Li Bél >> She is Beautiful.

I stare down into the deep brown inviting eyes of a girl no older than 4, that gaze up at me with wonder. Her smile holds the suns power with all of it's light. LI BEL. (She is Beautiful) She is lovely. She is worthy, and a precious pearl of GREAT price.

I keep looking into her eyes, gazing far in - passed the surface story, and I see a girl without a trace of poverty to her name. Without a trace of homelessness and abandonment. She has strength. She has riches far passed anyone can imagine, stored for her in Heaven. Her only background and History is God's story of redeeming grace. Her love for others is marked on her radiant face. The Lord's love gives heat and light to her day. Hope falls down on her like rain, washing away the dirt of hunger and the pain. She is a child full of wonder. She is beauty.

She reaches skyward with open arms asking me to pick her up and hold her. I reach down, and hold her close. I carry this gem around the compound in Haiti as she continues to reflect light in every direction with her joy! I hold her, as if she was the most precious stone in the world, because she is. 'Ou Bél' she says to me while I'm holding her, to remind me that I too am beautiful. My heart bends, knowing that those words are pure and perfect coming from her sweet little voice.The girls here in Haiti, they remind me, Kyle and Kristie of our beauty almost every day. It's one of the most humbling gifts to be told this. Sometimes we, at least I know I do, fight the words but I know I need to receive it and value my worth because this little barefoot haitian girl in my arms, believes it.

A pearl of great price

I can learn so much from this 4 year old princess JouJou. She laughs at days to come. - Proverbs 31. She throws her head back in laughter over and over again and reminds me of the child I want to retain in myself. We laugh so much it brings me tears of joy. She makes this short time in Haiti feel like 100 days of laughter and belonging. She has some wild in her, but we all do, and that little bit of crazy makes for some colorful days. 


I am learning to be colorful and learning how to color outside the lines when it comes to being "adult". It is making life way more exciting and fun! And allowing me to appreciate the beauty in it. I came to serve in Haiti, but as always I am the one who is served with love.


Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant." 
-  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.