Friends Forever

As we continue to prepare for our trip to the Mission of Hope Project we have been blessed through the testimonies of others who have recently traveled to Haiti. Their stories and photos show the life changing effect their time in the country has had on them as well as the impact they have been able to make in the lives of the Haitians.

One of Tim's main contacts for the MOH prosthetic clinic, Chase, recently adopted a young boy whose leg was amputated at age 2. MSNBC has been posting stories of recent Haitian amputees and encouraging correspondence between these new prosthetic patients and US amputees.  Chase's son, Elias, wanted to write a young Haitian boy about to endure an amputation due to injury sustained in the Jan. 12 earthquake. Here is Elias letter:

"Dear Schneily," Elias wrote, "My leg got amputated when I was 2 years old. And then I got my first prosthetic leg a little bit after that. It's hard to have your leg amputated. Don't be scared because God is with you.

When you first get your prosthetic leg you'll be kind of scared because you don't really know how to use it. But if you practice walking a little bit everyday you'll get better and better. And then one day you'll be able to run again!

Sometimes you might be sad that you have a prosthetic leg. But you are just like me! And there are lots of other kids that have prosthetics too. I'll be your friend forever.

When you get your prosthetic leg we can play together and run. I really hope that I can come to Haiti sometime and we can run and play together. Love, Elias."

You can find Schneily's and other Haiti amputee stories at http://haitiamputees.msnbc.msn.com/.