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| Kiki dropping us off at the airport in Port au Prince as we left Haiti |
I would say I'm devastated by the news and yet it's not a devastation in that I'm lost and beside myself and without hope, but devastation in that Kiki did so much for kids in Haiti that it's going to take multiple people to fill his shoes. At the same time, I'm also very excited by the news and rejoicing because I can only imagine the pile of crowns and jewels that Kiki has just received from Jesus in Heaven!
Rebecca and I both met Kiki in our travels to Haiti in 2010 with http://www.mission-haiti.org/. As Pam said in her e-mail tonight, Kiki was Mission-Haiti's "Haitian Director, best friend, translator, driver, hero to the kids in the orphanage, and everything in between." I only had the chance to meet Kiki at the end of my trip when he drove 5 hours from Port au Prince (where he lived) to Ti-Rivier (where the Mission-Haiti orphanage is), he spent the night at the orphanage with us and then the next day drove us back the 5 hours to Port. That night we stayed at Kiki's house before he took us to the airport early the following morning. It was during this time that I had conversation with Kiki about what my trip would mean for the rest of my life and it was then that I learned Kiki's "real job" (when he wasn't being "everything" to Mission-Haiti) was working for an orphanage in Port au Prince. http://forhisgloryoutreach.org/ Maybe you've seen that link in our blogs before? :) After Bec returned from Haiti where she met Kiki, and after we prayed about what our trips meant to the rest of our lives, it was him who we contacted about where to start on this journey of adoption. (Here is our letter to Kiki from January 15, 2011 http://we2wits.blogspot.com/2011/07/letter-to-kiki-at-orphanage-in-haiti.html) We wrote back and forth with him for a few weeks as we learned about the process and who we needed to get in touch with to adopt from For His Glory's orphanage. I thank God for Kiki's help in starting our journey and am saddened at the fact that when we go to pick up our little ones, he won't be there... (sorry, I just "lost it")
I can't explain the lump in my throat and the tears running down my face as I think about the kids at both orphanages that rarely have anything stable in their lives, but who had Kiki and now don't. I remember when I was at the Mission-Haiti orphanage and the kids knew Kiki was coming from Port, they heard the truck coming down the road and when he pulled into the gate they went sprinting for him. I am positive that the kids at For His Glory felt the same way and that they just lost one of their stable, Godly role models. I pray that our future kids are already alive and are at the orphanage, and that they are old enough to have known him and that he was able to impact them at their early ages! If that was the case, then I have high hopes of them becoming great people!
Here is Pam's e-mail from earlier tonight:
This is a really difficult email to write but many of you have heard or met
Kiki. He is our Haitian Director, best friend, translator, driver, hero to
the kids in the orphanage, and everything in between. Last night he asked
for prayer because he was not feeling well. This morning I received a call
that he had passed away in the night.
Mike and I are leaving for Haiti and will return on the 4th of September.
Please keep Kiki's parents in your prayers as well as all the children in
the orphanage.
Missing Kiki,
pam
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| Kiki guided Rebecca's team the 5 hours through the mountains to and from Port on Mission-Haiti's bus. The same bus that broke down about 30 times in the middle of the night on the team's trip back to Port to catch their flight. After leaving the bus on the side of the road to come back and pick up later, Kiki found a Haitian driver with a van to make it to the airport in time. |
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