rats are out to get me

UG. For all the things I take well in Haiti, rats, tarantulas, frogs and spiders...I do not. And I SWEAR the rats are out to get me. Three weeks ago, we had rats running through our ceilings at night while I laid in bed, sure one was going to fall on me. Two weeks ago, we had rats in the ceiling and little nibbles taken out of food left on the counter. Ten days ago, I had bites taken out of my Tupperwear, out of my fruit, chewed through sippy cups, baby spoons, sealed packages, EVERYTHING. One afternoon, I came from the store, laid 10 blocks of butter on the counter, left the kitchen and returned not 10 minutes later to find rats had chewed through four of them!

That same evening, I was making dinner when a rat ran across the counter top, just skimming my hands, and hid behind our mixer! Bex and I called Don, who came and after chasing the thing around the kitchen, gave up when it disappeared under the cabinets. (Meanwhile, I was shrieking a top a chair in a different room... I promise I cannot help it...rats MAKE me scream) Bex brought rat poison with her, and each night entire BLOCKS of poison would completely disappear.

At this point, with two dozen things ruined, countless food items eaten, and the thought of dirty rats meandering across my counters and through my cabinets and drawers, I WAS TICKED. I was SO MAD at them that I wanted all the rats to die, and then come back to life just so they could die again.

Suddenly, day 5 of the poison, rat-soccer in the ceiling stopped, food stopped disappearing, and I could finally stop storing everything in the fridge, freezer and microwave...they had died. And yet, (you see where this is going, don't you) on Sunday, Matt and I started to smell something in the kitchen. If you remember my "do you want to keep the rat in the drawer, or should I throw it away?" story, you know that I KNOW what dead rat smells like.

So Monday, Matt literally tears the kitchen apart, even several floor panels, to find the stinking rat, and cannot find it anywhere. The one place we can't get to, boarded up under our cabinets, are the dead rats. EVEN IN THEIR DEATH they are torturing me! I am completely confident that these sinister rats planned this, and now the kitchen smells SO overwhelmingly foul that we can't hardly go in there.

I hope know one was looking for a devotional thought from our blog this evening!

Tonight began annual church conference, and we have two couples from the States leading these four days. Next week begin staff meetings for Emmaus Biblical Seminary and our annual Field Council Meetings! We have lots of hours of training and meetings ahead of us...please be praying for our hearts to be teachable and for lots of creativity, wisdom and patience.

Praise report: We believe we have found someone for Lily! We met with her for an hour on Monday, and she seems to be Godly, patient, interactive, joyful and reliable. I'll work with her a few times before school starts, and hopefully whenever I begin teaching September 9th, Lily will have a wonderful new friend! Thank you for your prayers...as I told the woman, I KNOW I am being too picky and nervous about this, but she's our first baby, and leaving her will be such a difficult thing! Thank you...