I just returned from a trip to Haiti. It was a difficult trip because we were limited in our travels in PAP because of the political violence in the Cite Soliel and Bel Aire area. However we were able to get much done in the Blanchard area. We also were able to go to the flood area of Gonaive to view the damage of the hurricane and meet with the person who will help us distribute aid.

As we were walking through one of the flood areas we met a grandmother carrying a tiny baby. His mother (her daughter) had died immediately after child birth and she didn't have any resources to care for the baby. He had not eaten in four days. He was tiny and dehydrated. She wanted to take him to the hospital to give him to the nuns to keep.

Benite (our Haitian nurse) and Pouchin (our taptap driver) both said they wanted to take him because they knew at the hospital the nuns did not have the time or the resources to take care of a tiny, starving baby. He was not moving at all. We fed the grandmother who was crying and stumbling as well as a woman who she had met on the way who was trying to help her. Then we found formula but could not find a bottle, eye dropper or even a spoon to feed milk to this baby. We finally improvised and made a bottle from rubber glove. After a few drops of milk he began to move just a little.

We asked if we could keep the baby instead of the nuns and the grandmother said "yes". So we went to courthouse and signed papers and Hull baby came home to PAP with us and his new proud MOM, Tali. We found a bottle and he ate every hour on the hour and by the next morning was alert and moving and kicking and declared healthy by a PAP pediatrician.

I returned home but Tali is still in Haiti with her little boy Obed John. She will return without him next week to get her necessary paperwork and return to finish with the adoption.

Although we went to see the flood, Benite, Tali and Pouchon were all convinced we were sent there to save Obed John. Tali's Haitian neighbors and friends have all been visiting and doing the laundry and volunteering to baby-sit. They are as excited as we are about this new addition to our family. Pray for Tali with all her new responsibility as well as continued good health in the next six months.

This is the baby, sound asleep!

Love, Gale

Gale Hull, President
Partners in Development, inc.
P.O. Box 9
Ipswich, Ma. 01938

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