to us. So I said again, “What is that?” Again he did nothing but continued telling his story. So I taped his arm and said, “No really, what is that?” He looked at it and said, “Oh it’s a lizard!” I’m perfectly ok with lizard’s, in fact I really like them! But I tell you man it looked like a mouse skeleton crawling around on the roof. That’s kinda creepy!!! Then on Wednesday we went to the airport. I was so not scared! I did not even care if Ben was near me! While we were loading on the plane he grabbed my backpack and I turned around and just stared at him and he said, “I’m preparing you. Incase someone tries to rob you. I was like, “I’m prepared to kick you.” Gosh it was fun.  He was just a wonderful, helpful, protective guy, and I’m glad he was on my team and my airport buddy. 

 Josh

The girl in the pink is wearing Josh's shades.

Josh and Obed :)

He was on team B with me. The day I took the camera was the day when we were with the girls. He was awesome with the boys too, but I dont have any pictures of him with the boys yet.



Now Josh and Ben are roommates (in America) and very close friends. Though I did not spend very much time with Josh he was very much an AWESOME blessing to me! Josh spent a lot of time with Adam. He was wonderful with the kids at the orphanage! I cried a lot at the debrief on Sunday. Josh was there with his on my shoulder even before my mom. That was really comforting. On Monday, when we were at Megan’s house, Reza and a few other people went to get cold sodas. For some reason I was not in the kitchen when the cold (I emphasize that because nothing was cold) drinks. So when I was in the kitchen Shawn noticed that I did not have a drink. Immediately Josh gave me “half” of his drink. I emphasized half because he gave me way more than half his drink. How awesome is that? He is too nice to me. J   On Tuesday I had a hard time with the germs, which I had not had all week long. After I held all the kids I ran home and scrubbed myself clean. I was literally in the shower before anyone else was even at the house. I was really having a hard time. After I had cleaned myself I went outside, I was scared even to touch the things in the house. I recognized it as an attack from satin and I felt that God wanted me to have Josh pray for me. So I went up and asked Josh to pray for me. He said of course, pulled up a chair next to mine and just comforted me.  I was about to cry so I couldn’t hardly say anything. He recognized my need to vent and asked me what was wrong. After I cried for a few minutes Josh put his hands on me and prayed for me. That made me feel so much better. Then while we were walking back to the orphanage he said to me, “Thank you for your heart.” I smiled, said thank you and then told him how appreciative I was for all the protection and comfort he has given me. That was the greatest moment we had together. I mean, we fought off the devil, I would say that’s a pretty big moment.

Al of these guys, were, are, and always will be wonderful men of God. I hope you can understand what a blessing these men were to me, and if you wanted to, you could thank God for my protector’s and my comforters.

Story # 7

Sadly, I did not know his name until after we got back. But Paul was an awesome dude!! I first noticed him on Sunday while I was passing out stickers. I was passing out heart shaped stickers and saying i love you, in Creole, to all the kids. Now on Saturday I had several conversations with 20ish year old Haitian men that made me feel very uncomfortable. So when I came up to him I thought twice about telling him I love you because he is defiantly older. Actually he is pretty close to my age... Anywho I said to myself God loves him that is what you are trying to tell everyone so just tell him, how bad could it be? So I told him that I loved him and it made his day!! I'm so glad that I chose to tell him! Then on Tuesday morning he came and braided my hair, but because they were braiding my hair I couldn't see him.

Then on Tuesday evening, after Ramces told them we were leaving, he was the first to come up to me and hug me good bye. It was such a shock to me because I did not even know his name and he was so nice to me. I regret not spending more time with him.
Love,
Madison





P.S. I'm going to write about my team until I can get more pictures of the kids. Ill get those on Saturday. Then I'll be back on the plan. :) 

Story #6

Robenskey



<>

Robenskey is the boy in the white.

 My dear friend Robenskey was the first kid I met in Haiti. When we arrived at the orphanage on Friday some people were saying its not the orphanage but I thought it looked like it, but we were all pretty confused. So then to add to my confusion this little boy comes up to me and puts his hand out. Now I had been told that kids would come up to us and beg and that we would have to tell them no. So when I saw this little child holding his hand out I thought he was begging so I told him that I did not have any money. After I told him no like 8 times he grabbed my hand and gave me this look like, "Dummy I want to hold your hand." It made me feel so bad, this little guy just wanted me to hold his hand and I kept telling him no. Thankfully it didn’t scare him away. He came and took me into the orphanage everyday and stayed with me for a while. He wanted to have me all to himself, he would hit away any other kids that came up to me. He just wanted to be loved.  I love Robenskey so much! He is a wonderful kid and I cant wait to be with him again!
Love,
Madison

Robenskey was feeling my "blan"(white, or in this case white person) hair and then 2 boys and a girl came and started braiding my hair. Of course it wouldn’t stay because my hair is not like theirs, but they sure had fun trying. Next time I go I'm going to bring little ties so they can braid my hair if they want to.  It was so fun and super sweet of them.



Story #5

Princess Samanda

I just started calling her princess Samanda, I wish I would have thought of that while I was still with her. But she certainly is God's princess and mine.  We went to the clinic on Saturday and as we waited outside the clinic my mom and I noticed something on her foot. She had a hole on the left side of her left  ankle, it looked like one of her sores had stretched so much that her skin tore into a hole. Now there were 300-400 tiny ants going in the hole and coming out with stuff, like from inside her body!!! There were flys and gnats on her but I did not see those until Sunday at the orphanage. When we noticed it she wasn’t complaining, like I would if I even saw a bug not to mention bugs going inside to my body!! No, she was singing Jesus loves me. She is so strong!! I totally wanted to through up, pass out, and die right there and then. This was like the worst thing that I discovered. There was worse stuff that happened like Arianna's story. (Which you will hear soon.) But it was really hard for me to handle. I couldn’t believe how nice, sweet, strong and totally wonderful this little girl is and why such horrible things would happen to her.  After we went home and I told some people Shawn started taking care of her. (He is such an AWESOME man!! He really helped me too.)  On Sunday he took a empty sticker sheet and she made it clear to us that she was in pain. He looked up at me and we both just felt so horrible! It made me so sick that a few mins latter when I was up stairs I couldn’t help but cry. This girl really moved me her strength and her love for God its just unbelievable! On Tuesday Shawn brought her band-aids, she was very thankful because she was in a lot of pain. Then, after we broke the piñata, some girl came up and started hitting her. My mom stepped in and told the other girl not to do that and as soon as the other girl left, princess Samanda, just started balling. She was just super hurt emotionally and physically. She was just about to run away in shame when mom caught her and held her. After a little bit princesses Samanda felt better and held mommy back. She couldn’t be more than 8 years old but she was stronger then I will ever be. I really want her to know how much we love her and how special she is. Maybe you can pray that she will be comforted with God's love and ours. 
Thank you so much for your support and interest!
Love,
Madison
P.S. I'm writing about all the kids that made an impact on my mom and I from the orphanage and then I can write about the people at our home or at Megan’s house then I'll write about stories. I thought if I introduced you to all the people and told you their story then when I tell what happened in order then you will know who I'm talking about. Also I just wanted you to know that you can comment on these posts if you want to. (That would actually be exciting for me.)  You guys are awesome!! I love you!! 



Story #4

Ramces 

Ramces is like totally awesome!!! I dont even know where to start.... let me just tell you what he does, at least everything that I know he does. He meets us at the airport so that we dont die! He gets us busses and tap taps and tells them not to go down the roads of sudden death. He helps us tell the kids what we are doing, and not only tell them but do hand motions and awesome stuff like that. He gets the kids into the story and activitivies. Gosh he is amazing! He helped us learn creole words like I love you and Im going to miss you. He helped me write a letter to, Kedlene, Ariana, and Jameson. He helped me talk to Chattel, whom you will hear about soon! He helped us go to church and understand what we were supposed to do there :) He translated the whole service and was super amazing, even on his day off. He has led all the kids from the orphanage to christ. He has helped soooo many others become christians and I dont doubt for a second that he wont continue to lead them to him. Ramces has a georgious, and very helpful and skillful, wife named Cindy. They have an addorible little boy Zac who is 10 months old. His wife, Cindy makes jewelry, thats another awesome thing about him. I asked him if i could buy some of her jewelry and he brought it to me. Then on our last day he had one of his friends bring his, bracelets, necklaces, flip-flops, headbands, and really cool shirt things. He did that because he knew we never had the chance to go to a market. What a wonderful man! 

All of the other translators showed "inappropriate affection" to Stephanie and myself. Ramces was the only one we were, and are safe with. He takes the food that we provide to the orphanage every 3 days, which means he is really dedicated and loves those kids a lot. He also buys and takes baby formula and bottles for the babies, he brings those so that the babies dont have to eat rice. He is so caring to those kids you can never understand. I dont think I even understand how amazing he is. Ramces is the only reason we can even go to Haiti, without him we wouldn't have someone to translate, get us transportation, or help us find a house. Without him all of those kids would die and die without God in their hearts and lives. He is the greatest blessing to these children that they will ever get! Im so thankful for Ramces he is a walking marcie. I hope you can understand how helpful he is and thank him, because he is not thanked enough! I would also like you to pray for him and his family to be safe and to know how much God, and us, loves them. 

Thanks! 

Love,

Madison 

Story # 3

Kedlene 

Kedlene, the sweetest little girl ever!, came and found me on Sunday. No one had seen her before, and we had been there for 2 days. She just came up and held my left side until the moment I left. She was so attached to me, it was awesome! On Sunday we gave everyone stickers. My stickers were hearts. I made sure everyone got one of my stickers. Every time I gave someone a sticker I would say, "Mwen ramen" (which means I love you.) Kadlene would leave me and go get stickers from all the other people, come back to me, and then put them all over me. She gave up her stickers for me :( : ) :) I stayed with her all day Sunday and Tuesday. It did not seem like only two days, that sounds kinda silly but she was always by my side. I asked a translator to talk to her about how she got to SOG and he said that she said that both of her parents are alive but she didnt live with them, that makes me think she was a slave, then she said that the lady that she did live with abused her so she left. I asked her what she liked doing and she said cleaning and doing choires. But both the translator and myself didnt believe that, thats what makes her happy. We think she was saying that because she was trying to market herself, which also makes me think she was a slave. She said she is 12 years old, which could also mean that she is 11, thats how they count their birthdays there. I failed and didnt ask her very many questions, I couldnt think of any. But now that I think about it I'm coming up with tons of questions that I'm going to ask her when I go back. Once all my other kids had left to do something and she stayed there so I picked her up and sat her in my lap, I would rock her like a baby that made her laugh. One of the girls on the trip, with me, took a picture of her on my lap, but we havnt shared photos yet, we are doing that on the 25th. Anywho that was a special moment for her and I. She was doing chores on Sunday and had to leave me but when I noitced that she was gone I started calling for her, Max's wife herd me calling for her and sent a little girl to go get her. Kedlene was so happy when she was relieved from her work. Kedlene is wayyy shorter than I am, so sometimes we would be siting down and she would catch me looking at her and get all scrunched up and blushful. She would smile and then nestel her face into my arm, it was so cute! I would sing her songs like, "Kedlene, Kedlend mwen remen mwen remen Kedlene Kedlene tre bell tre bell. Which would make her blush and smile like crazy :) (Those words translate to I love you and your beautiful.) She was, is, and always will be the most Amazing person in the world!! Im so going to adopt her. At first I thought that would be pointless but by time im 18 she will only be 14 so most definitely not pointless :) only 2 more years and she is mine!! No one will ever be able to hurt her again! Sorry I have some serious passion for this girl. Tuesday night I put Band-Aids on some of the sores on her legs because, youll find out latter when I tell you about Samanda, they split open and nasty thing happen. So I was trying to prevent the nastiness. When I finished trying to find the worst ones and putting the Band-Aids on it I stood up and she looked up at me and said, "Thank you." (in english) That still makes me cry. Then we told all the kids that we were going to leave, I told Kedlene that I would come back but that didnt stop her from crying. All the kids came to hug me goodbye but kedlene stayed there the whole time hugging me. So when everyone was done hugging me i looked down at her and she was crying. I cant believe she was crying she loves me too much! We left very poorly and I dont know why but it was really bad. I did not get a chance to say goodbye to Kedlene, instead she was pried from my body as we left. Like i said it was really horrible. You guys seem to be interested in my stories from Haiti so I wanted to tell you about the best part. Im sorry this is probably the worst blog I have written, bad order, grammar, and spelling. I hope you can see past that and realize how wonderful the kids are down there and how much they need our help. They will surly be thankful, even for the littlest things. My goal is to give them everything they deserve I would really like your prayers to help me understand how God wants me to do this and to help the people who will help me do what he wants me to do. Thank you for your interest and your prayers! 

Love, 

This is what her blushful smile looks like, isn't it the cutest? 

She looks sad but she isn't really

This is the exact spot she came and found me at. 

Madison 

Story # 2

Jameson 

Jameson is a very sweet little boy. I should have asked him how old he was but thins were so crazy. I would say he is about 13. The first time I was there Jameson came and introduced himself to me he said, "My name is Jameson. What is your name?" I introduced myself and then asked a translator to ask him what makes him happy, I wanted to learn more about him and try to build a relationship. He said, "That Jesus is in my heart, (when he said that he put his hand over his heart) and that you came to see me (as he pointed toward me)" That was really special to me because I was comforted with the knowledge that he knew God was in his heart and was never going to leave him, and his sweet comment to me assured me that I'm there for a reason. The next day Jameson found me and took me over to his translator. He had the translator give me a letter and explain it. The letter said, "I love you I love you ever (meaning forever) I always want to be by your side, I love you." Once I finished reading it, Jameson, wrapped around my side and just stayed there until we divided into boys and girls. Jameson was, still is, and always will be, very special to me. 

I hope he can inspire you too. 

Love, 

Madison

Adam Hayward and Jameson

Robenskey, Jameson, Me, and Kedlene 

Story #1

                                                   Prayers Answered.
God answered so many of our prayers it was awesome! I would like to start telling my stories with praising God and everything he did for us. Ill try to remember everything and put them in the correct time line. God is so amazing to us!
First God answered my prayer to help my ipod sync quickly. Our computer has a history of not syncing right away. It was the night before we left, about 12pm and I needed to sleep. But I also needed my ipod to sync. God helped me so much by letting it sync in less than 1 minute, that is a record time for me! He is so awesome!!!
2nd. God answered my prayer about having everything go well with the bags. We had 31 bags to check and when we first went to check them all they told us that we would have to pay for all of them and that each bag would cost a considerable amount more. We, of course, flipped out because that’s a lot of money. But after everything was said and done they found out that we were with our church and that our church is like an elite member with American Airlines so they only made us pay for our third bag. Everyone checked 3 bags, except mom and Josh. This Godsend brought on the next Godsend.
3rd. All of our travels went super well. In fact God gave us even more than we asked for. Leaving Denver to Dallas a man from baggage came upstairs as we were boarding and asked us if we were going to Haiti. He said he noticed all the bags and wanted to come and wish us a safe trip. He told us how he loves Haiti and how he helps with as much stuff as he can. He really wanted to help us and stood there thinking for a long time and finally came up with a plan. He was going to send 2 boxes of crocs in all different kid sizes. He was going to work around thing to make the boxes met us in FLL. We, of course, were skeptical and pulled the boxes off to check for drugs. The boxes were clean and full of really nice shoes that would have been wonderful for the kids. But because we doubted God and pulled the boxes off they never showed up in Haiti. The people we left the boxes with to put back on the plane never did. He also helped us find Adam, and helped us make him feel welcomed. Not only were we safe but God showed us his hand everywhere we went. It was very assuring and still is.
4th. Now we didn’t pray for this but God provided big time! We landed in FLL at 10pm and had to wait for Adam who wasn’t landing until 10:30. We called the hotel to ask if there was anywhere to eat near the hotel that would be open at 11, and they said no. They told us we could take a taxi to TGIF's but that might not even be open. We were afraid because I had not eaten a meal all day and really needed to. We took a team vote to try and find something at the hotel or try and find something at the airport. We decided to go to the hotel and when we pulled up to the hotel there was a taco bell. Now granted taco bell isn’t our first choice but it was perfect. Now that I look back on it I wonder if that taco bell is still there because no way could anyone work at that hotel and not know that the taco bell was right there and that it was open until 1am. It really was amazing.
5th. We prayed for safety in Haiti, especially right when we got off the plane; because everyone told us it would be like walking through hell. It was strange but not anywhere close to as bad as it had been for the other teams. God was so wonderful and sent Ramces to the rescue! Another safety concern was the bus ride to the house. Oh my grandma I cant believe we didn’t get into 25 car accidents and run over 57 people. God protected us, and everyone around us, and did not even a scratch got on the bus. On our way to SOG there is this "bridge" that is super scary, it is made of metal and the metal was all rusted, not secure, and had holes all through it. It was really bad. The first time we went over it we were all really scared. I’m pretty sure the only reason I felt safe going over was because Adam had just crossed it and didn’t have a problem. We never had a problem with the bridge it just scared us! You know every time I walked over it I felt like I was going through a trust exercise with God and when I focused myself on him I felt like I was floating. It was really awesome that God comforted and protected me like that. We didnt know who the people were at the house and truthfully we really felt unsafe the first night. Of course nothing bad happened. In fact we ended up going to the Fathers church, he is a pastor. Once we knew who they were and what they were about we had TONS of fun with the family!!! Epically Obed, he was and still is like a brother to me. 
6th. Everyone had a hard time sleeping on the first night so I prayed for everyone to get a good night sleep. I got a wonderful night sleep and slept well the rest of the week. Most of the people slept well some unfortunately did not.
7th. I didn’t know this until last night but my friend, Kimberly Trammell, felt the need to pray for me on Saturday. Saturday was the hardest day for me and having someone pray for me and not know what was going on. This also assures me that God supports me being in Haiti.
8th. Sunday we went to church for 3 1/2 hours, fortunately it did not feel like 3 1/2 hours at all. But Ben had to pee the whole time and we were all really hot, I mean really hot! Our chairs were way too small for our massive butts. But God really spoke to everyone there. God helped us bypass all those things while we were there it was wonderful!
9th. I had a really hard time Saturday with a bunch of things but one of the biggest, I know how selfish this sounds but it really was a big deal then, was the heat. The older girls have their own babies assigned to them so they can be taken care of and when we bring activities all of the girls hand off "their babies" because they want to play. It is already hot there add 2 babies a 3 kids pulling and sitting on you it became hard for me to breath. Because I was having such a hard time breathing and sitting there in all the heat I didn’t love on the kids as much as I could have. So on the way to SOG after church I prayed to Jesus and said, “Lord please cool me so I can show these kids, to the best of my ability, how much you love them. At SOG I felt fine and loved on the kids a lot. When we were all gathered waiting for our debrief I was talking to Josh and my mom and something came up about the orphanage and i said, " Man wasn’t it awesome how cool it was today at the orphanage?"  Josh looked at me with the strangest face and said, "Your joking, right?" I then realized that it was just me who felt cool at SOG. They explained to me that it was the hottest it had ever been and once the week was over that it was the hottest day. I tell you the truth it felt like it was 65 degrees and I was actually cold that day. God is soooooo amazing it blows my mind!!!
10th. Monday was the first time we rode in a tap tap. Oh my grandma! We thought the bus ride was scary!! The bus ride was scary it was just 3x bigger than the tap tap and therefore its maneuvers were limited. We started out our ride by turning onto oncoming traffic... enough said!!! We were safe and actually had a blast thanks to God but man it was scary! We were afraid things were not going to go well at the school but after we prayed to God and asked for his help it went super well! After we went to the school we walked up a mile high hill. It was narrow and muddy we were slipping all over and it was cloud less, so the sun was just baking on us. It was hard for everyone. My mom got over heated and had the hardest time making the climb. I prayed for her once she got to the top and I found out there was a problem and the team pitched together and helped her tremendously! I was really surprised at how much they helped her and very thankful for them as they were answers to my prayers.
11th. I got my first sunburn, in Haiti, on Monday and it was reallllllly bad. I prayed at the end of our meeting and asked for several things including help with all of the sunburns that our team had acquired that day. Latter on it rained harder and longer than i have ever seen in my entire life!! At one point our tents, which were on the roof, were floating on like an inch of water. We prayed for it to all work out and thankfully it did. All the rain drained off the roof and most of our stuff wasn’t wet. In fact if we hadn’t freaked out when the rain started and opened the tents nothing would have gotten wet. My bed did not get wet, so I slept up in my tent alone, because Sara's did. The edge of my sheet had gotten wet from opening the door and when I went to bed I was afraid that I wasn’t going to be blanket less, which was really bad because I was realllly cold. Finally I went to bed with a wet sheet and it wasn’t that bad but my sunburn helped me stay warm, which is really strange thing to say but it did help me. In the morning I woke up and noticed that I was not red at all. I went down stairs and all the ladies shouted, at like the same time, Madison your sunburn is gone! It was gone, and sometimes this happens to other people and it turns into a tan. But that has never happened to me in my entire life! I told all the ladies there that, and my mom of course knew that. I was telling them how God took my sunburn away and  said kpoof * pointing to where my sunburn was* Sunburn GONE! It was a really amazing gift from God!
12th. Tuesday was our last day at SOG and we did Brooks birthday party for the kids after lunch. We were all worried that things wouldn’t go well, because everything is so crazy there I’m surprised that it did go well. We prayed for things to work out the way God wanted it to, and like I already said, it went really well! In the morning we just loved on the kids. Now earlier in the week I had told my mom "Ill hold and rub and love on these kids but I wont kiss them, out of fear for germs." She thought that was a good idea and I didn’t kiss them until Tuesday. On Monday, however, I met a little girl named Mickalia and I kissed her and then she would kiss me and say thank you :) it was wonderful. So because of Mickalia I decided that the kids at SOG needed to be kissed to, especially since they have no mommies or daddies to kiss them. We loved on the kids from 10 - 12 and at 1130 I started getting hot, thirsty, tired, my body hurt, I felt discussing it was really bad. I wanted to leave, but I told myself to wait just a little longer. Then at 1145 I asked Josh, who was the only one with a watch!, what time it was. Then I knew I was only going to be there for 15 more mins. And every time I felt pain I would remind myself "Its almost over." As soon as I got to the house I took a shower and scrubbed my self. I just felt so nasty, it was really bad. After I got out of the shower I was like afraid to touch anything and after a few mins. I realized that satin was trying to attack me so that I couldn’t love on God's kids. I talked to Josh and he prayed for me so that I would feel comfortable again so I could love on these kids. As soon as I got to SOG I felt just fine and the entire time I was there I didn’t have any of those problems. God protected me from satin. I’m very thankful for that.
13th. Tuesday morning I felt really light headed and dizzy and was having a hard time understanding things and walking and all sorts of nonsense like that. We prayed over me to help it go away so I could love on the kids and it did! God is too amazing!
14th. One of the most amazing things, I think, was on Tuesday evening. I was going downstairs with all my kids and we had to squeeze through the hall to get to the stairs, it was really crowded. At the top of the stairs there is this red door and at the bottom of this red door a little metal bar. When I was trying to get downstairs and not run over all the kids my leg got shoved into the bar and scraped down it. Now it hurt, and still hurts, really bad. But aside from the pain the first thing I noticed was where my leg hit. The bar hit right above my knee, which was strange to me because my calf should have been what was hit, that was what was right next to it. But God like moved my leg so that the bar hit where my pants were. Because if it would have hit on my calf, like it should have, it would have broken my skin and been realllllllly bad. Really bad. But he protected me and had it hit on my pants. I did not have a chance to look at it until Wednesday but it’s a pretty big bruise. I don’t ever bruise so that’s kinda an example of how bad it was and how bad it could have been. It’s Friday, so I'm told ;), and my leg still hurts really bad. I’m so thankful God somehow just moved my leg so I didn’t get really hurt and really sick. I was the only one who was physically hurt on the team and it is baffling to me that it’s only a bruise!
I will never understand all the things that could have been or all of the things God protected or provided for us but he helped us so much it blows my mind!!! You will never understand how these things meant so much to us but I hope you do understand that God loves us too much! And is all powerful and all knowing! Im so thankful for his protection, comfort, guidance, and assurance on this trip and I pray he continues to give me all of those things for the rest of my life. Most importantly, though, that I would recognize that its him giving it to me and that I would give all the credit to him. And try my hardest to thank him as much as he deserves.
I look forward to sharing another story tomorrow. I hope this has meant something for you and that God will bless you as he has blessed me.
I love you all !
~Madison~

P.S. incase you were wondering, this post has 2,796 words in it.

This is Obed, Zazou, and myself. We look like a little
family its kinda funny :)

We are back from Haiti!!

Bonswa! (Good evening) How is everyone? What was it like in Colorado for the past week? It was wonderful and horrible at the same time in Haiti. There is so much to tell, we can’t wait to tell you all the stories. We are going to have a photo and story sharing time as soon as we get everyone's photos. Im going to write a story or something like that every day because it could take forever to tell all the stories! We are all safe and kinda happy to be home. Im so thankful to everyone you guys have been such a blessing to us, you will never fully understand. I would ask for your prayers to help me understand Gods will for me. Right now he is leading me to go every 3 months. My family and I really need help with that decision so we will be very grateful for all of your prayers. Everything went "well". We are all alive and no one is sick, yet... Thank you so so so so much. I love you all and hope to talk with you soon!!
Love, Madison