My good friend and coworker, also named Lindsay were able to join Dr. Harris along on his humanitarian trip with his family to the Dominican Republic. It was such an amazing experience. I've always talked about doing something like this. I am so happy I was able to have this experience. I also just took my first positive pregnancy test. :) I was extra nervous to go to a third world country. But I made it there. We stayed at a beautiful resort on the beach. It was spectacular. It made me feel really guilty taking a van ride to the inner part of the island to the poor part of town and see how these people live. At least we were able to serve them. They are beautiful people. I wanted to take every child we came in contact with home with me. Dr. Harris let me numb some people and also extract a few teeth. Then a dentist that was there didn't have any help so I hooked up with him for the rest of the service. He and his wife were amazing people. They warmed my heart and I learned so much from them. They adopted an amazing son from India that has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. He sent them with his eagle project to deliver. School supplies for the local villages. I was able to tag along on this event as well. I have never felt more humble in my life. The kids would be sharing desks and have no shoes. We visited three villages and each one was more poverished then the last. It was heart breaking. At the last village there was a little boy there that had not one article of clothing on. he looked about 2-3 years old. He is totally displaced. This visit wasn't horribly long after the horrific earthquake in Haiti. This Village was right on the boarder. This little boy was Haitian and lost his parents in the earthquake. The village, very poorly takes care of him. I was so turned upside down with how I felt. I couldn't understand why he couldn't come home with me. Why do I need a piece of paper signed by some judge to love that child. I didn't understand it and I still don't. He roamed that dirt road village picking off scraps of other starving children. No one to hold him. No one to love him. I still get lost in my own thoughts about this little boy. He also spoke a different language then the Dominicans. I just wish I could have given him more then crayons, papers, stickers and a colorful ruler. It was a good experience though. I am happy I was able to do it. I will never forget it.
Views of the beautiful Dominican Republic
This was at the nicest school we visited.
This is the Haitian little boy. Still hurts to look at him.
When word gets out Americans are at the clinic people flock. These kids are all cramming into the bed of a small truck to come get dental care.
Busy at work.
The man that made it all happen for Lindsay and I.
