18 months since I was last in this city.  This is the longest I have been away from Haiti in 18 years? 

Yes. 18 years.  Rebecca was 4 when I came for the very first time. 

18 years. For over ⅓ of my life I have been here or would be back here within a few weeks. 

I sat in the office Friday afternoon with Christella and Emmanise. Chatting with these two women that I’ve known since 2010. We joked about how scared I was of Christella and her late sister, Jesula when I first landed in Jubilee Blanc on the outskirts of Gonaives. How they yelled at me, demanding, “YOU MUST GIVE US WORK” and I was terrified.  Those were desperate days for these young mommas. And I had no clue how to interpret the language or the tone. We laughed hysterically at the retelling! 

When her sister passed several years ago, together the two of us went into the morgue and tried to raise her from the dead. We praised and wept and cried out and humbled ourselves. But she did not come back into her body.   

Christella inherited Jesula’s new born baby and the other two children her sister had at home. On Friday she told me that her brother had passed and now she has his three children as well.  Nine children she is raising. 

You know what she said to me? 

She said, God has blessed me so much. He has given me 9 gifts. 9. 

Happy Mother’s day week, y’all. 

All the love, 

MK