An Actual Busy Weekend???

Before I get to all the busyness of this past weekend, I want to acknowledge that we celebrated Danny's birthday the weekend before that!  There had been a supply of cream cheese come to town so I got some of that, plus my mom had brought down a bag of frozen mixed berries back in February.  So we had ourselves a tasty little treat to enjoy!  I spent a week or so thinking his birthday was Saturday when in fact it was Sunday.  But I had all the plans laid out to make the cheesecake so we decided to go ahead and make it on Saturday (and eat some) before the actual big day.  He's a guy worth celebrating!

This most recent weekend though, we got ourselves all dressed up for a wedding!

It was our cook's wedding and she was pretty excited to finally be getting married after being with her significant other for such a long time.  We were told the wedding started at 2:00.  So we showed up at 2:15 and things got started promptly at 3:00.  Their daughter led the way down the aisle, and it tool a very. long. time.  She would take one step and bounce her hip three times in time with the music.  Then one more step, bouncing the other hip three times.  The whole way down the aisle.  I really wanted to get a picture of her shoes next to mine, or really any of the ladies there.  They were all decked out with the fanciest shmanciest shoes and I had on my trusty chacos and compression socks:)  But my dress was long and I didn't swell up like a balloon so I didn't worry about it too much.

They kind of followed Covid guidelines and cut down on the number of people at the actual wedding.  About 1/3 of the way through the service the priest all of a sudden stopped the ceremony to remind everyone to scoot way apart.  So everyone rearranged and things continued.  He even made me and Danny scoot apart!  Two hours after the ceremony started (Haitian + Catholic = Long), it was finally over and everyone loaded into any available vehicle they could find and started the parade back to the reception.  We had just a few people in the back of our gator, but I counted no less than 17 in the back of the pickup!

The reception was at their house, with most people mingling outside and some stuffed inside.  Including us.  We were ushered right into the house and had a seat reserved at the table with the couple and their witnesses.  Our two yard guys were also in the house and had their phones going about the whole time.  Lots of video footage taken of who knows what!

The happy couple!

This picture just makes me chuckle a little bit.  We wanted to get one with us, the couple, and our yard guys.  But not everyone got that memo and so we have some stragglers, a young girl took the off centered picture, and one of the guys obviously didn't realize she was taking it!  Typical.

After that we hauled maybe 7 or 8 people back home in the gator before picking up the kids and heading home ourselves.

Sunday we loaded up the kids and most of the people from the hospital joined up with a few people from Cayes for an afternoon at the beach!  I didn't get too many pictures but we had a....... great time?  It's a lot of work to go with three little kids.  Barely worth it.  But once in a while it's good.  It gets us off the mountain and gives the kids something out of the ordinary to do.  As per usual, Summer loves it all, Sawyer sticks to the sand and avoids the water at all costs, and this time Tucker discovered he loves the ocean!  He started changing his mind a little after a few face fulls of water but in general, he was just a little fishie.

And then, we were tired.  Very very tired.  But it was a nice change of pace to have a busy weekend for a change.  This coming weekend looks to be back to our regularly scheduled empty weekend:)

Time Just Keeps Moving

I just finished reading a book that had a line in it that struck me.  Time is a thief.  I mean, it was a fiction novel, easy reading for entertainment purposes because that's usually how I roll.  But the whole way through the book I felt like I was looking into the future and imagining how I would be feeling as my kids get older and move out of the house.  And how I will look back and just wish to have one more day of this current time of my life.  By the end of the book I was a blubbering mess and I'm sure the people that knocked on the gate and saw me that way regretted their choice to come when they did!  I did compose myself before I went out to talk but the evidence was definitely still on my face:)  Anyway, time seems to move extra slow down here but yet I still find myself almost to the middle of June wondering where that slow time went.  

It's hard to live here.  It just is.  Not bad, just hard.  We still have peace beyond our understanding that for now we should be here, but peace doesn't mean easy.  I think it's the difficulties of the day to day that make time seem extra slow.  I know things at home are extra hard right now and I don't mean to take away from that at all.  The hard things there are right at the top of my list of prayers and concerns.  I'm just trying to figure out this whole time thing or something like that.

Here, though, are some of the things we have been doing with our time:

A couple Saturdays ago we visited the home of our cook.  She hasn't been coming to work during the COVID thing for a few different reasons but she has been able to stop by a couple times.  She is getting married next weekend and the last time she came we were talking about how we had no idea where to go for the wedding or reception.  So she invited us over!  She sent her daughter to get us and we took the gator part way and then walked for a good ways to get to their house.  It was a nice house, typical Haitian with two rooms and a tin roof.  I wish I had remembered to get a picture of the whole house but alas, the hike back to the gator started and with tired, thirsty children in tow I completely forgot to turn around and take one.

You'll notice I'm already wearing my highly fashionable compression socks.  Pregnancy in your late 30's + no real relief from the heat + being overweight to start with = a need for those socks.  And my body is telling me I need to start wearing my maternity belt too but that's just one more layer to add to the sweaty mess of myself!!  Phew.

This small building is the kitchen, off to the side of the house.

It's nice that she can have this separate place to cook rather than inside the house because my goodness this building was HOT!!!  So to have this extra space helps keep the house a little cooler.

Later that same day the missionary family got together for pizza.  It was good to be together once more before a few started leaving for furloughs just a few days later.  Summer LOVES the older girls we have here and they are so amazingly sweet and patient towards her.  I am so thankful for them!  Oh, and yes, according to the picture some people do find themselves feeling cool in the evenings.  Especially after a good rain.  After a good rain I feel comfortable, but have no need for a hoodie or blanket still!

Someone had made carmel corn and it was delicious!  The kids just dumped out a huge pile on a table and sat in a circle around it scarfing it down:)

The Herrmann kids have been doing a little VBS a couple days a week.  I'm so impressed with them!  They do a little lesson and craft and have a little snack.  Summer and Sawyer have been loving it, even though Summer doesn't really look like it right here:)  This particular lesson was the Armour of God so they're all dressed up and ready for battle.

We had another container come.  Container days are fun:)  We send a list of snacks and stuff to be sent down and when it comes it's rather exciting!  Summer got a belated birthday present on this one which included unicorn sunglasses.  The sun was shining in her eyes at breakfast and the shades were deemed necessary.  She did take them off before she was finished eating because she said she couldn't see her food very well!  

Oh, and I am really not trying to send out any hints, but people have wondered in the past about sending stuff.  You don't have to wait to put stuff on the container.  Those only come a few times a year.  Our Agape address is a great place to send cards and packages.  We've realized pretty quick that  we love mail day!  The benefit and excitement of getting things in the mail is totally worth paying for it by the pound!

We had a girls baking night.  Cinnamon roll cake was made and a dessert competition show was watched.  It was an evening enjoyed by all who attended and their taste buds.

And seriously.  This kid.  It makes me sad sometimes that family can't see him right now because man he is in such a fun stage!  Definitely frustrating at times since he knows what he wants but can't talk much yet, but so stinkin' cute and funny!!  There was one day this past week that he never took a nap.  He played in his bed for two hours before I gave up.  The next day he crashed and I realized I don't have many sleeping pictures of him.  Those are a must!  And he's way too young to start boycotting naps so I sure hope that day was just a fluke.

And I had to take this picture too.  This happened after having a few cranky afternoons where we just knew he needed a nap.  It's pretty rare these days for Sawyer to sleep in the afternoons but this nap was such a relief for us!  Enough sleep sure makes a difference.

Also, if you would want to know any prayer requests for us down here, a big one right now is for flights to open up.  The US Embassy will bring in empty planes every so often for the purpose of allowing US citizens who want to go back to the states a way home.  But once someone makes that trip, there is no way back to Haiti.  Currently we have one family, one single, and a part of one family in the states.  Our prayer is that flights will open back up and they will be able to come back in country so that others can go out on furlough.  There is one family and one single here in country that plan to stay until there is a way for them to come back.  If I was not pregnant we would be planning that same thing.  However, unless something drastic happens and we absolutely can't leave, we have every intention of going home to have the baby.  So if flights don't open up that leaves just a very small number of people here which I don't probably have to tell you is way less than ideal.   

The embassy flights aren't planned too far in advance and fill up really really fast.  We want to have wisdom in knowing when to quick book one.  We don't want to leave earlier than needed, but we don't want to get stuck here because we thought there would be another flight out but then there isn't.  If that makes sense.

So there you have it!  Our life right now that we take just one day at a time!