Grace Hospital

I wanted to give you an update on Johny the little boy who is HIV positive. We think that he has full blown AIDS, but aren’t positive. We had Emmanuel go with him to Grace hospital to get in their AIDS program for children and they ended up keeping him there. It turns out he has lesions on his lungs and needed to have an IV and other meds. We aren’t really sure all that’s going on because Grace is not fond of white people (blancs) and aren’t very good at communicating. In fact it is the only hospital in Haiti that Dorothy knows of where you are not needed or allowed to stay with the patient. You can visit from 10AM-1PM. We have provided diapers, but not much else. Very different from the other hospitals that you have to provide EVERYTHING. However they are not very friendly and sort of act as if you have no responsibility to the patient you have just dropped off in their hospital. Therefore, we don’t know a lot on his condition or what they have found out. Lesions on his lungs could suggest TB, but we tested him for that and it was negative. However often when someone has AIDS they don’t test positive for it because they don’t have the antibodies to fight it off. Anyway, I wanted to give you a quick update on him. I miss holding him. He is so cuddly and most of you know how I love to cuddle!

its official...

As many of you know Dorothy will be going to the states again in August for a knee replacement. she will be there for at least 2 months. she asked me a long time ago how i felt about being here in the fall. i have been praying for a long time about what the Lord wanted me to do. its been very hard...because despite how prideful i want to be about how i dont get homesick...well i do and coming home it july felt really great. i love being here, but there are so many things i miss about home. i miss my friends and family, my church, my salsa dancing, mccoys, lulus, jerusalem cafe, the sistren, walking, first fridays and the list goes on...so i was very hesitate about what to do.

at first i thought well it would be good go home for a few weeks then come back, but here is the thing doing that would be very expense and i'm not sure i could afford that so i start praying about if God wanted me to extend my return ticket. trust i have fought long and hard with the Lord on this one because there are many reasons for me to protest. However the Lord has confirmed and told me to extend my ticket, to just commit and that He would figure out the rest. I dont exactly know what that means, but i know He knows i miss home.

if by some chance i financially can afford it i would love to come home for a couple weeks in august for a friends wedding, seeing everyone i love and of course some rest time. i really believe that if the lord wants me to come home before october i will, if not He will give me the tools i need when i am struggling. i just pray i always turn to Him when its rough. i know that if i get to come back before then it will be while dorothy is gone, but i have talked with her about it and she thinks that being away for a couple weeks will be fine.

so i havent extended my ticket yet, but i have officially commited to doing it. will each day i feel more confident that i have made the right decision and am being obedient to the Lord. now know i am still very nervous and praying because being in charge for 2 weeks was hard so 2 months will also be hard. however i know it will be such a growing time and am exited to see what the Lord will do.

keep praying hard for me and i will update again soon.

LOVE LOVE LOVE
Natasha Rae Taylor :)

Haiti's Mothers Day

Tomorrow is Mothers day in haiti and Emmanuel is so sweet...he made a bougeut of flowers for dorothy...notes around the house and a sign for all the nannies. he is so sweet. at times a little excessive with the sweetness, but overall a huge blessing, one of a kind. Dorothy is making a cake for the nannies so they will feel loved on their special day. now not all of them have their own kids, but they work very hard taking care of the kiddos here...so they all deserve it!

speaking of working hard and love...dorothy has made a list of the children and circled the ones that can return home to their respective places, whether it be a grandma, aunt, mom or orphanage. she is doing this because when she leaves in the fall for 2 months or so she wants them to not have such a huge amount of responsibility. it is a hard desicion to make so she is letting the nannies have a lot of input. which is fun to see them sort of fight over who they want to stay. each sort of routing for this kid or that kid. it was precious.

i'm still praying about what God wants me to do. i know dorothy could use the help and i do not have anything that i am fully commited to in the fall. however i am missing home a bit more than i am used to considering i have never been a home sick kind of person. i am tired of being sick and so on. but despite all of that i do love being here, helping out, doing therapy with poutchino and working with kevs. i want to do what is best for my spirit and for the plans God has for me. please be praying for discernment, confirmation and peace about whatever desicion i am suppose to make.

thanks again for everything.
blessings,
nrt

Johny

Sherry Fausey another missionary here had a baby waiting for us when Dorothy returned. We got him Sunday he is 13 months old and weighs 13lbs. He has had a fever is malnourished of course has an ear infection. we received the test results backed from med lab yesterday and found that he is positive for AIDS. It put a damper on our day because its just always so heartbreaking to get news like that. However I am falling in love with him, he is such a cuddly and has the cutest little face. we are going to get him in an AIDS program so he can start getting meds. hopefully i will get a picture of him up soon.

hugs,
nrt

D is comin'

turns out she didnt come Thursday, but she is coming today, Saturday. We are all very excited!!! We are leaving for the airport around 10:30 or so. Her flight is to com in at 11:25. We could leave later, but driving is sometimes so congested and slow even though the airport really is not that far.

It's like driving to Bercy, only about 17 or so miles away from PAP, but takes an hour to get there. Crazy right?

Dorothy will be so excited to be home so many things to tell her. The kittens (we have four btw) are getting bigand she will be so excited to see them. they are walking around...i have to watch out that the dogs dont see or mama is around to protect. more exciting than that thou is that JJ has started crawling on his belly around everywhere, little emmanuel is doing the same...in fact so many of the kiddos now are getting to the stage where they just want to climb up stair. its scary bc often times its without an adult...we try to enforce that with the nannies and sometimes they do a great job, but other times not so good. anyway we must have extra angels on the stairs and keep praying that they continue to stand watch and not let anyone fall.

i have to admit i was so exhausted there for awhile and counting down the days until she came and i could go home, but i have been spending much time and prayer and was able to talk with some people from back home and it rejuvinated me a bit, plus i am feeling better healthwise so probably helps. :)

well just wanted to say thanks for ALL the prayers i made it through and no one got seriously hurt, i didnt have to take anyone to the hospital, Poutchino didnt have a siezure and i am still alive. PRAISE GOD. i have to admit i did gain a even more respect for Dorothy than i already had. i mean she is a 60yr old woman with bad knees doing this, i'm only 26 and being in charge for 2 weeks was very tiring. granted fun at times, streching at others but most of all a great learning experience for my self and a huge help to this ministry and children.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL.
LOVE LOVE LOVE...

3 more days

As of right now I am pretty sure I only have 3 more days until Dorothy comes back. I can't lie I am pretty excited for it. It is very overwhelming to be in charge at times here and I have been sick for the majority of it all. I still cannot get rid of this cough.

We have definitely done some funs things though. We have made signS to remind people about important things around the house...

"Love others as God Loves us."
"Remnen parey ou jan Bondye Remnem'W."

and so on...

we have also painted rocks which was way fun!! then of course the toddlers have gotten to watch a movie a few nights and school in the mornings when I can! so we seem to be doing alright.

Mackenson has had a fever on and off for the past few days and Poutchino had a pretty high one today. I might put Mackenson on amoxicillion, but I'll do it tomorrow if I start him on it. thank God for Chris she gave me the dosage amount for him and has truly been so helpful. She has had such a willing spirit when she has had two babies die and one put in the hospital since dorothy has left. Pray for the kids to keep healthy and pray for Chris and her ministry just down the road from us. They have over 100kids and are always dealing with things like that.

thanks again for being so encouraging and as always praying diligently. my thanks can not be written or spocken in words...its just too much.

Natasha :)

try again

videos. i am trying them again. i made a youtube account so i can hopefully post videos, but again...i'm not too techno savy.

they be on the side bar...i cant get them in the post. enjoy :)

i know i know

i am so sorry it has been more than a couple days since my last post. I have been sick (yes again) and when i am sick i don't seem to have the energy to really catch up on my blog. I still have cough attacks here and there and Kev's always says.."steady girl!" it makes me laugh, which sometimes in turn makes me cough more. but its definitely getting better. I'm taking amoxicillion for adults that Dannae brought me from the school. Thank God!

Dorothy has had her Doctor's appt. and it looks like she is going to be getting a full knee replacement in August. No wonder she is in pain so much here. If everything goes well she will be returning next Thursday. I am ready for her to come back as I have felt our house being under attack. There have been a few fights between nannies, kids getting sick and so forth, but its starting to calm down. Thanks too so many of you who truly are my prayer warriors!!


I haven't heard the nannies fight in the past couple days so that's good. I also haven't seen any more chicken pox. Cha Cha skin is starting to look bad again, he was on oral medicine for fungus for a whole month. He just got off, so hopefully he wont have to get back on it. What else...oh Claudine's eyes have been itchy and watery. Kev's eyes were throbbing the other day and have been very red off and on. So I have been giving them eye drops, but they don't like it. Claudine's eyes have been itchy and watery. Kev's eyes were throbbing the other day and have been very red and water off and on. It might be the beginning of pink eye. Hopefully it will not get worse.
Chris, who i have mentioned before, has a medical background, and she has been a lot of help. I have called her more than once to get a more educated answer/advice to solve something.

We went to healing hands Wednesday and the traffic was so bad we didn't even get into the building until 11:40 and then by 12 Poutchino and Frantzo still hadn't been seen, so I decided we just needed to get home. I really didn't want to risk Poutchino having a seizure. He needs to be on a regular schedule and when he is hungry, tired and hot its an open invitation for one to happen. I had to go to this meeting this afternoon to fill in for Dorothy's place and I didn't get back home until 4:00. Therefore Poutchino hasn't had therapy in 3 days and I feel horrible. Pray Healing Hands goes better tomorrow and that he doesn't have a seizure.

Oh one more thing, I was told at the meeting that i attended today that Haiti still hasn't elected a new prime minister in place and people are getting antsy. If it does not happen soon there may be another outbreak of rioting and we definitely don't want that.

PRAY FOR HAITI.
Pray for Peace.
Pray for Safety.
Pray for Renewal.
Pray for Wisdom.
Pray for Health.
JUST PRAY.

Blessings to you all, wherever you may be!

LOVE LOVE LOVE
Natasha Rae Taylor

Day 3

Things seem to be going well. I'm on day 3 of Dorothy being in the states.
Today we Jeusla and i went to the clinic and it was crazy. i think its the first time since i have been here that i was EXTREMELY frustrated that i couldn't speak creole. apparently these new nurses all weren't listening or understanding sir jesula, thought we didn't pay, etc etc. but of course all i see is there is a problem and i cant fix it. we called Emmanuel who knows English sort of...then finally by the grace of God Nephtalie's Doctor came and saw her. we paid 10 Haitian dollars and left. she is fine, still has a little diarrhea so he prescribed something, but she has two more days on other meds that are helping that so i am probably just going to wait it out because Jesula says its piti piti (very little). if we have to we can go get those meds. i might have to have Chris (Dorothy gave me a long list of numbers to call if i need help- just like a mom right)look at it because i have no idea what it says. if i have to go the pharmacy i wont know what to buy.


We did pay by the way, in fact the hospital owes us some money because they didn't have change. Emmanuel is going to go back Monday to get it. i realized that i have to make the breakfast for everyone Sunday morning and Rosemarie didn't make Cinnamon rolls, so hopefully i can figure something out. usually they fix hard boiled eggs and milk, but i am really not good at making those...it will probably be peanut butter and bread and milk.

EDH came on at 7pm yesterday so i got to do 3 loads of laundry all before 10pm, isn't that great. the nannies were very happy! Kevs is doing better as is cha cha with the chicken pox. kevs desperately wants to be able to go to church, but i don't want to infect any other kids. my gust says don't let Gertie go because she more than likely has them and is in the contagious stage. however i feel so bad letting Richardson go and not Gertie, plus it would be so confusing to her because he is the one that looks sick. i don't know. its seems easier to say none of the them can go so no one feels left out, but that might be extreme. pray i have discernment and my follow gut instinct on this motherly decision.

i think thats it for now.
hope all is well. love love love

Dorothy is Gone

So this morning we took Dorothy to the airport…Dottie drove, but i will be picking her up when she returns. dottie had to drive because i dont know the way to the airport, but now i do so no worries.

Kevs has chicken pox or so we think. Cha Cha seems to have it to, but he doesn’t seem to be itching as much or suffering, where poor kevs, I think he is a bit miserable. Anyway, all this to say I may have a house full of children who have the chicken pox. We haven’t been able to get the kids vaccinated for that yet…so yea. Pray that it doesn’t spread and if it does that no one will have a temperature over 102 and that they will all heal fast…if they get it. LORD I hope they don’t. Yesterday we went and finished running errands and got Nephtalie’s chest X-ray. I have to take her back to the clinic in the hospital oh Thursday so the Doctor can see the results. Funny isn’t it, that we have to go to another location to get x-rays. Everything you do in the hospitals here it seems you have to provide. The care is nowhere what it is in the states. Dorothy even has a razor blade in the emergency hospital bag because if they have to shave the head for some reason you have to provide the razor for them to do that. Its quite ridiculous. However when there is lack of resources and lack educated people its just the way it is. It is still very heartbreaking though.

Okay I think that’s all for today. Pray for me…I’m the boss for the next 2 weeks or so. Pray everything goes smoothly. Pray Poutchino has no seizures, that the children stay healthy, that we have EDH each night, that the peace continues, that I drive safe every time I am out, that I can communicate when needed with the small vocabulary that I have and anything else that comes to your mind.

THANKS for being my prayer warriors, supporters, encouragers, readers, friends and so much more. :)

Blessings,
Natasha

bout time...

Okay it has been only about a week, but i feel like i have SO much to tell. as always when its been awhile i try to be short and sweet with the large amount of info.

Neptalie is out of the hospital! PRAISE GOD! she still has to get an x-ray of her chest and go back to see the doctor one more time, but she is home and doing much better!

Regina's mom moved in with us (i think i maybe mentioned that already) she is taking care of Regina, but really has no clue how to be a mom. She wanted to spend the nights out and always coming up with excuses about something. Friday when we returned from healing hands she had left with Regina and hasn't been back since. It is sad because i don't know that Regina with get the care she needs, but you cant save everyone and she is with her mother. hopefully the mother will learn and do her best to take care of her.

On Thursday a woman with her baby and 3 other women came to the house. we talked to them for probably 3 hours (btw- Emanuel is the best so patient and honest)and then we had the 3 women leave (they weren't helping and we found 2 of them didn't even know her). the woman stay with her baby and talked for another hour probably. it was so exhausting and the story is always changing or being misunderstood. the baby boy was 5 months old and severely malnourished. she was giving him carrot juice because she couldn't afford formula and she wasn't able to breast feed probably from lack of nutrition in her own body. she had gone to a doctor and some how came out believing she couldn't have children again because of being so anemic. we had to explain to her that she could, but she might die if she does. the baby probably already has brain damage from lack of nutrients, you can tell this from the fact that his skull is not fully developed. its very heartbreaking. Dorothy didn't feel the holy spirit leading her to take in the baby and my heart was torn. she felt that she really wanted to teach the mother a lesson and she couldn't leave the country and put a baby in my care that could die on me. she didn't feel comfortable with that. and to be honest i wasn't sure that i felt comfortable with it either. we kept giving her other options, but it seemed she had tried them all and closed all the doors we offered. finally we gave her 2 options...1.we would take the baby in and she would have to get a job and pay to help get formula and so forth, or 2.she could come with her baby everyday here and we would provide all the formula, diapers, etc., but she would leave at 6 every night because we still had Regina's mom. she left and hasn't come back.

here's the thing thou, we have room now so that that mother could stay because Regina's mom left. so pray she comes back. i know the above sounds harsh to some of you maybe, but you cant always give hand outs...sometimes you cant take in a child, sometimes they need to see how actions have consequences. its never an easy decision to make. you always want to help, but sometimes don't have the means. there is so much more to this than i wrote, but know that we did are best and just pray...sometimes that is literally all you can do.

oh what next...i met some more new people this week...Emory and Mary Wilson. they are in the process of moving down here to live for 2 years being christian light missionaries in Gonaives, which is a couple hours past bercy. they are really sweet people. they know the brooks family and I'm blessed to have met them!!! they have met a little boy who is severally burned and also asked Dorothy to take him in, but he is so bad, and there isn't a lot here for burned victims, again she is leaving the country and doesn't want to risk me having to deal with the death of a baby. so its been a bit sad lately. part of me thinks God just really wants me to have more responsibility when she is gone, but maybe that's just me making light hearted the situations.

anyway we are trying to figure out how to get the baby into the one hospital that might be able to help. the thing is someone has to be with the child in the hospital at all times, because they wont play mama...changing diapers, etc. therefore some family member has to come in to PAP with the child and no member seems to be able to or willing, who knows. also this hospital wont help anyone if they know that there is an association with 'a blanc.' so pray that we get something figure out, because burns if they get infected, well there isn't a lot of hope for the child.

sorry i wasn't full of much happy news, but its life sometimes. God is still working and moving. i see blessings everyday despite the circumstances!

Blessings,
tasha

Espoir and more

Last night we had to take Naphtalie to the hospital down the street. It was about 9pm when we left with Sr. Lucien and a bag full of things. Hospitals here are VERY different. The only one I have been to so far is Sacred Heart and it is amazing, almost like an American hospital. Espoir (Hope Hospital) is right down from our house, a private hospital and the administrator is actually Gladys, Dorothy’s landlord here. However it was nothing like sacred heart. Very dead inside, no one really communicates what’s going on, no organization, trying to take a babies plus by fingers on her wrist, only one doctor. In the fist 30-45 minutes nothing was done that me a Dorothy couldn’t have done ourselves. In the meantime, Nephatalie is desperately struggling for air and needing oxygen. The amazing thing was there was an oxygen tank right there and they put an IV in her, which she wasn’t dehydrated. Anyway lets. Just say it was interesting. She is still there, they have her on oxygen now and the same antibiotic that Narlande was taking. The antibiotic will stop a bacterial infection, but we do not exactly know what is going on. The nannies are taking turns being with her at the hospital. Pray she gets better fast. Not only because its no fun having little babies sick in the hospital, but also because Dorothy is leaving for the states soon and we also are running really low on funds for this coming month.

In fact, Dorothy looked over funds today and it doesn’t look so good. Apparently, Christian light informed her of her low amount, which really is about the total of what it takes to do pay roll each month and nothing else. We know that God will provide and we will of course cut back where we can. however pray because I know Dorothy is more worried about leaving now and I am then in return a bit more nervous about her going, but I trust that the Lord. I do not want to ask for money and this is not a plea, I just want you to know what is going on considering this is why I have the blog. Nonetheless if you do feel lead you can send a check to Dorothy through Christian Light foundation.

Dorothy Pearce
Christian Light Foundation
Post Office Box 23881
Jacksonville, FL 32241

GOD BLESS,
Natasha Taylor