human & kind: Little Moments

I've been meaning to blog about Haiti again for a while now.
The thing is, I don't know where to start. But once I start, I know I'll go on and on for ever.
So, you can expect at least a few more posts about my last experience in Haiti.

Today, I'm just going to share a few moments that were my favorite.
The last portion of my trip, I wrote one of my favorite things about each day in the back of my journal.

Here they are:

- Playing the dot game, tic tac toe, and uno for hours with Dana and Josette

- Making Jamesly laugh forever, just by giving him kisses and tickling him.

- Cuddling with China and making her laugh for the first time since she's been home from the hospital.

- Watching Martine interact with the kids, she's incredible. So compassionate, caring, patient, selfless.

- China coming over to sit on my lap, all on her own. The first time she started to really show love back in response to me.

- Actually? Lou-Lou calling me Papa all day long. It was frustrating at first and I tried to teach her the difference between Mama and Papa. But she knew, she was just being silly and fun. And she sang a song about "Papa Karli."

- Laying in Dana's bed, looking at pictures of her family, laughing and laughing and laughing.

- Playing Jenga and really getting to spend time with Imensky because he didn't have school. Losing on purpose because he was so serious about the game. Laughing hysterically together.

- Kisses and cuddles with clean babies at bath time. This one is an every day favorite. Oh my goodness.

- Valentines with my Valentines. Getting to talk to them about what love really is and Jesus' love for them, what a blessing and privilege. And giving them red ring pops. :)

- Hearing the kids from downstairs and being able to distinguish between their voices and realizing how much I love them all. (This day I was super sick and didn't go downstairs at all.)

- Quaid's reaction when he saw me coming down the steps, he laughed and blew me kisses. (I was still sick.)

- Claudeson's reaction to me finally being well enough to come back downstairs and be with him. He yelled my name so loud, ran over to me, thew his arms around me. Then he grabbed my hand and dragged me into the other room to announce to all of the other kids that I was finally better.

- Sitting outside with Lou Lou, counting the Uno cards over and over. It always amazes me how long such an activity can hold their attention.

- Jamesly crawling under the gate, retrieving his ball, and crawling back under, his little diapered butt getting stuck along the way.

- Espana, Dana, and Claudeson making me "food" out of dirt, sticks, leaves, stones, and who knows what else. They absolutely loved it and I absolutely loved watching their creativity.

- Sitting, drawing, spelling with Dana, Modler, Espana, and Josette.

- Singing Jesus loves me with Bailey in the moon light and looking at our shadows.

- Eating chocolate ice cream with some of my favorite kids in the entire world.

These are just a few of the special and intimate moments I had with these beautiful kids.
I'm so blessed and honored that God would choose me. He picked me to love His crazy amazing kids for that one month. And I do love them.