Wilderness in the Smokies 2013

We had a Morgan family mini-vacay back at Wilderness in the Smokies. This year the trip fell on Amelia's birthday so we celebrated with a little cake with the cousins! 

I'll be honest. The indoor water park creeps me a bit. It's just so....damp. And kind of humid. Sort of like the perfect petri dish for the growth of lots of bacteria and such. But, I persevere because I love my children and my children love the indoor water park. And Elaina looks really cute in her little polka dot bikini:)

And she loves spending time with her cousin Amelia. 

 She was happy to just hang in the shallow end of the wave pool. 

The boys wanted to be deep into the waves when the wave pool started up. I don't do the waves. It makes me all nervous. All those kids in those circle floats and the waves all crazy.

Bobby's a brave soul and he'd venture out.

It was always a good sign when Bob would give the "I see six!" signal:)

Elaina....still cute in the shallow end:)

I'm pretty sure Bob was saying, "Elizabeth, we could be somewhere peaceful, quiet and dry. Why are we at a water park in the winter with 7 kids we know and 182 we don't? Oh yeah. Because we love our grandkids...."

 Cutie patootie.....and Elaina. 

 Cousin shot!

The slides are always a highlight and this year Rhett was big enough to ride all of them. He was in hog heaven on these things! They are actually quite a bit of fun! 

We had lots of fun making memories with our cousins! 

Back to WellBeing

One stop we wanted to make while we were in Haiti was back at the WellBeing orphanage that we went to the year before. We actually got lost on the way there because it's really in the middle of nowhere and somehow our driver got someone on the phone who knew this boy at the orphanage and he met us on his bike to show us the way. I immediately remembered him, Jameson.

This little girl had grown quite a bit since we were there last. We were sad to see that the orphanage was in even more dire straights than the last visit. The block structure that they were all sleeping in had been torn down. I don't even know the how or why that happened but it's a sad situation. 

We came bearing some crafts and stuff to do. And candy, we brought lots of that because they go crazy over candy. 

We had fun loving on familiar faces and just hanging out with the kids. 

A couple of the older girls got such a kick out of our iphones. They were taking each other's pictures and then videoing themselves singing. They would crack up laughing watching the playback. 

And, as on every mission trip I've been on, we see that any sort of clap game surpasses all language barriers:)

I wish I could say that it was good to visit our friends at WellBeing....and, I mean, it was....but it's so sad to see their living situation and have no idea how to improve it. God knows. 

Mission of Grace

We left Pignon in order to visit another missionary in another part of Haiti. His name was Stephen and he had a started a greenhouse program in a community and was really doing a great job ministering to the people there. What we didn't know what that God had other plans for us and He was holding a little secret! 

We were staying in a "resort" that Stephen recommended to us since we could not stay with him as mission teams normally would (his wife had just had a baby). This place was really, really beautiful and for being on a mission trip the accommodations and food were above the mark. 

As soon as we got there we were all walking down this little pier to have a better look at the ocean. I was staying back in order to get some pics and all.of.the.sudden a HUGE wave came and busted right on top of Wes. 

It was quite hilarious! He was drenched head to toe.

The sunset was beautiful.

We were all just lounging around and hanging, waiting on the day to unfold with plans for the missionary we were there to visit. 

 We even learned during this time that our Jack Bauer of mission trips was also a gymnastics coach! Whaaaat?? He quickly had Samantha doing a back handspring. They tried really hard to get me to try one but Bobby and I both know that my back is about a bendy as a 2x4. The last thing I wanted was to throw my back out in Haiti. 

We stared talking to Kim, the lady that ran the resort and she said, "You know I have an orphanage across the street, right?" Well, NO! We didn't! She was kind enough to take us and show us around and we were enamored. 

This is a picture of Kim and one of her Haitian adopted sons. He was brought to her (as seen in the picture) malnourished and nearly dead. I believe the story she told was that if God helped her to save this child then she'd stay and do the orphanage. And, here he is now. Healthy, loved, and whole. 

This was one of the cleanest orphanages I'd ever been to. 

 Construction was taking place for a new baby house. 

This is the view from the orphanage. 

The kids aren't always happy to see a crazy white lady:)

 Kim showed us around the rest of the "compound" that she runs which included a school, a clinic and a grandmother's home. 

Kids from the area followed us around wanting their picture taken and asking for candy from our bags.

Usually pictures of haphazard shoe situations are from less fortunate people with no access to clothing. This, however, is a picture of the shoes our fearless leader was wearing. It cracked all of us up! 

These are actually kids from the visit we had with Stephen. They were just following us to see what was up. 

Back at Kim's we went up to check out the grandma's home. This is a place where widowed, family-less women can have a safe place to stay and be taken care of. I loved this idea. Not one you hear of often.

 Finding out about Mission of Grace was definitely a hidden gem in our trip. 

 I mean, where else in Haiti could we have gotten a girls' picture made like this?? Uh, no where. 

And more beautiful sunsets to boot. Good times.