Day: February 13, 2012

For the last few weeks, my kids have been scared to death of the Mardi Gras. For those of you who are just tuning in – the Mardi Gras in Haiti is more than a party where folks throw beads and you dig for treasures in a King’s Cake. The Mardi Gras is scary. It’s Halloween in Haiti. And unlike our Halloween at home, there are no princess and cowboy costumes.

Yesterday, the Mardi Gras freak show paraded by our house YET AGAIN –  stopping at our front steps. Their goal is to intimidate and scare our children…and normally they do.

But yesterday was different. Yesterday, our little children stood firm. For the first time, the kids understood that without the scary masks, the Mardi Gras were just people. They came right to our steps and our girls didn’t cower away.

Our little Levi can only speak a few words clearly. As he’s learning both Creole and English – most of it is gibberish. However – he ran out to the steps yelling clearly – “NO MARDI GRAS”!

My very short little boy threw a mighty punch at this ugly monkey that nearly brought him to his knees!! I don’t think he’ll be chasing the kids anymore – at least not for the rest of the day! 🙂

Seeing their fearless brother – the girls took pictures of the bullies and didn’t run away. Once the motley crew of zombies saw that our children were no longer afraid –  they walked away. It’s not fun to scare them if they’re no longer crying in fear.

When I grew up, I was afraid of monsters in my room. My sister and I shared a room together until I was in the 1st grade. We had a giant water-bed – but at night I would sleep as close to her as I could.   I would hook my leg over one of her legs so I would know if she left in the middle of the night. I knew that if she were with me – maybe the monster would get her first!! LOL!  As time passed, I got over my fear because I realized there is no boogie man – or any other monsters!

For my children and the other children of Haiti, this is not the case. The boogie man is real! They can tangibly see him during the day and now Levi knows he can touch him. As we teach our children to stand up for Christ  – to have faith in His promises for their life – it takes on new meaning when there are LITERALLY blood curses poured on the front steps of your home. Nothing like seeing a cow’s head on your steps when your way to church! (No joke).

It’s put up or shut up time! And I’m proud to say—my children are ready to put up, dig in, stand tall, and scream loud at the Devil saying –  “BACK UP—WE’RE COMING THROUGH WITH FISTS A BLAZING!”