Hello world outside Haiti! This is Emily. I am so excited to be back in this country! The flight down was good, and the closer and closer it got the more and more anxious I got. When we landed, the whole plane burst out in a fantastic Haitian cheer of clapping, whistles, and "Halleluia"s. Even in the airport, I could see an improvement since I was there last year. It upgraded from a building that resembled more of a warehouse to an actual airport. The city itself has improved too...on the drive to the Arrises' I could see the small things that have changed. As a whole, you don't see a huge difference, but when you look at the details, you can. The amount of trash has gone down a lot, some of the roads are having work done on them, some tent cities are completely gone, others have improved some (public showers, nicer tarps, etc). It's the things like that that give me hope and those things that I need to keep realizing. On our way in we actually got to see the President too! Well, we saw his motorcade at least :) It was cool to think that we were like 50 feet from him.
So after we got here, we made a quick stop at the house to drop off my luggage and eat a quick PB&J, then me, mom, and Obed headed straight over to SOG orphanage to see my girl Sarafina :) When she came out, she didn't run to me, didn't jump into my arms, didn't shed tears of happiness, but she smiled the most pure and happy smile that I have ever seen in my life. She is an incredibly shy little girl, so I know that was the most affectionate welcome I could have gotten and it was more than enough! We were welcomed into the parlor at the orphanage where she sat perched on my lap while me and mom got to know her better. For the first time, I could actually ask her everything I wanted to know unlike when we were crowded around by the other 100 kids. She opened up to us and told us what she remembers about her life before SOG. She said she had an older sister named Daphne, and they lived with her aunt. One day her aunt sent her out for something, but Sarafina got lost. She had no idea where she was, or how to get home. A missions organization found her and brought her to the orphanage where she has been ever since. This prompted mom to be hopeful and say "Well then you could still have family out there looking for you, right?!" Her response, with a solemn, heart-breaking face replied the simple words of "No, I don't think so. There's no hope." Wow...that devestated me...she doesn't know how old she was when she came or when her birthday is. She says she is 8, but she told me she was 8 last year, so I think she's 9, but it is possible that nobody in this world knows for sure. We did get to know some good things about her, too :) I now know that her favorite color is white, her favorite animal is a lion (because it's the king of all the other animals, haha), she wants to be a pilot when she grows up, and she loves school. I fall more and more in love with her every time I see her! We are hoping to get to take her for the day at least once while I am here, but we'll have to call that by ear.
Today I got to go to church and see some more old friends which was great :) I can't wait to see what else God has in store for me on this trip!!
In HIM,
Emily
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