Monday, October 29, 2007
Chalk...the new body paint
I was looking through my pictures from the August trip and came across a couple to post. (Adding to You-You's pictures of the kids playing with chalk..)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Haiti, Evansville create family bonds...
What a delight to see this in the paper this morning:
Haiti, Evansville create family bonds
Nine Evansville-area families plan to adopt Haitian orphans
By Susan Orr (Contact)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
When Angela and Shawn Collins of Evansville traveled to Angel House orphanage in Haiti last year, their intent was to visit the children and volunteer there.
The couple wanted children but had put the idea aside after experiencing the pain of several miscarriages.
But, Angela Collins said, God had a different plan. While at Angel House, she found herself drawn to two children. She told her husband, who said he also felt a connection with them.
After praying about it and talking to the children, they decided to begin the adoption process for Steven and Belle, both 9.
"I never thought I'd go to an orphanage and decide to adopt two 9 year olds. ... I have no idea how to explain it. It was God," she said.
(Coincidentally, a few months after that Haiti visit, Angela learned she was pregnant. The Collinses' daughter, Madelyn, was born in July.)
The Collinses are among nine Evansville-area families who are in the process of adopting a total of 17 Angel House children, ages infant to 9. Located in Port-au-Prince, Angel House cares for children who have been abandoned, orphaned or brought in by parents too poor to care for them.
If the adoptions proceed on schedule, the first of the children will arrive by Christmas, with all of them here by Christmas 2008.
The Angel House adoption network has grown through word-of-mouth.
Michelle Cundiff of Evansville, a friend of Angela Collins, is missions leader for Three Angels Children's Relief, the agency that runs the orphanage, a Christian school and a medical clinic. She and her husband, Jeremy, are in the process of adopting three children.
"It is unusual for so many families to be adopting from the same orphanage, especially since Haiti isn't necessarily a hot spot to adopt from," Cundiff wrote in an e-mail interview. "We attribute this to God."
Another family, Kathy and Randy Koenig of Newburgh, is working to adopt three children: Shakira, 5, Samara, 3, and Caleb, 5 months old. Those children will join Phoebe, 4, whom the Koenigs adopted as an infant in North Carolina.
The Koenigs attend Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, and the church will host a benefit concert Friday at 7 p.m. to help raise money for the family's adoption expenses.
The Koenigs heard about Angel House through church friends who are adopting two children from there.
Kathy Koenig's connection with the children began online. She was looking at the orphanage's Web site and saw Samara's photo. The little girl had the same birthday as Phoebe, the same gap-toothed grin and the same love of dance and music.
Randy noticed the similarities, too.
"We just knew we were meant to adopt Samara," Kathy said.
In months to come, the couple decided to adopt the two other children.
The couple traveled to Haiti in July to visit the children and meet their biological mothers.
For Kathy, the experience was emotional. For Randy, it was a confirmation they were doing God's will.
"I knew that these children needed me," Randy said.
The Koenigs estimate all three adoptions should be complete between December and February. In the meantime, they're preparing for the new arrivals.
Photographs of the children hang on the walls, and the Koenigs regularly send family pictures to Angel House. The Koenigs are learning to speak some Creole, and they are collecting Haitian recipes.
As the families wait, they have gotten to know each other.
Cundiff hosts a weekly mothers' prayer gathering, and the families plan to stay in touch.
"We feel extremely blessed that the children will be able to continue the friendships they have formed in the orphanage," Cundiff wrote.
DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press
Phoebe Koenig, 4, right, does her best to comfort Eva Brown, 3, sitting in her mother, Theresa Brown's lap. Eva was having a tough time during their Sunday school music class at Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Evansville. Theresa Brown and her husband Don are one of the sets of parents who will be adopting a child from Haiti in the near future. Eva's country of birth is China.
DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press
The current Koenig family of Newburgh, Phoebe, 4, Randy and Kathy, get together for a worship service after their Sunday school classes at Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer recently. The family will soon double with the addition of Shakira, 5, Samara, 3, and Caleb, 5 months.
Haiti, Evansville create family bonds
Nine Evansville-area families plan to adopt Haitian orphans
By Susan Orr (Contact)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
When Angela and Shawn Collins of Evansville traveled to Angel House orphanage in Haiti last year, their intent was to visit the children and volunteer there.
The couple wanted children but had put the idea aside after experiencing the pain of several miscarriages.
But, Angela Collins said, God had a different plan. While at Angel House, she found herself drawn to two children. She told her husband, who said he also felt a connection with them.
After praying about it and talking to the children, they decided to begin the adoption process for Steven and Belle, both 9.
"I never thought I'd go to an orphanage and decide to adopt two 9 year olds. ... I have no idea how to explain it. It was God," she said.
(Coincidentally, a few months after that Haiti visit, Angela learned she was pregnant. The Collinses' daughter, Madelyn, was born in July.)
The Collinses are among nine Evansville-area families who are in the process of adopting a total of 17 Angel House children, ages infant to 9. Located in Port-au-Prince, Angel House cares for children who have been abandoned, orphaned or brought in by parents too poor to care for them.
If the adoptions proceed on schedule, the first of the children will arrive by Christmas, with all of them here by Christmas 2008.
The Angel House adoption network has grown through word-of-mouth.
Michelle Cundiff of Evansville, a friend of Angela Collins, is missions leader for Three Angels Children's Relief, the agency that runs the orphanage, a Christian school and a medical clinic. She and her husband, Jeremy, are in the process of adopting three children.
"It is unusual for so many families to be adopting from the same orphanage, especially since Haiti isn't necessarily a hot spot to adopt from," Cundiff wrote in an e-mail interview. "We attribute this to God."
Another family, Kathy and Randy Koenig of Newburgh, is working to adopt three children: Shakira, 5, Samara, 3, and Caleb, 5 months old. Those children will join Phoebe, 4, whom the Koenigs adopted as an infant in North Carolina.
The Koenigs attend Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, and the church will host a benefit concert Friday at 7 p.m. to help raise money for the family's adoption expenses.
The Koenigs heard about Angel House through church friends who are adopting two children from there.
Kathy Koenig's connection with the children began online. She was looking at the orphanage's Web site and saw Samara's photo. The little girl had the same birthday as Phoebe, the same gap-toothed grin and the same love of dance and music.
Randy noticed the similarities, too.
"We just knew we were meant to adopt Samara," Kathy said.
In months to come, the couple decided to adopt the two other children.
The couple traveled to Haiti in July to visit the children and meet their biological mothers.
For Kathy, the experience was emotional. For Randy, it was a confirmation they were doing God's will.
"I knew that these children needed me," Randy said.
The Koenigs estimate all three adoptions should be complete between December and February. In the meantime, they're preparing for the new arrivals.
Photographs of the children hang on the walls, and the Koenigs regularly send family pictures to Angel House. The Koenigs are learning to speak some Creole, and they are collecting Haitian recipes.
As the families wait, they have gotten to know each other.
Cundiff hosts a weekly mothers' prayer gathering, and the families plan to stay in touch.
"We feel extremely blessed that the children will be able to continue the friendships they have formed in the orphanage," Cundiff wrote.
DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press
Phoebe Koenig, 4, right, does her best to comfort Eva Brown, 3, sitting in her mother, Theresa Brown's lap. Eva was having a tough time during their Sunday school music class at Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in Evansville. Theresa Brown and her husband Don are one of the sets of parents who will be adopting a child from Haiti in the near future. Eva's country of birth is China.
DENNY SIMMONS / Courier & Press
The current Koenig family of Newburgh, Phoebe, 4, Randy and Kathy, get together for a worship service after their Sunday school classes at Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer recently. The family will soon double with the addition of Shakira, 5, Samara, 3, and Caleb, 5 months.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Laugh, Cry, Pray
A nurse told me today, "I tell families three things: First of all, I'm going to laugh with them. Second, I'm going to cry with them. And then I'm going to pray with them. And if they don't like that, I'm going to do it behind their back."
I was able to experience all three with the wonderful husband of one of my patients. Her health started to deteriorate Saturday afternoon. She began seizing and became unresponsive and no one was really sure why. She was taken to the Neuro ICU where they finally decided she is experiencing kidney failure from too many medications. She was still unresponsive today when I stopped down in the ICU.
I laughed with her family many times last week while she was a patient on my floor.
I cried with her husband today while he swaddled me, as if I was the one that needed to be comforted. And we prayed...
There is nothing quite like connecting through prayer. The Lord was present in that room!! He is Jehovah Rapha (the God that heals).
I was able to experience all three with the wonderful husband of one of my patients. Her health started to deteriorate Saturday afternoon. She began seizing and became unresponsive and no one was really sure why. She was taken to the Neuro ICU where they finally decided she is experiencing kidney failure from too many medications. She was still unresponsive today when I stopped down in the ICU.
I laughed with her family many times last week while she was a patient on my floor.
I cried with her husband today while he swaddled me, as if I was the one that needed to be comforted. And we prayed...
There is nothing quite like connecting through prayer. The Lord was present in that room!! He is Jehovah Rapha (the God that heals).
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Oh, My Grandma!
A Tribute to my Grandma Kate:
She is 87 (or as she would tell you, 29).
Year after year, she continues to turn 29...I don't know how she does it?!
She is beautiful, young at heart, and a strong woman.
She was a wonderful wife.
She is a colon cancer survivor.
She is a fighter and a worrier.
She uses black electrical tape to fix everything.
She can speak some Croatian.
She never learned how to drive.
She saves her coins for her grandchildren.
She sleeps on the couch.
She loves lunch dates.
She reads more books than anyone I know.
This woman is funny, I'm tellin' ya. My mom was discussing with her
what she wore recently to a nice event. (sometimes her fashion
is..well..not up to date). My grandma responded to my mom by saying,
"Oh honey, I was dressed to kill."
I am so blessed to have a wonderful and funny grandma that has
been so active in my life.
Thanks Grandma for all you do!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Suffering for His Glory
I walked into a patient's room tonight and could not figure out where the horrible smell was coming from. I had not received report from the nurse yet, but I saw the patient was receiving dialysis. I figured he was just admitted for kidney failure. Wow, was I in for a shock...
I lifted the sheets off of his legs to find a bloody, oozy mess. Gangrene. For anyone that has ever had to smell gangrene, you know the smell I am referring to. It is one smell you will never forget. I have never tried so hard to hold back vomit in my life. What a poor old man. Unable to walk, obviously in pain, yet still resisting the option of amputation. Later during the evening I helped the nurse change his dressing.
We went to pull the dressing off without knowing how much of his flesh was gone. As we pulled away the bandages, we realized the gauze was packed deep into his big toe(the toe itself was missing) and into the back side of his calf. There were flesh and tissue just hanging from his leg and his other toes were not going to last much longer. What do you do if his toe falls off while you are packing his wound? Just toss it in the biohazardous waste? Why would someone want to live like this? The constant stinch radiating from his leg has to be enough to make him sick.
I left the room in total disgust, but more so replaying the question in my head, "Why does my mighty and faithful God allow people to experience such anguish?" (Oh, if you could have seen the hurt in this man's eyes).
I had this dicussion with one of my patients last week. She was admitted for an infection in her hip (which had been replaced multiple times). To make sure the infection healed, they removed her hip completely. She layed in her bed all day long...in severe pain, uncomfortable, and in a similar situation as the man above. Yet she made the choice day in and day out to pray and praise her God. She made the decision to trust that somehow the Lord was using her in this situation to further His kingdom. She was learning to find joy in the midst of her trials and bring glory to His Name no matter what circumstances she was to endure. Most people would tend to think she was in a "dark" place, but actually she was a light to those living in the dark around her.
That is our sole purpose on this earth, to bring glory and honor to the Father. As tough as it may be, sometimes we are chosen to suffer for His kingdom. And those whom are chosen will be rewarded by sharing in his glory.
Romans 4:20
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.
Romans 8:17-18
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
2 Corinthians 4:7-18
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken."[b]With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
I lifted the sheets off of his legs to find a bloody, oozy mess. Gangrene. For anyone that has ever had to smell gangrene, you know the smell I am referring to. It is one smell you will never forget. I have never tried so hard to hold back vomit in my life. What a poor old man. Unable to walk, obviously in pain, yet still resisting the option of amputation. Later during the evening I helped the nurse change his dressing.
We went to pull the dressing off without knowing how much of his flesh was gone. As we pulled away the bandages, we realized the gauze was packed deep into his big toe(the toe itself was missing) and into the back side of his calf. There were flesh and tissue just hanging from his leg and his other toes were not going to last much longer. What do you do if his toe falls off while you are packing his wound? Just toss it in the biohazardous waste? Why would someone want to live like this? The constant stinch radiating from his leg has to be enough to make him sick.
I left the room in total disgust, but more so replaying the question in my head, "Why does my mighty and faithful God allow people to experience such anguish?" (Oh, if you could have seen the hurt in this man's eyes).
I had this dicussion with one of my patients last week. She was admitted for an infection in her hip (which had been replaced multiple times). To make sure the infection healed, they removed her hip completely. She layed in her bed all day long...in severe pain, uncomfortable, and in a similar situation as the man above. Yet she made the choice day in and day out to pray and praise her God. She made the decision to trust that somehow the Lord was using her in this situation to further His kingdom. She was learning to find joy in the midst of her trials and bring glory to His Name no matter what circumstances she was to endure. Most people would tend to think she was in a "dark" place, but actually she was a light to those living in the dark around her.
That is our sole purpose on this earth, to bring glory and honor to the Father. As tough as it may be, sometimes we are chosen to suffer for His kingdom. And those whom are chosen will be rewarded by sharing in his glory.
Romans 4:20
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.
Romans 8:17-18
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
2 Corinthians 4:7-18
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 13It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken."[b]With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. 16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
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