summing it up

The passage of time can be such a strange thing; how can six weeks seem like forever (in a good way) and yet go by so mind-spinningly quickly? How is it that it simultaneously seems like it's just been a few days since Taylor and I arrived in my Haiti home...and yet it also feels like a lifetime ago? Don't ask me to make sense of this.

Six weeks. 43 days in that place that I so love. How do I sum up all of the joy - the tears - the hopes -the pain - the laughter that I both saw and experienced in that short-long time? The gift of being present to witness the first breath of a new little life, of seeing a mother connect with her child for the very first time. The heartache of knowing so many whose stories are difficult to hear, let alone to comprehend the reality of what they face. The renewed realization that we serve a God who alone can (and does!) rescue and redeem and save. 

Joy and sadness intermingle in much of the day-to-day life at the maternity center, in many of the lives of the women we are blessed to get to know and serve. Being there for a little bit longer this time allowed me to begin to see that more fully, to start to learn more than just names and due dates. It allowed me the privilege of hearing their stories, of being invited to share in even a small piece of their lives. For this, I am both immensely thankful and humbled to have been given such a gift. I've shared some of this quote from Beth McHoul before, but I'm going to post it again, because it so profoundly expresses the heart behind the ministry of the maternity center: 

The heartbeat of our maternity center is our relationship with our women...Our maternity center sees a lot of joy, we have a lot of fun and witness the miracle of birth over and over.  Sometimes it is required of us to dip our cups into a well of sorrow and grieve with people in loss.  And this we willingly do because the word midwife means to be “with women” and Christian means to be “like Christ”.

Se sa. What a privilege it is to get to come alongside so many women and walk with them through such a significant time as pregnancy, childbirth, and the early months of parenting. To be given the opportunity to enter into their joy and hopes and dreams and, yes, at times, even their sorrow. To get to know so many wonderful, strong, resilient, faith-filled women. To share even a piece of life together. What an incredible, beautiful gift.

I am so grateful for the time I was able to spend in Haiti this summer. Thank you, thank you, thank you to each of you who made it possible for me to be there and, especially, for all of your prayers. Being able to spend the summer in my Haiti home means more to me than I can say, and I am all the more excited (and impatient!) now for next year (hopefully) when I can be there full-time. But, in the meantime, for the next several months at least, back to Texas/Starbucks/nursing school (via Nashville ;) I go!