Didn't Mean For It To Go This Long...

Well now!  I've been wanting to blog for awhile now, but I was having some technical difficulties.  Which is nothing new under the sun in my world.  But here we are finally!  We've been back almost a month now though it feels like longer.  It feels weird that we were ever even gone.  I know we were though because of all the language we lost.  I got plenty made fun of when people realized how much I completely forgot:)  But I can tell that I am once again making progress!  

I think I mentioned in the last post that the container with all of our stuff on it finally came while we were in the states.  In it was my beloved purple bowl.  I got this bowl in a Christmas grab a few years ago and I just really liked it.  I had originally put it up in storage but asked Danny's sister if she could put it on the container.  I just was wishing I had it.  Well she searched and searched for it but just couldn't find it so I said don't worry about it.  And then at the last minute she found it in an unexpected place.  I was so excited!  So I unpacked the boxes and found a spot for my beloved purple bowl.  And then within about ten minutes of me putting it there, along comes Tucker to get into the cupboards.  Cause that's what he does.  And he pulled out my precious bowl, dropped it onto the tile floor, and broke it beyond use.  All that for nothing!  It looks usable in the picture but there was a crack over halfway through the whole thing:(

Some of us spent time at the beach a few weeks ago.  I think it is a pretty regular activity here, but with all the unrest it had not been safe enough to travel freely and we had never been.  So we finally got to go!  Summer loved playing with the other kids and loved being turned into a mermaid.

 

Sawyer played mostly by himself, thoroughly enjoying digging and digging and digging.  We left Tucker back with someone who didn't go which made for a much more relaxing experience.

Speaking of Tucker, he finally got a haircut.

It was his third or fourth haircut but it still made me a little sad.  But he really needed one and I guess he's still pretty cute:)

Sawyer's birthday presents, including a little pool, were on the container.  His birthday is in October so it was fun for him to be able to celebrate again.

One of our house ladies stopped by one day with her darling little baby.  So cute!!

These three stop by our house multiple times a week.  Depending on my mood and what I'm doing at the time I either enjoy it or get annoyed.  Just being real.  But they always like to try and sell me produce.  Sometimes I  buy it and sometimes not.  But they are regulars around here!

And then the next container came right on schedule!!

I took the kids down to watch it be unloaded for awhile.  We had a few things we had put on there but mostly just restocking our pantry and our SNACKS!!  I mean, once I saw the amount of snacks I had sent I realized I may have overcompensated for not sending many the last time.  But we're all set for a good while now!

Also on that container were some fake tarantulas that a certain grandma who likes to play tricks sent down so her grand kids could scare people:)  I told Danny they're going to be so normal for Tucker to hold that one day he's going to pick one up outside and I will freak out!!  Good thing they mainly just come out at night when he's in bed:)

We are feeling good and settled again.  We've had back to back teams the last three weeks.  That doesn't affect me too much since I don't do too much with them.  But it keeps a lot of the others plenty busy!  However it has been nice to enjoy some extra fellowship with them being here.  And now hopefully I have all my technical difficulties figured out and it won't be so long until I post again:)

We're Back!

Well we made it back all in one piece!  We had about twenty some boxes waiting for us along with all our luggage to unpack upon our arrival.  Everything is coming together but still not quite finished yet.  It was pretty overwhelming opening up all of our stuff.  We had just a couple weeks after we first moved to decide what we wanted to have sent on the next container.  Having just gotten here, we were not used to living with less and we sent far more than we probably would have if we had had the chance to settle in a little bit more.  It seemed like for most of the stuff we opened we thought "WHY did we send this???"  So our once sparsely filled house is now very much so no longer sparse.  One more thing to try to reconcile in my mind and heart as the "us/them differences" are even more so glaringly obvious.  But I will say there are a few things I'm really glad we sent:)

All that being said, we are glad to be back and are looking forward to feeling settled again.  And I am once again all flustered at the thought of learning Creole.  Just when I felt like I was making some progress....

And we want to finally introduce our house help and yard guys!  We took these pictures with them right before we left in October.  First up, our house ladies!  Johana is holding Summer, and she cleans for us.  She is quiet and soft spoken and leaves the house spic and span when she's finished.  Madame Mari is holding Tucker and she does the cooking.  She is bubbly and outgoing and makes some really good food.  They make a pretty good team.  I think before they were hired they knew of each other but that was about it.  I can't understand what they're saying but they seem to enjoy working together.

Then we have our yard guys.  Most people only hire one, but we have a large yard with an abundant supply of plants that we have no idea how to take care of, nor do we really have the time.  I'm not around them as much since they are always outside, but they seem to have a good thing going.  They  even have a garden going for me!  So far I don't think you can classify it as a bumper crop but we're all new to this so we'll see how things go with it in the future.  Someinson is the shorter one on the left and Famito is in the red.

They all kept working while we were gone, keeping things in tip top shape.  They all work hard and do so with a smile.  I'm looking forward to getting to know them all better as time goes on.  While Danny was here in November, he started having them eat in the house with him for lunch rather than on the porch where they had been before.  He enjoyed it and got them all to admit that they preferred it:)  It should help with developing more of a relationship with them and we are going to keep up with that arrangement.

So there's our people:)  Come visit us and you can meet them in person!

Christmas And PLANS!!

So where did we leave off.....?  Oh yeah, we had just finished another stint in Illinois and hit up the hotel with our kids on the way back to Indiana.

We jumped right into Christmas activities with a candlelight Christmas singing and also caroling.  The kids were generally happier than what the picture would suggest:)

Then it was time for the Christmas overnighter with Danny's family!

Always loud, chaotic, but fun.

Each year the kids do a play and this was the first time Summer and Sawyer were into it enough to have roles.  Sawyer's part was Baby Jesus and he took it VERY seriously!

After staying up until midnight the night before, a nap was in order.  Midnight was only the kids' bedtime.  That was the hour the adults put on a movie and broke out the snacks.

And then back to Illinois we went for my family Christmas.  (Yes, we have grown very weary of going back and forth.)

Tucker's present was a big hit with all of our kids!!

On Christmas day we had our own little family Christmas.  Once we got home from church that morning I made sure to wear my festive Christmas leggings for the rest of the day to celebrate.  I just love them!

We said our final farewells to my family on the 28th and then hit the road..... again.  We had one more extended family Christmas where our kids got toothbrushes.  Because we are very much at a point where small, useful, and/or consumable is very important.  Summer loved hers and since there was two in the package she gifted one to a cousin.  Brushing their teeth together while using their new toothbrushes was a highlight for Summer.  It's the little things I guess:)

We had a very multi cultural, kid friendly New Year's celebration that ended at 9:00 at night.

Then once all our kids were in bed we finished out 2019 by playing games and solving the world's problems with Aaron and Cass.

And now we have a whole new year ahead of us again.  A clean slate.  We are pretty excited to say we have tickets bought and plan to head back to Haiti this coming Sunday, January 5.  Well, to Miami anyways.  And then Haiti on Monday.  We are thankful for the unexpected blessing of this time but we are also very ready to go back.  We need routine.  Our kids need routine.  We have another big adjustment in front of us that might not be super fun or easy but it's time.  Our family and friends have been more than generous- especially our parents for letting us crash their houses and putting up with our suitcases and back and forth-ness.  We want to give a huge thanks to everybody for all the support you've given us during a very unplanned and uncertain time.  We appreciate each one of you so much!!  We would love to be kept in the loop of your lives, whether every day happenings or prayer requests or whatever it might be.  Please feel free to shoot us an email or Facebook message anytime.  We'd love to hear from you!  But for now, God Be With You Til We Meet Again!

In NO Particular Order

We've been keeping busy enough during our time here!  Here's just a random smattering of life.  In a very random order because that's just how they got uploaded!

We spent the night at a hotel with the kids for a Christmas present.  They had fun, we had fun, I sure hope we do it again:)

All our babies be growing up!

We were at my parents when the newest batch of turkeys came.  It was Tucker's first time in the turkey house so I wasn't sure how he would do.  But he loved it and had not an ounce of fear!  The turkeys were the ones who needed to fear.  I have a video where all of a sudden it cuts out because I had to quick put down the phone and rescue the bird from a baby who was holding it by the head and shaking it back and forth!

One morning during the time Danny was back in Haiti, Sawyer came to my room extra early and crawled in with me.  And then I had some really sweet snuggle time with my sleeping boy:)

He is quite mobile these days and loves to just go exploring on his own.  And then he gets stuck.

Summer has always loved the turkeys!

Three weeks was plenty long for us to be apart.  I was more than willing to stay up and pick him up from a late night flight:)  And yes, I got all teary eyed when he finally walked into the baggage claim area.

I took Summer to a Jr. High basketball game when my niece was playing.  We both had a great time.  Me watching the game and talking to other people in the bleachers, and Summer playing with her cousins!

He said "No mommy, I did not sleep in gwandpa's twactor."

Three years ago there was a concert in Indy that I really wanted to go to but it was on Thanksgiving weekend when we would be travelling and we also would have a one month old baby (Sawyer) so we decided not to go.  And I was sad.  This year, the concert came back around and we went!  Their voices were older than what we hear on the radio, but the Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant Christmas was like being with an old friend.  Familiar songs I've heard most of my life that just kind of feel like home.  And I could hardly stay in my seat when they finished with an awesome rendition of "Emmanuel"!  Throw in some great conversation during our driving and supper times and it was a night very well spent!

Again with the exploring.  We can hardly get enough of this kid.  He's just so fun to have around!

So that's life lately.  And to answer the question that everyone has, we do have some plans!  Currently we are in Indiana and will be until Dec. 22.  Then we will be back in Illinois over Christmas before coming back here for a little bit.  If everything goes as planned we will hopefully all go back to Haiti the first week of January!  It will be nice to get resettled there and find our normal again.  Whatever normal is.  But speaking for myself I will say it was bittersweet packing almost everything up from my parents this past weekend.  After that being my home base for almost two months, I was really enjoying feeling a part of my old hometown and church again.  Just being around everyone and not feeling like it was a rushed hi and bye over a weekend was great.  I know it can't stay like that forever, and I don't even want it to.  We need to be where God has us and not on a disorienting vacation type thing.  But it has been an unexpected blessing to have this time!

Happy Belated Birthday Sawyer!

Our Sawyer Jacob turned three on October 28!  I did post a little something on Facebook but I wanted to put it on here too for my sake.  Well, and for his sake because he is definitely the middle child who gets lost in the shuffle sometimes!

He is just a hoot to be around!

Happy go lucky and always doing something to make us laugh:)

With a smile that takes up half his face!

For months he said that he wanted a cake with a train and a airplane and a boat and a car and a church and a frog and a bed.  We didn't get AAAALLLLLLLLLL of that accomplished buy my very talented cousin did a great job with a transportation cake!

And he wanted it to be a blue cake.  Not just blue frosting, mind you, but a blue cake!

Again, always wanting to do silly pictures:)

We love our buddy and are so thankful he is a part of our family!

Happy Birthday Sawyer!

In This Time Of Limbo

Things have been pretty quiet on here lately- sorry!  I know a lot of people have been asking what's going on these days.  I was without a computer for awhile but now I have one again and am finally getting around to an update!

On the Haiti side of things there have been no real changes.  It seems like things aren't really getting better or worse, just holding steady.  So that leaves us in this state of in between and unknown and wondering how long we will be here.  When we flew out on October 11, we left three people behind to stay working at the hospital.  Three weeks later it was time to swap out, and Danny went back along with two others this past Thursday.  If nothing changes and we are still here, he plans to hopefully come back around Thanksgiving for another swap out.  While he is gone, I am staying at my parents with the kids.  As nice as it was to have our own space when we were first here, it's also nice to have a little extra help with Danny being gone.  I have SO MUCH RESPECT for single parents!!

In the meantime, here's a little snapshot of our lives the last few weeks!  One of the first things we did upon our arrival to Indiana was set Tucker up with a push toy.  When he started crawling at 8 months (earlier than the other two did) we thought for sure he would be walking by now.  But his little push toy is still sitting on the sea container, stuck in the customs yard in Port-au-Prince.  That's pretty much how Summer and Sawyer learned how to walk.  So we gave it to him first thing and away he went!  He loves walking with it but still doesn't have much interest in letting go.  At all.  So we'll keep trying I guess and enjoy watching him grin from ear to ear when he has the toy:)

We got back just in time for Grandma Carmon's annual fall party, full of games, excited children, and sugar overload.

We did the state park thing,

and we did the pumpkin patch thing too.

Once we got to Illinois, Danny and I did a different state park thing.  It was just chilly enough to need a few layers, but not so cold that we didn't enjoy it.

It was a beautiful day and so good to have some alone time!

Nobody argued when I suggested we go to Chic-fil-a for Sawyer's birthday.  I think Chic-fil-a is pretty much never a bad idea:)

The original plan for Danny's trip back was to just fly out of Peoria.  But then we had the idea of spending Wednesday in Chicago together and having him fly out of Midway.  It was cold and wet and windy and called for another round of layering up.  But we had a great day!

We did some downtown walking around, caught a show, and ate supper at The Safehouse.  The restaurant was fun, but it would be a lot more fun if we were like, say, 8 or 10 year old boys:)  So if you find yourself in Chicago with kids around that age, we would recommend it!

I got up and told Danny goodbye at 3:30 in the morning and went right back to sleep.  Once I woke up for the day, I spent a leisurely morning boycotting Halloween.  I watched a Hallmark Christmas movie from the comfort of my hotel bed and then listened to Christmas music the whole way home!  I mean, it WAS snowing so I thought it to be appropriate:)  I got home to two little kiddos who really really wanted to play in the snow.  We had no mittens or gloves and Sawyer had no boots, so it only lasted about three minutes.  But it was grandma to the rescue and if we are here for the next snow, we are prepared!

So that's that.  Living in limbo is not really an easy thing, and we all really miss Danny.  But honestly, I am enjoying being here for now.  I'm sure as time goes on I will start to reach my limit and feel like I desperately need/want answers.  But I'm not there yet.  We trust that God is faithful and will have us be wherever it is he wants us to be whenever it is he wants us there.