We Made It!

Blogger just changed things up on me so I need to figure out all the new stuff now- bear with me!

Here we are, stateside!  

Last Sunday morning us and the Herrmann's headed out at 2:00 in the morning.  We thought we would be able to sleep on the way to Port-au-Prince but, you know, plans change.  After a less than stellar trip from the hospital to the airport (six rounds of puke in our family with one shared puke bag- we think the Herrmann's still like us????), we got all checked in and ready to board our flight.  Things got a little crazy at one point while I was standing at the top of a very fast escalator with two boys, two backpacks, a carry-on suitcase, and a folded up stroller.  Danny had made it down the escalator before I realized quite how much help I was in need of and finally there was an airport worker that graciously helped out.  Or maybe it wasn't gracious and he just wanted me out of there.  Either way, we made it down and out the door to the plane where we could finally drop off some of our load and encourage our overtired and a little bit scared kids up the stairs and onto the plane.

After landing in Fort Lauderdale and making it to our hotel, we grabbed some Wendy's that was next door to the hotel and got the kids ready to swim.  Tucker doesn't have his own puddle jumper or anything so Summer got the arm floaties and he got the pink floatie:)  We thought about trying to make it all the way to 7:00 in the evening or so and then just all going to bed early, but after hitting a wall we decided to nap and stay up a little later.

We all crashed for a couple hours around 4:00 and then ordered pizza.  It was the first time for the kids to have pizza delivery in front of a TV in a hotel and it was a hit.  I mean, what's not to love?

Herrmann's had an early morning flight so we said our goodbyes before they went to bed and we had the whole next morning to kill by ourselves.  We took a little walk around the hotel and the surrounding area and saw a rooster and a chicken roaming the parking lot pecking away at someone's discarded food.  We had to double check to see if we were really back in the states or if it was all a dream and we were really still in Haiti:)

Our flight out wasn't until 4:00 in the afternoon so we had pleeeeeennnnnnty of time to kill.  The airport was dead when we checked in.  It was so weird!  And for the first time since we've been flying with the kids, they were invited up into the cockpit!  I might have been more excited about it than they were:)

Tucker was tuckered out.  All the kids were such troopers after having such a messed up schedule.  Summer and Sawyer didn't take any naps on the plane but it must have been the car seat effect for Tucker and he just cashed.  

Meanwhile Summer made a puppet out of the barf bag:)

We made it to my parent's house around 9:00, had a little unwind time and snacking on our requested groceries time, and then hit the hay.  Tuckered out Tucker slept until 11:00 on Tuesday morning while the other two wasted no time in jumping into life with cousins:)

The first few days were pretty low key as we caught up on sleep and got used to being up here.  However Summer did get to go out with my parents for her belated birthday outing.  She chose Chic-fil-A and Build-a-Bear and came home with this giant unicorn.  She loved it!

It's been a good mix this week of resting and family time.  My sis-in-law snapped this picture of the boys the other night and I'm pretty sure I want it framed for their room.  Summer and Sawyer have been BFFs for awhile now and Tucker is really getting into the mix too, now.  It's a different friendship between brother/sister versus brother/brother.  It's fun to see them all grow together!

Helping grandpa and grandma pick beans.  I think he actually picked a few!

Out for ice cream!

Guess who's old enough to know he needs wants his own now???  The last time we went out for ice cream he was not even a year and was perfectly satisfied with just having a few bites of someone else's.  My how things change!

Tomorrow we leave here and head to a missionary orientation/retreat with a small group of other Harvest Call missionaries.  We are looking forward to that time and then Friday we will head the rest of the way out to Danny's family and start to get settled into our temporary place of residence.  More sweet reunions!  And more acclimations:)  But all acclimating aside, it's good to be here!

We Still Love America:)

There's a lot of things in the states right now that give cause for a lot of not so fun feelings.  But we still love our home country, and maybe living in a foreign land makes it a little bit sweeter for us.  And since COVID threw a wrench into everything, there's a lot more missionaries around here right now than would normally be in the summer.  So we gathered the ones from Harvest Call together and had us a celebration!

One of the older girls had made an American flag, so of course Summer wanted to join in the fun.  One of her parents did probably 80% of the project but she was proud to claim it as her own:)

Ready to load up and head to the party!  We had it here in Bonfen so the gator sufficed for transportation:)  We try not to be too lazy and walk when we can, but with three kids, a portable high chair, and several dishes for the main meal, the gator was definitely the way to go this time around!  Besides, Nussbaums hosted it and they live at the top of a steep hill and I'm tired and pregnant so there's that too.

Thrill rides for the littles!

Shoulda brought swimsuits.

Sparklers as the afternoon turned into evening.

Water guns, 5 gallon buckets filled with water, a kids pool, water balloons.... the day definitely called for water!  Tucker had the last water balloon and he lovingly held onto it for a very long time before he finally dropped it:)

I'm noticing some different outfits.  These pictures are from the course of a couple days.  We had a huge afternoon meal on Saturday.  Then some of the Cayes group spent the night and we had church together followed by lunch on Sunday.

Patriotic Jello pops.

After all was said and done, all three kids fell asleep.  At the same time.  That is pretty much unheard of these days.  Sometimes one or the other of the older two will take a nap, but all three at the same time?  Never!!  And we found Summer like this in her own little bed she made with our pillows and Danny's shirt on top of the trunk that sits at the foot of our bed:)  Whatever works I guess!

The only sad thing from the weekend was that we had ordered a bunch of food through Agape Flights that we don't normally have down here.  We were so excited to have this special meal!  But then Agape couldn't come that week for some reason so we didn't have our berries or lettuce or things like that.  But we made do, it was still tasty, and truly refreshing and a blessing to be together.  And the good news is that we will still be getting our food- hopefully this week- so we can still enjoy it:)

And we have plans!  Soon enough we will get to enjoy our favorite foods anyway!  As always, things are subject to change because this is Haiti and then COVID of course.  BUT, we have tickets bought to go out on furlough!  If everything goes according to plan, we will fly from Port-au-Prince to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday, August 2.  We will spend the night in FLL and fly into Bloomington on Monday the 3rd.  We will spend a week in IL with my family before heading to a three day missionary orientation (yes, even though we've already been on the field for a year), and from there head to our "home base" for this furlough in IN.  Because of having a baby, we will be in the states longer than we normally would on a furlough, and also our time will not be divided very equally between IN and IL.  But we will have a few weekish long visits back in IL over the course of our time in the states.  Our return date is very unknown at this point.  There are several factors going into it and we will just have to take the wait and see approach for now.

We are really excited to come!  We are looking so forward to seeing people, eating the foods we love, and having air conditioning:)  That being said, please be patient with us at first!  When we evacuated in the fall, we had only been gone for two months and it was very easy to just jump back into the American life.  This time is different, and we aren't sure how we will react to the social overload and the pace of life up there.  So if we seem a little off, especially at first, please give us some grace and don't take it personally!  I am more nervous about all that than Danny is, and it will probably be just fine, but just a heads up.

I'm not sure if I will have any more posts on here before we leave, so if not, we'll see you when we get there!

Everyday Life

Again with the crafting.  All day every day if she would be allowed.  I have limited her mostly to the time after lunch when Tucker is in bed and she's not because crafting with Tucker around takes the stress level from about a 2 to off the charts.

One weekend afternoon Danny turned on the sprinkler for the kids (well, and himself because it's HOT!) and used that time to wash some of the bigger outside toys.  Summer said "I'm pretending this is fun but it's really not.  We should be getting paid for this!"

Sometimes they just sit and look at books and I love that so much.

He's a goofball, that one!

So... this picture:)  Our permits came so I guess that means we officially have permission to live in Haiti now.  But this picture!  I was in the middle of my first trimester and felt nasty.  My hair was greasy- combination of the heat and desperately needing a shower.  I was wearing a sleeveless dress and they said my shoulders had to be completely covered.  So they had this jacket for me to wear.  I was so hot already and not feeling well.  And then I put on this jacket, that, judging by the smell had never been washed.  So I held my breath as best I could and thank the Lord they were satisfied after the first shot they took.  And then we got the pictures printed and cracked up!  I think I look like a little grade school boy from the 1800's or something like that!

Seriously- a goofball!  And yes, he's wearing the same shirt.  I think it was from the same day but truthfully, he wears the same outfit for at least two days in a row and sometimes three.  Including bedtime.  I mean, he doesn't have a ton of clothes so if they're not terribly dirty, what's the point of a new outfit every day?!?!?!

The Aberle's are all out on furlough right now.  Once a week or so Danny goes to check on their house.  And while they're gone we are the keepers of their 4-wheeler.  A lot of days he drives that to work in the afternoon and then texts me when he's leaving work.  When I get the text, I send the kids to the bottom of our back steps where he meets them and drives them up the hill to our front gate.  They love it so much!  Sometimes Sawyer will go to the bottom gate like an hour before Danny's finished working to meet him.  He doesn't last the whole hour usually but he sure is excited for his daddy to come home!  Well, and he's excited for his ride, too:)

The goofball is also a determined little fella.  When we're doing dishes he goes to the bathroom to retrieve the stool (yes that is a squatty potty) and brings it to the kitchen to get a better view of the action.  And if he gets distracted for awhile and leaves the kitchen, we will return it to the bathroom.  But he will go back and get it again so he can see!  He is not a fan of being on the sidelines, that's for sure!

This was on my flip calendar yesterday.  It made me say "ouch".  If you can't read it, it says "From pain will emerge a deeper trust in God... a beauty we could not imagine."

Happy Thursday, everyone!  Or whatever day it may be when you read this:)

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!