community

How sweet the sound of both my girlies exploding with peals of laughter at Aunt Lisa outside on the playground I grew up on, drinking coffee that actually needs to be hot.  

We had such a sweet send off yesterday from a group we would never WANT to say good-bye to.  It was a long day, but our first flight with American Airlines out of Cap-Haitien was just SO much better than ANY of our previous adventures, and leaving Haiti at 2 pm had us arrive in Columbus, Ohio by 9 pm.  Unbelievable.  (remember last year having to fly through Port-au-Prince, where they lost our bags, and Sofie threw up 5 times throughout the day on flights? Yeah.  This was BETTER.)

Some of our very favorite people on earth, from June to Granny to our favorite interns to our dear Heckmans to Mish and Gertha....so blessed.

We were also totally blessed to bump into an old acquaintance at the airport in Cap and travel a bit with him and to have our first meal in America with him!  Thanks, Bill E., for dinner and for all your patience as it took us 20 minutes to decide and as we rotated clapping and licking our fingers through dinner.  Though it's been years since we've seen him, he was as up to date as our post yesterday morning, and just realizing that people are checking up on you and PRAYING is such an encouragement.

Today we spent unpacking, cleaning (no one has been living in my dad's house, where we'll be staying, for the past year!), and getting groceries (ALWAYS overwhelming, those first few times...the CHOICES!) and toiletries, etc., then picked up my little sister and sweet niece at 3...they flew in from Philly today to be with us for our first weekend!  So so thankful.

Yes, Evie is still not so sure about Aunt Stacey.  The Cold Stone right off the plane helped (both of us) significantly. 

Thankful for community...the kind we have in Haiti, the kind we have in America, the kind we have like Bill, who read and pray and love, the kind we have in Him.