Give Me

The first part of this post is written by our friend Maggie and can be found in its original HERE

All day, e’ry day

I am asked for things constantly.  Every day.  All times of day.  All places I travel in my day.

Sometimes it’s just my attention—the never ending chorus of “blan! blan!” as I walk down the roads demand a wave or acknowledgement if I want them to stop—even when I am lucky and they know my name and yell, “Maggie! Maggie! Maaaaaggieeeeee!” there is no ceasing until I walk far enough past them that I can’t hear any longer or give them the attention they want.  On other occasions there aren’t even words exchanged, just men who think making kissing noises at me as I pass is an acceptable way to communicate since, you know, I’m white and female.
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Overdue

“Overdue” seems an appropriate title for the events leading up to the past three months which have contributed to overdue blog posting. We apologize for not keeping the blog up to date as we have been trying to catch up from recent happenings from our travels stateside and since our return to Haiti. If we have had the privilege to spend face time with you, talk to you, or if you follow Facebook you can probably just go ahead and skip this catch up post!

Other than our desire to spend time with loved ones over the holidays instead of spending a sweaty 4th Christmas in Haiti, we had the excuse of tending to some overdue issues such as dealing with our pre-Haiti house and extensive dental work I have been putting off dealing with for several years. In an effort to accomplish what was needed and leave time for the healing process, our wonderful dentist and friend, Steve Williams and the staff at Allen Dental where I have been a patient for the past 14 years (even though we moved from that area 10 years ago) worked for 5 hours to extract 3 teeth, prep 6 teeth for 2 bridges, perform 1 root canal, and insert 1 screw into my gums for a future tooth implant ALL ON THE SAME VISIT!!! I was told they used about every tool in the office. My dear friend Kendal picked up my heavily sedated self and took care of me the rest of the day before delivering me to the DFW airport to meet Eric who had just flown in from Haiti to meet me mid December. The next day Eric and I drove to our home for the holidays to meet up with the rest of our family. Both sets of parents/grandparents soon joined us from Virginia and Illinois along with all of my siblings. This was the first Christmas we have spent with all our kids together in the states and it was wonderful to have so many from our family surrounding this joyous time. We enjoyed attending special invites to the premier screening of the documentary “Finding Noah” that my dad was heavily featured in speaking about their personal adventures on Mt. Ararat and why so many explorers throughout history have continued the search for Noah’s ark and its importance today. Eric has made this journey three times but was not there during the time they were actually filming on the mountain. Still, he was very happy to reconnect with many from the Turkey team that have been through so much together.

Eric and kids excited to see the show…

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