Birthdays In Haiti And Other Stuff

Well I survived celebrated my first birthday in Haiti!  I was feeling a mix of excitement and dread.  Excitement because I reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllyyyyyyyyyyy like my birthday.  Although I'm starting to not be a fan of the number that goes along with it.  But dread because I reeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllyyyyyyyyyy like my birthday and I knew it would be different this year.  On Monday, the day before, I had a pretty rough day.  Like, maybe the worst one since we got here.  I was a little nervous that it would carry over into Tuesday so that night I prayed that God would help me to not have too high of expectations.  I know- such huge problems, right?  But even though it was different than normal, all was well.

For starters, Danny was an all star and even in the craziness of getting ready to move (and boy was it crazy), he still managed to get me some presents and bring them down, all wrapped and ready to go!  (All we had was Christmas paper so that's what I got.  Actually that's still all we have and there's a lot of it so we will just use it for all occasions while we're here until it's gone!)  Anyway, him doing that really meant a lot.  Like, a LOT.  Now, the presents themselves almost need a blogpost of their own because two were fails, one being an epic fail.  But we had a good laugh over it!

Summer and Saywer made me cards and Tucker was just cute.  They were pretty excited to give me the cards!

For supper, the Aberles watched our kids while we had a little date!  We got "takeout" from the gate and took a gator ride a little ways up the mountain to a scenic lookout.  It's a great view and it's quiet, away from generators and fans and lots of motorcycles.  But we pulled up there and a couple guys were there chopping down trees.  So we went a little further up the mountain and found another scenic spot and made it work.

We enjoyed some peace and quiet, had the company of a cow who was grazing the the shrubbery nearby, and were able to just sit and talk while we ate.  Maybe next year we'll go a little further to an actual restaurant or the beach or something.  But for this year, we took what our language and driving skills allowed.  So it ended up being a good day and I am back to being seven years older than Danny instead of just six.

In other non birthday news, here's just a little snippet of our everyday.

I found Sawyer in this box one day, which is actually our makeshift hamper until the next sea container comes.  I asked him what he was doing and he was using the flap in front of him as an ipad.  He had discovered Danny's hiding spot not too long before that and after too much screen time, the ipad found a different hiding spot.  So he had to make do with the box.  Desperate times, I guess!

The kids love to play in the shower for some reason.  They don't love to take showers, but playing in it is okay:)  In this particular picture, Summer had put a couch cushion there so Tucker would have an easier time crawling in.  Thoughtful, but not a great plan for the cushion!

This is Falens, our language tutor.  You could say it's a love/hate kind of thing.  Love because I do want to learn Creole because it's really hard to not be able to communicate with people.  But it's been a tough and very very slow process.  I can see progress but it's not easy!  I don't know if I expected it to be easier or what but I get frustrated pretty easily.  

Even so, we are glad to be here and are getting a little more acclimated.  Most days anyway.  Some days leave us feeling completely drained from trying to live in such a different place than what we're used to.  We have hired our house help!  They will be starting next week and we are both excited and nervous.  Story of our lives these days.  Hopefully soon I will be able to introduce them to you on here!  For now, it's supper time.  Leftovers tonight, but I need to go warm them up so you all have a great night!