Everybody's got a story...

It's 5 am, and the roosters are insisting that it's time to wake up. By 6am, you can the sounds of the men working in the corn field, which lies immediately on the other side of the compound wall, and Germaine, the cook here at HATS is already at work in the kitchen. My view as I write is from the concrete stair on the second floor, where there is a slight breeze and a great view of the 'neighborhood.'

There are so many stories here at HATS, and like the line in the Amanda Marshall song, "everybody's got a story that could break your heart..."

Moise (Mo-eese) is a handsome boy with a smiling face and warm brown eyes. He looks and acts like any teenage boy going into grade 7--he loves to play soccer, he teases his brothers and sisters here at the orphanage, he loves getting a chance to get on the Internet to play games, yet his beginning in life is rather extraordinary and unbelievable. 

Moise's mother here at HATS, Karen, found him by the river wrapped in a blanket at about the age of 18 months. (She figured Moise was a fitting name for him, because, in English, his name means 'Moses'!) Karen said doctors told her he would never walk, and they were right in one way--he doesn't walk....he mostly runs! The doctors are unaware that the love and determination Karen has for her children works in miraculous ways, more than any prescribed medicine. Moise will be 13 in November, and because of Karen, his story goes on...