Erica and Rex's wedding in Hawaii

When my good friend Erica invited me to photograph her wedding on Oahu on 4th of July I couldn't say no. I knew Mardochee would be out of school and would enjoy a vacation in a warm, tropical climate similar to Haiti too. So I started checking prices -- of flights, lodging, and rental cars.

I did really well on the rental car, got a Kia for a week for $200 including tax and unlimited miles. I checked out airbnb.com to find a room. I chose Ko'olau Valley Stream with a sweet family for $58 a night for the three of us. But I couldn't find a flight for less than $700 round trip.

So I decided to see if I could go to Hawaii as a stopover to somewhere else. For $400 extra I was able to add on the Philippines for two weeks, so I jumped on it. I've never been to the Philippines before, but I grew up with so many Filipinos in San Diego because it's a navy town. My first husband's family was from Guam, also in the navy, and a similar culture with the Spanish/Catholic influence. Both countries eat adobo and lumpia and lots of rice.

Rather than send Mardochee back to Santa Cruz by herself, I invited our friend Yvette to join us in Hawaii. I met Yvette in Haiti after the earthquake. She's an amazing woman who traveled to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and helped out. She did the same after the earthquake in Haiti, staying 7 months on her first trip. She helped me a lot with Mardochee in Haiti when we were doing all the medical requirements for the visa. Guess what? She couldn't say no to a trip to Hawaii either.

We had a full week, but it never seemed busy or stressed. We visited Aloha Towers Honolulu for lunch the first day, walked on Waikiki Beach, saw fireworks on the beach, ran into Erica and Rex, explored historic Honolulu, North Shore with Maggie's niece Nikki who's living at a hostel near the beach, learned a lot at the Bishop Museum, went to breakfast with Erica and Rex at their rented house at Kailua, a pre-wedding pizza party, photo session with the hula dancers, the beautiful wedding on July 4, and the grand finale at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

View from the plane as we land in Honolulu airport.

Mardochee at the Gordon Biersch restaurant at Aloha Towers.

We shared creole chicken, clam chowder and salmon cesar salad

Hawaiian dancers lure Japanese tourists aboard a bay cruise.

Mardochee's blue dress looked great on the blue stairs.

Japanese tourists are everywhere in Hawaii.

This is NOT the car we rented for the week.

Waikiki hotel

Mardo at Waikiki Beach

As my friend Jennifer said, maybe he was trying to tan his inner thighs.

By chance, we ran into the bride and groom while walking on Waikiki Beach.

Rex and Erica from Santa Cruz

Leslie, Mardo, Rex and Erica on Waikiki Beach

Dressed as an ancient Hawaiian warrior

These helmets were worn thousands of years ago

Sunset over Waikiki

Tiger and River wow the crowd

They sing and play piano amazingly well, and are very friendly and appreciative with their fans.

We drove to North Shore to spend the day with Maggie's niece Nikki.

Mardo the mermaid

Nikki the shark

Shark Cove

It's hard to see the 20 years age difference.

Mardo is 13 and Nikki is 33.

Nikki was also an instant friend with Maya too.

22 years age difference here.

Nikki is fulfilling a dream by moving to Hawaii.

Nikki and Mardo wear their flowers over the right ear to show they're available.

Sunset over Waimea Bay.

Honolulu Beach where the locals hang out.

Here are some local kids having fun.

Father and daughter enjoy the sun and sand.

Stand-up paddles are popular now.

The beginning of the fireworks stash. We were told the city and hotels were spending
$150,000 on a 40-minute show that takes 3 days to unload from the trailers.

Honolulu skyline as seen from the beach.

Wedding couple pose for photos

Mardo took this picture of me. I think I look really young and happy here.

Bishop Museum. You really need a couple of days to see it all.

Native Hawaiians get revenge on Captain Cook.

At the interactive children's center Mardochee pretends to run a food store.

King Kamehameha I Statue in historic Honolulu

The Hawaiian state motto

Iolani Palace

Plumeria flowers which are used for leis

The pool at the YWCA looked tempting.

Mardochee and a street performer

Waikiki police enjoys his job

Another street performer

The day before the wedding I was invited to photograph during the hula rehearsal.

Love the blue canoes as a backdrop

Too many beautiful photos to post them all

The sandy slope made a nice background too.

We attracted a crowd

Erica surrounded by her hula sisters

One last quickie under the palms before the rains returned.

Kailua Beach

Mardo, Erica and her friend Dale who lives in Kailua

Erica and Rex, the night before their wedding

Kailua Beach just before the 4th of July wedding

Louanne gives everyone a lei

Everyone gets a lei

Ananth, college friend of Erica, and his beautiful family.

Erica with her sister Karen and family, and her mom Nina with husband Dave.

Mardo the flower girl

Exchanging vows

I do

With this ring I thee wed

Polynesian Cultural Center

Mardo and Maggie's niece Nikki pose with a Samoan entertainer

Maori warriors

Trying out Maori games

Tonga dancers in the canoe pagent

Maori dancers

Fiji dancers splash

Watching the Fiji show

The Fiji chief always had the largest hut in the village.

Two cuties

Our canoe driver Kahikina from Tuvalu. He explained that  his island country has 7000 people. He had to go to high school on neighboring island Fii. That's where he learned English, which he speaks very well.

We all got temporary tattoos

Nikki and Mardo blend in a lot better than I do.

Posing with an "auntie" from Fiji

Two Fiji warriors

Mardo shows off her princess, queen, and warrior tattoos.

Entry fee included a buffet dinner and spectacular luau show, complete with amazing fire dancers.

Nearly 3 months for Mardochee

Mardochee has been in the U.S. nearly 3 months. In many ways, she's become Americanized already. And in other ways she's still very Haitian.

We're actually getting along better and better, now that she's getting used to a more active lifestyle. In Haiti, it's rare for women or girls to go out after dark. I was disappointed the first few times I invited her to go to musical theater with me because she acted shocked at the idea and insisted on staying home instead. I thought at first she didn't like theater, but then I realized it was the night thing.

Lately she even wants to go up to the university in the evenings while I play racquetball. She enjoys watching from upstairs. UCSC has six courts, so sometimes in addition to racquetball there are cheerleaders practicing, martial arts classes, dance classes. After I play my matches, I spend maybe 20 minutes or so letting her hit the racquetball on the court. She's quite athletic and coordinated. If she had good vision she would be a very good racquetball player. At first she was only able to toss the ball in the air and hit it. Now she can bounce it and hit it pretty consistently.

On Friday night, Mardochee watched her first musical, called "Anything Goes" by Cole Porter, and loved it. We invited several friends to go with us. I was surprised by how easily Mardochee caught the jokes. Her ability to comprehend so quickly continues to amaze me. The main confusion she still has is between "he" and "she" and "his/him" and "her/hers" because in Haitian Creole it's all covered by one simple word "li." I know everyone keeps saying that all kids learn languages quickly, but I think she is way above average on this.

Yesterday I took her to a big shopping mall with me because I needed to go to the Apple store and sadly they don't have one in Santa Cruz. San Jose is about 40 minutes from our house. We arrived late because I missed my exit, then had trouble finding a spot in the parking structure, so they had to reschedule me for 45 minutes later. We walked around the mall and let her look around. She was most interested in shoe stores. Since I've been very free and generous in the thrift stores with her, I think she thought she could just find some shoes she likes and go home with them. I had to explain that these are too expensive. She also didn't realize that they have a back room with all the sizes. She kept looking for a shoe that would fit her, like in the thrift stores where what you see is what you get.

I took her into the Disney store, even though she doesn't know what Disney is. I couldn't resist buying her a Tiana doll that sings when you push a button on her hand. Neither of us has seen the movie "The Princess and the Frog," but I like the idea of a black princess.

When we were driving down to San Diego last weekend, we passed Disneyland. For some reason, I still get a kick out of spotting the tip of the Matterhorn over the hotels and other buildings. Our two riders and myself were surprised that Mardochee had never even heard of Disneyland. At least that's one expense I won't have to make for a while. I haven't even taken her on the rides at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk yet since the rides are $3 each now, but only 70 cents on Monday and Tuesday nights in the summer. Besides, we've been so busy doing all kinds of new activities for her.

Mardochee also officially joined the church choir yesterday. They had a 2-hour practice, but she missed the first half hour because of her swimming class. We can walk to the pool and to church. I love living in downtown Santa Cruz for that reason. Mardochee doesn't really like walking, so I bought a tandem bicycle. Now we can get around town and go back and forth to school more easily. We haven't ridden along West Cliff Drive yet, because I'm waiting to try it out when it's not too busy, like not on a sunny weekend. Bikes and pedestrians, dogs and strollers, skaters and joggers all share the same path that winds along the ocean cliffs. It's really beautiful, one of Santa Cruz's many treasures, so I'm sure she'll enjoy it when we do.

Today she sings with the church choir, so that means we have to arrive early. Usually, I let us wander in maybe 15 or 20 minutes late since it's a 2-hour service, longer than I'm used to. I do love the music and the pastor's sermons, but sometimes all the church announcements get tedious. And they don't pass the basket; instead they make everyone line up and go in front of the congregation to drop off your offerings. New folks have to introduce themselves, but luckily we don't have to do that again. I liked it during the holidays because they took the kids out halfway through the service to go to a room next door and work on their Christmas program and invitations to Jesus' birthday party. Mardochee sang "Oh Holy Night" in French au cappella by herself in front of the whole congregation for the Christmas program. I was so proud I cried.

One of the smartest things I did was trade a room for a nanny. I advertised in craigslist a few months ago and was surprised by all the wonderful responses I got. The very first woman we met, a brilliant Polish traveler with a great sense of humor named Ewa (pronounced Eva), won both of our hearts. I had invited her to meet us at an art gallery during a fundraiser for Hope Art Haiti's trip to visit Nadine's orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Ewa and Mardochee did some drumming together along with the live band.

I offered Ewa the job on the spot, then the next day I got a response from a friend of a friend who I already knew and liked. Carly, a young Argentinian college student, was housesitting for our mutual friend for a month or so, then going down to LA for a while and returning when school starts in February. So Ewa had the great idea for her to stay with us for two months, then let Carly take over in February. At the time, I think Ewa thought she'd be traveling on at that point, since she's been touring the US.

But as it would happen, Ewa fell in love with Santa Cruz and we fell in love with her. We hated to see her go and she didn't want to leave either, so I found her a similar set-up with another friend, a single dad who lives nearby and could definitely use some help with cooking, cleaning and babysitting. Meanwhile, Carly is settling in and working out really well. So our family has just gotten even larger. I'm so happy to see all the love in Mardochee's life.

Mardochee: A new chapter in my life

Mardochee is a 12-year-old Haitian girl. She was born with retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, a degenerative eye disease, which means little by little she is going blind...unless a cure can be found. That is my hope.

Even though Mardochee is legally blind, she still has some good vision. During the day she sees well enough to walk around without bumping into things or falling. She can recognize people, even in photos usually. At night, she is nearly blind and needs someone to guide her. Even though she also has rapid involuntary eye movement called Nystagmus, she is able to read and write if the letters are large and bold.

I first met Mardochee in July 2007 when my Haitian fiance Andre and I traveled from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince to meet his family. Although she was born in a remote mountain area above the capitol, Mardochee has lived most of her life with relatives in the city. At the time we met she was 8 years old, wearing glasses, and attending school.

Each year, Andre and I went back to Haiti to visit his family and explore the most beautiful parts of his native country, including Ile-a-Vache, Port Salut, Les Cayes, Kenscoff, Jacmel, Cap Haitien, Labadee, and the Citadel. I've hiked up to Duval several times too, even though Andre originally told me I wouldn't be able to since it's so remote.

Then on Jan. 12, 2010, a 7.0 earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, killing 250,000 people, possibly more. After 3 days without communication we were relieved to find out that no one in Andre's immediate and extended family had perished. Since that event, I went back to Haiti four more times, bringing down tents, clothing, medical supplies, 100 wind-up flashlights, etc. to try to help orphan girls at OJFA (Organization of Young Girls in Action), in a Petionville refugee camp, and up in Duval.

I'd seen Mardochee on every trip to Haiti, but it wasn't until Dec. 2010, on a rough, 5-hour hike to Duval and back, that I really noticed her. I'd invited my American friend Yvette (a one-person NGO) and my brother-in-law Lesly as guide, to hand out 25 "Make a Friend in Haiti" envelopes with cards and cash, a random act of kindness from friends of mine in Santa Cruz.

When Mardochee heard of our plans, she invited herself so she could visit her family and friends in Duval. Sure enough, the next morning bright and early, she was ready to go, in her best red dress and little white sandals. Despite the physical challenge of this whole day undertaking, she never once complained, even as she stumbled along the rocky path in the dark on the way back down to Port-au-Prince. With her brother Ricardo accompanying us back to the city, I got to see another side of Mardochee as the two of them chattered and laughed the whole way.

Lesly, Yvette and I put our heads together and decided that I should try to get Mardochee to the US. Thanks to the internet, I found a wonderful Christian charity called Angel Missions who has succeeded in obtaining medical visas for dozens of Haitian children. They mainly coordinate health care for children with life-threatening medical conditions. I'm forever grateful to Angel Mission's entire staff for helping us bring Mardochee to the U.S. for treatment. And thankful to doctors Fishman, Farberow, and Larsh for donating their services.