catch up

OK, catch up post.

Despite all we're working through on the inside, the outside has been BUSY.

We aren't going to talk about the house because of course...now that we finally got through the expensive water drain installation and broken gas pipe and all of that, a 24/7 water leak has been located by a ridiculous water bill...and it's the 24 year old hot water heater....which is a messy mess with (you guessed it) an expensive solution (which also has led to no dishwasher/laundry/showers since Friday morning...maybe fixed tomorrow?.)  As we enter hurricane season, our muddy mess is a way worse muddy mess (though, there is now drainage) and we either have to do something about that or the kids and pets can no longer go outside (or they have to stay outside and stop tracking back in!)  You should have told us that owning a home was expensive, that the lists of things needing done were endless, and that that sometimes it makes you want to cry. orrrr maybe you already did tell us.

This past week
...the girls had a birthday party/pool party which we all loved
...our friend had her double mastectomy, is home and they believe cancer free!
...we had a fun dinner at a friend's house with their four kiddos which was good for the soul
...Saturday a neighbor couple whose kids are off and grown had several young families over for lunch and to swim...also so fun!
...this morning Matt preached to fill in for our friend whose wife had surgery
...we explored a new-to-us nearby hiking ridge
...we had our weekly Sunday night "don't eat alone, eat with us!" dinner, which we have all come to love and count on for our Sunday evenings.
...Add in a weekly gymnastics lesson (and daily cartwheels, handstands, splits and THUDS in every room of the house) weekly piano lessons (and daily plinks and plonks), daily mopping of all the mud and laundry and cooking and homeschool mornings and we are busy and grateful for much and learning a lot. Learning a lot.

He is giving us lots of mission-fields...from our neighborhood to the many churches we have been to to the Bible studies Matt is teaching to the staff and students at Wesley and their mission-fields to the little people (and all of THEIR little people friends) in our home.  Thankful (and did I mention, learning a lot?)

Pray for an opportunity for our family to get back to Haiti soon.  I think a week home to do some good-byes, transition, and getting a few more of our things would be really helpful for all of us and where we are at in our hearts and minds right now. It is complicated, as you can imagine, both with schedules here and with continued political issues in Haiti, American Airlines dropping all flights to Cap-Haitian, Emmaus trying to get the new year started, etc, none of our local missionary friends yet returned, etc.

Pray for Guenson at Emmaus and Matt at Wesley as they continue to face a lot of transition, a lot to learn and a lot of responsibility to shoulder, especially in such a crazy time of unknowns and difficult-to-plans.

Pray for us to find a church. So many churches we had planned to visit are still closed (or closed again) and none of the churches we have been able to visit are doing their normal church...which is making it hard to be a visitor or to have wisdom about where we should be when there is so little good representation to base it on! We have pretty much stopped trying to make decisions based on any of our experience or what we're hearing and are just praying God will make it clear where we should be. I am anxious to find a church home for our nomad family trying to settle down, and for all of us to have the support of a steady church family on this mission-field.

Thank you for being our praying family.

If you ever want to be our praying AND visiting family...we'd be so so thankful and happy to have you.