the road back to Haiti...

We are on day five with sweet baby Lily, and today is the first day back for all of our students in Haiti! Please be praying for them and Emmaus Biblical Seminary as school is back underway, and for the people who are working overtime to fill in for us! We miss everyone, especially the students...First day back from Christmas break was really exciting last year, and we hate to be missing it!

The students stories and testimonies from their Christmas breaks last year were moving and inspiring and some, miraculous. For our students, 4 weeks home doesn't mean sleeping in, eating tons of good food, watching Christmas movies and going to parties. For most, it means 4 weeks of opportunities to do ministry in their communities that they cannot normally do because they are in school full-time.

Thank you for your continued prayers for them and for His work that they are doing throughout Haiti!

Meanwhile, we are working our way back to Haiti. Missionary Flights International flies into Cap-Haitien every Tuesday and Thursday, and each day that we have tried to book for the end of this month, they have already been full. Right now it is looking like the earliest available date that we could fly back in AND have Lily's passport and paperwork finished is February 10th. This is significantly later than we had hoped, but for now it is looking like our only option.

We will finish out this first week with Lily here in Ohio as I continue to heal and we three continue to adjust to life together! Friday afternoon we head for New Bedford Pennsylvania to have lunch with some dear friends, and then carry on to Somerset, Pennsylvania Friday evening for dinner and an overnight with my grandparents, aunts and uncle. Saturday we head for Middletown, Delaware, so that Matt's family can finally meet their granddaughter/niece/great-granddaughter!

Sunday we will be at Cornerstone Church, and the following Sunday at Sharptown UMC. These two weeks will be spent with Matt's family, and January 17th is a "Meet Lily" shower :)

We'll be heading back to Ohio the next weekend, returning for several days of doctors appointments, immunizations, and continued work on Lily's Birth Certificate, Social Security number and passport.

Please be praying for all of these travels with a new baby, for her health and safety and all of our continued adjustments, for our safe return to Haiti, and that all of the necessary medical work and paperwork will be completed in plenty of time!

The Lord has been working on Matt and I immensely this week: because of this precious new one He has given us, because of the new year, and because of this "down time" we have away from Haiti. Intimacy with Him has been something we have both been increasingly hungry and desperate for, and our family devotions today from "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers spoke directly to that!

Check it out:

"Once we get intimate with Jesus, we are never lonely and we never lack for understanding or compassion.

We can continually pour out our hearts to Him without being perceived as overly emotional or pitiful.

The Christian who it truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself, but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control.

This is the outcome of allowing Jesus to satisfy every area of life to its depth.

The picture resulting from such a life is that of the strong, calm balance that our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him."