Best Smile Ever

His smile lit up every room he was in. His only ways to communicate with us were his smile and hearty laugh or else tears and crying.

But the smile and laugh far outweighed the cries.

He made everyone feel like they were the most valuable person in the world. He was always so excited to see you, would give you a big hug, an ear to ear smile and a good chuckle.

Kiky was 2 when he came to the HOH and spent almost 9 years in our home. He was a beloved member of our family.

Last night, he passed away. Our hearts are heavy.

He touched everyone’s life in his own simple way. Although we never really were able to find out what his condition was, our lives were blessed by having him be a part for this little while.

We ask that you pray for comfort and peace for our family as we grieve this new loss.

We wanted to share a few pictures with you:

Kiky had a special relationship with our friends the Rodriguez family from Miami. Emma and Jack were two of his favorite people. He never forgot them, even though they could only see him occasionally.

2019 was the best year for Kiky.

 He really started to grow and improve in various skills through physical therapy.

But early in 2022 we started seeing a definite deterioration in his physical condition.

Our medical team tried all kinds of things to try and combat whatever it was that was making him waste away, but never could quite get on top of it.

Of course, the conditions in the country made it so that we really couldn’t do any testing or checking with other medical centers in Haiti

We still had hope that he would rally, but this past week he really took a turn for the worse.

Even still, his death came as a surprise to everyone, but not to our Father…

Our loss is Kiky's gain, there his body is whole. Those long legs that never quite worked down here are making up for lost time there, for sure! That voice that couldn’t join in the singing here will be belting out years of built-up praise. His pain and suffering have ended, and it is comforting to think he got the ultimate hug, from Jesus!

We are sure that most of you have likely heard something of the turmoil that Haiti is in these days. And Kiky’s death was just a reminder to us all that life doesn’t stop even when the country is falling apart around you. The ministry God has given us at the HOH continues to be so crucial to help the kids in our corner of Haiti who have or are falling through the cracks. Kiky was one of these. He was abandoned because of his special needs. There are so many around us, different stories, different circumstances, but just as needy. And as long as God gives us the ability to continue to do so, we will be there to bring them hope; physical, medical, emotional and most importantly spiritual hope in Jesus.

This came just after we had a great weekend celebrating the work Jesus did on our behalf at the cross, and the wonderful hope He gave us all through His resurrection. What a perfect time to remember Jesus defeated death for Kiky and for us!

Linda and the kids were able to keep up many of the traditions they’ve come to love around Easter. Friday night they watched the Jesus movie, Sunday was a special Resurrection Day service with a meal that followed. They were even able to have eggs for breakfast Sunday morning! We weren’t sure that would happen as supplies are dwindling at an alarming rate in our area of Haiti. But, Linda found some and I think the kid’s smiles speak volumes. Easter Sunday morning is the only time of the year everyone gets their own hard-boiled egg to eat!

Another blessing that came to us over the past couple of weeks is the start of the delivery of the mattresses that we raised money for and purchased last year. The kids have never had such nice mattresses to sleep on and they were thrilled to get them.

Some of you also bought pillows and sheets for them and those were a big hit as well. You can keep the rest of these items in your prayers as we keep trying to get them to the HOH.

Thank you to each of you who contacted us to see if we were ok as the news of Haiti has reached your area of the world. Thankfully, our area of Haiti has been spared the violence that the areas in and around the capital are facing. The difficulty for us continues to be food and supplies. It is a daily issue for Linda and the team on the ground to find and afford what they need to care for our large family. We’d ask you to keep this in your prayers. It certainly brings us face to face with the sentence, “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s prayer!

Pray for our staff who face many stresses both at the HOH and in their homes (there is devastating lack of cash in our area, which puts pressure on everyone). Pray that the violence would continue to stay away from the HOH. Pray also for our boys stuck in Port-au-Prince as they daily face the violence as well as the lack of food and supplies. Pray that all of us will find our strength in the Lord and that our faith would be renewed day by day in our Father in Heaven who has promised to provide for our needs.

One last bit of news. We have been blessed to have a new partner come alongside of us to help us with our website, promotional materials and things like that. We are so excited about having someone help us out with these things and so you’ll start to see some changes in the months ahead. The first change is that we were able to secure a new website address for the House of Hope website, and it is much easier than what we had before. The new website is houseofhopehaiti.org . See… simple! For now, we still have the old one as well, but using this simple one will take you right there.

We are very thankful for your partnership in this ministry. If you would like to have more frequent updates and are not part of our Facebook group, you can join here. Just answer the questions so we know your connection to the HOH. If you do not use Facebook but would still like to get these weekly updates, let us know and we can add you to the email version we send out as well.