Our Beautiful Daughter, Carrie

I can’t resisting posting the body of the email we received from our daughter Carrie last night. She’s in Jamaica, volunteering at an orphanage outside of Kingston. She’s into week two of a five week stay. Read her story, and let me know if you can figure out the parts that make me nervous. (Hint: All the rest of the parts make me nothing but proud!) And if you don’t mind, I’d sure appreciate prayers for my little girl.

Hey, everybody! Greetings from 4,000 ft. up in the Jamaica mountains!

What an amazing week I have had! I’ve done everything from build a cement staircase down a steep mountain slope, to door-to-door ministry in Trenchtown (highest murder rate in the world!), to trying to get the attention of 49 attention-starved children at the same time.

The team from Mizzou that I was with left this morning, with the exception of one girl. At first it was quiet and lonely. I honestly didn’t know if I could last 4 weeks on my own. But I quickly got over it when I saw the kids’ faces again this morning.

They are so beautiful! Most of them are here because they were abandoned and abused. Some of them have been here since they were babies, or small children. There are 3 “houses”. The blue house is the older girls’ home. There are 9 girls that live there and I think the oldest is 13 or 14. I now live in the upstairs part of that house. The yellow house is the boys’ home at the bottom of the property. I haven’t been in it yet.

The green house is the toddler house. I’m not sure how many toddlers live there, but it feels like a trillion at times. I am actually lying in bed at the green house right now. I am a House Mother tonight for five sisters in one of the rooms here. Even though they are not all toddlers (range from 13-newborn), they all stay together in one room. I kind of like being the house mother! Except that their nightlight is massive, so I’ll have to sleep with a blanket over my head.

When I came in, I looked around the room as they were sleeping and I thought to myself, “I’m the nice Miss Hannigan (from the movie, Annie)! My dreams have come true!” This room is connected to another room where one little boy sleeps. His name is Joshua.

Let me tell you about Joshua. He is an emergency case who just got here a couple of weeks ago. His arm is in a huge cast up to his armpit because his father broke it. Joshua is by far one of the most angry and hostile children I have ever known. He lashes out at everything. Somebody looks at him crosseyed and he starts punching them (with his cast, of course).

Joshua is so handsome. When he does smile (too rarely), it lights up the room. I think he’s about 4 years old. I really love him and am trying to express that love however I can. If I see him about to get angry, I run up to him, pick him up, give him a big hug and tell him I love him. I really feel like he’s been denied true love for so long that he doesn’t even know how to respond to it. He just kind of has this look on his face like, “you do??” I really hope to see a big change in Joshua over the next month.

______________

What a morning! Five of us girls went to help out with the toddlers. Man oh man they’re a handful! Seriously, it almost drove us to insanity. Hitting, biting, screaming, kicking, punching, crying, hitting, crying, biting, hitting, hitting, hitting, screaming. It’s interesting because I know that when they realize I am here for longer than a week, they’ll start respecting me.

I’ve been told they’re like this with all of the short-timers. They test test test. And it takes longer than a week for them to start looking at new people as a disciplinarian. It’s so hard because you’ll see one kid hit another, so you go over to stop the fight and to take the “bad” kid away for a talk. The “bad” kid turns limp (the ol’ “I suddenly forgot how to walk” trick)...so it turns into a “Stond oop. Stond oop! STOND OOP NAWO!” (stand up. stand up! STAND UP NOW!) war.

By this time you see another kid across the room spitting in the baby’s eye while beating the sick kid with a wooden stick. So, you have to leave the limp kid to go make sure the baby and the sick kid are ok, and then try to remember to go discipline the culprit…well, the two culprits, if you count the first. All of the offenses start piling up and pretty soon you can’t remember who did what to who. It’s insane!

My schedule during the week will go something like this:
6AM wake up
7AM breakfast in toddler house
8:30AM staff devotions
9-11AM teaching school
11-12 toddler playtime
12PM lunch
1-2PM free time!
2-5PM tutor big kids and playtime with everybody
5 PM dinner
6 PM baths, getting everybody into PJ’s
7 PM toddler and big girl devotions
7:30 PM, bed for the kiddos, and me if I want to. :)

I will be free on some weeknights and every other weekend. I really don’t know what I’ll do when I’m off. Sleep and journal and make phone calls, I guess. I won’t go down into the murder and weed capital of the world unless there is a group going down.

Here is a nice little comparison I made on my first night here:

United States: Some roads are hard to deal with. We complain when I-70 is under construction (again) and traffic during rush hour can definitely be a mess.

Haiti: Four main “highways” that look more like mud pits than anything else. But not too curvy or up and down…just some slip-sliding around and a trillion pot holes to dodge.

Jamaica: The actual roads aren’t too bad at all. It’s the drive up the one lane road that goes up the mountain. Yes, one lane. I look to my right, I see rock. I look to my left, and can’t even see the bottom of the valley. Oh, and did I mention that the tires of the van are RIGHT on the edge and there’s no guardrail for a lot of it. Oh, and did I also mention that the driver isn’t necessarily going slow and takes curves like there couldn’t possibly be cars coming from the other way. Oh, and yes, there are always cars coming from the other way. Wild stuff…but what an adventure!

_______________

OK, I wrote that first part a couple of days ago, and just haven’t had a chance to be on email since then. The past couple of days have been good. I started teaching the preschoolers today. I decided to keep a theme for the week, weather (guess I was thinking of Marc). So, I incorporated shapes into a weather picture that I made for them to color. Then we had a memory verse and Bible story about when Jesus calmed storms.

Tomorrow we’re going to talk about hurricanes and tornadoes and tie that into learning our numbers. Wednesday will be colors, etc. It’s been a lot of fun! We had to weed out the kids who were disrupting class, which took a good while. But once they were gone, we got a lot accomplished. Joshua (the little boy I spoke about earlier) was the best student, believe it or not! He listened, memorized the verse quickly and sat quietly. He’s very smart and creative.

One thing that I get so frustrated with: The kids try to steal food from the small toddlers and babies—after they’ve already eaten themselves! It’s hard b/c obviously they’re still hungry, but it’s also not right to steal. So, here I am trying to pry 20 little hands off of the highchairs. After about 15 minutes, I think I’ve got in under control. Then I notice they start coming in the kitchen on their hands and knees, picking up crumbs off of the floor. Once again, sad but wrong.

Anyway, it’s still pretty hard to get their attention, being the new girl who (according to the teens) looks like a teenager. But I’ve been told that by the end of this week they will start to recognize my voice and my firm tone and will start listening and obeying better. Lord, I pray this is true. It’s extremely challenging, but amazing at the same time. I look around the room sometimes when I’m frustrated and I think “They are all so beautiful…who would want to abandon these children?”

That’s what keeps me going….knowing how starved they are for attention and for love.

That is all for now—we’ll see how many of you actually got to the end of this. :)

Thanks for all of your support and prayers and please continue to pray for this home and these children.

Love you all!!

Carrie

Posted by Katy on 04/04/06 at 07:58 AM

Fallible Comments...

Hmmm. What parts make you nervous. Could it be going door-to-door in the town with the highest murder rate, and driving fast on the one-lane mountain road?

I'll pray with you, Katy. I know exactly how you feel, because my kids do the same sorts of things. It does make you extremely proud and thankful for the compassion and character they display. But it's not so easy to let go and set them free to spread their wings and soar into a big, bad world. May the Lord shelter her under His mighty wing and guard her going out and coming in from this time forth and forever.

Love, Jeanne
Posted by Jeanne Damoff on 04/04/06 at 09:17 AM
Jeanne--500 extra points for you!!!! (You probably need a few since you're always passing them out so freely...)

Yes, those indeed are the two hot spots in Carrie's email. Orphans I'm cool with, but one-lane guardrailless vertical mountain roads descending into Trenchtown, Murder Capital Of The Universe, as evidenced by the fact that they've apparently named the place for their pre-dug graves? Not so thrilled.

Thank you for the beautiful prayer. I know your kids are out there doing likewise, and I pray for them that they will fulfill all of God's good and exciting purposes for their lives, while at the same time getting and hanging onto wisdom. Amen!!!
Posted by Katy on 04/04/06 at 09:28 AM
I found it!

"Except that their nightlight is massive, so I’ll have to sleep with a blanket over my head."

Don't worry Katy, a little lost sleep never hurt anyone. Just think, she could have gone to the north or south pole during their summer months and had to sleep in 24 hour daylight!

Have no fear, she will be used to that nightlight soon enough. :)
Posted by Daniel on 04/04/06 at 02:25 PM
Oh Katy! I see why you're so proud of her. She's a complete inspiration to me and she makes this teenager burn even more to do missionary work. Let her know I'm praying, if it will give her the slightest bit of encouragement...and that I'm proud of her too. =D
Posted by Lynn on 04/04/06 at 05:20 PM
I was going to guess every word after "Greetings everyone."

I fret day to day about our kids whether they're on an adventure or simply living their lives.

I remember Tiffany (our eldest) calling me when she was in college saying she was driving into the interior of Mexico with her roommate whose family lived in a poor village in Mexico.

I've had a lot of experience in Mexico and starting warning her about driving her car into the country, something I NEVER do. She let me get wound up pretty tight before saying, "Oh, well it's not like this is the first time...this is just the first time I've told you I'm driving into Mexico."

We can only hold them close for so long...then we must let them go into the world.

Sounds like Carrie is doing wondrous things, doing God's work, and making good decisions.

Faith and trust...in our children and in God. It's a two way street...even if there is only one lane on occasion.

Sleep well...God is awake.

Grace and peace,

Michael
Posted by Michael Main on 04/04/06 at 10:14 PM
Katy, you must be so proud of Carrie. She sounds like a remarkable young woman!
Posted by Cindy Swanson on 04/05/06 at 06:28 AM
Katy, I know that you are proud of Carrie. My daughter, Alcyn, has spent her last 3 summer vacations in variuos places in Latin America doing community development and health related projects. She assured me that when she was "in country", living in the rural communities in Nicarugua, Panama, and Mexico, that she was much safer than at Westport on a Saturday night; that she was welcomed and treated as family in the homes of the people in the community. Carrie wil be fine! Alcyn talked, like Carrie, of learning to get over being afraid of being a stranger (in a strange land?) and just getting to work.
Our girls are so brave! Could we have done something like that when we were that young? Speaking for myself, NO!!
Posted by Lori BB on 04/05/06 at 02:46 PM
Daniel--You are a hoot! :)

Lynn--I am sure she is checking in here to read the comments! Thank you so much.

Michael--You are so right....Sometimes, I find myself squinting at the monitor, hoping not to see the scary words, which usually come right after "Greetings..." I am such a bloomin' chicken...(But I'm getting better. I really am.) And about your girl Tiffany (the one who goes to Harvard!!!): She and Carrie would get along great!

Cindy--She is amazing. Of course, your kids sound pretty great, too! :) Isn't it wonderful to get them grown and see them doing what they were made to do?

Lori BB--So, you and I ended up raising fearless daughters? Who knew? You've done good, Lori. I am as proud of Alcyn as I am of Carrie.
Posted by Katy on 04/06/06 at 10:28 AM
You have every reason to be proud of this wonderful daughter. I know what she is doing and where she is living is very dangerous, but what a wonderful opportunity to serve. I am particularly impressed with her understanding and compassion for the children. I do hope her career includes teaching for she is a natural.
Posted by Maria on 04/09/06 at 10:07 PM
Maria--I missed this comment! Sorry....Interesting that you mention teaching. It does appear that Carrie may be offered a teaching contract for next fall, here in KC. It would be a special ed position, and she couldn't be more thrilled. She has the kindest heart of just about anyone I know....
Posted by Katy on 04/13/06 at 03:00 PM

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Personal blog of christian writer & fallible mom Katy McKenna Raymond in Kansas City, Missouri Katy is represented by Greg Johnson at WordServe Literary Read more Katy at LateBoomer.net Follow Katy on Twitter Follow Katy on Facebook 123 Recent Posts Try Becoming Brenda Starr Off Beat Scattered That’s It So I’ve Finally Signed With An Agent. Now What? The Spoon Sciatica Sweetheart A Woman’s Train of Thought Has No Caboose However much we own, we are all still living on borrowed time After all, when restaurants shrink portions, they don’t shrink prices. As with everything in life, balance is key. Slow down, you move too fast… Yeah, I know. I have issues. Search Advanced Search Syndicate Login E me at katy @ ngenius.com	Our Beautiful Daughter, Carrie I can’t resisting posting the body of the email we received from our daughter Carrie last night. She’s in Jamaica, volunteering at an orphanage outside of Kingston. She’s into week two of a five week stay. Read her story, and let me know if you can figure out the parts that make me nervous. (Hint: All the rest of the parts make me nothing but proud!) And if you don’t mind, I’d sure appreciate prayers for my little girl. Hey, everybody! Greetings from 4,000 ft. up in the Jamaica mountains! What an amazing week I have had! I’ve done everything from build a cement staircase down a steep mountain slope, to door-to-door ministry in Trenchtown (highest murder rate in the world!), to trying to get the attention of 49 attention-starved children at the same time. The team from Mizzou that I was with left this morning, with the exception of one girl. At first it was quiet and lonely. I honestly didn’t know if I could last 4 weeks on my own. But I quickly got over it when I saw the kids’ faces again this morning. They are so beautiful! Most of them are here because they were abandoned and abused. Some of them have been here since they were babies, or small children. There are 3 “houses”. The blue house is the older girls’ home. There are 9 girls that live there and I think the oldest is 13 or 14. I now live in the upstairs part of that house. The yellow house is the boys’ home at the bottom of the property. I haven’t been in it yet. The green house is the toddler house. I’m not sure how many toddlers live there, but it feels like a trillion at times. I am actually lying in bed at the green house right now. I am a House Mother tonight for five sisters in one of the rooms here. Even though they are not all toddlers (range from 13-newborn), they all stay together in one room. I kind of like being the house mother! Except that their nightlight is massive, so I’ll have to sleep with a blanket over my head. When I came in, I looked around the room as they were sleeping and I thought to myself, “I’m the nice Miss Hannigan (from the movie, Annie)! My dreams have come true!” This room is connected to another room where one little boy sleeps. His name is Joshua. Let me tell you about Joshua. He is an emergency case who just got here a couple of weeks ago. His arm is in a huge cast up to his armpit because his father broke it. Joshua is by far one of the most angry and hostile children I have ever known. He lashes out at everything. Somebody looks at him crosseyed and he starts punching them (with his cast, of course). Joshua is so handsome. When he does smile (too rarely), it lights up the room. I think he’s about 4 years old. I really love him and am trying to express that love however I can. If I see him about to get angry, I run up to him, pick him up, give him a big hug and tell him I love him. I really feel like he’s been denied true love for so long that he doesn’t even know how to respond to it. He just kind of has this look on his face like, “you do??” I really hope to see a big change in Joshua over the next month. ______________ What a morning! Five of us girls went to help out with the toddlers. Man oh man they’re a handful! Seriously, it almost drove us to insanity. Hitting, biting, screaming, kicking, punching, crying, hitting, crying, biting, hitting, hitting, hitting, screaming. It’s interesting because I know that when they realize I am here for longer than a week, they’ll start respecting me. I’ve been told they’re like this with all of the short-timers. They test test test. And it takes longer than a week for them to start looking at new people as a disciplinarian. It’s so hard because you’ll see one kid hit another, so you go over to stop the fight and to take the “bad” kid away for a talk. The “bad” kid turns limp (the ol’ “I suddenly forgot how to walk” trick)...so it turns into a “Stond oop. Stond oop! STOND OOP NAWO!” (stand up. stand up! STAND UP NOW!) war. By this time you see another kid across the room spitting in the baby’s eye while beating the sick kid with a wooden stick. So, you have to leave the limp kid to go make sure the baby and the sick kid are ok, and then try to remember to go discipline the culprit…well, the two culprits, if you count the first. All of the offenses start piling up and pretty soon you can’t remember who did what to who. It’s insane! My schedule during the week will go something like this: 6AM wake up 7AM breakfast in toddler house 8:30AM staff devotions 9-11AM teaching school 11-12 toddler playtime 12PM lunch 1-2PM free time! 2-5PM tutor big kids and playtime with everybody 5 PM dinner 6 PM baths, getting everybody into PJ’s 7 PM toddler and big girl devotions 7:30 PM, bed for the kiddos, and me if I want to. :) I will be free on some weeknights and every other weekend. I really don’t know what I’ll do when I’m off. Sleep and journal and make phone calls, I guess. I won’t go down into the murder and weed capital of the world unless there is a group going down. Here is a nice little comparison I made on my first night here: United States: Some roads are hard to deal with. We complain when I-70 is under construction (again) and traffic during rush hour can definitely be a mess. Haiti: Four main “highways” that look more like mud pits than anything else. But not too curvy or up and down…just some slip-sliding around and a trillion pot holes to dodge. Jamaica: The actual roads aren’t too bad at all. It’s the drive up the one lane road that goes up the mountain. Yes, one lane. I look to my right, I see rock. I look to my left, and can’t even see the bottom of the valley. Oh, and did I mention that the tires of the van are RIGHT on the edge and there’s no guardrail for a lot of it. Oh, and did I also mention that the driver isn’t necessarily going slow and takes curves like there couldn’t possibly be cars coming from the other way. Oh, and yes, there are always cars coming from the other way. Wild stuff…but what an adventure! _______________ OK, I wrote that first part a couple of days ago, and just haven’t had a chance to be on email since then. The past couple of days have been good. I started teaching the preschoolers today. I decided to keep a theme for the week, weather (guess I was thinking of Marc). So, I incorporated shapes into a weather picture that I made for them to color. Then we had a memory verse and Bible story about when Jesus calmed storms. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about hurricanes and tornadoes and tie that into learning our numbers. Wednesday will be colors, etc. It’s been a lot of fun! We had to weed out the kids who were disrupting class, which took a good while. But once they were gone, we got a lot accomplished. Joshua (the little boy I spoke about earlier) was the best student, believe it or not! He listened, memorized the verse quickly and sat quietly. He’s very smart and creative. One thing that I get so frustrated with: The kids try to steal food from the small toddlers and babies—after they’ve already eaten themselves! It’s hard b/c obviously they’re still hungry, but it’s also not right to steal. So, here I am trying to pry 20 little hands off of the highchairs. After about 15 minutes, I think I’ve got in under control. Then I notice they start coming in the kitchen on their hands and knees, picking up crumbs off of the floor. Once again, sad but wrong. Anyway, it’s still pretty hard to get their attention, being the new girl who (according to the teens) looks like a teenager. But I’ve been told that by the end of this week they will start to recognize my voice and my firm tone and will start listening and obeying better. Lord, I pray this is true. It’s extremely challenging, but amazing at the same time. I look around the room sometimes when I’m frustrated and I think “They are all so beautiful…who would want to abandon these children?” That’s what keeps me going….knowing how starved they are for attention and for love. That is all for now—we’ll see how many of you actually got to the end of this. :) Thanks for all of your support and prayers and please continue to pray for this home and these children. Love you all!! Carrie Posted by Katy on 04/04/06 at 07:58 AM Fallible Comments... Hmmm. What parts make you nervous. Could it be going door-to-door in the town with the highest murder rate, and driving fast on the one-lane mountain road? I'll pray with you, Katy. I know exactly how you feel, because my kids do the same sorts of things. It does make you extremely proud and thankful for the compassion and character they display. But it's not so easy to let go and set them free to spread their wings and soar into a big, bad world. May the Lord shelter her under His mighty wing and guard her going out and coming in from this time forth and forever. Love, Jeanne Posted by Jeanne Damoff on 04/04/06 at 09:17 AM Jeanne--500 extra points for you!!!! (You probably need a few since you're always passing them out so freely...) Yes, those indeed are the two hot spots in Carrie's email. Orphans I'm cool with, but one-lane guardrailless vertical mountain roads descending into Trenchtown, Murder Capital Of The Universe, as evidenced by the fact that they've apparently named the place for their pre-dug graves? Not so thrilled. Thank you for the beautiful prayer. I know your kids are out there doing likewise, and I pray for them that they will fulfill all of God's good and exciting purposes for their lives, while at the same time getting and hanging onto wisdom. Amen!!! Posted by Katy on 04/04/06 at 09:28 AM I found it! "Except that their nightlight is massive, so I’ll have to sleep with a blanket over my head." Don't worry Katy, a little lost sleep never hurt anyone. Just think, she could have gone to the north or south pole during their summer months and had to sleep in 24 hour daylight! Have no fear, she will be used to that nightlight soon enough. :) Posted by Daniel on 04/04/06 at 02:25 PM Oh Katy! I see why you're so proud of her. She's a complete inspiration to me and she makes this teenager burn even more to do missionary work. Let her know I'm praying, if it will give her the slightest bit of encouragement...and that I'm proud of her too. =D Posted by Lynn on 04/04/06 at 05:20 PM I was going to guess every word after "Greetings everyone." I fret day to day about our kids whether they're on an adventure or simply living their lives. I remember Tiffany (our eldest) calling me when she was in college saying she was driving into the interior of Mexico with her roommate whose family lived in a poor village in Mexico. I've had a lot of experience in Mexico and starting warning her about driving her car into the country, something I NEVER do. She let me get wound up pretty tight before saying, "Oh, well it's not like this is the first time...this is just the first time I've told you I'm driving into Mexico." We can only hold them close for so long...then we must let them go into the world. Sounds like Carrie is doing wondrous things, doing God's work, and making good decisions. Faith and trust...in our children and in God. It's a two way street...even if there is only one lane on occasion. Sleep well...God is awake. Grace and peace, Michael Posted by Michael Main on 04/04/06 at 10:14 PM Katy, you must be so proud of Carrie. She sounds like a remarkable young woman! Posted by Cindy Swanson on 04/05/06 at 06:28 AM Katy, I know that you are proud of Carrie. My daughter, Alcyn, has spent her last 3 summer vacations in variuos places in Latin America doing community development and health related projects. She assured me that when she was "in country", living in the rural communities in Nicarugua, Panama, and Mexico, that she was much safer than at Westport on a Saturday night; that she was welcomed and treated as family in the homes of the people in the community. Carrie wil be fine! Alcyn talked, like Carrie, of learning to get over being afraid of being a stranger (in a strange land?) and just getting to work. Our girls are so brave! Could we have done something like that when we were that young? Speaking for myself, NO!! Posted by Lori BB on 04/05/06 at 02:46 PM Daniel--You are a hoot! :) Lynn--I am sure she is checking in here to read the comments! Thank you so much. Michael--You are so right....Sometimes, I find myself squinting at the monitor, hoping not to see the scary words, which usually come right after "Greetings..." I am such a bloomin' chicken...(But I'm getting better. I really am.) And about your girl Tiffany (the one who goes to Harvard!!!): She and Carrie would get along great! Cindy--She is amazing. Of course, your kids sound pretty great, too! :) Isn't it wonderful to get them grown and see them doing what they were made to do? Lori BB--So, you and I ended up raising fearless daughters? Who knew? You've done good, Lori. I am as proud of Alcyn as I am of Carrie. Posted by Katy on 04/06/06 at 10:28 AM You have every reason to be proud of this wonderful daughter. I know what she is doing and where she is living is very dangerous, but what a wonderful opportunity to serve. I am particularly impressed with her understanding and compassion for the children. I do hope her career includes teaching for she is a natural. Posted by Maria on 04/09/06 at 10:07 PM Maria--I missed this comment! Sorry....Interesting that you mention teaching. It does appear that Carrie may be offered a teaching contract for next fall, here in KC. It would be a special ed position, and she couldn't be more thrilled. She has the kindest heart of just about anyone I know.... Posted by Katy on 04/13/06 at 03:00 PM Page 1 of 1 pages Commenting is not available in this weblog entry. Next entry: Feebaghbane Previous entry: Thanks To My Scottish Father << Back to main


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Personal blog of christianwriter & fallible momKaty McKenna Raymondin Kansas City, Missouri

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Our Beautiful Daughter, Carrie

Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri