What We've Been Up To

In between birthdays and new babies and such, we've squeezed in plenty of things to do!  We spent the week of fall break in Illinois.  Going to the pumpkin patch was one of the highlights for the kids.  Except I had packed only cold weather clothes and the weather was not cold that day at all!  We had some rosy cheek kiddos by the time we were finished but they still enjoyed the day.

Farming was another highlight.  Aunt Jamie hauled the big kids around for a couple of days, much to their (and my) delight!  They loved all the cousin time.  And I got to ride in the combine for an afternoon, too.  It's a treat to ride and chat it up with my brother for a couple hours!

I took Summer to Caleris for a little breakfast date and she got to help decorate a cookie!  And eat frosting, of course.

And Tanner got to meet my side of the family.

We've spent lots of time at the doctor catching up on all the appointments we've missed and making sure Tanner gets a healthy start.

Why is watching the laundry go so much fun???

Spending one of those nice warm afternoons at a park.

Loving on this little chunka wunka.  The kids do really good with him.  Tucker is getting a little less gentle than he was at first.  He wants to play things like "sit on the baby" and "poke the baby's face" and things like that.  Tanner is not quite ready to play those games and makes it known when Tucker tries.

I just took him in for his two month checkup and he comes in at the 75th percentile!  After having babies that are in about the 5%, he is HUGE!!!!!!

We also spent our time in quarantine when the big bad 'rona hit us.  I only had mild symptoms but it was really hard on Danny.  He was down for the count for about a week.  We were all glad to see it go and bid it good riddance.  And it is not welcome back to make another visit.

Also we bought plane tickets to go back to Haiti.  It's got us feeling all 😀😭😬  We've got mixed emotions for sure.  Ready to not be living in limbo, ready to not be using a bunch of borrowed things, ready to settle into our routine again... but not ready to say good-bye to family and friends, not ready to be separated from convenience and restaurants:).  We don't want to make it sound like Haiti is a terrible place to live, because it's not.  There are things we enjoy about it.  But there's a lot of really big unknowns as we head into this next go 'round.  We feel isolated and we feel a level of spiritual warfare that we don't feel up here.  Going back isn't this light and fun thing.  There are many factors that make it feel really heavy, but we also feel that it's time.

December 5 is our departure date.  We plan to spend Thanksgiving weekend back in IL again with my family, and then have a week here in IN to pack and say our goodbyes before we head out.  We won't turn down any prayers!!