Difficult week.

We are opening ourselves up to the unexpected, to what we have always wanted to do. How can you plan for the unexpected? Our trust that this is the right thing to do has not been broken.

Pictures from Carl's March 2012 trip toHaiti...

Road leading to Good Rest Orphanage

Front entrance of the Good Rest Orphanage

Old dorms that are unlivable due to the earthquake

New boy's dorms - 4 boys live in each of those tiny concrete rooms

Carl's luxury accommodations at Good Rest

Two of the boys living at Good Rest. They eat all of their food out of tin bowls.

Girl's sewing room where they make bags to sell

A completed bag!

Some of the animals at Good Rest

Two of the older boys who grew up at the orphanage taking  Carl and another visitor on a
Tap-Tap (taxi) tour of Port-au-Prince

One of the tent cities

Best Buy - Haiti style

Kids on their way to school

Carl in front of the collapsed Capitol Building

A crowded Tap-Tap

Girls riding a motorcycle taxi to get to school

A Haitian pharmacy

Article in the Temecula Patch today about us!

A big thank you to Peter, the editor, for believing in us and helping spread information about the needs of the Haitian children!

That old couch

We are beginning the process of going through everything we own and putting it up for sale! We will save a few things in storage, but space will be limited so only the most important possessions will escape this culling. It really puts life into perspective. So many of the things that we NEEDED just weeks ago we no longer even want. For example, I spent most of last fall fruitlessly obsessed with finding a new, better couch for our living room. Our current couch is too small for the space and is seven years old. Seven years filled with leaking sippy cups, kids jumping on and off, and popcorn kernels, legos, and pennies nestling in the spaces between cushions. Now, I am feeling nostalgic. I don’t want to sell our dingy old couch. It may end up being one of the few things we keep in storage. I held all of my children as newborns on that couch. I have cuddled with my sick kids, watched countless movies with my husband, and talked to all my friends and family while sitting on that couch.

Yesterday we met with local realtors to plan on renting out our house. Today we sold our trailer. The largest material acquisitions of our marriage pass from our hands to others, and I am not sad. I even rejoice. Look! We can do this, we can give up our lives and move to a faraway island that I have never seen, to help children that I have never met. Yet, I feel that selling that old couch will be too much for me.

July 2004 - holding CJ at two days old, sitting on our new couch

More pictures from Haiti

Carl with some of the kids

A clinic in the process of being rebuilt on the site of the orphanage..  where we might stay if we can't afford to rent a house nearby!

The well from which the kids get all their water

Boys outside the orphanage... trying to sell rocks

A view of the hills surrounding the orphanage

So far away yet so close!

We had a great time chatting with Carl/Dad tonight. He is full of ideas on how we can make life better for the kids in the orphanage that he has already fallen in love with. After just 3 days there he tells me that it will be hard for him to leave. He is such an amazing man, love him!

Words from Haiti

Just a quick update to let you know that I heard from Carl today and his trip is going well. He is not yet able to send pictures, I will post those as soon as I get them. I posted this on Facebook tonight:

Krystal Fielstra

I had a great talk with Carl tonight! He loves the kids at the orphanage and thinks that we may be able to fix up a clinic on site to live in. We will have to try to ship everything over... a stove, washer, bathtub, Tylenol, etc. They have nothing there, and the country is absolutely destitute. I can't wait to post pictures from his trip! I'm so proud of him and can't wait to see him when he gets home Wednesday. — with Fielstra Carl.

I have no idea how we will raise the money for plane tickets plus the $450 it costs to ship cargo down, plus all of the things we will need in order to live (very simply). I have to trust that if this is what we are supposed to do with our lives then everything will work out. It has been working out so far, and we are now even closer to this life changing move!

Footage of the Good Rest orphanage right after the 2010 earthquake.

It just breaks my heart to see what these people and children have been through. The orphanage is looking much better now, and we will have up to date pictures once Carl returns later this week.

So much encouragement!

Thank you to all of our family, friends, and mentors who have encouraged us as we prepare for this life changing move. Thank you to both sets of parents, the Fielstras and Murphys, and to my sisters Sarah and Erin for your encouraging words.

Thank you to everyone at our jobs, at Riverside County Sheriff's Department and Temecula Valley Unified School District, more specifically our direct bosses for being supportive even though this creates hiring stress for them!

Thank you Gretchin Rubin, a hero of mine and author of an amazing book called The Happiness Project, for your kind words to me via email:

Hi Krystal,

What a thrilling, admirable adventure! I’m so happy to hear that my work was helpful to you. I can’t wait to follow your work on your blog. Fantastic! I’ll be thinking of you and your husband and the children of Haiti.

Warmly,

Gretchen

Thank you to everyone who we hope will hear our story and want to help us make a difference for the children of Haiti.

I am alternately worried and excited. I can't wait to post pictures from Carl's trip. He leaves in two days! This is happening so fast but it feels like the right thing to do. Please keep Carl in your thoughts and prayers, also our children and me since we will miss him.

Thank you all!

Krystal