Wednesday, April 23, 2008

the food crisis in haiti

I need to share with you all,I am just really feeling so much sorrow for the food crisis and thehungry people in Haiti.I mean,all we hear about is the expensive food and fuel in the US andhow that is affecting *us*,but gosh,we just have sooo much more than these poor souls. I mean when was the last time your belly was truly empty because you had no food in your house and you had no means to buy *anything* to fill your empty stomach?
Last night, dh and I went out to an "all you can eat" seafood buffet.This place was packed,,oh maybe ???? 400 people could be held in the restaraunt at one time. And it was FULL to capacity the whole time wewere there. people just streaming in to eat. And everyone,,I mean my husband and I and everyone in this restaraunt, were definitely pigging out. Iam talking full heaping plates, again and again full of crab legs.It was weird for me to sit there and people watch. I dont get out all that much around crowds of adults as I spend most of my life sheltered in my house that I share with many children. But last night I spent a lonnng time just sitting and watching people bcz I was done eating long before Michael. I had time to just sit and do nothing but watch people eat.Now I truly do not mean to offend anyone who has a weight problem,but I have to say how I was so struck by the amount of obese people and even "morbidly obese" people that were eating at this restaraunt last night. Seriously, I saw a *few* people that were obviously so overweight that they couldnt even walk ,being pushed into this all you could eat bufffet in wheelchairs.As I sat in the center of the hustle and bustle of glutonous Americans GORGING ourselves,I couldnt help but reflect on our sisters and brothers hustling andbustling trying to find a meal of rice for supper last night in Haiti

Food crisis sends Haitian boat people to U.S.

Refugees risk crossings in unsafe vessels to escape hunger and poverty








MONTROUIS, Haiti - Acute hunger and the rising cost of living could send a new wave of boat people to the U.S. from Haiti, where rising food prices set off deadly riots two weeks ago and drove the prime minister from office, officials and analysts say.
In the small town of Montrouis, about 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince, desperate Haitians say they will seize the first opportunity to take a boat toward the U.S. coast to escape the misery that plagues Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
"I will leave with the next boat going to Miami because I can no longer resist this hunger," Marcel Jonassaint, 34, told Reuters on Tuesday as he sat barefoot near the dock in Montrouis, throwing a handful of small rocks into the ocean.

"I have four children and I don't have a job and everything is expensive, even for those who are working," Jonassaint said. "So what do you want me to do?"
Montrouis is a coastal village, overlooking the island of La Gonave, reputed as a key launching point for migrant boats.
'I will try again'"I left earlier this year. Our boat was intercepted in the high seas, but I will try again," said 29-year-old Rachel Chavanne. "I know some people, like a cousin of mine, who had a successful trip there.
"My turn will also come one day," she said in her blue dress, with a smile on her face.
Haitian lawmakers fired Prime Minister Jacques Eduard Alexis earlier this month to quell anger over rising food prices that sparked violent protests in Haiti. At least six people died in a week of protests and looting.

The director for the country's national migration office, Jeanne Bernard Pierre, said since the food crisis, her agency has received more repatriated Haitian boat people in a week than it used to receive in a month or more.
"We have received 212 repatriated last week, we have just received 227 and we are receiving 114 tomorrow," Pierre told Reuters on Tuesday.
"It is clear that more boat people have been leaving the country and you should expect even more if they cannot find an alternative," said Pierre, who urged the government and the international community to set up programs to ease the plight of the poorest and most vulnerable.
Interceptions more than doubleThe U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted 972 Haitian migrants at sea since October 1, compared with 376 during the same period last year. But the numbers typically fluctuate and it's impossible to link any spike in the numbers to any one event such as the recent food riots, Coast Guard Petty Officer Barry Bena said.
"It peaks at certain points and there's months on end when we get no Haitian vessels at all," he said.
Pierre said her office is doing its best to persuade suffering Haitians to stay home, but "they believe the only alternative left for them is to leave."
Migration office employees have been sent to poor, seaside neighborhoods to warn people how


risky it is to take to the sea in rustic vessels, but they reply by giving examples of friends and relatives they knew made it to Miami.
'Sharks eating people'"We even show them pictures of sharks eating people, but they would tell us they know many others who reached U.S soil and who are now sending money to relatives left in Haiti," said Pierre.
There are frequent reports of drownings when unsafe and overloaded migrant vessels capsize or break apart while trying to reach the United States and the Bahamas. A suspected migrant smuggling boat capsized off the Bahamas during the weekend and rescue crews recovered three survivors and 15 bodies, many of them Haitians.
Human rights activist Renan Hedouville said Haitians are leaving because the government and the rest of the world have turned a blind eye to the hungry.
"The universal right to have access to food has been neglected and denied to so many people," Hedouville said. "That's why people in desperate straits are taking to the sea, risking their lives and seeking a solution which is not really one."


Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Grandchild "Civeah Shae" born 4/14/08

Here she is!!!! 7lbs 4oz, 19 inches long . Tons of BLACK hair. gramma holding her for the first time and exclaiming "She looks JUST like you, Bre"
love at first sight. Civeah owns a piece of my heart already
she owns a piece of 2 grammas hearts already:)
Breinn did soooooooooooooo wonderfully! She stayed at home in the bathtub until contractions were starting to feel "pushy". When they got to the hospital Bre was dilated to 9cm! Civeah came into the world at 8:04 pm totally naturally. I am SO PROUD of my strong daughter Breinn and her valiant husband , Wes!

now move aside, mama and daddy. Civeah has AUNTIES galore to hold her. Here is Civeah and Kailyn





The happiest family on earth. Our brand new sweet granddaughter with her proud mama and daddy.






Sunday, April 6, 2008

Nuttin but Stringz


must see you tube. Willow's and my favorite song to dance to :)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008


yep, the Lord answers our prayers given in faith,even those sincere prayers for the animals:)
Let me share a story of Gods Provision with you:
We were going to run out of hay last Sat.bcz the person that promised to hold hay for Michael last fall changed his mind. When Mike went to go pay for and get his hay he found that this man sold it to another person this spring bcz the price of hay skyrocketed this spring as it is TOTALLY unavailable bcz of the drought here last summer. Everyone is short of hay and hay that sold for $35 a large round bale last fall is now $60 or $80 a bale IF you could find it!So Michael found some bales here, some there, some not so great but he took ANYTHING anyone offered. Our usually FAT happy cows are looking very lean this spring,but Michael is doing his best to find enough hay to tide them over til pasture grows mid May.Last weekend a friend of Mikes brought him a load of small squarebales to take him thru a couple more days. Michael did find someone selling hay in Willow, 7 miles away, which is AMAZING bcz we hav einquired of EVERYONE and most people LAUGHED out loud when you asked them if they knew anyone w/ hay for sale. Anyway,Mike went to look at these bales and they were SHABBY and really loose and had hardly ZERO hay in them for $60 a bale. Michael said he would rather pay $80 a bale for better bales. I had to bite my tongue from TELLING him to SNAP THAT HAY UP!!! bcz I didnt see ANY other haycoming available. But, I did bite my tongue bcz I really felt I was to to stay out of it and let Michael figure it out bcz God has lessons to teach us and it was none of my business.
Then Mike found another guy w/ hay about 50 mins away and another an hour away. All of this hay was EXPENSIVE and then add to that Mike has to hire a friend with a pickup and big trailer and pay gas money to make the ???I dunno how many trips it would be to get 40 bales or whatever, maybe 4 or 5 trips w/ 8 or 10 bales per load????
Then the phone rang yesterday and the person that owns the land touching our land was getting back to Michael as he had talked to her last week about a pile of hay out on their field. SHE DIDNT EVEN KNOWTHE HAY WAS THERE! And when Mike said he had his eye on it all winter she said that it belonged to the guy that rented their fields last yr. So Mike calls that guy and he says,
"no, not my hay. I got all mine off. That is the land owners hay."
So Mike just asks the guy who rented the land to call the landowner and work it out bcz Mike felt like the monkey in the middle and no one knew whose hay it was.
I guess they contacted each other, figured it all out and then the landowner called Mike back to tell him he could have the hay for $25 a bale!!! (for the same hay he paid $35 a bale for last fall when hay was cheap) bcz they just wanted to get the hay out of there!! And Hallelujah~ there are 46 bales!!!GOOD ,BIG BALES !GOOD HAY! even more than Mike asked for!!!And she said that 5 different farmers approached them this week asking for hay and she told them she didnt have any,,,,and all the while they had these bales that they didnt know about,,,bcz God had them saved for Mike,,,right touching our land,,,where Mike wont have to pay anyone for hauling as Mike can just drive the tractor over there and retrieve them one at a time as he is feeding cattle!!
Praise the Lord!!!! I *knew* God would answer our prayers!!!!

Breinn's Blessingway

Bre's Blessingway was a beautiful, encouraging, Spiritual event. About 20 of Bre's closest relatives and friends came together to help prepare her for her new path in life, motherhood. The first thing we did was have Bre sit on a chair. As sisters, Lacy and Riah washed and massaged Bre's feet(to symbolically prepare them for the new path she will walk, "motherhood"), Larah and Kailyn massaged her hands and I, mama jill, brushed and braided Bre's hair in a french braid, something i havent done for her in years.

As I brushed and played with her hair I told her about the day of her birth. I told her about the morning drive to the hospital the day of her birth and what an intense experience her induced birth was. I tried to convey to her how becoming a mother for the first time changed my life. I told her what a holy thing birth is and gave her tips for relaxing her entire body during labor. To surrender to the contractions, dont fight them, allow her body to work as it was created to work to bring forth new life.


I told her that her goal during early labor was to feel as relaxed as she did right at that moment. A surrendered birth is an easier birth.

The second part of the Blessingway all of the attendees presented an article from nature that they had brought that represented motherhood or birth to them. We had many interesting choices. Lots of pine cones, which contain the seed for the new strong tree, seashells, a baby sand dollar,rocks, willow branch, a spider web (which is delicate and intricate looking but pound per pound 5 times stronger than steel. Just like a mother). Sister Lacy even presented Bre with a bag with chicken manure in it:) Explaining that, "sometimes motherhood is dirty"

In the next part of the Blessingway everyone presented their Blessings for Bre and babe in the form of a poem, Bible verse or sincere wishes and prayers for Bre's passage and for sweet baby. Of course, there was hardly a dry eye in the room as we all wept for joy for Bre and for her child.

At this point I sent a lit candle around the circle of loved ones. As we held the candle we all expressed our connection to Breinn and how she has effected our lives.


This part of the Blessingway was extremely emotional as we all expressed our deep love for our beloved , Breinn. Many of us could barely get the words out of our mouths but instead spoke with our tears and hugs presented to her. There was no question to all present how loved Breinn is.

After that emotional time we had a time of laying our hands on Bre and petitioning God, through prayer, for Breinns birth experience, for health and safety for her child and that Bre and her husband Wes will be bound together in a closer union than they have ever experienced as they bring forth life together.

This prayer time was so powerful, yet so sweet. It was an annointed time where we felt Gods Holy Presence in our midst. After our voiced prayers, while still in a worshipful mood, I turned up the CD of Serene and Pearl singing "MAGNIFY YOU LORD" and the Holy moment continued through their angelic voices filling the room as we continued to pray and praise God silently with our hands raised to Him.

The last part of the Blessingway we wound a single hemp cord around all of our wrists, symbolizing our connection as mothers and/or future mothers with Breinn and symbolizing the circle of life.

We cut the string between each of us and tied it off on our wrists, promising to wear the string as a reminder to hold Bre in our thoughts and prayers until after the birth of her child.

All in all it was a beautiful heart felt event and Breinn expressed afterward how it was so much more meaningful to her than she had imagined it would be.

"Be blessed honey, we love you so much. I know that you will be a wonderful mother and that God will use you and this new life He created and is entrusting to your care."

love,,,,,mom