Caring for Haiti's Children, with Danita Estrella-Watts

 Danita Estrella-Watts is the founder and President of Danita’s Children in Haiti which cares for orphaned children. Her vision began at the young age of 11 after a mission trip opened her eyes to all the suffering. Twenty-five years later she returned and by listening to God’s voice, she began to create tools to care for the children of Haiti. Today her organization is able to meet many physical, emotional and spiritual needs through a home which cares for 80 orphans, a school that educates over 300 children, a feeding program that serves over 16,000 meals, a church, and a pediatric medical center with over 26 nurses and medical physicians. Danita’s journey started with fear and uncertainty and ultimately yielded to purpose and peace as she uncovered the rewards for improving the lives of so many through education, medical aid, love, and nourishment. Be sure not to miss this episode as Matt and Danita explore themes of faith, courage, overcoming adversity, and of course, the power of gratitude. Listeners beware as you may be inspired to reflect heavily on your own blessings and how you might make a difference in the world! Learn more about Danita, her foundation, and how you can help at her website, danitaschildren.org/. You listen to the podcast here, or watch here. 

Transcript

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Well, hello with gratitude Matt listeners, my name is Matt Murray and I'm the host for the With Gratitude Matt Show. Our goal with the show is to inspire our listening audience to practice gratitude regardless of how powerful the storm is. One thing that I've learned about the practice of gratitude is it's really important to be present to those you're with. Often times you'll miss the gifts of gratitude that are right in front of you if you're not present to those you're with. Secondly, I think it's also really important to pay attention to how you're feeding your mind, your body and soul. We still have to do our part, and that's our part. I've learned that the practice of gratitude works much like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. I'm so delighted to introduce you to today's guest. Today's guest is Danita Estrella Watts. She's the founder and CEO of Denied US Children. Danita was raised in shelter along with her brother at 11 years old. Her father took her on a mission trip to Haiti. It was 25 years later, and she decided to actually move there and start doing some of the remarkable work that she's doing today. She ultimately decided to follow her calling, really, when she saw children eating out of trash cans, and that's when she decided to open up. They needs children. The need is children today serves as a as a home for 80 orphans. They educate over 300 children on an annual basis, serve over 16,000 meals. In addition, there's a hospital there that staffs over 26 nurses and medical physicians. Denise's children has a mission statement that reads, To Rescue Love and care for orphans, impoverished children in Haiti, meeting their physical, emotional, educational and spiritual needs. So they are empowered to become leaders in their communities, in nations they need. It's such an honor to have you on today's show. Welcome to the show, too, Nina. Thank you, Matt, for inviting me to be with you today. Absolutely. Well, so I think you know what might be an interesting place to start. I already touched on it in the introduction that you took a trip with your father at age 11. But maybe if you could share with our listening audience what life was like for you growing up and maybe even what motivated your father to take you on that trip. You know, if you would have asked me, I never would have dreamed that I would be the person that would move to Haiti and spend most of their life there. And I was actually born in New Jersey, and I would say that my home, I spent most of my time in Florida. I grew up in Florida. When I was younger, I lived in Puerto Rico. My mother was from Pennsylvania. My father was from Puerto Rico. And my father, my family, they aren't Christian family. And so I remember getting young age, you know, at a vacation. Bible school is something that many of us sent our children to or been part of. And yeah, when I was ten, there was a teacher taught the story and tailor. She read, you know, I was a kid that was ten years old. This is why I believe it's so important that we whatever we do, whether you're a teacher or in church on a Sunday school, it's not just an insignificant thing because during that one class at the end of that week, about my head and I said a prayer. Now I forgot that prayer when I was older, I was ten. I said, Look, hey, I want you to use me. And I would initially, well, forgot about that prayer. Lived a life opposite of anything or anyone that would be thinking about being Senior eight with the Lord over that prayer. And suddenly that there is a was part of my assignment in life. And it just took a while for me to discover what my true purpose and assignment in life was. That's awesome. That's beautiful. Now, so it was some 25 years ago or later after that first trip to Haiti that you decided to ultimately move there. And I'd love to hear kind of what went into you really deciding to just pack your bags and buy a one way trip to Haiti? Okay. So going back a little bit, when the when I was in that vacation Bible school, I was ten at 11, my father did emissions trip food to Haiti because he was helping build a hospital in an island called Larchmont. 25 years later, I was in Florida. And at that time I was at a church and I really felt I was assisting the pastors and the staff there. And I really felt that I had a strong desire to go to the mission field. And every day for a year I would go on a walk and I would pray. And I just felt I said, Lord, I don't know where I'm going, but I feel like you are. There's someplace that you could take. And one day there was a group of doctors that were going to the Dominican Republic, and they needed an interpreter. And being fluent in Spanish, they asked if I wanted to go with them. And so I spent several days in different villages interpreting for these doctors. But at the end of those few days with them, they said, we're going to cross the border and we're going to go into Haiti. And when we went to Haiti, something happened to me. My heart just began to beat a little faster. And as I looked at the children in the streets and eating trashcans, it moved me in a way that nothing ever has. And I remember that when we were leaving to come back to the U.S., a lot of people on the team were like, well, I can't wait to get back to the U.S.. And in my heart, I was thinking, I can't wait to get back to Haiti. And I always tell people this was a very unique thing. So two months after that experience, I packed my bags and I moved to Haiti by myself. And that's where it all started. And it all started with that one trip. You touched on seeing the children eating out of trash. When we spoke it, when I heard you first speak, you touched on an interaction within a man, a grown man confronting a young boy that was eating out of a trashcan, I think picking up something off of the street. And you went and confronted the man because he was basically scolding the young boy. Maybe if you could just share a little bit about that interaction and the courage that it took for you to confront this man. Well, first of all, when I went to Haiti, I had a heart to serve, but I didn't have this big plan of what I was going to do. And while I was there, I served. I helped the schools. I helped children, I helped children's programs, I helped feeding programs. And I just prayed. I said, Lord, I don't want to do 50 different things. I want to do one thing and I want to pour my whole life into it. And I'll never forget this. One night before I had what I'll call a defining moment, I cried myself to sleep one night, and I said, I think I had been in Haiti for almost a year. And I said, Thank you, Lord, for sending me here, but why am I here? I felt like there was a mission or a purpose or an assignment that I had not discovered yet. And so that night I fell asleep, praying and crying. Why am I here? And I the next day I had a defining moment. That's the moment that we can look back in our lives and say, You know, today, this day, my life was changed. And I believe that so many times we pray and we expect God to answer our prayers in a specific way. And yet he's speaking to us every day through people that he puts in our lives. And that's what happened to me. I was eating at a just an open air fried chicken restaurant, and it was a market day. So there was literally thousands of children and people that on market day, on the border, the border becomes open on the Dominican Republic in Haiti.

And between the hours of eight and 5: 9:01

00, without passports, without visa, you can cross the border by cell and trade. So as I'm sitting there and I'm eating and I'm watching all of these street children in orphans, one by one, when someone would leave, there are leftovers or they would throw their leftovers into a trash can. The street children would come in, they would grab it from the plates from the trashcan, and then they would sit in the street corner and share it, even if it was like chicken. And there was one particular child that was staring at me. He wouldn't take his eyes off of me. And he was the youngest, the smallest, about two. And we made eye contact. And I knew what he was saying to me, even though he never spoke a word. He was telling me, Don't give your leftovers to anyone else. Give it to me. And I motion them so that he knew that, you know, I see you and I went like this to wait. And as I was eating, I said, you know, why am I going to give him my leftovers? I'll wait till I'm done and I'll get him his own plate of food. Now, this is the day that I discovered what my purpose was. And before I had a chance to finish eating, I heard the screams of a child. And I look out the door and it's the same child that we had just made eye contact with. And apparently there was a farmer who was had been hurting his cattle that day, and he was angry at all of the street kids. He felt that they were a nuisance hanging out in front of the restaurant. And he decided to he was going to teach them a lesson. So I don't know if he grabbed the boy that was closest to him, but he grabbed the youngest one, dragged him to the street corner. Now, I always tell people that when I first went to Haiti, I was a shy, quiet woman. For most of my life, I struggled with the fear of failure. I would rather not try something and fail, then take a risk. So going to Haiti for me was taking a huge risk. So my previous self was a very shy, quiet woman. But that day when I saw this child being whipped and then I saw people gather around him in a circle to watch. I got out of my seat. I forgot who I was, where I was. I ran out to the street and I grabbed the man by the collar. I began to shake him and I began to plead for the boy to let him go. He was so startled, and he threw the boy down. I was shaking. I picked the boy up. I went inside. I was teary eyed, grabbed three plates of food because he had two friends. I walked him to safety, too, a couple of blocks away. I never saw that child again. But the day that I left there, I looked up and I said to the Lord, This is why you sent me here. They don't need to eat out of trash cans and they need to know that you loved them. So from that day, instead of doing 20 different things, I'd be I had single vision. Everything had to do with children, children's education, children's emotional play sports, children's hospital, medical care, and children's spiritual discipleship. That is so beautiful. And as I hear you talk about that, Anita, it reminds me we talked earlier on the introduction and how important it is to be truly present in that day. Had you not been really present to where you were and your surroundings, you may not have truly found your calling in today. You have to need is children who serves as I talked about it at home for 80 and you know the education that you're doing there, so on and so forth. You know, as you think about where do need as children is today? What were some of the biggest struggles as you began to build that, you know, from essentially nothing early on? You know, faith is of faith until it's tested. I was there by myself. I went there. The church I was with, they committed to $200 a month of support. And through that $200 a month of support, the whole ministry was built and it was truly a walk of faith. And sometimes those hard days are some of my favorite memories, because everything that I needed or wanted or that the children needed are prayer. Whether it was a children that was dying or I could stay. I had my early journal. I was crying out to God, this is what I wrote. Oh my goodness, I need all of these children. I was like, overwhelmed. Do you know how many you had? 14. 14. Today we feed over 500 every day, over 16,000 meals a month. But that's where my faith was at. And so you start somewhere. And my faith back then was God, this is impossible. I hardly have any money. How am I going to do this? And, you know, it's just it just starts one at a time. So it didn't it it amazes me the Lord's provision. And I've learned that whatever you're called to do in life, God brings you does what I call destiny helpers. And whether it's your teacher in first grade or your coach in heights or, you know, your parents, maybe it's it's a it's a certain mentor, whether it's a pastor. And the Lord did not use its emanation of a person. It was so many destiny. Like some of them were there for a short season. Some of them have been there for 25 years. But I learned that when the Lord wants to do something each and every time I had a prayer request, it came in form person, whether it was medical care, a doctor, financial need, a businessman. Someone had the ability to help you. You know, a word of encouragement. Friend So I'm very grateful for the destiny Helpers that have been in my life. And so that's what I try to be now with all of these children is a destiny help. Maybe they weren't able to go to school with Cornell and made you feel poor. They only eight three times a week now. They can eat almost every day. So that's kind of how I see it, you know. But it's what's done for you. You turn around and you do it for someone else. Beautiful, beautiful. Early on, you know, I know you've got a lot of infrastructure today. You've got the hospital, you've got the church. But there was question as to what should be built first and I know that you wrestled that with yourself and ultimately was the church that won out. And maybe talk a little bit about how that decision was made and how shortly after there that the church became much more than a church for for the community there that you serve? Well, as I told you when I started out, I didn't have much. So our first building project was a thatched roof. So it was basically logs and a thatched roof that was like 60 feet long and 50 feet wide. And underneath that, that's truth. We had about 200 children going to school. So the Bible says despise not small beginnings. You got to start somewhere. And so in the why eat just like down street, I was 100% sure that the first building to be a school. But one day I went out there and I just sat under a tree and I prayed and I just whispered a prayer to the Lord. And I said, What do you see? And he already had plans. I already knew what it was. And afterwards, in my heart, I just felt like I was going the wrong direction. I really felt that the first building needed to be the church in the center of the property. It would be a multipurpose building, not just a church to be used, not just a building to be used on Sundays. And that the same way that I had used a thatched roof to put two tents Monday through Friday, I could divide up the church into classroom to school there. And then on the weekends, a lot of the parents of the children could come to the church and hear the same message of hope that the children were hearing the message of Christ and so plans totally changed. We built a church. Church was completed in 2004. Little did I know that this church would also be well in the earthquakes of 2010, when there were so many thousands of people that lost their lives. There were displaced children that lost parents. We had over 75, some adults, mostly children, living in the church. And I thought that it was going to be, you know, maybe six months or so. Why we built new homes was over three years that we had them living in the church and we just relocated the church to another building. And then when the floods hit the island in 2004 that we brought the children in temporarily for a much shorter time. They also lived in the church. So it has been a lighthouse, a place of safety, not just, you know, spiritually, but also it literally was a school, it was a home. And now as the street grew, we were able to build a hospital, so we no longer had to use the church. We were able to build eight additional homes, so we no longer had to use a church. But starting out, we had to use what we had but was given to us. Absolutely. That's amazing. That is truly amazing. If you look back on that, the mission statement that I read earlier, you know, one thing that jumps out at me is, is you do have prominently in there. You you're trying to build leaders in their communities and beyond. But you clearly have a spiritual element of that, which I love. How important is the spiritual side of what you're doing in serving these children and in the goals to help them, you know, grow up into becoming leaders? How important is that spiritual element to what you see in what they're experiencing? I think it's very important because first of all, they need to understand that they were created in the image of God. They need to know who they are in Christ. They are not what somebody said they were. They are not an orphan that's unloved. They are not that just a child that was abandoned by their father or their mother, but that they were created in the image of God and that they're loved. When you know who you are and you understand your identity and you grow up with principles, it doesn't mean that you're not going to miss the mark or fail. But the difference between a believer in a nonbeliever is when the storms come and they will, they live with hope. And there is there is outer strength that you can get from friends and people. But there is an inner strength that only comes through Jesus Christ and I want them to know what it is to have the inner strength as they graduate, they go to college. We have more than, I think, 18 of our children in college right now, some in the states, some in Haiti. They are no longer under just a covering an armed brother there living this life on their own. And they have to learn how to make decisions. And in this school, we have to say Bible class. Bible class is important by a lot of Bible class is information. Old Testament, New Testament stories, all stories in the Bible. One thing that I'm trying to emphasize, especially this year, is discipleship, because discipleship is more application. So application, how do I take this truth and apply it to to my life? So I think it's very important. And I even look at my life there. I was raised in a Christian home and I turned away from it for about eight years of my life. But you know, it says Train a child in a way you shall go. He grows up, he won't depart from. And it doesn't mean they're never just going to you know, make mistakes. But those seeds that were planted in me or deep enough that one day those sees it had been planted, they they bore fruit so much that this person that for eight years was away from the things of the Lord and that changing their life and making the decision to serve the Lord in the mission field of Haiti. I was so encouraged to hear exactly how you answered that question in thought. You answer it the way you did. I, I just can't imagine going through the hurdles that I had to go through without strong faith. And I would imagine, I guess, a follow up question to that. But I would imagine many of these children, when you first see them, they come with no faith whatsoever. Is that fair to say? Some of them, their parents maybe died and maybe they had a parent that was a Christian. But what you see a lot is that they only grew up with one parent and it's usually just a mom. Many times, a lot of them, they never even met their father. So for a lot of my boys, maybe not so much now, but in the early years they were being a had a problem sometimes with with men disrespecting them. They were really close with women because so many women in their lives, the women, many missionaries were strong. And I just think that, you know, through did, you know, discipleship and through allowing them, they've moved on and now they have great relationships with father figures in their life. But one of the saddest things for me that having a children's home is not God's plan, it's God's grace. And for these children that their parents died of AIDS or for whatever reason, they had one parent and that parent passed away having a safe place to where they feel loved is just a you know, the plan should have been mom, dad, family, a father figure. So one of the saddest things for me was that my children grew up without a father. They had a lot of women in their life who were so hungry to be father for that father figure. And, you know, by God's grace, and as they go to college, they sometimes have host families. And also several coaches have come into their lives. You know, my husband, John, different people, they have learned what it is to have that relationship with that failure and they crave it. They crave that having that the love of a father. You know, you touched on, you know, a number of your children are studying in college today. You know, I spent some time as I was preparing for today, just going out to your website and there are some beautiful pictures of some older children and many of which have been with you since the time they were in kindergarten. So you you've spent basically, you know, call it 18, 20 years of your life. What does it mean to you as you see them learning and doing some of the things that they're doing today? I think it's one of the greatest blessings in my life. It's like this long. Something's that we do in life have a quick kind of reward. You know, you get to see the results immediately. This has been a long term investment. And as I always tell my friends or partners when I look back on the last 25 years, it's not the buildings, the where I could truly see the the impact is when I look at my kids and it's almost like a movie that I play in my mind. Each one of them has a story and I remember them when they were five years old. And, you know, in the month of May was a busy May was a busy month for us. I had three college graduation days and one of my boys got married all within the same month and it was really busy. But while I was like, you know, I'm so grateful that I get to see it come full circle again, It's not like, Oh, I was with them for the, you know, till sixth grade and I don't know what happened to them, but to see it come full circle and several of them are now married, now they're having children of their own and I got its sweet text from one of my one of my boys, my daughter in law. And she said, you know, I was having a conversation with him today and he was telling me that on Sunday mornings you used to play really nice instrumental like soft music, worship music, saying, I want my kids to grow up like that. I wanted to play that music. And it really just touched me because it was just something that I did. I didn't even know that he remembered it. But to hear her say, I want my kids to grow up like that is like, Wow, you never know the things that they're going to remember or the little things that will impact their lives later. That is amazing. You know, the impact that you're having on so many lives. It really is. You know, I touched on earlier, we all face hurdles in life. You're experiencing the hurdles that the children in Haiti face each and every day. As we connected a couple of weeks ago, you shared with me a hurdle that you faced in your own life over the last couple of years. And I think it would be interesting for our listening audience to hear, one, how you address that hurdle, how you faced it, and ultimately how you really got stronger through going through that particular health scare that you had. Well, I've always been blessed with great health, and I wasn't taking any, you know, medications. You know, I was doing great. And then almost exactly a year ago, almost exactly a year ago this time, I was back in Nashville when I'm not in 80 now, I'm actually Franklin area. And I broke my husband up, like at three in the morning. I said, Something's not right. My heart is racing and I kind of ignored it. And it happened the next night. And the next day I tried to climb up a pair of a flight of stairs and I almost passed out. And I said to him, I think I have COVID, let's go take me to get tested. And when I went got tested, it came back negative. And they said, Why don't you go ahead and go to the E.R.? And I'm just like, when I went to the E.R., I told them, listen, I don't take any medication and except just one, and it's no big deal. I just take this medication for my thyroid. So maybe it's just that. And they tested my my blood pressure, my heart rate, and all of a sudden there were like five doctors that just run into this E.R. and I know this is not good. And my blood pressure was dangerously high. And from then on, they referred me to a cardiologist, and I found out that I needed heart surgery and that I needed to get it as soon as possible. And there was no blockage. You know, my calcification score was zero, but my fault myself was damaged and it needed to be repaired and it needed to be done as soon as possible. So one day I think I have this great health and everything is fine the next day or, you know, over the next period of weeks, I'm planning to have heart surgery. I remember I asked a doctor because he planned it out like, you know, like, okay, in three weeks you're going to have this surgery. I said to him, can I go back to Haiti one more time? Just just one more time. Because, you know, you know, things are going to be fine. But, you know, you just want to go back one more time. And he said he hesitated and he said, okay, sure. So I got on a plane and thinking I was going to make it back to Haiti. When I got it back to Haiti, I actually fly into the Dominican Republic. And when I got to the Dominican Republic, same thing happened. And the very next day I needed to fly back to Nashville. And then I knew this. This was serious. And I needed to take care of it. So on August 15th of last year, I had heart surgery, had a wonderful doctor in Vanderbilt, and so, so very grateful. But the the surgery itself and this is why it sounds strange to say this was not the hardest part. The hardest part was after the surgery for nine weeks, it was nine weeks before I went back to Haiti was what I walked through. My motion aids, the depression, everything that I went through, not feeling like myself and could not be around people. It was hard to talk on the phone. It was hard to to to go out in public. I found myself just staying in the room. So it was it was a really hard time. And it and I went through a season, I don't know of weeks of not being able to sleep. And when you can't sleep, it opens a door for depression to set in. And and I began to question a lot of things. I lost my self-confidence. I lost I didn't feel like myself. I can't even explain it. And as I began to do research, I found out that that is part of the healing process. And some people, it lasts longer, some people it's shorter. And nine weeks after the surgery, I first I went to a wedding, I stopped at a wedding. And then from there I went to Haiti. And I could probably say that my when I say healing, my emotional state began to turn around when I was back in Haiti and when I was taking the focus off myself and putting my eyes back on the needs of others and just being around people that loved me, being around my kids, being around my Haitian family, my family in Haiti, that is where I began to see a a turnaround. And every person has what they call safe. And for me, my safe place is, you know, my husband, my kids in. But it's my family in in Haiti. But it was a really hard people have had heart surgery will always talk about a depression that they go through and how they don't feel like themselves for a long time. That so unbelievable. And it sounds like, you know, I just to hear you talk about it, you know, you focusing on the children, you focusing on other people. And I think so often people that are depressed, they get so self-centered and so focused on the self and think that the world revolves them. And it clearly doesn't. And I'm so happy that you're I've responded well and you're getting stronger each and every day. So we keep modulations to that. Thank you. You know, with a show around gratitude and you're living around, you know, such poverty, such depressed environment. When you think about gratitude in Denise's children, what comes to mind most for you? You know, I, I would say the faithfulness of God in my life and of all, I'm so grateful for my family. I'm so grateful for the children that were there. But I always tell people it what? I went to Haiti. I feel like it was the call of God that took me there. But it's the presence of God that keeps me there, and I am so very grateful for his presence. I have had some horrible, hard times in Haiti. I survived being there in 2004 when the rebels took over the country. I was there during the earthquake. I was there during floods. I went through some hard times in our town, but through it all, the presence of the Lord strengthened me. And I'm just so very grateful for my family, for the power of prayer and for friends. And let me just say this about prayer. If God doesn't change the one thing that I'm praying about, He changes the way I feel about it. In other words, that I may be, you know, praying for this to happen or that to happen. But I've really learned to trust the Lord. And, you know, the Bible says he gives the peace of God that surpasses understanding in Philippians four seven. The problem with me is that I want the peace of God with understanding. But he says in Philippians four seven that he gives us the peace that surpasses all understanding. So I don't understand why I'm peaceful. This is not you know, I'm having a hard time right now. I have the peace. I can't even explain. I have the peace. But the Lord of God gives me the peace that surpasses understanding. So I'm just grateful for my family and grateful for his presence in my life. That is so beautiful. You know, as we wrap up tonight, you know, I close each show very similarly. We talk about hurdles that each and every one of our guests have been involved in. And I often think that through hurdles in life or the obstacles that we face in life, sometimes those are the greatest learning moments. Sometimes those are the greatest educational moments that we can have as individuals. And as you think about your life and the ups and downs that you've had, is there any one particular hurdle that you have that has been foundational in terms of allowing you to grow into the woman that you are today? The leader that you are today for the children that you serve? And if so, I'd love to hear a little bit more about that, that hurdle or obstacle that you had to face. You know, as I briefly touched on it a little bit earlier, for most of my life, I struggled with fear of failure. So it was safe for me to sit on the sidelines. And it really mattered to me people's opinion what they said to too much. And so I tried to stay in the safe zone. My decision to go to Haiti was the first time in my life, the first time that I said, because a lot of people told me I was making a mistake. A lot of people tell me some people that I really cared about told me I wouldn't last six months, but that's okay. When I came back, they would be there for me. When I went to Haiti, it was for the first time that I made a decision. We regardless sink or swim, I'm going to trust God. I'm going to follow my dream. This is something that I've been thinking about. I'm going to follow my dream and. So going to Haiti was the first time in my life that I was like, I'm free from this fear of failure. There's no failure when you're obeying that. And one of my favorite quotes was from Charles Stanley. He said, Obey God and leave the consequences to him and and in these last 25 years, it'll be 25 years in January. I don't know who said it first, but for many years I've always heard that yesterday suffering becomes tomorrow's ministry. So when I went to Haiti, it's not like I had this plan. I'm going to move to Haiti and I'm going to do this. I just went there to serve and everything evolved. So because there was a child that was hungry, it evolved into a feeding program because it was children that suffered without education. It evolved into a school. And because I used to be on a bus for 5 hours trying to take our children for medical care, we built a hospital for children. So all of that suffering in those early years, I would not want to go back to have to redo all of those early years. But that suffering then helped us be where we are today. They knew what a blessing it was that you actually had the courage to make the decision that you did back in, back 25 years ago. And you know, today you look at look at what you're doing. I mean, you're you're sir, you've got over 80 children living with you day in and day out. You're educating over 300. You're serving over 16,000 meals. It's just amazing work that you're doing. And thank you. Let me say this. Thank you. We we have over 120 staff, so we have 26 nurses. We have 36 teachers. We have house morgues and we have some missionaries. We have a dentist, but we have cooks in the kitchen. And so it's a labor of love. Then the ministry is Hope for Haiti Children's Center, also known as They need is Children. But it would be nothing without the amazing staff and the stateside staff that we have there that makes it happen. And of course, our partners that if some of them have been with us for 25 years. That that is beautiful. And thanks for adding the details around that in their will. We'll make sure in the show notes that we include your website and how the listeners can learn more about what you're doing and and even how they can help support the mission work that you're doing. And it's such an honor to have you on today's show. I'll go back to where we started. It's, you know, listening audience. I think it's really important that we do find the courage to be grateful each and every day, regardless of how powerful our storm is, truly be present to those you're with. If not, you'd be amazed at the the gifts that you're missing that are right in front of you. And then lastly, pay attention to how you're feeding your mind, body and soul. These are really important in order for us to live to our fullest self. Today's guest was Denita Estrella. What's the leader of the neediest children in Haiti? If today's show inspired you in some way, shape or form, subscribe to the show. Comment on it and share it with others with gratitude. Mac Listeners. Until next time, find the courage to be grateful. Godspeed my friends.