Feliz Dia de Amor

Oh, what a fun day!

Janae with one of her daughters and Sierra

Lynn asked us to go with her to visit a Dominican family that is very dear to her heart.  The mom is Janae and Lynn met her a few years ago when Jenae worked at a clinic that housed and cared for Haitian children.  Janae cooked and cleaned and just gave the kids some much needed love.  Sometimes Haitians are just too to poor to care and feed their kids; other times the kids just seem to be rejected.  Two of the kids at the clinic were especially dear to everyone - Darius and Sierra.  The clinic was forced to close last year and there were not a lot of options for the kids being housed there.  Janae volunteered to bring Darius and Sierra to join her family.  She is a single mother with four children and a very small home;, but a very large heart.  She is paid a small amount for caring for these kids - probably from relief organization and their medications are provided free of charge.  Both of the kids are HIV positive.

What a happy family.  The small house was immaculate and very comfortable.  The kids were all well cared for and had big smiles on their faces and lots of hugs.  Lynn had brought the kids lollipops and little valentine stickers.  One of Janae's kid, Jennifer, is in my class at the little school.  Darius was sick and wasn't there, as best we could understand he was at a clinic in Sosua.  But Janae seemed to feel he would be ok.

Max

Another child from the clinic is Max.  He is also HIV positive and when he arrived at the clinic he was a small, frail baby.  There were serious doubts he would survive.  Max's mother was a 14 year old Haitian prostitute and her family didn't want him.  The founder of the clinic and his wife fell in love with him and took Max into his home when the clinic closed.  Max is now a very healthy four year old, we see him often when we go into Cabarete.  He speaks Spanish and English and is very bright.  His Canadian foster parents are in the process of trying to adopt him, but this is extremely difficult.  They were able to get a visa for Max so he can travel back to Canada with them.  Hope this story ends well for all of them.  They want Max to retain a connection with his birth mom so they arrange periodic visits.  She now has another child, but this child is being taken care of by her family.

Maria

Later in the day, we had a Dominican woman come out to the condo and cook dinner for twelve of us.  Jim had met Maria one day when he was in Cabarete buying fish.  She sells real estate, but business is slow so this is a good side business for her.  We all bought some type of fish:  dorado, calamari, octopus, and shrimp.  Also had some chicken for the non-fish lover - Raymond.  Maria arrived and started cooking.  She was a very busy woman but always had a smile on her face.  She turned out an impressive meal:  baked dorado, grilled chicken, shrimp and calamari in a cream sauce, veggies roasted with octopus, salad and a fruit salad for dessert.  It was another great evening around our pool!

To top it off, Matt bought me a bouquet of beautiful roses from the flower vendor that is always on the street outside Janet's supermarket.  A wonderful Valentine's Day!