Clepson is HERE

After much anticipation and paperwork, Clepson has arrived. He is truely one of the "lucky" children in Haiti. He lives in a wonderful orphanage that stresses all of the skills he will need to be successful and happy in his life. Clepson lives at Love a Child orphange in Fond Parisian, Haiti. You can check out his home at www.loveachild.com. Clepson will return to the orphanage after his surgery and recovery time here in the U.S. He is provided a wonderful varied diet by Haitian standards and has been given an invaluable religious education. Clepson also attends school and will hopefully one day attend university either in Haiti or the U.S.

Clepson has a super doctor here in the U.S. who we shall call Dr. M. Dr. M has donated all of his time and skills to provide a lifechanging eye surgery for Clepson. Dr. M arranged with the local surgical center for them to donate the use of their facility at no charge. He went one step further to get a custom prosthetic eye donated. Not only will Clepson be out of pain for the first time after his surgery, he will look "normal". While the U.S. has made some strides in accepting people with disabilities, it is just not so in Haiti. Haitians are driven largely by superstition and fear and Clepson's eye has been viewed as a curse or sign of evil. More doors will be open in Clepson's future when he looks more normal.

I must say that lack of vision in his eye slows this little boy down not one bit! Clepson is a wonderful soccer player and bicycle rider and all boy. Clepson has spent much of his day today working on math skills (I have underestimated his level of work!) and has done a few pages in a french primer. A dear friend will be loaning us some kid appropriate novels in French and Clepson will spend at least an hour a day reading. My own kids are still in school and it is a house rule that no kids do anything "fun" while the others are in school. Once school is out of session Clepson will get more play time, but will still need to work on his Math and French skills. My own kids to 1/2 to 1 hour of math and at LEAST 1 hour of reading. Zoe loves to read and will read for hours if allowed!

I am sure Clepson thought that visiting the U.S. would be more fun, but I want him to learn while he is here and know how Blessed he is to live in such a wonderful home in Haiti.

We met with Clepson's doctor today and scheduled his surgery for June 24. His preop is one week earlier at which time he will find out in detail what his surgery entails. Please pray that he accepts that the loss of his eye is inevitable and will only improve his life!