Wait... we are four months into the new year already?! This is crazy... my (once very recently baby) sister Abby turned 21 yesterday, my wedding is coming up in four and a half months (!!!!), and I can't believe I've now been living in San Juan for almost eight months. I thank God for the blessing of the Casa to the families in this region, for those of you who are supporting them with your prayers and money, and for this opportunity that I have to serve here and to learn so much. One of my favorite parts of my job has been learning how to do the ultrasound. There is so much to learn but I am thankful to have the basics down and my newest skill is determining the sex of the baby!

We had 13 births during the month of March and 5 hospital references all with positive results. We have about the same number of births scheduled for April. We currently are serving 130 moms prenatal and postnatal!

As our number of patients grows and our desire to be more regularly involved in the three remote villages of San Juan (Palestina, Panyebar, Pasaquim) grows, please do pray for the finances and the right people to join the Casa staff. 

Our kitchen and wash area is in the finishing stages. We have a very small space that we use for a kitchen right now and no wash space, so we are very excited!

Please do follow us on Instagram (Casa Materna Atitlan) and Facebook (Casa Materna Atitlan) for current updates with patients and projects we have going on. 

This week we had two professors from the College of Nursing (Midwifery Department) from the Univ. of Utah come to visit. They are investigating places for their students to do study abroad and post-grad internships. It was a great visit and I hope that we are able to collaborate with them. I told them I want to be a midwife and they said that they will look for my application... I didn't tell them I'm most likely going to stay on the east coast :)

I am very thankful that Kennet has been able to use his many skills to help in the process of establishing the Casa. As we look forward to our wedding and our life together here in San Juan for a time, we are very thankful that he also has the opportunity to serve long-term with me in this clinic.

This week he actually ventured outside of the crater and visited the beautiful land of Haiti. It was his first time there as well as his first time meeting my brother Jon! They are there with The Hands and Feet Project. If you are interested investing in the future of Haiti, I highly suggest this organization! They work hard at family preservation and care holistically for orphaned and abandoned children. 

I am particularly grateful that Kennet and Jon are on this specific trip for several reasons. One of them being that I see great potential for my brother to use his film skills and resources to support Haiti. He has such a big heart and there is so much opportunity for him there! Another reason is that orphan-care and adoption have always been close to my heart.
I have many friends and family members who are part of my life through the miracle of adoption. There are so many countries represented in my life... India, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania, China, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nicaragua, the US, to name just some of them. 
As most of you know, I have two little brothers in heaven. I've always wanted a baby brother since losing both of mine, and God did provide that for me through the adoption of my little brother, my little champ, Nathan. 
And you know something cool? A total side note...I was listening to a podcast recently of Christy Nockels. Her husband's name is Nathan, and she shared that the word "nathan" in Hebrew means "to give." Wow. God did give me the little brother I've always wanted. He is the giver of every perfect gift (James 1:17).

One thing that I love in particular about HaFP is that they not only care for orphans, but they help employee kids graduating from their program, and they fight for family preservation. Since I was very young I have wanted to work in orphan care and adoption. In learning about HaFP's family preservation work (as well as my friend Tara in Honduras launching a new family preservation project with her orphan care ministry), I began to be more deeply grateful for the work that I am doing through the Casa, helping mothers and babies survive pregnancy and birth, helping prevent orphans and keep families together.

Kennet will also visit REBUILD globally whom my friend Sarah works with. Another amazing organization fighting poverty through education and entrepreneurship/ job provision (check out the founder's TED talk on the website- very inspiring). 

Kennet's report to me after his first hours in Haiti was quite surprising to me. He grew up in Honduras, a country beautiful country with beautiful people, though ravaged by corruption, extreme poverty, and violence. We now live in Guatemala and in the same type of situation. Seeing poverty day in and day out. 

I have been to Haiti twice back in 2008, but not since the earthquake. My experience there was actually very similar to my experience here in Central America. I know from pictures and my family's stories about how devastated the country still is seven years later post earthquake and now post hurricane, but there is nothing that takes the place of experience. 

After driving two hours southward from Port-au-Prince to Jacmel, Kennet told me that he was "shocked" at the state of the country. He said Port-au-Prince is a complete disaster. There is no order. People just burn trash anywhere and everywhere and dig through it to find food and recyclables. He said that he could see the desperation in their faces. I knew that Haiti was in bad shape from my family as I mentioned, but I was honestly surprised to hear this report from him. He told me, "I mean, it's not like Aleppo, but it's really bad."

When I told my mom what Kennet said, she told me that she calls Nicaragua "first world compared to Haiti."

These conversations have caused me to think a lot... to think about people as individuals, not as a country, a region, or a city. Because to me, suffering is suffering and there's no difference to your suffering depending on what country you live in. When you have no job, no access to clean water, no means to buy school supplies for your children, when your husband beats you and leaves you alone with your young children to fend for yourselves, when you're an orphan living in an overcrowded government facility being abused sexually and physically, when you are living in a tent in a refugee camp, having fled for your life and having lost everything...more than anything, when you don't know love and you don't know your purpose for existence... This suffering is everywhere and I don't believe that it is fair to label countries or compare them and leave it at that, because we miss the individual. 

I understand the larger picture and that Haiti is more in ruins economically and that the government is maybe more corrupt than other governments. And that compared to a war-torn country it is in much better shape. And on the larger scale we can rate countries based on such things as safety, employment, incomes, access to education, etc, but I don't want this to cause me to miss the individual. The need for food and shelter and safety and family and more than anything, to know the love of God is equal everywhere you go.

In March, a fire was set by some teenage girls living in a government-run facility for orphaned and abused children near the City of Guatemala. Some of them began to protest/escape due to the horrid living condition and abuse. When they were locked up after trying to escape, they set fire to the mattresses and very sadly 40 girls died in that fire. (Christianity Today wrote an encouraging article  about the government turning to Christians for help in the area of orphan care after this incident, but what a shame that these precious girls had to die in order to begin to get the attention needed!). This suffering is the same suffering that the children that Kennet is with this week in Haiti would be experiencing had they not been in the care of The Hands and Feet Project. Countries and cities may have labels, but don't forget the individual. 

It may sound crazy at first, but there are some people in the United States, for example, who are suffering more than some people in Haiti, for example. Why? As I mentioned before, the difference is knowing the love of God and having a purpose in life.

It doesn't matter where you live, remember that you can do your part to help someone in need. I think at some point everyone is "that" person in need. Remember a time when you were in need and someone gave you an encouraging word, a place to stay, or fulfilled your need in some way. If you are grateful that they were wiling to help "just one," remember that you too can do the same. It doesn't matter where you live. We all need to know Love (1 John 4:8).