Home~

For those of you who are following this blog, my apologies~ The internet was very slow and I was not able to blog while in Haiti. I made a journal entry for every day and I will put some pictures together and make some posts hopeful this week. I dont even know where to start, so many amazing things to share.

Thanks you again for everyone’s support. You are all truly amazing lets not stop the ball here , this is just beginning.

Ke Bondye Beni ou ~(May God Bless You)

Chalayne

Starting to pack!!

Tonight was a wonderful evening. I was able to have my team over for dinner and fellowship time. It was so great to have spouses and children come with too  and share in the evening. It was a great way to come together and get to know everyone over some good old Italian food!!!

We planned out some of the activities we are going to do at the orphanages. I cant wait for this! Some of the things we are going to do are: face paining, friendship bracelets, finger puppets and some masque’s out of paper plates. Simple things that are going to mean the world to the little ones who really don't have many toys.

I was able to fundraise the money for the trip and then some so I was able to buy many need supplies to bring down and I had many amazing donations from friends and family.

I know most people are wondering about the hurricane….. We are still planning on going, this is when help is needed the most. The hurricane is not new to God, this is all apart of his plan. He knows we are coming and he will know how to use us on this trip. We are the hands and feet of Christ! I cant tell you how excited I am. 2 days!!!!!!!!! I know I have been bad about keeping up on here so from here on out I am going to write every day (given we have an internet signal)  I hope everyone can check in and see what is going on during our week in Haiti.

I just want to say thank you to my husband who has been so amazing during this. He has been so supportive when I had times of doubt . He has been truly amazing. I hope one day to go on this journey with him.

For those who have facebook, I will be able to post more pictures on there and a Group was made where our team leader posts updates. Just message me and I can add you to the group :)

I am going to get going. Busy weekend getting ready and spending as much time with my kids and I can!

Many blessings to you,

Chalayne

Faith Story

Tonight at our 3rd meeting we shared our faith story. This was very challenging for me. Everyday I would sit and try to wright about what has happened in my life to get me to where I am today. I would wright a paragraph and then delete it, try again and delete. Nothing was coming to me, I guess you could call it a little writers block. I decided to "shoot from the hip" so to speak when it was time to share my story. I had a paragraph started and I decided not to worry about the rest.... it would just come out.... or so I thought~ I don't remember the day I excepted Christ into my life or when I had that "ah ha" moment but I do remember times of being closer to God and the times being farthest from God. It is funny how the times when I was the closest to God is when I felt my life was amazing and the times I was farthest where some of the worst. I have always believed in Jesus and that he died on the cross for ME! but why is it so hard to stay true to my faith and be obedient to his word?? Having children now has made me realize that I need to be able to guide my kids in the right path. I want to set good examples and make sure they know that we are not all perfect, people sin but as long as we ask for forgiveness and are faithful to our Lord's word we will saved and have eternal life ! I am excited to see what God has in store for me, how he is going to use me and to see what lessons I will learn. I cant wait to have these lessons and to be able to teach my kids what I have learned.

I have 7 weeks till I leave for Haiti. 4 weeks till I have to turn in the rest of my financial dues. I still have a few hundred $$ to go so I decided to hold a mini photo shoot. I will be doing 25 min mini photo shoots at a local apple orchard on October 9th. If you are interested please email me and I will send you the info. Chalayne85@gmail.com Blogger is not letting me upload my flyer to here that I made :/

Other than that I am getting use to the life of having a preschooler now. Ally has been so excited about school. She is beyond ready for a new challenge. Kate has been nothing short of amazing! The girl is really finding her personality right now and it amazes me everyday. I am thankful for being able to stay home with my girls and being able to watch them grow. Ally has been curious about my trip as I have shared with her what I will be doing and why I will be gone. We have looked at the Healing Haiti website and some other pictures that people have posted of there trips to Haiti, a few of the first pictures we looked at where of happy and smiling kids so she looked at me with a huge smile and said "are these my new friends?!?!?" I cant wait to share with her about the many new friends we will be making during this journey!

In His name,
Chalayne Palmgren

Healing Haiti

Please take a moment to check out www.HealingHaiti.org This is the organization that I am going with.

I am so thankful for this opportunity, words can not explain enough how much I thank everyone who is supporting me during this. ~

Second Meeting ~ It is really happening!!!

Tonight I went to my second meeting in preparation for my travels to Haiti. It was an oddly overwhelming night. All I could think about was wanting to be there right now helping and doing what I love most.... nurturing children, helping the ill, caring for someone who is scared, making a difference in one persons life. My heart was breaking inside more than most days when I think about Haiti. I watch the videos and look at the pictures, I see children that are the same age as my own children starving.... unclothed...injured....lonley.... dying. I have been lost in thought over the past few weeks in how I'm going to deal with these raw emotions of seeing Gods children suffering and after listening to Jeff speak tonight has really put a new light on some of the thoughts I have been having. I know I am not alone in this and that is why I'm choosing to Blog about what is really going on in my life and how I am honestly feeling for the world to read. I hope it will help me grow in my journey and I hope one person can take a little piece of what I am doing and find strength to be obedient to Gods calling.... to follow your spiritual gifts and use them to help others.

The reality of the trip hit full force tonight as I turned in the first payment for our trip. This is it, it is really happening! It was almost unreal until that envelope was turned in, and at that moment I new what I was doing was right! It felt amazing to know that I am going to help others who so desperately need it. I want to thank those of you who are helping me with a financial contribution or a prayer partner, it is so very much appreciated. You are apart of a bigger picture. Know that you are helping a child, adult and elder feel love & care. I can not do this alone, everyone praying for this journey you are appreciated every single day. We are all apart of something amazing.

The next step is to do some more fundraising, I have $750 left to go. I have faith that I will make my goal. I am planing a few Spa days where I am going to give a Special mani & pedi. I am still working on the details of that so if you are interested please email me so I can let you know once I have everything finalized and I will also post on here too. With fall approaching I am going to be making home made apple pies.... I know... kinda cheesy but who does not like a good hot apple pie on a crisp cool fall day!!! And knowing it was for a good cause! Even better! So again I will post on here when those will be ready, you can email if you are interested in one as well :)

If anyone has comments I would love to hear them ~ I would love to answer any questions too!!
Other than that 2 months 2 weeks & 6 days till Haiti.

Bondye Beni' Ou (God bless you)

Welcome to my new blog~ My Journey To Haiti

Family and Friends~

This fall I have the wonderful opportunity to participate in a mission trip to Haiti. There will be a team of us from Eagle Brook Church going to partner with Healing Haiti to serve the poorest of the poor in and near Port au Prince, Haiti. This organization is run by fellow Eagle Brook attenders and is doing incredible humanitarian work for the poor, orphaned, and widowed.

God is doing great things in Haiti, It is exciting to know that I can be apart of it. I will be traveling for one week, this week will allow us to serve and care for the poor in such ways as delivering water to community's without means of water, caring for the children at orphanages, encouraging the elderly and nationals who assist in these care ministries. I look forward to being apart of this and learning more. I will be staying at a local site and get firsthand experience of the culture.

I believe God has called me to be apart of this mission trip, and I am inviting you to be part of this adventure with me. I will be updating this blog in weeks leading up to my trip during the trip and post trip. Please check often to see what new things are going on as I train for my trip and grow through out this experience.

Thank You

p.s check out the 4th video on my mixpod In the upper left corner. I am going with the group that made that video. It gives a little more info on what the organization is