A few months ago, Sofie, whose brain never stops, asked us on our way through town what the word is for mold that is growing on garbage. We told her that we don't know that there IS a word for that, so she deemed "scoobage" the appropriate term. Since then, the girls have found all kinds of uses for "scoobage."
After a four hour service at school on Monday complete with choirs and speeches, I wasn't sure we'd be able to convince Lily to go back. But she was excited today for her first real day and came home five hours later announcing that if scoobage was a 1, and heaven was a 10, then her new school must be at least a 6, maybe a 7.
That made my heart a 9, maybe a 10.
The selling point of Kids Alive, which is where Sofie's been since she was 3, for Lily was the toilet. She's never been to a school that has an actual toilet with actual water in it (just a row of holes in the ground to squat over) and for some reason, when Lily saw that a few weeks ago while visiting, she was enamored at the luxury. These dear girls.
Kids Alive, Haiti, is an entirely Haitian run and led campus of family-style homes and a school for mostly orphans and some at-risk kids...they have been so good to Sofie, always, and Lily's excited (not just about the toilet) about her teacher, Willnique, and the way the kids in her class all know each other well and are friends. Praying for some good friends for Lil to add to her friendships here in our village! So thankful for the way God's helped us with both Lily and Sofie being able, for years now, to thrive in Haitian schools and for the grace and patience and dedication of the schools and administrators to make our girls, both the only foreign students in the whole school, feel at home.
Nora insists on dressing up and getting in the line-up every school morning, too, even if just for "keeses".
Speaking of school, this week has been a stellar week to be in chapel at Emmaus. Pam spoke powerfully and practically on Monday about battling temptation and the position and power we have in Christ to DO so. It was SO good, and I love listening to the Word showered with "AMENS!" and "YESSSS!"
Today, Pastor Larry and Verna's music class-turned-choir sang "It is well with my soul" in French, and that was just really powerful too. I don't know who's loving this class more...the students or the Lains. That's a win-win.
Afterwards, Larry was up to preach, and he just did a fantastic job. First, he grew up in Haiti, so he is able to preach in Creole, which is just a gift. It also means that as he was sharing examples today of HOW we are waiting on the Lord, he was using soccer examples from his growing up years, cultural examples the students just loved. He has such a pastor's heart, and his ability to tie in the importance of HOW we wait, from Scripture to sin to everyday living to our relationships was just brilliant.
Hearing Jerry, Pam, Larry and Verna teach and preach has been a gift, and spending hours over the dinner table with them has been equally sweet. We are SO blessed by the men and women who sacrificially have woven Emmaus into their lives and ministries. 
On Saturday, our dear friend/alumni/ministry partner Enick (of the mountain of Coup-a-David) finally got MARRIED. He's been telling us for years that you can't rush a marriage that will leave you with the same one forever and ever, for better or for worse. He was also sure he'd never find someone with God's same call to minister in such a hard place. But God brought him Moudline, who grew up in Coup, and it was such fun to celebrate their wedding with lots of old friends!
The ring bearer was so tired he fell asleep on the bride and promptly was laid down in the middle to doze...he slept the whole time like that :)
Dates are awfully hard to come by, so Matt and I pretended it was dinner and a show (and that we didn't have one kiddo with us) and had a good time. Matt can always make me laugh...even when he shouldn't be!
This cat always thinks he is hiding in places where we cannot see him. All three girls love Caspian so dearly, but Matt and I DO wish he weren't such an avid hunter. There is never a morning that we don't have lizards, mice, frogs or birds on our bathroom mat when we wake up. Our most recent houseguest really enjoyed this habit (because when we have guests, he also leaves prizes on THEIR bathroom mat, which Lily adoringly says just shows how smart he is.)
After the whole Sofie-shocker this summer of her realizing for the first time that she was an American, I've been trying harder to at least MENTION American holidays, and I was especially moved Monday as we cuddled on the couch and learned about this man.
It wasn't easy explaining to the girls some the injustices he helped a nation stand up against, and even now I'm not sure they fully believe that things could have POSSIBLY been the way our history book showed them. Martin Luther King Jr. said so many powerful and true and Biblical things, but one of my very favorites, this week especially and any week, was this.
There's a lot of awful and not right out there. MLK Jr. knew better than me. Haiti knows better than me, too. But we can make the harder choice, and it is a choice, to love...one another and our enemies. And Love--it has already born the greatest of all burdens, of all darkness, of all ugliness, once and for all, and it can again today. We have so great a Savior who paved the way of love, even to ultimate-unjust death, for US...and we have a few imperfect men and women, like Martin Luther King Jr., who stood, and persevered, and did their best to do the same--fight darkness with Light and true Love and sacrifice.
And I can be mad or ugly or sarcastic and hate and attack and defend...or I can, because of Jesus, choose to love and keep on loving and never waver.
Man alive, has Haiti taught me that well...what a general collection of the least bitter community, despite. so. much.
If Haiti can, if MLK Jr. can...moreso...if Christ can!...then He can through me, then He can through you.
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