Pictureless Update

Just wanted to get on here quick to do a little update of where we're at and what our plans are.  Sorry if you came for the pictures- I am currently without a laptop and Danny doesn't have pictures on his:)

So this will just be short and sweet I guess:)

Since we got back, we've been in Indiana with Danny's family.  There are a few people in the area that have housing for missionaries on furlough and such.  We were able to get one of those, and even though it's for a short time, it has been so nice to have our own place to go to.  It would be fine to stay with family if we need to, and I think that's what will probably be happening when we go to IL.  But to have our own space and privacy and such is pretty refreshing.

Wednesday we are planning to head out to IL.  We will all be there for awhile and then there's a good chance the following week Danny will be going back to Haiti without the rest of us.  That's where our plans end.  Beyond that we still really have no idea how long it will be before we would join him, or if he would come back again and spend some more time up here.

So many questions and no good answers to go with them!  The not knowing is the hard part.  Otherwise we have enjoyed our unexpected time with family and friends.  And I have personally been thrilled to have my favorite fall season!

So until next time....

Expect The Unexpected

Well, I've started this post a couple different times now and I'm just not sure what all even to say.  After two months of living in Haiti, we are going home for an unknown amount of time.  The political unrest is still going strong as people are not giving up their fight to see the changes they want to see.  While we still feel safe and things are peaceful where we live, we do feel the effects of the protesting going on down the mountain.  Supplies for the hospital are limited and are very difficult to buy.  The roads have been blocked enough so that it is much harder to get to town for groceries.  There have been a couple people from the hospital who have been able to go and do minimal shopping, but nothing like the weekly trips we had when we first arrived.  We are far from starving, but the people around us are not.  Some days it seems there is a constant stream of people knocking at our gate asking for a bite to eat or trying to sell us something so they can buy food.

We had a conference call on Saturday with Harvest Call and they encouraged us to consider leaving.  It's not necessarily what we wanted to do for several reasons.  For one thing, the memories of that long day of travel are still fresh in our minds and we know it's tiring and not easy!  But more than that, we don't want the people around us to think we are quitting on them when things get tough.  It doesn't seem fair that we can leave but they can't.  Plus we feel like we are starting to make some progress as far as language and getting to know people.  Mind you, we still have a very long way to go on that.  So leaving to us makes us feel like we will have to start completely over when we get back.

However, there are 37 people down here with Harvest Call.  IF it would get to the point where we really felt like we needed to leave, it would be nearly impossible to get us all out at a moment's notice.  Harvest Call is not making us feel forced to leave.  Ultimately the decision was left up to each family.  But we wanted to respect their leadership and concerns too, as they feel a big responsibility for us.  24 of the 37 people are here at the hospital and we collectively decided that we should go, leaving a bare bones missionary staff.  So if all goes as planned, all but three people will be leaving from here.  One family was already planning to leave on furlough this weekend and one single is already out on furlough.  Rather than trying to drive to Port-au-Prince, we will be taking two small planes from Cayes, which really takes one of the hardest parts out of the travel.  Although there is always the possibility we would be blocked from getting to Cayes, we are hopeful that won't be the case.  If the protests and riots continue on long enough, the two men going out on Friday (one of them being Danny) will come back in by themselves and let the others who are staying take a turn going out.  They will need a break after holding down the fort by themselves!

We are all at peace with this decision.  We all bought one way tickets, not knowing how long we will be gone.  But we all want to come back.  I do have to say though, once we made this decision, I got pretty excited to be able to have my precious fall season!  And to see people too of course:)  Our family's plans are to fly into Ft. Wayne and spend the first bit with Danny's family and then head out to be with mine some.  Our van never sold, so that's all taken care of, and we have family and friends who will be providing out kids with winter clothes and car seats.  There are so many unknowns, and it's not a non-stressful situation.  But we trust God and know he is faithful.  However long or however short this time may be, he will provide.  Both for us and the Haitian people.

And on a completely different note, just for the sake of a picture or two, here's what I see sometimes when I wash dishes.  Pretty cute!

And this is what I found one day when I walked into the kids's room.  She was just sitting in the box quiet as a mouse.  Flaps down with just her head sticking out.  It cracked me up!

Lord willing, we will see many of you soon!

Life Beyond Birthdays

Seeing as how the last three posts have been related to birthdays, it's time for more of a life update!  Stay tuned though- Sawyer's birthday is coming up in a month:)

My parents were here for a visit the second week of September.  Dad is the mission manager for the Haiti Dairy Program and likes being involved with S.E.E.D., so he tries to come down several times a year.  Mom was okay tagging along with him:)  Mom spent the week with us while dad tended to his duties, but he did come up to the hospital to spend one day and night with us.  It was good to have them here and the kids loved it!  The first thing they asked grandma was "what surprises did you bring us?"  Oh boy...

We had ordered some pork and beef that we planned to grind and our order was filled while they were here!  Some guy who is selling a pig or cow whacks it apart with his machete, and somehow by the time we got it it was skinned and kind of cleaned off and put into a five gallon bucket.  Then it's our job to wash it good and chop it into small chunks that will fit into the grinder.  So me and mom cleaned and chopped pork while the men took care of the kids.  We are glad to have the meat but the smell was something to get used to!  Not sure I ever actually did get used to it:)  However, now we have 50ish pounds of ground meat in our freezer and we won't be needing to do that again for awhile!  Actually, sometimes people butcher a cow right outside the main hospital gate and we could get some there too if we wanted.  I haven't seen it with my own eyes, but it has happened since we've been here.  Once, Danny was outside by our gate and saw a man walk past carrying the cow's head after the butchering was done!

We are moving right along with language lessons.  And by moving right along, I mean we have them almost every day, NOT that we are speaking really well!  In the picture is Falens, our tutor.  He comes to our house most afternoons while the kids are napping.  I'm sure I'm probably his worst student ever!  I understand more than I can speak.  It takes me forever to piece together a very broken sentence.  Say something as slow as you can.  Now say it a little bit slower.  That's about how fast I talk in Creole.  And I find myself saying Spanish words interspersed in there too.  The poor people that have to communicate with me!  Danny's doing good with it.  I've had more driving practice and am probably a little more comfortable with it, so we decided we make a good team.  I can get us around and he can speak for us!

After a lengthy conversation about the endless supply of oatmeal creme pies we have in "the red door", we had a version of a Chopped competition.  Dessert only.  One of the required ingredients?  Oatmeal creme pies, of course!

We are getting into a groove with our house ladies.  We have a really long ways to go as far as our communication, but we are usually able to figure each other out.  So far, the food has been great and my house has never been cleaner!  They seem to really like all our kids, but they LOOOOOOOOOOVE Tucker!  He gets doted on all day long!  They can't stand to hear him fuss and if he does he gets picked up and played with right away:)  Pretty much every time they cross paths with him he gets picked up for a little bit or ticked a little bit or something.  But I would rather have that than feeling like they didn't like the kids.

Our yard guys started too this week.  Most people only get one yard guy but we have a large yard with lots of trees and plants.  It's pretty, but requires a lot of upkeep!  After being here this long with nobody working for us yet, it was getting a little out of control!  So we are glad to have them:)  For now we have our people come just two days a week.  That might change to three days but for now we just need to get used to having them.  It's not as easy or fun as one might think to have people doing your work for you when you're used to doing it all yourself and when you struggle to communicate with them.  But we have no complaints about them as individuals and we do like the fact that we can give someone work.  When we did interviews for the yard guys, one question Danny asked one of ours was what he was interested in doing in the future, or something along those lines.  His response was "all work is good work".  It's a different mindset than Americans who are always on the lookout for just the right job!

Please pray for Haiti.  I feel so unqualified to talk or write about the condition of the country because we are still so new here.  But I can say what others who have been here much longer have told us.  There is a fuel shortage which has caused widespread protesting, roadblocks, and violence.  I haven't been to town in awhile but I hear the roads are pretty clear as far as vehicles and motorcycles go.  Crazy is an understatement for what traffic normally is.  We have a little traffic here at the hospital with people using coming and leaving via moto taxi, but it has quieted down significantly in the last few weeks because people can't get gas.  So people (not just taxi drivers) are not generating as much income (if any), which means less money for food.  Food that has drastically inflated in price in the last year or so.  People are feeling more desperate and hopeless.  Quite honestly, because we lack the language skill, I don't hear first hand their stories, so it's hard for me to comprehend all of the desperation.  But I know it's there, and it feels heavy to me.  Back home, we know that we live in abundance, but so do many other people.  Here, it is glaringly obvious.  Plus, we have a way out if we want.  They don't.  It's easy to feel guilty, but at the same time, even if we freely handed out money, we could not fix the problems.  Falens (our language tutor) was spot on when he said every society has their problems.  It is a heart issue that can't be fixed without the Lord.  

This is a part of an email from a fellow Harvest Call missionary who has been here for quite a long time:

This is a difficult time in this Country of Haiti.  The “mood” of the country is different than what I’ve experience during my tenure here.  There is a tension unlike after the earthquake of 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.  A verse that comes to my mind when I think of Haiti is 2 Chronicles 7.14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  May the Grace God change the hearts of those in Haiti who need change and strengthen the hearts of His faithful followers.

Tucker Joseph Is 1!

Today we celebrate our sweet, happy, content, snuggly baby!   Tucker has been such a joy to have around.  Truly.

I've had all the feels today looking at some of his early pictures, especially those first few post partum days in the hospital.

He has been the only one of my babies who really seemed to enjoy being swaddled and did better if he was wrapped up.  At bedtime I would wrap him up in an actual swaddle/sleep sack thing, but in the evenings we would wrap him up in this fuzzy green frog blanket and he loved it so much.  He had a couple months of evening fussies where I would just pace the floor and shush very loudly while bouncing him up and down all wrapped up in that blanket.  Then he would settle into his swing for an evening nap all cozy and cute:)

He has been my easiest baby overall.  We could take him anywhere!  Including the Selah Christmas concert where he slept for most of the concert EXCEPT for the glass shattering high note on "O Holy Night".  He did not appreciate that.

Most of his baby hair fell out except for his mullet and that awful rooster tail!  I knew it didn't look good but it was so hard for me to cut because it was his sweet, soft, fuzzy newborn hair!  And he liked to play with it and twirl his hand through it while he laid on the floor.  It was his little built in toy!

Tucker started seeing the world early on in his life.  He traveled to Haiti for the first time when he was four months old.  And made a friend while walking down the road:)

He got to go to Florida with the rest of us in March.  

He sometimes likes to practice his yoga moves.

As he's gotten older it's been fun to see him try and tag along with Summer and Sawyer.  They just love him!

He enjoyed his first time at the lakes this year!  He could sit and splash in water for a very long time:)

Then when he was just over ten months old he traveled to Haiti again- this time for quite the extended stay!

We just love him to pieces!

We'll keep him around as long as we can, no question about it!

Tucker Joseph, you're the one,

You make my life lots of fun!

Tucker Joseph we're awfully fond of you!

(sung frequently to the tune of Rubber Ducky)

Birthday Present Failures

Well I have no pictures to show for this post, so you'll have to use your imagination.  And just to preface things, it might be a "need to be there" type of story.  But I'll share it anyway just for kicks and giggles:)

First fail: oatmeal creme pies

Fun fact about me, I love oatmeal creme pies.  I rarely have them, mostly because if I'm going to have those kind of calories (which I do far too often), I would rather use them on homemade goodies instead of processed boxed stuff.  But I do like them and Danny got me some for my birthday.  YAY!  However, thanks to the uncle of one of the other missionaries, we have hundreds of oatmeal creme pies in "the red door".  The red door is a communal storage room filled with things mostly from Midwest Food Bank.  We didn't know about the creme pies though, so that was only a fail.  Unlike the ultimate fail.

The ultimate fail starts with a backstory.  Back in May when I was shopping for the sea container, I had no idea what I was doing.  I found myself in sort of a mind numbing state while I put food into the cart that we might possibly wish we had when we got to Haiti.  When we were packing up our house, we put some of the food from our pantry in boxes to go out on the next container, which is currently on it's way.  The rest we gave away.  I had our microwave popcorn in the giveaway pile and Danny said we should take some along.  I said he could take a few if he wanted but I was pretty sure I had already sent some on the May sea container.  So he packed a few bags in his suitcase.  When we got here and started unpacking all the boxes that were already here, we found two JUMBO boxes of microwave popcorn!  So when I opened up my present to find a box of microwave popcorn, we just laughed and laughed!  His whole idea was a movie night present.  It was the popcorn and peanut m&m's, and a movie.  So it was very well intended.  But it was pretty funny!  And the real kicker is that we don't even eat that much popcorn!  Typically we buy one box of boy scout popcorn and barely make it through that box before the scouts come around again the next year!  So why I bought those two jumbo boxes?  I'll never know.  But we will have enough popcorn to last us the whole time we're here I'm pretty sure!

Movie night, anyone?

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!

So. Much. New.

 Hey all!  Things are going well for us- fairly smooth- but there is so many new things to learn and our minds are feeling a little overloaded!

First I wanted to make sure and get a picture up from when Danny's parents were here.  They were such a good help!

No bath tub in Haiti, so the sink it is!  We've stuck him in the shower a couple times with the other two but he's not a fan and it's a lot easier to get him clean in the sink:)  He loves to splash!

We tried out "lunch at the gate" for the first time.  I'm not sure if it's considered a restaurant or a food stand or what, but it was good!  A couple of ladies serve chicken and rice and the Haitian version of a hot pocket right outside the hospital gate.  Just know that if you should happen to come visit us there's a good chance you will experience lunch at the gate:)

I caught the tiniest little gecko in our kitchen.  I mean, I don't love having them in the house but I would say I've already learned to tolerate them because I know they eat bugs and they're not to interested in me.  However, I especially wasn't a fan of having one crawl all over the dishes I had just washed.  So I decided he should be caught and released.  Although this morning I saw another tiny little gecko run under the stove so I'm thinking it might have been the same lil guy.  As long as he stays off the counters!

One Sunday each month we have a small church service together with the missionaries from Les Cayes and the surrounding area followed by an early supper.  This past Sunday the service was held here in Bonne Fin.  At one point I realized I hadn't seen the kids in awhile and wanted to make sure they were still around and hadn't wandered off.  I found them both playing with Selah's (a girl from BF) doll house with no other kids around.  They have plenty of bickering between them, but they really play pretty good together.  And they've had this lingering game of "house" or "family" or something they've been playing where I have been the designated grandma.  For two days Sawyer called me grandma.  I'm not sure how I feel about that!

Yesterday we started our official language training.  We will have lessons for one hour every afternoon for who knows how long.  It seems like such a big mountain in front of us, especially since my mind keeps trying to speak Spanish.  

Tonight we both had our first driving lesson.  The vehicles we use down here are beasts.  They are built specifically for places with rough terrain and of course they are manual transmission.  Thanks to my roomie way back in the day, (Hi Bex!!) I had already had some basic training in driving a stick shift.  I think that helped a lot because even though it was a long time ago, I wasn't super nervous.  Granted, I pretty much drove in a circle on flat ground around the hospital tonight...  My next time I will practice stopping and starting on hills.  Which is pretty important since we live on a mountain.  It will probably humble me significantly:)

SO, there's a lot of new things to take in.  It is overwhelming and tiring trying to learn so much.  Sometimes kind of fun.  Danny has even more than me as he has started going to the hospital in the mornings to learn some of  the ropes there.  We do appreciate your prayers!