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 :)