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This is my Father’s world..in Haiti and Turkey!

This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

We sang this song in church last Sunday, the day after surviving our first hurricane in Haiti. Certain words from this song have been playing through my mind all week. This has been a week of surviving while relishing in the truths of God’s Word. This is my Father’s world. He reigns over the wind and the rain. He reigns over the circumstances in our lives. He reigns over our wrestling hearts. 


This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
Eric was able to fly out of Haiti the day before the hurricane hit. Here is a little more information about the where and why. We cannot disclose details publicly at this time because of safety risks. 
See that mountain?
That is where Eric is now.  

This is probably what he is doing right now. 

This is the hotel where he is staying if/when he gets there.
Yesterday I received word that he needed to climb two days worth in one day in order to reach shelter and provisions.
He is now out of communication range. 

(click on link to read)

The Lord has provided in miraculous ways for Eric to be a part of the Turkey team since 2009. However, each year we have faced tremendous adversity to Eric going for one reason or another (several such reasons as explained in the link above). We have also experienced tremendous support. We consider it an immense privilege and honor to be a part of this project. Yet the sake of the project is not the only reason Eric has gone in the past and not the main reason he is there at this time. The main reason he is there at this time is to be a physical, mental, and spiritual support for my father who is the lead archaeologist on this project. Dad is getting up there in years and these conditions are very rough on him. Eric and my father are very close and my dad needs him. Dad asked that Eric come knowing all that we would be potentially sacrificing if he did. He would not have asked this of us if it was not really important. We want to honor our father as well as the rest of the team that raised all the funding for Eric to be there. This is not a glory seeking, male bonding, freeze to death and call it “fun” excursion. This is extremely hard work in harsh and unsafe conditions. These pictures were taken last year. We’ve been told the weather conditions are “not as good as last year”. 

We know that the project may or may not come to fruition. We might have a difficult time justifying Eric’s participation this year if it were not for the concern and love we have for dad and desiring to honor his request that Eric come. We received an e-mail two weeks ago from dad who was already there asking that Eric leave and come immediately. This request could have stemmed from a lack of oxygen, lack of food…physical and mental depletion on my dad’s part, and/or simply because he desired to share this experience with Eric and deemed it important enough to ask him to come. Whatever the case may be, we decided it was important enough for Eric to go. 

Another reason (besides dad and the actual project) that Eric has continued to go is the relationships he has been building with local families and individuals he has spent time with in Turkey. Several of these he keeps up with throughout the year on facebook and they look forward to Eric returning to continue their conversations each year. A few of these guys are with Eric as guides the entire time and the weather conditions often give way to much time in the tent talking over Turkish coffee. Eric sent me the following a few days ago among his prayer request…”I am sitting in the midst of Muslims who need to hear the truth of Jesus that yes He is a (the) prophet, but He is God, Priest and King too.” Sharing the gospel is always a good reason to go. We believe that we are honoring the Lord in the decision to do so and that He will continue to provide for us as we continue to submit to His authority and direction for our lives. 

We appreciate your prayers and support for our family especially during this time. The children and I are doing fine here in Haiti, though we miss Eric and life is not easy. We will be facing more transitions soon and we ask for prayers in this as well. We continue to have a peace that surpasses all understanding and trust God’s timing and plan for our family. We will try our best to keep everyone updated with what is going on in our crazy lives! 

Thank you for blessing our lives with yours. It is often difficult to connect through skies and seas but please know that our worldwide friends and family mean the world to us! 

This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.
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New Friends, A Wedding Fiasco, and the Kids First Snorkeling Experience

One of our favorite places

One of our favorite things to do in Haiti is head to the beach as often as possible. We don’t get to do this very often because we don’t often have a vehicle to drive the 2 hrs it takes to get out there and it can often be very expensive for a family of six + (this particular day we had two +). We were invited to join our dear friends the Broersma family and got to meet other sweet missionaries the Hopp family beachside! The Hopp family lives and suffers for Jesus next to Kaliko beach. They were able to help us out with the expensive part of our beach trip since we were hanging with them on their stomping ground. Oh yeah. The Hopps have four kids, two girls and two boys like we do. And the kids all have E names like ours too! Their oldest son is also named Ethan. But our Ethan buddied up with their Elijah instantly. Our friend Emma was with us and the Hopp’s have a little Emma that buddied up with our Esmée. We had a really great time and so appreciate the hospitality and fellowship of our fellow missionary friends. A man with a boat came ashore where Ethan and Elijah were playing and suggested that he take them snorkeling. The boys thought that was a great idea. Since we didn’t have to pay for the beach and there was a wedding going on we were trying not to disturb, we decided to head out to sea and see something new. Esmée decided she would rather stay poolside with her new friend little Emma so she was not included in these pics. But unlike us she got first choice of hot food since we had just ordered lunch before deciding to jump on a boat. Esmée and the others that stayed ashore got to witness the wedding fiasco. Never a dull moment in Haiti! We also got stuck in the rain with a flat tire when we were trying to get back to a friend taken into police custody because we had his motorcyle papers in the truck we were driving! Like I said, never a dull moment around here! 
Wedding’s are a big deal in Haiti.
We had watched the guest arriving and waiting for hours.
The stage was set.
Musical tunes from familar disney movies delighted our children
 (American Tale’s “Somewhere Out There” seems to be a wedding favorite around here).
Wedding party arrived. Bride and Groom arrived.
The limo arrived.
We had never seen a limo in Haiti before.

I snapped this picture just as we were leaving for our snorkeling excursion. But we found out when we returned that this beautiful wedding was not to be. Apparently the groom was already married and the first wife found out about this rendezvous and showed up just in time with the police who disbanded all intentions of a marriage ceremony taking place. We felt extremely sorry for the bride though we wondered if she was an accomplice to the crime. Babysitting poolside on this day proved to be quite as interesting as diving for exotic sea snails.

And they are off!

I think I could hear Ethan squealing under the water in excitment at what he was seeing! 

Three peas in a sea.
They are more excited than they look. 

Elita Marguerite braved the snorkel as well. Emma was a great coach! Elita was excited to tell all about the things she saw underwater but she didn’t quite get the hang of the mouthpiece. She is always willing to try new things and we are so proud of her. We assured her that she will get the hang of it next time. 

I was very thankful for our friends that volunteered to watch our small Haitian + poolside so I could share my kids first snorkeling adventure with them. I think the last time I went snorkeling was on our Israel trip in 2005 when this guy turned one! My how time flies!
Our smallest Haitian +. He loves the pool and asked to go swimming every day. This was his last big hurrah before he was taken back to the orphanage. He was with another American foster family for 2 months after needing to be out of the orphanage for medical care and was with our family his last two weeks. We know the abrupt transition back to orphan life is very hard for him. Emma went to see him last week and he is certainly not the same little boy he was a few weeks ago. Please, please pray for his little heart to be guarded and healed and for his adoption to be completed soon.

This is our Emma who spent the summer and many adventures with us. We love and miss her always smiling face!

There is a reason those things are called masks. They might mask excitement and make us look silly, but they also help unmask God’s beautiful creation. 
Here is a piece of God’s beautiful creation that I brought up from a coral reef. It was a really cool sea snail! It ended up in the Hopp children’s salt water tank as a thank you for their hospitality! 

If only we had remembered to bring the disposable underwater camera we were saving for a moment like this so we could show you more than the sea snail!
Maybe next time!
Wonder who will join us next time?
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Twelve years ago today…

“Since they are no longer two but one,
let no one split apart what God has joined together.”
Matthew 19:6
This is the verse written inside our wedding bands. Today on August 12, 2012 we have been married 12 years. Many trials have come during our 12 years together that would have threatened to split us apart. Remembering to give thanks and rejoice in the Lord always in all circumstances has carried us through to this day. There are so many things to be thankful for, but next to my Savior I am most thankful for my husband Eric and that he chose to share his life with me. I don’t take that for granted but also don’t tell him enough. I’m thankful for a husband that is deeply passionate about the cause of Christ, and whose primary ministry is following Christ unreservedly and wholeheartedly wherever He leads. This is what made me fall in love with Eric and what has grown my love for him. It has also drawn me closer to the heart of God in untold ways. I am in profound awe that God would pick me be the helpmate of a man whose great attention and love toward people of every tribe, nation, and tongue and his God given ability to reach them with the love of Christ surpasses anyone I have ever personally known. My husband isn’t perfect, but when I think about Eric, I think about Jesus. He is so much like Jesus…he knows how to love and love well. He loves me well when I am hardest to love. He loves me when I don’t love him back the way I should. He truly believes that this thing we are living in called marriage wasn’t designed only to fulfill our happily ever after but to make us holy…to make us more like Christ. And the only way to become more like Christ is to fellowship in His sufferings. I am so incredibly thankful that I am not fellowshipping alone. I am thankful that we are one. We are a team that is on the same page. The foundation for every decision we make together is who Jesus is, what He has faithfully done, and what He has promised to do. When the rains come hard and knock us down we know that our Foundation will stand and we will hold on to Him. We know that our marriage is temporal. It is for however many years our Lord has granted us together on this earth. But we want the choices we make together on this earth to have eternal value. We believe this is the reason God has brought us together. This is also the reason that the evil in this present world is a threat to marriage. But a bond of three is not easily broken. How thankful I am that we share the same Christ with the same heart. How thankful I am that the children God has given us to raise together have a father that models our Heavenly Father’s example. We will continue to brave the world together in His strength until He calls us home, or until “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” –Revelation 11:15

Twelve years ago today I married my best friend and I am so thankful for that day and every day I get to spend with him serving our Savior. 
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Apparent Project

Welcome to The Apparent Project…One of my favorite places with some of my favorite people! The Apparent Project is located just a few blocks from us. If you have come to visit us you have probably been here. But you don’t have to come to Haiti to visit because the AP can come to you! Check it out here!
http://www.apparentproject.org/jewelryparty.html
If you need to raise funds for your organization/missions trip, check out the bracelet fundraiser!! It has been a great success in helping people get the funds they need AND helping create jobs in Haiti!
If anyone would like to help us raise funds for our adoption cost while helping others in Haiti and raising awareness about Haiti please check this out!
Scroll down to almost the bottom of the page on the link above for more info! 
Haitian hands at work

Handmade Beads

Discarded Cereal Box





Apparent Project artisans make these beads out of cereal boxes that would have ended up in one of the many trash piles that collects on the sides of the roads and builds up the ravines in Haiti. 


Instead they are recycled into something beautiful that not only changes the landscape of Haiti but many Haitian lives. 

Ready for Remake

This is where all of our cereal and other boxes go to be recycled. It makes me so happy not to put them in the trash. It makes me even happier when I go to the Apparent Project (which I do often) and see what has become of our trash.

Once trash,
now treasure 

Beautiful jewelry is just one of the things that is created at the AP. They also employ and empower Haitian artisans who make things like handwoven baskets, children’s clothing, crocheted handbags, hairbows, journal covers, metal art, and the purses that typically adorn my side. Here I am with one of the artisans that created my purse. Each purse or jewelry item includes a card with a picture and story of the artisan that created it. Such as…

Marie George
Marie George is a widow with three children. She is currently homeless and was working so hard in our new rag rug program hoping to save enough to rent a house and take care of her children. We saw her potential and started her in our seamstress training program. She is doing wonderfully and hopes to earn enough to rent a house. 

But the biggest reason I love the AP and the precious Clay family who started it is because they love the Haitian people, they get the Haitian people, and they understand the true needs here. They originally came to Haiti to help run an orphanage. They soon found (like many others we know that originally came here to do the same) that orphanages are not the best way to help the Haitian people. We are not against all orphanages necessarily but are saddened by their existence and do not believe that more children who are NOT orphans going to orphanages is a good way to help in Haiti. The Clay family has two Haitian adopted children like we do. We believe strongly in adoption. We believe that caring for orphans and the poor is a very good thing. But we also believe that families staying together is a very good thing too. This is why I helped start KOFAEL (update on that coming soon)…to create jobs that will help alleviate poverty and help Haitian families stay together. 

Alleviate. al·le·vi·ate/əˈlēvēˌāt/ 
Verb: Make (suffering, deficiency, or a problem) less severe. 

This brings to mind a blog another friend in Haiti wrote recently on this subject. We can honestly say that in our year spent in Haiti we are witness to the truths talked about here. We applaud, encourage, and support others like the Apparent Project that are doing something different and beautiful to change the status quo. We especially love and affirm their mission and pray that many others will affirm these things stated in Our mission: Keeping Families Together
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Succumbing

This morning I woke up and the house was pleasantly cool. This is a rarety. I decided to break out my horded stash of Starbucks Via Ready Brew (if you are ever at a loss for a gift idea this is a hint). I was determined to enjoy my morning coffee before the dreaded sweating began. My sweatlessness this morning is tributed by two factors. One is that we had city power last night and our two working air units and fans were exercising at their utmost capacity. The other is because after the entirety of my lifetime (or at least since I can remember) I have relented in my opposition to cereal.


I suppose my relentlessness is my mother’s fault. The only times I ever recall eating cereal as a child were on Saturdays when we were allowed unsweetened Shredded Wheat which we decorated with raisins, grapes, or bananas. I visited my grandmother in the summers and felt I was getting away with some vile sin when she poured me a bowl of Rice Crispies that actually crackled in my mouth. I could barely contain the guilt of accepting a spoonful of sugar but then would think of Mary Poppins saying that was ok . Of course, this was when my parents only had two children instead of five. I’m fairly certain my youngest three siblings have never felt such guilt. Mom was slowly worn down. I feel I am becoming my mother. Sigh. Sincerely I intend only positive connotations…mainly because I am missing her so much. 


I think I just don’t like cereal. I know I used to but I haven’t for a really long time for no other reason than it makes me feel yucky. I had heard complaints from Haiti missionaries before we came that cereal is really expensive to buy here. This was of no consequence for me since I could’ve cared less about buying it. It isn’t just the sugary kid magnet cereals that I detest. I don’t mind a little handful of Cheerios, but I don’t like it with milk. I like milk about as much as I like cereal. I remember the first time I allowed my firstborn to have cereal with milk. Back then I must have assumed he had the same aversion. My sister was visiting and had brought her own box along for my niece who is four years younger than Ethan. It seemed the right thing to do to just go with the flow than to continue in my unrelenting quest for optimal health which in my opinion discluded cereal. I feel certain someone somewhere had snuck my child cereal either without knowlege of my aversion or blatantly disrespecting it, but they would have to live with that guilt, not me. 


Cereal did eventually become a part of our lives especially after my kids started school. But there were serious limits. My boys knew better than to ask or even glance at all the sugary cartoon faced cereals that graced the right side of the HEB isle. Oh no. They had been thorougly warned that everything on that side could be a potential killer. They had argued with that once or twice but never could prove that if those cereals did not kill them today, they could kill them slowly…eventually. In hindsight I cannot believe that I would use such arguements for such things as cereal even if I believe it could be true. I certainly cannot imagine having that argument in the place I am now living. But back then the boys were happy to choose from the few boxes of cereal on the left hand side labeled “whole foods, health foods, or organic foods”. Eventually manufacturers figured they could help out unsuccumbing moms like me by disguising healthy with kid friendly advertising. This charade went on for years and I would have been happy for it to continue. 


This post is going somewhere. Maybe. Maybe I just needed to confess my succumbing and answer questions we get about power sources and other tidbits about life in Haiti. Some people ask if we have a toilet. This post is not about that. But yes. We do. Two actually. And they flush. But we do not have hot water or decent water pressure which makes cold showers last longer than we care to live with…but we do anyways. Life goes on. We stay clean enough. We don’t like to dwell on how much we do miss high pressure hot water showers. And baths. We really miss baths. 


Maybe this post is about missing. Sigh. This is not a good time for me to talk about that so I will get back to the last point which I think was power sources in Haiti. Or maybe it was cereal. Whatever. Let’s talk about power sources.


We have three sources of electricity in Haiti. Most of the population does not have access to even one power source. We try to remind ourselves how blessed we are every time the lights come on…well at least that is the reminder we shout at our kids in the frequent frantic search for a flashlight. But it is hard to feel blessed when not one of the three is working and we are just as hot as the rest of the population…maybe hotter because we are blessed with a kitchen and a stove and have glass paned windows that don’t let in the breeze (but do keep out bugs). 


I’m trying to get to the point of my succumbing. 


Our power sources are often unreliable and have especially been so the past few months. This has slowly been wearing me down. It started a few months ago when a rotten thief managed to steal all ten of our outside batteries that charge our inverter which gives us lights and fans. The security company was held responsible and had to pay the $1,500 to replace the batteries. It took a few weeks to get them up and running again after installing them into a locked iron cage so that they will stay put. The campus we live on has a big generator that is turned on during certain hours of the day. The generator gives hot water (to others lucky enough to have it) and air conditioning (to those who have units…we have them in our bedrooms but not in our main living areas). Sometimes when the generator is not running, the EdH (Electricite d’ Haiti) that provides city power can be turned on IF it is functioning. We can only use plug in heating sources such as coffee makers, toasters, hairdryers, haircurlers, etc. if the generator or EdH is on. Otherwise, there is a strong potential that ALL the power in the house will be blown out for hours. We have had this happen in the past (usually due to the female members of our house including myself and our hair needs) and it makes for much unpleasantness. Times of recalling our blessings usually do not happen when the power is treated with such neglect and everyone suffers because of one person’s forgetfulness. Everyone who lives in or visits our house is adamantly warned to check for the green light on the air unit before using a heating element.


Our kitchen is an add on to our house which used to be the art and music classrooms for the school. When I say “add on” I mean that literally in every way. A hole was cut out of the wall, three sides were attached and the roof was extended. This is evidenced by the fact that the boys bedroom windows which used to be outside windows) are above the kitchen table. We love those windows. Not for their aesthetic beauty (which the entire house lacks entirely) but because the boys have a bad habit of locking the door with no one in the room and because the kitchen/bedroom windows are an allowable climbing outlet for Evan who has great need of such. 


I digress. Again.


The point is that the house was never meant to be a house and the add on kitchen has serious issues with the stovetop/oven being in use all day long. Or at least I have a serious issue with it. You see at all times in Haiti a large majority of the population is busy doing two things…and they do these two things ALL DAY LONG. The two things they busy themselves with are hair and cooking. I have spoken about hair here. I can deal with hair. What I cannot deal with is cooking over a hot stove in a burning hot kitchen all day long. I like to cook only a little more than I like cereal. Our girls however like to cook as much as they like to breathe and they like to do it as often. If there is nothing cooking on the stove they are forever asking what will be cooking and how soon they will be able to see it cooking. Think about how many times you pop food in the microwave or run through the Chick-Fil-A drive through, or go out to eat. Now imagine your life without any of those things. Imagine your life with 4+ kids (we always have plus in our house….always) and how much food they consume and that your stovetop must cook 90% of it. Now imagine doing this all day everyday in a airconditionless kitchen. If you can imagine it, you will understand why after 10 months I now could care less what sugary cereal my children consume in the morning. I have succumbed to many things I never would have if it had not been for Haiti. Sometimes I feel like I was a much better mom before we moved to Haiti. But when it comes to cereal choices, my children will probably disagree. 


At first I tried to buy the healthiest $5-6  box of cereal (that’s how much they cost here) I could find. The ones I actually deem healthy and used to buy cost twice that much here. Then I gave up on my version of healthy and just went for the cheapest box of Cornflakes I could find (all cereal is called “cornflakes” in Haiti) but a generic brand of actual Cornflakes is also the cheapest and sometimes will have a bottle of hot sauce attached to the top as a bonus buy. Cornflakes with hot sauce. I’ve seen stranger things here. The problem with Cornflakes is that one of my children refuses to eat it. She usually refuses to eat anything other than eggs, sausage, hotdogs, spaghetti, chicken or rice and beans for breakfast. All of the above require usage of the stovetop. I beg for an alternative. Much disgust ensues over suggestions such as bagels in the toaster oven for breakfast. I have met my match. Except she is way more stubborn than me. Tonight we made baked potatoes for the first time in Haiti (only because they could bake while we were outside and then we could eat them outside which is at least 20 degrees cooler than the kitchen). Stubborn child refused to take a single bite. They were really good baked potatoes. All the other children including our other Haitian daughter and our Haitian + ate every single bite (even though Haitians have a strong aversion to potato skins and always peel them off…but this time they didn’t). While I was inside hot kitchen getting an ice pack for a soccer player that hurt his neck, Eric tells miss stubborn that if she doesn’t try a bite then she will not eat any sweet snacks or deserts for an entire month. I don’t think she knows how long a month is. I don’t think Eric knows how long a month is either. This is going to be a VERY long month. 


But because of stubborn child I have proudly succumbed to purchasing a variety of “cornflakes” that she and every other body in the house can choose from in the mornings so that none of us have to succumb to sweat before lunchtime (at least at the fault of breakfast). It doesn’t always work out that way but I am real thankful for the days we have fans all night and nothing but “cornflakes” in the morning! 

Never would you have seen this in my house before Haiti.