A Haitian girl is due back in Dresden in a matter of weeks to await new treatment on her heart. Nancy Call of Blinn Hill Road got word a couple of weeks ago that Rose Julie Reby was once again in need of a place to stay, less than two years after the child had surgery at a Portland hospital.

The Calls hosted Reby for several months beginning in October 2010. The trip and the surgery for a congenital heart defect were supposed to happen earlier that year, but the January 2010 Haitian earthquake delayed those plans and led the Dresden family to work tirelessly to get her here.

When the arranging organization Love-A-Child called recently saying Reby needed followup treatment Call didn't hesitate to open her home to the girl again. “I said, 'Of course. No problem at all.'”

“We can't help but be excited to see her again, but we're sorry it's under these circumstances,” Call said in an August 30 interview.

Reby is expected to arrive in Dresden in late September or early October, Love-A-Child's Assistant Executive Director Rad Hazelip said. Now about 12 years old, the girl will be evaluated at Maine Medical Center in Portland, site of the first surgery. Another operation is a “distinct possibility,” Hazelip said. The hospital will again donate its services.

 Young patients often need to return to the U.S. for followup care, as their bodies grow. In fact, another girl is in Maine right now, receiving treatment for the third time, Hazelip said. Repeat host families like the Calls are “a tremendous help” for the children, he said.

“These kids are scared. Their world in Haiti is small, about as far as their feet would carry them by the end of the day. And they're coming into an entirely strange culture (made easier by already knowing the host family),” Hazelip said.