Yaya’s House

 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
James 1:27

Hi, friend!

You may remember that Kevin traveled with a mission team to Haiti recently. It was a life-changing trip (to say the least!) and he and I both felt equal parts bursting-at-the-seams inspired and burdened-to-the-bone quiet before he even got home.

Today I want to share what we’ve been doing with all these opposite-ends-of-the-spectrum emotions over there the past couple of weeks. But first, let me start at the beginning…

Kevin, and the (3) other guys on the team: Jonathan, Cy and Josh, ended up serving at an orphanage called Village d’Esperance almost the entire time they were there. It was in need of a lot of repairs and painting, and they were happy to help tackle the entire to-do list. Village was created by a hardworking, precious angel-woman named Merianne Espérance. She and her husband, Raphael, rented the home and started their non-profit ministry together in 2009 because they both felt Called to care for the orphaned children of their country. Unfortunately, Raphael was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in 2014- leaving Merianne to run everything on her own. From what I understand, Raphael had been doing all of the fundraising/financial tasks involved in running the orphanage, and Merianne has been feeling pretty overwhelmed trying to manage everything by herself since his death. She does have one nanny on staff, and her precious sisters are so kind to help her with the children too, but they are living in total survival mode from day to day. Merianne refuses to give up on the kids and trusts God every day to help with their basic necessities like water, food, diapers, rent, etc. Friends who have known her for years told me she would do anything for the kids.To many of the children, she is the only “mom” they’ve ever known. Another mutual friend told me she sold her van recently in order to pay the rent.

So obviously we wanted to figure out how we could help. And, thankfully, that’s when Meredith (from our adoption agency and who lead the team in Haiti) told us that two adoptive moms, Farrar and Jill, (who adopted their daughters from Village d’Esperance) had created a non-profit organization called Yaya’s House to help come alongside Merianne and the kids in her care. (PS- the children call Merianne, “Yaya”.) 🙂

A few days later, we had a conference call with Farrar and Jill and it was like we had been friends forever. We brainstormed ideas over the phone and started a group text so that we could keep them flowing long after we all hung up. We brought Cy (who traveled with the team) and his wife (my bestie) Traci into the fold and we’ve all been in touch several times a day ever since! There are so many needs at Village, and we’ll be working behind-the-scenes on long-term solutions, but since funds are so incredibly tight for Merianne right now, and diapers are one of her greatest expenses, we decided to start by quickly hosting a diaper drive during the last two weeks of May. We’re calling it “May We Help?“.

Merianne has to purchase about 600 diapers per month and they cost twice as much in Haiti, so we’d love  to start by relieving her of that one, specific financial burden for the entire summer. Any extra funds raised will go towards the other necessities she’s having a hard time covering- like rent, water (which is also incredibly expensive) and food.

If you feel inspired to donate or even just help spread the word about the May We Help? fundraiser, we’d be ever-so-grateful and we know Merianne will be too! James 1:27 says,

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Thanks in advance to anyone who puts that scripture into action for her and the children at Village. Every contribution will make such a HUGE difference!

Layla

PS – Several of the children in Merianne’s care need forever families, so any extra funds that are raised could also be used to help Merianne cover the cost of the legal fees that come along with getting adoption paperwork started. If you’re interested in learning more about adopting a child from Haiti, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Meredith at [email protected]. She’s amazing and she helped us bring Steevenson home!