Eating 3 Meals...Everyday
We are still raising money for our move, so before I get into the rest of the blog, remember to Click Here to give toward these costs:
- Initial Move-In Costs: $2,000 (1 month rent/misc. needs)
- Moving/Installing the Solar Panels/Generator to the new home: $1,000
- Estimated Costs of Repairs for the Old House: $1,500
- Costs to move out of the old home: Estimated $4,500 (explained below)
- New Mattresses, Fix Beds: Estimated $1,000
- Helping House Moms affected by flooding: Estimated $1,200
I want to note that I am not using the idea of eating "3 meals per day" as the standard that everyone should strive for because I know there are fad diets out there and I also know that only about 64% of Americans actually eat 3 meals per day.
I am using that phrase because it is normative here in America and it stands for the idea that when we are hungry, for the most part, we can eat. I would venture to say that a very small percentage of the people reading this email have ever truly felt life-altering hunger that was a real threat to your life. I have not.
On the other hand, every single one of our kids in Haiti have felt that and most of them, other than maybe 1 or 2 who are too young, can remember feeling this type of hunger. They all know of people who either have or do feel that type of hunger.
I cannot imagine that type of feeling. The closest I have ever come to feeling this way is that I can remember months when it was kind of difficult to afford our electric bill. Not impossible, just difficult.
There are millions of people in Haiti that do not know what they will eat next, where that food will come from, and how they will afford it.
I share this with you not because I have a solution, because I do not. We have never done a feeding program before, and we do not have plans to start one even now. I am not sharing this because I want you to fell bad, though we could all stand a greater sense of empathy and sympathy for our brothers and sisters around the globe.
I share all of this because our kids actually have this luxury.
- They have the luxury to, when all of the bathrooms in the house break, move to a different house.
- They have the luxury of having 3 meals and a couple of snacks every day.
- They have not wondered about how they will eat their next meals for more than 10 years.
I remember years ago when a team came down to work at ATN, and one of my good friends and ATN board member Chase Covington was with the team. We were with the kids at meal time, and they started to complain about having this one breakfast that is kind of like Cream of Wheat because a lot of them did not like it.
I remember getting irritated, kind of like you do when your kids complain about something trivial like that, and telling the kids that they should just be happy that they are eating.
Later that evening, Chase was talking to me and he said something along the lines of, "At least they are safe and secure enough to complain about the food that is in front of them."
They were acting like kids, and they could complain because they knew that they would have food again later that day, and the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that...
We are so thankful for every single of one of you, and I hope that you are not getting too discouraged about what is going on in Haiti. You are making a difference, and when the country is safe again, that difference that you are making will continue to grow.