Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Three Perfect Sisters...


Many of you know that my two youngest sons are adopted from Haiti. Jay and I have had a heart for the children in that country for many years and I have been fortunate to travel there on a numerous trips. I have also served on the board of Angel Missions Haiti for the last 4 years. Angel Missions Haiti (www.angelmissionshaiti.blogspot.com) works to arrange donated medical care for the sickest children in Haiti who are unable to be treated in their home country. Many of these children come to the US to receive the care they need. We have also been fortunate to be a host family in the past. Once the children are healthy, they are reunited with their anxious Haitian families. In addition to the medical visa program, AMH is collaborating with other organizations to build a much needed pediatric surgical center in Port au Prince. This will allow us to provide the children with life-saving care without having to seperate them from their families. As with most non-profit groups, AMH is struggling to raise funds for all of these services.

I was blessed yesterday with the opportunity to travel to Roanoke to see my friend Vanessa who is the director of AMH. She is currently caring for triplet girls who were born in the mountains of Haiti to a very poor family who didn't have the resources to feed their tiny babies. The mother asked Vanessa to take the babies who were so close to dying and to help them as Angel Missions has helped other children from her village. These little sisters only weighed a few pounds each when they were found, but are growing quickly now. At four months, they range in weight between 7 - 9 lbs. Their names are Faith, Hope & Grace and they are just a few of the many children who will benefit from Angel Missions Haiti services this year.

All of the pictures on this post were taken yesterday. It was so fun to play with three tiny girls all at once. They look like newborns, but act older & have incredible smiles. They were all very patient with me & my camera. In fact, they would each watch me as I moved around taking photos of their sisters. I was amazed at how happy & content they were. I hope you enjoy seeing the portraits as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Faith:



Hope (the littlest):




Hope & Faith snuggling:


Grace (the biggest & strongest of the three):





We took a few Christmas pictures to use in our end-of-year program update & fundraising letter that will go out in the next month. Hoping that not many people can resist these sweet faces!


They were so funny when we put them all together. Hope is the happiest in the middle when she can be touching both of her other sisters. In fact, she likes to sleep while holding on to the other two girls! Grace was content to just hang out, but Faith had decided that she wanted to eat & take a nap. I freely admit that I was more than happy to put my camera down and spend some time feeding and cuddling her! I hope to take some more photos of them in the coming months as they get bigger & stronger so please check back to see their progress.


For comparison, here is the photo Vanessa took of the girls shortly before bringing them to the US in September. Notice that they are covered by wash clothes and their size compared to the baby bottle beside them!