As part of the show, Bill talked to the camera and told viewers to go to the World Wide Village website to support our work in Haiti. Within moments after the announcement people were on the website. Within 30 minutes after the show was over World Wide Village had received several pledges and several inquiries into taking mission trips to Haiti. We’re confident the interest, and donations will continue, especially since the show will be repeated many times on the Style Network (check listings for show times).

To paraphrase Giuliana Rancic from the show, “We’re really proud of Bill for what he and his friends did in building the home for Madame Josette and her family.” We are proud to be able to call Bill a friend of World Wide Village and look forward to helping him build more homes in Haiti.

If you would like to learn more about Bill, his show, and his connection to World Wide Village, here are a few links for you:

Bill’s Haiti Photo Gallery

WWV Previous Blog Post About Bill

Bill Rancic Blog Post About WWV

Giuliana & Bill Show

Bill Rancic Fitting Hearing Aids in Haiti (video)

24 hours in and I have already gone to Chickfila, Starbucks, and had way too much fun in the Target $1 section. One wedding down and on a roadtrip to the next one that is in Florida. And if you saw me at the Cheesecake Factory tonight, I promise it was my twin;)

It may look like we are having fun. And we are. But I’m basically a giant mess of emotions and trying to cover it up with lots of American decadence and some diva thrown in there. Today I even had to pump my own gas. Talk amongst yourselves but if Haiti has one thing going for it, it’s that I don’t have to pump gas, they have someone who does it for you.

Back to my mess. Being here is a little weird. I feel torn. I feel like I shouldn’t be enjoying this decadence when my husband and friends are having long hard days of generators being silly and other Haiti things that are bound to be going on. Then I drive on beautiful clean roads and think how much we take the small things for granted here. I can’t watch much tv because anything news related makes me want to vomit. Then there are moments where I wonder why we are crazy enough to go through all of this. Sometimes it is hard to not get wrapped up in the what if’s and risk of it all. Being away from Haiti makes Haiti feel like a lifetime ago.

And in the midst of it. I miss it all. I would trade every nice non-bumpy road, every piece of cheesecake, all of it for Ayiti. For the people there that I love and believe in enough to fight for them to have better lives.

Here is to a few weeks of trying to enjoy the decadence of Chickfila and warm showers while not having meltdowns in Krogers.

(a window of Haiti)

head on over here to facebook to see the event and share it with friends!!

           The story started shortly after the January 2010 earthquake when Rancic, winner of the first season of “The Apprentice” went to Haiti with Sara Lee Executive Jon Harris to deliver several thousand pounds of disaster relief food. He was emotionally overwhelmed by what he saw and knew immediately that he wanted to do more to help those so tragically affected by the earthquake.

            It was on that trip that he met Didi Pierre Louis and his family. Didi was in desperate need of medical attention so Rancic took him, and two other children, to Chicago to get the care they needed. Unfortunately Didi did not survive. When Rancic next traveled to Haiti he promised Madame Josette, Didi’s mother, that he would build the family a permanent home. They were living in a “tiny hut with a mud floor, no running water or bathroom or kitchen facilities,” Rancic said.

           In May of 2011 Rancic went to Haiti again, this time as part of a group traveling with the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Starkey is one of WWV’s partners in Haiti and during the trip Rancic met Randy Mortensen, WWV President, and heard about the recently launched WWV Family Housing Fund and it’s commitment to build 500 homes for displaced families in Haiti. Shortly afterward Rancic arranged to fund and build a home with WWV in Jacmel, Haiti.

           In February of this year Rancic and several of his friends traveled to Haiti to work with a Haitian construction team from World Wide Village, and Randy Mortensen, to build the home. His partners on the trip included Jon Harris from Sara Lee, Chicago-based building contractor Bert Connolly of Wescon Builders, (now a sponsor of the Plus One Home Project), and art collector Ari Goldman.  It is the building of this home that is featured on the “Guliana & Bill” Show.

           The experience of building the home so inspired Rancic that he promised to return to Haiti with World Wide Village to fund and build even more homes for some of the 500,000 people still living in tents or temporary structures as a result of the quake. “Bill and his friends left Haiti absolutely on fire with the idea of helping other families,” Mortensen said. “He saw first hand that two years after the earthquake Haiti is still hurting, both physically and spiritually.”

           The homes will be part of a broad effort by WWV to build homes for quake victims. In 2011 WWV launched the “Family Housing Fund” with a large donation by an anonymous donor. “We’re hoping that Bill’s story will inspire people to support our efforts to build homes in Haiti. Unfortunately, too many people have already forgotten the tremendous need in Haiti.”

            World Wide Village’s Haitian housing efforts were expanded just a couple of weeks ago with the launch of the “Plus One Home Project” that seeks pledges from builders, remodelers, suppliers, brokers and agents to help fund the construction of a home in Haiti for every home they build, remodel or sell in this country.

We stood in the market out in the village trying to buy shoes because we had forgotten flip flops for her.  Lena is looking at the shoes and holding them up to see if they will fit.  I look up and see that 30+ people have surrounded the wooden table all watching Lena pick out shoes and giggling as she put the ones that she didn’t want back.

But then are these moments when she blends in, and the kids play with her just as they would another Haitian kid, or she is sitting in the kitchen carrying on with some of our Haitian friends.

She lives an odd life. One that I’m so grateful for.

A life full of adventure, harsh realities, loving and missing, and singing, lots of singing:) It’s not all roses, believe me. Just last week I had to explain to her why the baby we saw the day before had gone to Heaven. And yesterday she said goodbye to some ladies that work here since we won’t see them until we get back from the States and she just cried. It’s hard to always be missing someone.

But you know what? I wouldn’t change it for the world. She is learning life. That it is hard sometimes. And that people suffer. And there is immense good in the world. And that status and money don’t really matter, but loving people where they are does. And that God is good, all the time.

The entrance into our little community that the WWV house is in is getting increasingly worse. It’s the rainy season and the drainage system, or lack thereof, seems to have a block somewhere. We are pretty positive nothing is being done to find a solution, except for blocks being put in to try to step over for those walking and others are capitalizing on it by offering to carry people through it for 5 gourdes. At least point Lena is convinced she is going to have to swim to get to the airport on Thursday.

this is what you do when you don’t have an umbrella handy. Now you know.

This is what I posted on facebook the other day:

There are 6 Haitian guys and 2 blan’s standing in our front yard in the rain trying to figure out how to get our truck that is stuck in a giant lake of a puddle with hot power lines laying on it that it took down. We rescued the 4 people stuck in the truck and now have to figure out how to save the generator in the back of the truck.

You would think they would be worried and nervous, but no. They are currently making clapping noises to try to scare each other as they reach a 2×4 to the line and then dying laughing when someone jumps. Never.a.dull.moment.

this is the next morning after we pulled off some of the wires when EDH was out. Behind me not in the pic is a street pole pulled down. The light is now sitting in our garage while we get all the wires fixed.

Been meaning to post this for a while:) We have a little market with souvenirs and such in our house for teams to use. Our check out girls name is Lena. Here is her cash register and her sign that she made:)

Then there is this, the little gems I find on my phone when I pull the pics off of it. God love her:)

Here in Haiti I can vibrantly see what God meant when He talked about the body of Christ. People letting God use them as they are, in the focus that He wants them, so that we can work together.

Last week I spent the week with doctors, dentists, nurses, and med students who did just that, they used the skills they had to let God use them. And it was amazing. Honored to have friends like them.

All that to say, what are you good at? And how can you use that to give back? God uses it all, even if you are thinking “but I’m just a …”. Push yourself to know that the skills you have can change lives.

Troy and Tara Livesay work for Heartline Ministries, an amazing mission here in Haiti with a focus on women. Heartline has many women’s programs ranging from a cooking and a sewing school, to a teen mom house and maternity center. One of my favorite things to do in Haiti is network and partner, for anyone hoping to do the same, volunteer in Haiti or just looking for an honest mission to donate toward-Heartline is on the top of my list!

After Tara got the call she asked if I wanted to join her to see a birth…umm let me think…YEAH! Tara, her daughter Paige and I drove a mile up the road to the Heartline Maternity Center. We got there a little after 7PM, momma to be (Astrid) was walking around trying to speed up the process and poppa to be was patiently waiting out front.

Around two hours and three chocolate bars later we were still waiting. I was impressed by many things during this experience, but mostly the willingness and trust of Astrid with the Heartline staff. The three midwives from Heartline were too amazing, from their Kreole skills to their gentle ability to walk Astrid through what she needed to do in order to ease her pain.

Prior to the birth Astrid had attended different maternity classes offered at Heartline. This was Astrid’s fourth birth (all with the same father-sort of a big thing here in Haiti!) so she was pretty prepared, but I am not sure one can ever be 100% prepared with something so unexpected and varying as birth. Everyone present did a phenomenal job and baby Nora was born around 11:30PM on April 27^th!

I can honestly say I have never experienced something like this before; this was the first birth I have been able to witness. It is a beautiful thing and I feel so blessed to be a woman and one day (hopefully) experience the gift of life myself (using a midwife for sure!) I am so thankful to Astrid, Tara and Heartline for allowing me to be there and ask so many questions! It was an experience I will never forget! Welcome to the world baby Nora!!!

A little girl sat on the floor with Lena and colored. My heart ached for her because it was a small break to be a child before she went back to caring for her younger sister.

It rained while we sat there. Blessed, cleansing rain. It was only the second time we have seen rain during the day since being here.

It wasn’t in a fancy building, they weren’t in debt for stage lights and stereo equipment, and they didn’t provide free coffee or DVD’s of the service. But you know what? God was there. In this simplistic, raw way that made you crave Him.