When I loaded the girls into the truck this morning, Lily was all weepy, wailing, "It's too much! I need to stay home!" and all I could say was, "I hear you baby. But it's Monday morning, and they often feel like that, and this is gonna be A WEEK, and all I know is that when our strength is no where near enough, His is, and this week, we're gonna be all about His strength, ok?"
I ran into my English One class a few minutes later, leaving Nora with Robert and Jane, and we poured over Colossians 3 together to begin, and He reminded me back His words to Lily.
This weeks gonna be about what He has done, what He can do and is doing, and fully relying on Him, and THAT is going to make it a good week...these are good things.
The other thing that's going to make it a good week is exactly what Pastor Bobanoit preached about in chapel on Friday. We all have friends who exhaust us, friends who make us feel badly, friends who draw us away from the Lord, friends who inspire us, friends who push us closer to Jesus, friends who encourage us. And our EBS board is just a God-organized group of men and women who always challenge us, help us, and ENCOURAGE us.
Even better, we have had a precious few of them come early, for the purpose of helping and encouraging, and having precious friends and extra hands right now could not be MORE encouraging.
Friday night we had a big cookout with all our families (our last family meal with the remaining Edlers, who head out Thursday) and with Carol, the Sleasemans and Jane. Matt has been incredibly swamped and heavy lately, and I love when he can find a few minutes to be his dorky self, even if it's only appreciated by Joel :) We're gonna miss these two little guys as they go to meet their brother, especially Nora and Sofie.
Saturday morning, Robert flew back up from business in Port-au-Prince, and Jane, Lily, Sofie, Nora and I went to get him while Matt was teaching Hebrew 2, in French and Creole. How's that for a Saturday morning!
On the way home, we took them to Cap-Haitien's newest store, and here Lily and Sofie are showing them all the frozen rabbits, frog legs, snails, and other random fun things we never buy, but the girls aways like to name and play with.
When we finally all got home Saturday, a big group of Lily's old school friends were at the door, missing Lily and Lily always missing them! They had a blast few hours on the trampoline, far too crazy for any good pictures.
Even John Kennedy got to come, though he wants NOTHING to do with me :)
As soon as Matt got home from class we were off to Evens birthday party with the Sleaseman family, and to meet Nick's family who was in for the occasion. Evens is quite the artist, and all the kiddos loved his art themed party (but especially Nora, who loves any good excuse to take off a party dress.)
Jane and Robert had dinner ready when we got home, which needless to say, never happens :) So thankful!
Sunday morning started bright and early!
We headed off with the Sunderlands, Sleasemans and Carol to Prudence's church. She works at the Bethesda clinic and is a dear, long-standing friend of the Sunderlands, especially. They were all so happy to have some time together, and it was a gift, as always, to worship with our brothers and sisters in Laurie. Even if it was at 7:30. And even if it was until 10 :)
The Sleasemans live in Ohio, and therefore do not get to the beach much. Before they even got here they were hoping we could make the beach work somehow before the rest of the board got here with their precious three kiddos, and so after church we drove straight to the beach, where the kiddos had a wonderful time and where the adults mostly sat, which was what this adult really needed to do. Matt even got nap in, as long as he was napping with the "sleeping" fish that Sofia found washed up on the beach and then cared for all day.
I love this picture. The kids were all so busy :)
Zoey found this guy, who also became Sofie's "moving snowball".
We then moved the Sleasman five to the OMS campus (we are about to be busting at the seams) and then finally got home last night some 12 hours later, made pizza and got some tired, happy, sandy people to bed for what felt like a very short night's sleep.
This morning everyone is off to school, I had a fun class with teaching prepositions of place and giving and receiving directions that ended in a hilarious, fun scavenger hunt, I'm off to get the girls at school early because we don't have any vehicles available to get them on time, and then Matt and Ti-Lou are off to the airport to get the remaining 13 board members and family.
This week will be nice and full of meetings, all our regular classes and activities, and our big annual Academic Convocation service on Wednesday! Stay tuned for lots of pix and thank you for your sweet and faithful prayers, as we all rely on His more than sufficient strength!
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