Sacred Ground/My Hero Part 1

I met Harry Mardy on 9 December 2004. Chancho and I were in Haiti for the first time. We were visiting our new son, 2 month old Loumy. We spent our first day at the orphanage and then, when it was time to take us to our hotel, Harry and his new wife, Pascal, drove with us since they lived near the hotel where we were staying in Petionville. I was feeling extremely overwhelmed--the poverty in Haiti was staggering and felt hopeless. I had already fallen madly in love with my baby and the fear of leaving him in a few days crushed down on my chest. Harry had a calm and a peace about him that was greatly comforting as we drove in the dark through the streets that were often ravaged by riots and violence. A coup had taken place several months earlier and the country was in complete disarray with an interim government that didn't have a hold on much of anything and a very small UN force that was trying to "keep the peace" but mostly failing.

At the time I was not only meeting my own child but was building Wasatch International Adoptions Haiti program and was meeting with orphanage directors, becoming acquainted with the process, and meeting other children whom clients were in the process of adopting. It was awesome but also horrible. So much sadness. So much chaos. So much hopelessness. I wondered how things could ever get better for this country.

But then Sunday came. Isson's father came to walk to church with us. It was just two blocks away from our hotel, but he wanted to make sure that we were safe. I remember walking through the gates of the Petionville ward building and onto the grounds. A feeling of peace came over me. We were a few minutes late and as we walked up the steps, I could hear the Elders' quorum singing, "Praise to the Man." This wasn't like the quiet, mumbled singing I'd heard at my ward. This was a quorum of at least 40 or 50 and they were singing at the top of their voices. My eyes welled with tears and I felt a joy and a hope that I hadn't felt all week. Although I could understand almost nothing of what was said during the next 3 hours, I basked in the Spirit and my entire outlook for the people and country of Haiti changed. I felt a hope and I felt...like I had returned home to a place I had dearly missed. So strange to explain unless you've felt it yourself. After those meetings I felt a love for the people and I knew that God loved them and that He had not given up on them and certainly I should not, either.

Here I am with little Cindy Joseph at the Petionville ward. She and I became instant friends. Standing in the courtyard that steamy afternoon I felt as if I was standing on sacred ground. A little over a year later, we had Haitian Roots up and running and Isson took a trip to Haiti to meet with our first group of children. He was trying to find a place where they could all meet together and it worked out for them to use the Petionville ward. Isson took this picture of our first children standing against one of the walls of the church (February 2006).
This photo is of Isson (on right) and one of our coordinators, Yves Carm, at the same gathering.Ever since the first time I stepped into that courtyard, I have loved that place. We have now held many meetings there and I attend church there every time I'm in Haiti (except for once, when I attended Centrale). Here are a few photos of special times I remember at the Petionville church.

I got to meet my "boys" and was able to share the moment with my own sister, Amy.
I was able to see Chareyl fall in love with Haiti for the first time, just as I was positive she would.I was able to meet my own "Haitian Daughter", Joveline.
I got to see Haitian children setting aside the difficulties of their every day lives to play carefree. I was able to see friends meet the children they had sponsored.I was able to meet my friends' sons' birth family and gave them hugs for her.

I bonded even closer to a lifelong friend while we attended church and then met two street boys in the courtyard whose example changed our lives.
I was able to see our small group of children grow and grow, and with each child came a deeper love and respect and humility.These are only a few of the wonderful things that have happened and emotions that I have felt on these particular grounds.

Having thus experienced so much joy and hope and love all in one spot, it is no wonder that when I am in Haiti, I long to stay at Kinam Hotel so I can be within walking distance of the Petionville church, for to me, it feels like sacred ground.

Sacred Ground/My Hero Part 2

While serving in the Texas San Antonio Mission, I had the opportunity to go to a meeting just for us missionaries with Elder Richard G. Scott. It was one of the most amazing meetings of my life. Not necessarily the most spiritual moment of the meeting, but a lesson that really stood out to me, was when he was talking about heroes. He said that we should all have heroes in our lives--people that we can look to as we are on our path towards being like Jesus Christ. None of us will be perfect in this life, but we should choose heroes to put in front of us on our path and as we try to emulate their Christlike attributes, we will grow closer to our ultimate goal.

I have had many different heroes throughout my life. Over the past few years, this one keeps coming back. Harry Mardy. It was only about six weeks before the earthquake that Harry was called to be the Bishop of the Petionville Ward. For those of you unfamiliar with the LDS church and this "calling", it is one of the most demanding jobs that you could be asked to do. We have no paid clergy in our church, so this is a completely volunteer position. Basically, you are asked to be the "father of the congregation". You have many jobs, not the least of which is to take care of the welfare of your flock and that includes all the people living within the assigned boundaries of your congregation, not just the members of the church. This is a difficult job anyway, but in Haiti it requires an extreme amount of faith, determination, and hard work.

When I expressed to Harry that I knew he would be a marvelous bishop, he responded, "Thank you so much for your support this is one of the calling I wished not to be nerver happen to me as you know you can't say NO."

Indeed he did not say no and when the world fell apart in Haiti on 12 January, hundreds if not thousands of people flocked to the Petionville church and looked to Harry to save them.As you can imagine, he has been extremely overwhelmed. His home (an orphanage where he lived with his wife and two children and cared for the orphans under his charge) had been damaged so he was living at the church with his family, the orphans, and hundreds of others who had lost their homes. When I received this short email from him (5 days post quake) confirming that he had been able to meet with a dr friend of mine, it made me cry:

"Hi Shannon ...I'm so glad I can buy the food for our kids and the needs.I feel very tired I need to laydonw. Thank you Shannon." I thought, if anybody needs to "laydown" right now and rest it would be Harry. But I'm afraid that did not happen. These photos were taken by the Deseret News. Here Harry is trying to hang up some tarps to provide additional shelter for all of the people on the church grounds.

When I think about Harry and how he had been called to this position and accepted such a short time before the quake, I think of the story of Esther. My sister, Nancy, reminded me of it and it reminded me of Harry.

Esther is a beautiful, young queen. She is also a Jew. The prophet Mordecai comes to her and explains that some crazy stuff has been going on and that a manifest has been made for all of the Jews to be killed. Mordecai asks Esther to go in and talk to the king to see if he can fix things. Esther tells him that she can't because there is a law that you cannot go in unto the king unless he calls you and he hasn't called for her in over 30 days. If you go in with out being called by him, he can kill you.

Mordecai says to her that she must do it, "...and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

Esther then agrees. She asks Mordecai and all the Jews and her maidens to fast with her and says that she will do what has been asked of her and says, "and if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16) Luckily the king accepts her into the court, listens to her, and the Jews are saved.

I wrote to Harry about this story and said, "The reason I share this with you is because I have no doubt that the Lord knew what was going to be happening in Haiti and that he called YOU to be bishop at “such a time as this” because he knew you were the one who could do the work He needed. You can be trusted by the Lord, just like Esther. Also, although the burden is on your shoulders, we share it with you. Like the Jews and all of Esther’s people, we fast with you and we pray with you. And we will do all that we can to help."

I forgot to mention that in addition to the burdens he has on his shoulders, Harry also lost his mother and sister in the earthquake, as well as the loss of friends and other extended family members. Yet a month later, Harry continues on, diligently, faithfully, determinedly, and with hope. The following is part of an email I received from him today: "Thank you so much my friend and sister... I have a need is tents, water filters blankets for my members and other people like the non-members they keep asking me thing because they know I'm a bishop that make me feel very bad because I can't effort to help them all....

Your friend and brother

With love Harry."

Did I happen to mention that he is probably the most humble person you could ever meet? I am so grateful for people like Harry. I have definitely placed the image of him in front of me as my hero. I have no doubt that as I try to become just a little bit more like Harry Mardy, I will grow closer to my Savior, Jesus Christ.

The following are some photos that Deseret News took at the Petionville church:

I am so amazed at the resilience, hope, and beauty of these people. I don't want to help them because I want to do something good. I want to help them because I love them and I respect them and they AMAZE me. How do you go through what they've been through and still smile, joke, read your scriptures, help babies laugh, keep yourself clean, do your friend's hair, hug and encourage another? I don't know where these amazing spirits came from. But I'm sure it can't hurt that they are standing on sacred ground.

HURRAY!

I usually avoid reading comments on stories in our local newspapers when I read them on-line. I don't know if it is this way everywhere...well...let's face it...there are boneheads every where...but it seems there are several trolls who just lurk on-line at a few news sites I visit regularly waiting to make an inflammatory comment.

After an article was printed in the Deseret News last week about Chareyl Moyes helping to unite dozens of families with their adopted children, there were a lot of happy comments, and then, the regulars...these were my "favorites":

"Leave them there. It is a mistake, why not adopt american children. They speak french and you don't. They are black and you are white. They are loved but do not fit in either culture, black or white. They lose their identity in both cultures. If you want to adopt then move down their and raise them. "
and
"How about adopting some of our Utah children ? If you want to be a hero, look in your own backyard. "

Like I say, I usually don't even look at the comments because I know that I will see these kinds and they will make me mad. But these didn't upset me. They just made me laugh and shake my head. There are all kinds of people in this world, aren't there? Those that wrote these comments aren't my favorite kinds. Goodness, I'm in a generous mood. :)

Anywho...I had to borrow some pictures from the Deseret News Photographers of some of the families that I love being RE-united with their children. I hope its okay with the families...but they were already on a public news site, so I'm guessing it'll be all right.

Jean Tony and Darline meet a new family member:

Michelle and Avrie give each other a kiss:
I started working with the Carol family to help them adopt BEFORE Loumy came home from Haiti FIVE YEARS AGO. When I left the adoption agency nearly three years later they still had not been able to bring their daughters home. Here they are with their second Haitian daughter, Mia, in Miami. It took three years to get Taciana home (in bottom photo on right) and then another two to finally get Mia home.
Marilee kisses the youngest of her three Haitian children. Scott went to Haiti with Chareyl and spent ten days with his two daughters, Avrie and Destina (below) and all of the other kids that they were trying to help bring home. They slept on the pavement in the driveway of the orphanage. After already losing two daughters before they could get them home to get the medical care they needed, Scott was not leaving Haiti with out his girls! Here he helps D ride a bike in Miami while they wait for Michelle to arrive.
Finally they are reunited!!!

Yonelson doesn't seem to be too sad, either, about finally getting to come home to his amazing parents, the Aitkens.
That reunion for the Aitkens was wonderful, but also bittersweet. They were adopting three children and at the last minute some paperwork was lost and their oldest, 8 year old Fabrice, who had been waiting to get on the plane with the rest of the children at the airport, was not allowed to go. It was heartbreaking for everybody. When Chareyl first told me, she couldn't even tell me the details, it was such a horrific and heartbreaking moment for her. One thing that killed me to hear the most is that, as he sobbed, Fabrice kept saying he was sorry--as if it was his fault and was apologizing and begging to get to go with them. So...I couldn't even bear to tell you that if I didn't also get to tell you that two days later they got the paperwork settled and the Aitkens (who had been waiting in Miami for Fabrice) were finally able to bring him home to Utah.

This picture says it all, but read this story if you want to know more . Here Fabrice runs through the airport to meet waiting family. He had met some of his older brothers on previous trips to Haiti.


Here Fabrice gives "Uncle Brent" a hug. Brent was down in Haiti with Chareyl and Scott as well. Fabrice had also come to know and love him on the many other visits that Brent had made to Haiti.
Look at these photos and tell me now that you're gonna make a lame comment about these families. Nobody trying to be a hero. Nobody ignorant of the issues involved with adoption. Just a lot of people feeling extremely overjoyed that their families are FINALLY together. I get it. Do you?

On a side note, tonight as I was looking at the photos of Fabrice coming home, Loumy came over and asked who the boys were and pointed to the younger one and said, "Can I write a letter to him?" And...since I happen to have the email for that little boy's mother, I said yes. I think it will be a while before Yonelson learns enough English to understand the message, but I think it is so interesting that Loumy feels such a connection to other Haitian children and a longing to be near them. I feel blessed that we have Chareyl's Robby and other children and now there are a lot more little Haitians in Utah.

Dear Yonelson,

My name is Andre. I was wondering if you could ask my mom if we could play one day and I have a toy for you that I can give you. I was wondering if you want to be friends with me. And I’m from Haiti, too. And I have more friends that can meet you maybe one day. That’s all.

From Andre.

Other Things

I told Chanch that I didn't want a present for Christmas because there wasn't anything I wanted and we didn't have the money and because, you know, I'm just that self-sacrificing (ha). Then my ever-bargain-shopping-brother-in-law found this for a SWEET deal and so I made Chancho buy it for me. I've wanted a nice camera for oh so long my life and now I have one! Yippee! I don't really know how to use it yet. Luckily my very talented sister, Amy, is going to take me along on some photo shoots with her one of these days and I'll start figuring it out.

Of course I couldn't wait to try it out, so I took a few shots of the kids with the tree. Turns out I can get some decent shots just pretty much by pointing and shooting. I took some shots of my favorite Nativities (the only thing that I collect). I love Nativities. My heart nearly bursts with joy when I think of people all over the world, from all different cultures, praising our Lord and Savior and celebrating His birth.

USA
Kenya
Israel

Hawaii

Guatemala

Mexico

Austria And, can you guess where? HAITI And then I took 9,000 shots of Finn. He is changing so fast that I can't bear to think of forgetting any one of these faces he makes.