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Child: Rose Myca Bain
Host Family: Rich and Bev Bertschi
Eureka, Il In the summer of 2000, our family saw a slide show of one of Dr. Carroll's visits to Haiti. One of the pictures was a small girl with a huge white bow on the top
of her head who needed to come to the US for heart surgery. At that time, my sister Leah mentioned that she would like to keep her. |
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Leah's wish came true in October of 2000; we met Rosemyca's plane in Peoria on the 19th
and took the very tiny four-year-old home with us. She was silent for most of the drive home, due in part to shyness. The apple I had brought with me was the other reason. She ate it quickly and scraped what she missed from the peel using her front teeth. We were a little concerned about her mood until we put her in the bathtub and she proceeded to splash and giggle in childish delight. From that moment on (except for the occasional mood swings common to most little kids), Rosemyca was energetic and very happy.
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Rosemyca had a few problems that put her into the hospital soon after she arrived. She was suffering from congestive heart
failure, pneumonia, and giardia. She still managed to be a little fireball of energy (and the Doctor's told us that fixing her heart would make her more energetic.) |
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Rosemyca had her surgery on November 7th. She soon left the hospital completely "fixed" as far as her
heart was concerned and came home to live with us. She was a constant source of laughter and fun for our family. So much of what she experienced and saw she had never seen or experienced before. It was
fun just to see her reactions to new things. |
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Christmas was very exciting for her. She learned enough words to "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry
Christmas" to entertain us. On Christmas, each gift she opened was accompanied by much jumping and shouting of "Happy Holidays." (This was especially funny because we were reasonably certain she had no idea
what "Happy Holidays" meant.) |
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The week after Christmas, we took her on vacation with us to Florida. She soon overcame any inhibitions she may
have had about the swimming pool and the very cold ocean. Her continuous delight over every new discovery made the trip very memorable. |
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On vacation |
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Rosemyca was scheduled to leave in January. On January 16th, my dad and I and several others took
Rosemyca back to Haiti. It was a harder thing to do than we could ever have imagined. Seeing the conditions that we were returning her to in person made it even worse. However, we met her father, and
it was very evident that he loved her very much. |
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Rosemyca blessed our family in innumerable ways. She became like a member of our family. The little girl with the huge
white bow had looked just like a present, and that is exactly what Rosemyca turned out to be. She brought almost nothing with her from Haiti, but she gave our family the gifts of laughter, joy, unconditional love,
and many, many precious memories.
By: Lydia Bertschi
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