Easter!

We had our usual get together with family on Easter. I always love Easter...the day to celebrate the fact that my Savior still lives! I like that it means that spring is on the cusp of being full blown and usually the kiddos have on some new(er) digs:) Here's my crew:

One quick pic with an uncooperative Little Miss.

A Daddy pic:

And individuals for the blog book (and so I can be reminded how handsome my fellas were when they were just wee lads)!

And one beautiful Princessa...

We hid eggs in the yard. Some candy, some money. (And since I'm journaling this day nearly a year later...gasp!...I can tell you that as of about  4 months ago we were still finding money eggs in the yard!) Elaina has her "don't you even think about touchin' this egg" look on her face. 

This is the one running boy that I actually got to stop for a second to let me snap a picture. All the others were in too much of a rush and their pics are nothing but blurs. 

Rhett thought that hiding underneath of the basketball goal stand would be a great place to count his treasures and to sneak too many pieces of candy. Little does he know that I'm on to pretty much all of his tricks.

We end up with quite a bit of loot. I can't remember who got the $10 egg this year....I think it was one of the cousins.

And to prove there were cousins there, here is a pic of sweet Amelia. She was kind enough to stop for a pic. 

Mom and dad and Bob and Elizabeth were present for the celebration too.

Easter 2012 in the books.....albeit really, really late! Better late than never though! 

Bubba's Boots

Elaina has a love for shoes that pretty much mirrors my own. I'd be lying if I said it didn't warm my heart :) Today she was digging around in her closet and found Cade's old boots that he wore when he was about her age. Immediately she came running with them in her hands saying, "Mommy! Mommy! Boots...on. Boots on!" So, I obliged.From that moment on she was sporting them. There was running around the house listening to the clop, clop....Her head was thrown back in laughter....And there was screams of delight!
Who knew finding some new shoes would be THIS exciting?!!
Well, who am I kidding? I acted the same way when the UPS man dropped off the box containing the new pumps I ordered from HauteLook. This girl stuff is WAY too much fun :)

Play Ball!

Spring baseball has started! Time to watch Little Buddy swing his heart out in machine pitch. On the agenda: learn to catch. And until then, don't try to be a hero and line yourself up under a fly ball.

G is ready to hit the field. He backed out of his 2nd grade music program (in which he had a speaking part he'd been practicing for months) to be present for his game. Good thing, too, because his walk-off triple won the game for his team! I must address their uniforms: throwback to the 80's Astros. Bright hunter's orange with the whitest white pants ever. Two pairs I'm going to have to work on every week. Whomever thought making white baseball pants was a good idea needs their eye dotted. Both eyes.
Cade is a Yankee this year. His been putting in a lot of time in the off season practicing so I'm expecting some great improvements from him this season. We're working on self-confidence on the field and hopefully the inside the park homerun in his 2nd game helped with that. He's pitching a little as well and that makes me want to puke.
Here's to the start of a great season of baseball. Good times ahead!

The Last Day

Thursday was our last full day in Haiti and it was also the day that my half of the group got to go out into the village with Jennifer to do home visits. We made several stops, one of which was a short visit at Pastor Clebert's church. Pastor C rode with us on the visits and was our translator/preacher man and as Jennifer stated he has become much more bold in his faith.

Here is a little tiny picture of all of us sitting inside the "sanctuary". Very quaint! We prayed for Pastor and for his congregation to be salt and light in the village of Pignon.
Also on our scheduled stops was a mother of twins that was not in good health. We stopped in the area that she was suppose to be but we were told that she had moved in with the witch doctor to receive help for her illness. We headed there and were invited inside to visit with her. We walked in to find her hunched over on a dirty bed, heaving to breath and eyes wide and hollow. We prayed over her for healing and salvation. Sadly, just a few days after our return home we learned that this mother had died and her brother had brought the twins to the feeding clinic for care.Lying beside her on the bed were her twin babies, swaddled in urine soaked blankets. Amanda and I picked them up and cuddled them for the brief time we were there. Oddly enough, they seemed to be in fairly good condition considering their surroundings.As I look back at these pictures I find it kind of odd that we're smiling given the overall feeling of oppression in this tiny hut. I guess it's just natural that, for us in the States, when someone pulls out a camera the first thing you do is smile.
It was so eerie to look around inside and see all the potions and paintings across the walls.
Right beside me was a cross, fresh with ashes and bottles from sacrifice. As we stood there praying I could feel the ceiling made of cloth resting on my head. The air was thick and heavy and all I could feel was hopelessness in that place. I was so thankful to step out into the light and feel the sunshine on my face. I've since learned that both of the babies died suspiciously within hours of each other under the care of the witch doctor. I really don't see how Jennifer deals emotionally with all of the tragedy that takes place around her. She's truly a special soul.
These boys were also living at the witch doctor's house. They were just standing around and I asked them if I could take their picture. Neither of them would smile.....until I showed them the image on the back of my camera. That brought snickers and giggles from both of them.
Here's another guy from the WD's house. I don't know why but I've always really liked this image.
The air was sugary sweet surrounding the WD's. Come to find out they were brewing some time of alcohol drink in this hut. There was smoke billowing out of the caldron and they stirred it with a big stick. Quite interesting.
Here is another WD's hut. You can tell a WD lives there by the tall flags, each color flag representing the god/gods to which he prays.
This family of four lives right next to the WD. This family was described to us as "the poorest of the poor". Going inside their stick home was eye opening. Please kick my shin the next time I complain that I can't open up my ironing board in my laundry room. Perspective. I gained a lot of it on this trip. One of the cool things is that Steve, our co-leader, is taking another team back at the end of March to build a home for this family in another part of the village away from the WD. I SO wish I could be a part of that team!!
We made a stop on the way back to visit with a family that comes to the feeding clinic regularly. While there I got to love on these sweet girls and kiddos.
I loved the smile on this girl's face. She was so genuinely happy. We ended up inviting her to bring her baby to the feeding program. An interesting thing was that Jennifer asked her how old she was and she had no idea.
I got to hold this precious little baby that had inherited his mother's infectious smile. We were all calling him "her" based on the pink smocked dress he was wearing. We all got a big laugh when I raised up his dress to reveal that she was most definitely a he!

The visit to the village was my most favorite day of the whole trip. I'd go back again and again for that day alone.

I can't let the picture pass of Amanda and me cutting the cheese. No. Really. We were actually cutting cheese. Somehow we ended up, along with Samantha, preparing dinner for everyone. It was a nice american pasta dish and that was the biggest slab of mozzarella I had ever seen in my life!

After a ds party for the boys (where each boy got his very own ds game!) and smores and glow sticks for the rest it was time to call it a night. We were up bright and early to say goodbye to our new friends, Bill and Jennifer, and we were tearfully leaving behind Kari and baby Rudy.
We were weighed and loaded into our 5 passenger plane. Ashley and I hugged and gave our sentiments to one another to pass along to our families in the event that one plane made it and the other didn't. It was so dramatic :) Thankfully, both flights were smooth and we all made it back safely!

And to think, the week had passed so quickly and for 7 days we were under the security detail of this man:

Sigh. I already want to go back. Haiti and a group of 10 strong women and 3 godly men have stolen a piece of my heart. Rhett had a little part in a play a few years ago where he quoted Isaiah 6:8 and when I think of his little voice saying the child sized version it makes my eyes burn..."And I heard the Lord say, Whom shall I send? Here I am, Lord, send me!" Haiti 2012 is in the books. And, Lord, here I am! Send me!

Church

Pastor, who had been with us the entire week, wanted so badly for us to come and visit his church. So on Wednesday late afternoon we loaded into Bill's Ford and took out on the hour and a half journey. We stopped along the way to pick up Pastor and I was amazed when the truck came to a halt in the middle of nowhere and Pastor came walking out from a small trail in the wilderness (followed by his mom, waving wildly, obviously so proud of her son. I loved that!), no house in sight, yet still squeaky clean with clothes pressed better than I send my kids to school in each day. Wait. I don't press at all so that's not a good comparison. Pressed just as good as Bobby's work shirts.....that's better :) Here's a little sample of the roads we traveled while there:

Even though the ride was rough standing in the back of that pick up, the scenery made it all worth it. The skies were unbelievable and the mountains breathtaking. It really was some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever lain eyes on.
About midway through the trip we had to cross literally through a river. We didn't go just from one side to the other. We had to drive about a hundred yards down river, make a crazy sharp turn, and then head up one of the steepest hills in Haiti. I made that up. It's probably not near the steepest but when you're in the back of a pick up truck holding on it felt extremely dangerous.
Right when we rolled up I could hear the singing from the church. It is something I'll never forget.
There were so many kids! Kids piled inside and kids just sticking their heads in through the makeshift windows just to hear. We were told this wasn't even their regular church night. This was just a special service just for us so it made the turn out and the singing all the more heartwarming!

This is Haitian Chip Leake (our church's music leader) :) I personally think that every church needs to get an accordion player just to keep things fresh. This guy was awesome!After that service, where I have no idea what Pastor said while preaching but I know for certain he brought it, we headed back to our Ford linked hand to hand because it was so, so incredibly dark. We piled in and drove away being chased by at least 30 kids screaming and waving. I remember driving that dirt road, hands on the top of the cab, wind blowing dust and dirt in my face, and looking up to the sky to see blankets and blankets of stars. Stars like I had never seen before I arrived in Haiti. In that moment there was no other place I'd rather have been.