Wednesday, March 21, 2007

3 boys in Haiti desperate for a family

Duckhein- sitting on a broken bike
Emmanuel

Jacques


Hi everyone,

I've been mostly sharing this with adoption groups but I wanted to share this here as well to ask you to pray for these boys and if you are willing... to share information about them with people that you know.

Here is their information:
I got this information from a missionary/RN working and living for a few months at HFC. There are 3 teenage boys that she adores that are very near turning 16 and want very much to be adopted. Since they are almost 16 the clock is quickly ticking and they soon may not be adoptable. I promised her I would share information and pictures of these boys with everyone I could think of. Could you also please pass this on to anyone you know and ask them to pray for and about homes for these boys, if it's God's will that they are adopted. I know we all know of many kids that we would like to help find a home for but it is much harder to find someone that will take in a teenager and time is crucial for these boys. I will paste her discription of the boys.
Here is what she knows about them:
Let me tell you about the three almost 16-year old boys. I would love it if you would let your friends who might consider adopting hear about them too. Not to mention, your family. Selfishly, I would love to see them adopted on the East coast because I would get to see them more often, but anywhere would be a miracle. And the more kids end up near you, the more likely I am to come visit (besides, as a Bostonian, Iam always up to taking a winter trip to somewhere warm). OK, the boys:
Duckhein Joseph was born on October 17th, 1991. He is, first and foremost, an athlete. He lives and breathes soccer. Among the 30 boys, he is the best soccer player, not just because his personal skills are phenomenal but because he knows how to play with his team, using their skills and supporting their play. When he can’t be playing soccer, he is watching soccer, drawing replays from World Cup games, and arguing with the other boys about which professional soccer team is the best. Duckhein is more self-confident than a lot of the other boys – he is not afraid to answer questions in English class, he is comfortable talking with girls (rather rare for our boys), and he doesn’t mind being teased. He is also agood student. He’s currently in 9th grade where he works hard and maintains his grades, and he is in my top English class. We call him Duck.
Jacques Obain (I wrote about him in my last update. I don’t know if you’re on my update list, so I am going to copy what I wrote about him into this message.) We found Jacques 8 years ago at the hospital where he had been brought in gravely ill and then abandoned. When the orphanage staff arrived, all he could tell them was that his name was Jacobin. He didn’t know how old he was, where he was from, or who his parents were. So they turned Jacobin into a first and last name, Jacques Obain, and they chose a birthday, a birthplace, and imaginary parents for him. He is trustworthy, he’s quiet, he’s smart, he’s serious about his faith, he’s respectful of adults, he’s grateful for what he has at the orphanage, and he never complains. He is the second smartest boy in 9thgrade, he is my 3rd best English student, and I most frequently find him reading or studying. Every Saturday, Jacques gives me free Creole lessons –without his help, I would still be talking like a 2year-old. He also loves soccer and basketball, and just this week, he discovered a natural talent for American football. Now here’s the glitch with Jacques: he looks younger than his age,and since we never actually knew when he was born, DrB has told me that they are probably going to change his birth certificate to make him younger. This hasn’t happened yet, and it would be typical of Haitian culture for it not to happen at all, so until I see a copy of his new birth certificate, I am considering him to be 15 years old. His current birthday is September 5, 1991.
Emmanuel Deronvil (nicknamed Manno) was born on January 25, 1991. (I also wrote about him in my March update, but I will add that in anyways.) Manno’s mother and younger sister live in our neighborhood;his older brother lives and works in Port-au-Prince. When I asked him why he was the only child in his family living at the orphanage, he explained hesitantly that his brother was already old enough to fend for himself and his sister was the baby of the family, so Manno’s mother made the decision to send him away so that she could care for the remaining two. His father died when Manno was a little boy – he remembers going downtown with his dad and his dad getting a drink. I don’t know how or why he thinks this, but Manno says that the drink was poisoned. When they got home, his father got sick, and the next day, Manno’s mother made him get dressed in church clothes. Manno didn’t know why, but he knew somethingwas wrong because all the grown-ups were crying. He remembers asking, “Mommy, why are you crying?” and she wouldn’t tell him. Finally, they got to the church and he saw his father in the casket and he understood. Manno’s mother works odd jobs for the orphanage and his sister is a student at our school, so he sees them frequently, but I get the impression that knowing them may have made things harder for Manno rather than easier. He needs alone time – I often come to the boys’ house and find him lying awake on his bed or sitting outside on the steps while the other boys are all watching a soccer game or listening to music. He is also a more hesitant than the other boys to give or receive love, but once you win his confidence, he is fiercely loyal. Manno is not doing well at school right now, but I think it is more because he is not motivated to work than because he is not smart. I know because I teach him English that he is bright andthat he understands new concepts quickly, so I think his failure in school is more a manifestation of his insecurity and fears about the future than anything else. Manno’s big talent is arts and crafts: he is always working on a drawing or bead bracelets or making beautiful name posters to hang over the boys’beds. This week, he handmade and personally decorated a journal for me. His dream is to have his own storewhere he makes and sells artwork – unfortunately,those skills are not particularly encouraged at the orphanage, and he told me once that he was convinced that if he was not able to leave Haiti, he would never be able to fulfill his dream.

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