Georgy and His New Host Family...

This post will be short, as I have 5 minutes left of this day. But, before I go to bed I wanted you to all see Georgy with his new host family. We had him for 10 days when he first arrived and then he was transitioned to The Bearman's, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He was sad to leave our family, but was so excited to have 6 new 'siblings'. He started school the following week, and has had some rough bumps, but is getting much more accustomed to how things 'work' in America. He will be here for a long time for his treatments and surgeries, so we knew that school would be an essential piece to his life here. He is doing great and is very smart.

Today I went over to The Bearman's on our way to a family Christmas. Beth, Georgy's host mom, wanted me to quick snap some pics for their Christmas cards. I was there for about 5-10 minutes and this is what we got. They are an AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL family, so it was an EASY SHOOT!!! :-)

Here are some of my favorites in random order:

Denel...

Denel is an adult here in Fort Wayne with HTH. One year ago, Novemeber 6, 2008, his life was FOREVER changed!!! Denel grew up in Jeremy and then furthered his education in Port Au Prince. He went to the University there to further his education and received a degree in accounting. Denel was one of the lucky ones: he got his degree and he was able to find a job at a bank.

He lives in Carfou with his family and a 5 year old daughter. Last year on his way from Carfou to Delmas, the car in front of his got stopped by the infamous kidnappers. Denel was riding with 2 other co-workers and he was not driving. Their car was told to stop and they did. After the kidnappers were busy with the car in front of them, the driver of his car decided to attempt to escape. (I want you all to know that there were police that witnessed everything, but they were too scared of the kidnappers to get involved. They knew that they would be killed also.) His co-worker attempted to drive away and as they were being shot at, the vehicle hit a pothole and either got stuck or it slowed them down enough for some of the shooters to get close. (I am not 100% sure on that detail.)

So, as one of the shooters got closer, he shot through the window and one of the bullets went through Denel's right temporal lobe and out the left. When the bullet exited Denel's head, it his the woman sitting next to him in the arm. Fortunately, they got away and no one was killed. Denel survived this horrific, senseless, crime and woke up 10 days later with no vision and no sense of smell. The shock of the bullet going through his temporal lobes shattered his retinas off his eyes, destroyed the muscle for the eyelid in the left eye, and destroyed the olfactory lobe and left him with no sense of smell. He tastes very little since he cannot smell. He can tell if something is very sweet, salty, or spicy.

For the past year, Denel's family have spent most of their savings finding him help. Denel's sister works for God's Littlest Angels Orphanage, where a lot of our patients are from, and that is how we got involved.

In sharing Denel's story with you, I want to ask you all to cover him in prayer!!! We have seen the first ophthalmologist about 3 weeks ago and he can do cosmetic surgery for the one eye that can not open, but the retinal specialist needed to see him to see if any sight correction could be achieved. We saw Dr. Walker, a retinal specialist yesterday and Denel was told that there was nothing that can be done to restore any eyesight.

Obviously, Denel is devastated!!! He turned 32 in August, and was in the prime of his life as a Haitian man. He had a good job and was able to provide for his girlfriend and his 5 year old daughter. Now, with the news of never regaining his sight, he is left with soooooo many questions! "How will I survive in Haiti?" "How will I provide for my family?" "Will I ever work again?"

It is one thing to go blind here as an adult. It is just as devastating, but at least there are services here to assist these patients. In Haiti, there is NOTHING!!!!!! People are not accepting of disabilities. The disabled are made fun of and are not respected. This is now his REALITY!!!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE cover him in prayer! Denel is VERY INTELLIGENT and is a hard worker. He has been studying English since he arrived the end of October. Please pray that we are able to get him a job as a translator somewhere in Haiti!

Think of how blessed you are this Christmas season! Don't be focused on the 'things' that you can buy for Christmas, think of the way that same amount of money could help feed a family for more than a week. Now is the time to pay it forward to someone like Denel. Use your $ to help someone instead of buying a toy on a shelf that will more than likely break in a couple months. With HTH your $ is going to save or change someone's life FOREVER!!!

Would you consider donating to HTH today by using our Paypal button?

Thank you in advance for your continued prayers and support of Hands That Heal!

Rebekah Hubley
Founder and Director

A LOT to update...

I have a lot of updates on all of our kiddos, but one is pertinent right now!
Jean Widler is here on a US medical Visa for his strabismus (crossed eyes), but has had constant respiratory issues and ear infections since he arrived and before when he was in Haiti.

His host mom took him for a consult with an ENT (Dr. Stein) on Monday, and he scheduled surgery to remove the adenoids and to place tubes in his ears, for today. Surgery went great! They removed a lot of fluid from his ears and they are treating the infection now with antibiotic ear drops and an oral antibiotic for the thick mucus that they discovered in his lungs. He entire sinus tracks were filled with thick mucus and they were able to suction all of that out.

He is in recovery and when he is sleeping, his SATS are dropping as low as 78. NOT GOOD! The anesthesiologist is on the fence as to admit him overnight or not. Dr. Andrew Landrigan our Pediatrician for our HTH kids is going to see him after his lunch break.

Please pray that he gets to go home today and does not need to be observed overnight. Pray that his SATS come up miraculously and that they stay constant.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for HTH!!!