summer and a mid-year resolution ;)

It has definitely been a while since we've posted!  The spring and summer have flown by, and we're just a couple months away from our one year mark in Haiti. Crazy!  I want to catch you up to date on what's been going on in the last few months and reveal my 'mid-year' resolution: to have a new blog post each week!  Hopefully this will enable me to tell some of the little stories, big stories, or just funny happenings along the way, without having to have big, long update posts :)  So hold me to it - I'm committed!

Our summer has been full of kids home from school (yes, we have 68 kids + 3 Mulligan's) and many groups volunteering their time to come serve with us!  It takes a lot of extra energy to host groups, but they are also a huge blessing to us at Hands & Feet.  They've added summer time activities for our kids, served our staff, and have put in a lot of hard work in the intense Haitian heat!  We have almost all of our buildings newly painted, new gardens planted, and tons loose ends fixed up around our compound thanks to all these people who decided to spend a week of their summer with us.  We can't thank you enough - not only for your work, but the amazing encouragement you provided our family this summer was priceless. I truly mean it.  I can't forget our volunteer, Natalie, who came down to help us out with our kids this summer.  In the midst of our busy group season, it was a blessing to have an extra set of hands to help us out with our own kids.  It's quite an adjustment moving somewhere with 3 little tots and not having your babysitters anymore - especially on top of a demanding job. We really appreciated having Natalie for close to three months.

Check out Caleb an Bryan from our TVC group from Nashville, going the extra mile to get the second story painted :)

The kids got out of school at the end of June.  They got to enjoy a couple weeks of freedom from schedules with plenty of free time and no school work before we started our 'summer schedule'.  With the summer schedule, they have lessons to review school work each morning from 8:30-10:30.  We've also had extra activities scheduled that the kids have signed up for such as cooking class, gardening, and crafts, along with our usual beach and hiking trips each week.  The lessons and classes have been nice to keep a little structure in our day.  We have a few more weeks, and the kids will be heading back to school.  A lot of them have told me they're already ready to go back!  We're looking forward to the new year ahead!

just hanging out with Melissa

Jameson :)

Some groups come in with some fun stuff!

Book fun

The pool that lasted at least a couple uses before popping!

This summer we also enjoyed our first planned rest-time home!  Let me tell you, it was much needed and wonderful!  We had fun on vacation with my family on Table Rock Lake, and also had some good time to visit the rest of our family and friends in Iowa.  We appreciated being able to *mostly put our stress aside for a couple weeks and catch up on rest!  We miss you all!

cousins!

Ouch! Grady has really learned how to swim well this summer - go buddy!

fishing with Grandpa

The kids always have a great time on Grandpa Ed and Grandma Mary's farm!

Overall, life in Haiti is always interesting to say the least.  There's always a new disaster waiting for us around the corner....whether it's our generator breaking, or some other dramatic happening (think about it - we live in a very small space with close to 100 people, of whom most are under 10!) We embrace those disasters around here as a chance to build character :)  And yes, we have had a lot of those chances.  An interesting verse that was brought to our attention this summer was Proverbs 14:13: "Even in laughter the heart may ache, and rejoicing may end in grief."  It sounds a little depressing, but this accurately describes a lot of what we've gone through this year.  God has taught us a lot about his faithfulness over the last nine months.  It's not that He makes everything work out perfectly, nor has happy endings for every situation.  He does, however, walk along side of us in every circumstance, chips away at what we don't need in our life and builds up the things we do need!  Haiti is an incredibly hard place to do ministry, have a marriage and raise your family.  I definitely picked the best partner ever in this endeavor; Stephen and I celebrated our 7th anniversary last month.  The kids and I are so blessed to have such a great husband and daddy!  There's nothing this guy can't fix, or wouldn't do for us.  Love and appreciate him more and in new ways each day!

Prayer requests:
*Please pray for our family.  As I just talked about the craziness of Haiti life, just pray for unity in our marriage and time to spend as a family.
*Our kids - Haitian and American :) Grady, Ella, and Mikah are doing great here, but they're still in the first-year transition which is a big one.  Pray for our Haitian kids as we're getting ready to start a new devotion series with them....that ultimately they would all come to have a relationship with Christ who is the only person who can fill that hole in their life and heal the wounds of abandonment. Also for the end of summer and their upcoming school year!
*Our staff-we have some Haitian and American staff transitions coming up.  Pray for this to happen smoothly and for God to build up the team he has chosen to serve at Hands & Feet in wisdom and unity.