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!

Our 5 Year Old

Happy Birthday to our Summer girl!  5 seems like a milestone to me.  I remember looking at clothes that were 5T when she was a baby and thinking they were huge!  Yet here we are, giving her 5T clothes for her birthday!  Summer is quite the little girl.  She is always, ALWAYS full of questions and ideas and thoughts to ponder.  You can just sit and watch her wheels turn and her mind think.  And sometimes in all of her musings, she comes up with the most hilarious things!

She had big plans for her birthday and had me write it all down.  She had every meal planned and about five different activities she wanted to accomplish throughout the day.  The fun really started last night though when she had a surprise sleepover.  She had one a couple months back and has been asking for another one ever since then.  We didn't tell her, we just let the girls show up after supper:)  She was so excited!  So this morning started with her planned breakfast of waffles and bacon with some of her BFFs.

Then a few more people came over for some games, cupcakes, a craft, and some gifts.

Swimming was on her to-do list, so Tucker helped get the pool ready:)

She got to finish off the day staying up late again and watching a movie.

We love our creative little thinker who never (and I mean NEVER) misses a beat!  She loves being with people, she loves to learn, and she can't wait to go to Kindergarten.  Even though our little school down here consists of just a few students, she is very much looking forward to going!

Oh and she got to find out for her birthday that she is getting a SISTER!!  She has been diligently praying for a sister since before I ever was pregnant with this one.  She's pretty excited:)  She has also been praying for a kitty and she informed me that now she only has to pray for that because she's getting her sister.  She might have to pray a little longer and harder for that one!  And I might have to start praying that she forgets about it!

Life Updates

Well it's been almost a month now since I've blogged and I keep thinking about how I need to do it again.  And I finally am!  We had a few weeks of more isolation than usual because of the coronavirus, but we've backed off a little for now at least.  There has been just a slow spread of it in Haiti, and it has yet to reach the hospital.  The hospital is as prepared as they can be, and if it comes we will likely isolate a little more again.  But until that happens, we've been getting out a little more than we had been.  And by getting out I mean seeing others in the hospital missionary family.  There's not really any getting out for me personally other than that.  I've made one grocery run, but otherwise just have someone pick up a few things here and there for me when they go get the mail.  After several weeks of not even leaving my yard I was starting to feel pretty crazy.  I had been going to the hospital four times a week for my language lesson, but as part of the precautions we were taking, that has not been happening.  I struggle to enjoy language lessons (you can read between those lines), but it was nice to take a short little walk each day and get out of my fenced in area of the world.

Anyway, here's a little smattering of what we've been up to.

Crafts, crafts, crafts.  Summer starts asking before breakfast most days about what she can do for a craft.  Sometimes she's satisfied with just drawing a picture, sometimes not so much.  I really don't mind her doing them, but the level of stress Tucker adds to the scene makes me want to say no all the time.  We've kind of designated the time right after lunch to do more involved crafts.  Tucker is already in bed and it's not the big kid's rest time yet.

Haitian traffic jam!  All it takes is one big truck to shut down a road.  I forget what was being tied down here but it was on the way home from my one grocery run.  It gave me time to eat my peanut butter and honey sandwich I had packed at least!  The bumpy roads mixed with my very beginner stick shift skills make it difficult to eat while driving:)  And with grocery shopping being a 4 or 5 hour experience, snacks are necessary.

Sour cherry season just happened.  They were just so pretty and I just kept buying them!  They are a pain to pit because the pit is actually three small seeds.  But they do make delicious pies and I decided it was worth it.

You never know what's going to show up on the sea container!

We got a new rug!  It looked this nice for about an hour before it started shedding all over the place.  But now the kids have somewhere to sprawl out besides the kitchen or bathroom mats and we will have somewhere to lay the baby once he or she is here.

Sometimes the most random things make me homesick.  We didn't have room in our suitcases for a few things back in January, and those came on the container.  One was a Mickey Mouse silly song CD that Sawyer got from the library when he reached 500 books.  I remember trying to convince him to pick a Veggie Tales CD instead but he was set on this one.  Turns out, they loved it!  They could listen to it over and over in the van and hardly make a peep.  It sure was helpful in driving back and forth between IN and IL!  But when it came here, I played it and they instantly gathered by the CD player and stayed there for the whole CD.  It made me miss driving in our van!

Herrmann's gave us a little date night.  I mean, it was an at home date night but we had a few hours to ourselves!  We did a big puzzle and had a blind baking challenge.  I instructed Danny the whole way through the brownie process.  I did put them in the oven for him so as not to have him burn his hands or arms.  We had so much fun though!  We decided to alternate with them so we will each have one night off a month.  So refreshing for us!

We stripped the kids down to their undies and let the go to town with finger paint.  They had a blast!

Tucker didn't know what to think at first but he got into it after a bit!

We spent the evening at the Nussbaum's last weekend and they had this huge toy gun that Sawyer really wanted to play with, but struggled to manage.

Maybe it's because it was taller than he was!

Mother's Day 2020.  I get so worn out, especially these days being pregnant with no relief from the heat.  But Got answered a prayer I had prayed for a really long time when he gave me a hubby and kids and I don't take them for granted!

Pregnancy update:  I am really not a belly picture person.  I don't think I've ever posted one on any form of social media for any of the kids so far, so this is weird for me.  But I know family and friends like to see it so here it is:)  Yesterday was my halfway point!  And I'm already feeling HUGE.  We are hoping to be able to get an anatomy scan this week and find out what the babe is.  My gut says girl but we will see!

So that's been life these days!  I hear Tucker in his bed.  Nap is over and I must go.  He will very shortly be demanding his snack!  Hopefully it won't be a month before I'm on here again:)

Eastgiving? Thankster?

Agape Flights, which is the organization we get our mail through, generously supplies missionaries in the Caribbean with a Thanksgiving meal each year.  Each family who wants one gets a frozen turkey along with a box of non perishable Thanksgiving foods.  When they sent out the email in the early fall, we had said that yes, we would like to receive our meal.  That was before we knew we would be back in the states for three unexpected months.  So ever since the middle of November, we have had a turkey in our freezer and a box of Thanksgiving food in our pantry.  Shortly after we came back in, I found myself in the middle of first trimester woes and had no desire whatsoever to prepare a meal like that one.  And then a couple weeks ago we ordered a 40 pound box of chicken legs to add to our already getting crowded freezer.

The time had come.

 I knew that in order for all the chicken legs to fit, the turkey had to come out.  So we had Thanksgiving dinner for our Easter celebration!  I had never made a turkey before so I was a little nervous.  But thanks to the oven bag they provided and the handy little pop up thermometer in the turkey, it went pretty well.  Always learning what I would do different the next time but I was well satisfied with how it turned out!  And yes, I know this picture is post carving.  Sorry.

We had the whole spread.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce... it was so good!!  Topped off with pumpkin pie of course.

We invited the Herrmann kids to join us while their parents had a little date night:)

The next day we did resurrection eggs and flannel stories also with the Herrmanns before coming home and coloring eggs with the kids.

The kids have been really eager to help with dishes lately.  We have not been super eager to let them.  But they love it and so sometimes we say yes.  And really, might as well teach 'em young, right?  There will come a day when we have to force them to do dishes:)

A few days ago I decided I was tired of doing the same pony tail everyday so I did a throwback to the french braid I used to wear every day.

And the Summer, who for once actually had gotten her hair done early on in the day, really wanted a french braid to match.  So I begrudgingly agreed said sure!  Her hair is NOT easy to work with.  But she loved it and just as I know there will come a day when she doesn't want to do dishes, there will also come a day when she doesn't want to try to be just like me:)  So I guess we'll go with it for now.

We are thinking of you all and praying for you while you are all stuck at home all the time.  It's been fun seeing all your different posts about what you're doing to pass time and stay sane!  The COVID-19 virus doesn't seem to be spreading at an alarming rate down here, but it is spreading.  I am not really involved with the hospital at all, but from all I hear, they are about as prepared as they can be and praying that they don't have to put all those preparations to good use.

Hang in there, everyone.

Oh and also?  Thanksgiving meals always give me the chance to recreate the most amazing sandwich that we first had in Maine.  And it makes me happy:)

My Tribute To Grandma

I keep trying to think of all the things I want to say about Grandma, but the words and thoughts are not flowing.  But I guess I don't need to say too much.  Just acknowledge the sweet, prim, and proper grandma that she was.  Oh, and with a side of Spunk!  Sometimes the things that came out of her mouth were hilarious!!  She loved us all dearly and treated us in a way that we never questioned that.  She struggled a lot with memory thanks to brain aneurysm she had in her 50's.  But toward the end God gave her the clarity to really share her excitement about heaven.  The last real conversation I had with her was over Face Time and though her voice and body were weak she talked clearly and openly about what was to come.

I don't have too many pictures of her.  There's a few good ones out there but grandma's typical reaction to seeing a camera was putting her hand up or turning her head away:)  She was more than happy to learn there would be no visitation with people filing through and looking at her!

But I do have this one that I love, even though it's blurry.  Grandma loved babies.  This was Sawyer's first Christmas and she held him and talked to him, oblivious to what else was going on around her:)

There will always be things that remind me of grandma.  Snickers Bars and the original Chapstick in a black tube being two big ones.  You could always count on her having those two things, though the Snickers were usually hidden somewhere.  I'm not sure there was ever a Christmas where at least one grandkid didn't gift her some of those:)

She will be greatly missed, that is for sure.  But more than anything, we are all so happy for her to be able to go on home.

Disappointment, Fear, Hard Things

I have so many thoughts in my head.  They're not floating around- more like zinging around like a pinball machine on steroids.  

We were supposed to be leaving for Florida today for our annual pilgrimage.  Some of Danny's family is still going, some have opted to stay home.  The day Trump cancelled flights from Europe was the day I knew in my heart we wouldn't be going.  It wasn't until a few days later that we made the official decision to not go.  I was (and still am) so sad.

My tiny little hometown with it's tiny little high school with less than 200 students excelled in basketball this year.  The boys team made it to the Final Four and had a great chance of winning state when the tournament was cancelled.

So many plans changed that are completely out of our control.  So many things that are disappointing, yes, but really don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

So much other heartache going on in the midst of a really chaotic world.  Whether the chaos from COVID-19 is necessary or not, I'm not sure.  Probably not as necessary as what people are doing.  But the heartache for some people continues, quarantine or not.  Death, illness, strained family relationships, you name it.  Those things don't stop just because someone says wash your hands and stay home.  They only become more complicated.

For me personally, my grandma is getting close to meeting Jesus.  While I am so happy for her, it is hard to not be there during this time.  I missed the funeral for my Grandpa Aeschleman, but I was there during all of his last days.  It's a special time for the family.  I had already gotten married and moved to Indiana when my Grandpa Hodel was on his deathbed, but was able to make it back for his last couple days and of course for the visitation and funeral.  Again, a special time for the family.  I just had a chance this afternoon to talk with grandma on FaceTime.  She is so excited to die!  And even though I can say goodbye on the phone, it's hard to not have that special time with the family and the closure that comes with a visitation and funeral.

The coronavirus has officially come to Haiti.  If it's really as bad as some people say it is, it will be devastating to the country.  The virus, yes, but also the ripple effects that come along with it.  The problems will go far beyond a respiratory disease.  And people don't have a lot of access to soap and water, or at least clean water, to wash hands frequently.  Limited healthcare, panicked people who will be afraid to go to market, market vendors who will quit bringing food to the market because they have no customers, desperation increasing.

Today is the first day of everything being shut down, and there is already an influx of people at the gate.  I cannot help them all.  Part of me wants to try to help at least some, part of me just gets annoyed that they are there asking for more and more and more.

Today is the first day I have wrestled with fear over the whole thing.  Between that and several other things going on, the last few days have been highly emotional.  Pregnancy hormones don't help either:)  So it has been a day of music listening, devotion reading, praying, thinking, quoting scripture about fear.... and some tears shed too.

So.  All of the above might make sense, or it might not.  Maybe doing any sort of processing on here wasn't a good idea.  I don't know.  But it's the real deal, I guess.

And so to end things on a little bit lighter note, here's a picture of the kids when they were all super happy and Danny was tickling them all together and I just love it:)

Also, your cultural picture of the post:  We have a mango tree right outside our back porch.  The branches hang over the tin roof that is on the porch.  The mangos are not ripe yet but are getting bigger and fall onto the tin roof.  Which sounds like gunshots.  And they don't necessarily abide by our schedules.  They fall in the middle of the night, just as they fall in the middle of the day.  So Danny hired this kid with a slingshot and a good aim to try and shoot as many as possible out of the tree so they would quit falling and causing us to jump out of our skin every so often!

Thanks for your prayers.  We haven't forgotten that a lot of you have a lot of hard things going on too, and we pray for you as well.