Does it seem darker than before? How do you get the strength to go on? Feeling like you are drowning yet you raise your head and find the inner power to continue to push through. As a husband, there are certain roles that you assume. Provider, comforter, healer, leader, I could go on and on. We believe we are to hold it all together no matter what. Then comes that moment in time, where the sands slip through our fingers, and we begin to lose our grip. Fear and anxiety that we put our parents through as kids become a reality in that moment, as we lose control. Whether it is a spouse or child, you can be brought to your knees in an instant. One moment you are complacently going through your daily routines. Suddenly your life is turned upside down, and you are rocked to your core, no longer having control. My wife and I have not been blessed with children. I witnessed the stripping of all my power as illness took over her life. In a moment we went from our daily routines to feeling like we were barely breathing. Days and nights blended as I remained at her bedside. Every needle and pill she experienced pierced my helpless heart. I painstakingly watched as the doctors treated my wife more like a number than a person. All dignity and humanity were taken away as they tirelessly tried to find a label or condition to put on her. Our home was empty in […]

Read More

Spend some time with those that have little and you will find there are no orphans of God in Haiti. Once the ladies were done visiting the women’s ward in the hospital we were led to another ward in the hospital. We crossed the open courtyard to the infant ward, where there was a lady tending to the children. The first half of the room was full of cribs with young children that the woman, who we had found out was only a volunteer was doing her best to keep them from crying. Naturally the first instinct of many in our group was to want to comfort the children any way they could. In the back part of the same room in the ward there were a few family members gathered around their children. We had noticed that some of the children had no family, so we asked the volunteer. She shared with us that the children were dropped off by their parents, who since they could not afford the expense would not be back. The children in turn would remain at the hospital in the ward until they were fetched by the government and transferred to one of the many government-run orphanages. Looking into the eyes of one of the children in the cribs, my heart began to ache and tears welled up in my eyes. I told my wife I needed a moment and I stepped back into the open courtyard to get some air. The reality of the environment started to fill […]

Read More