One day I spent two weeks in Haiti

“One day I spent two weeks in Haiti.” Our team learned this little saying the second day of our trip; by the time we left I understood it fully. It’s now been one week since we returned home and I’ve had time to recover and process the trip, so I wanted to share a little about it….in reverse order.

This time last week I was sitting in my recliner receiving a couple of liters of fluid via IV that my mother-in-law started in the parking lot of the Atlanta airport in our minivan. The last two days of the trip I was pretty sick. My assumption is that I ate something bad and beyond that I won’t share too many details. I will say that being sick, away from home on mission, without the conveniences we’re normally used to (Gatorade, air conditioning, electricity, regularly running water, drug stores, etc.) all while your supposed to be “the leader” was a humbling experience. All dignity was lost during a two-hour van ride home from the beach on Saturday when the entire team got to watch me hanging out the window, losing it, almost the entire way. I was done: dehydrated, I didn’t eat a meal for about 3 days, and lost about 10 pounds I think. Thankfully, the Lord had mercy on me Monday as we traveled home. I felt good all day and made it home without any problems (even ate some Chick-fil-A).

I looked pretty rough at this point

Imagine being sick out of the window here!

Now, let’s back up to the other 92% of the trip. Our team was on the ground for 7 days and 7 nights in a small city called Tabarre which lies about 20 – 30 minutes outside of Port Au Prince. I won’t try to describe the whole Haiti experience. If you’re not familiar, be sure and check out a great video one of our team members did of our trip (Haiti video), think tropical heat and humidity, mosquitoes, somewhat rural conditions compared to what most of us are used to, haphazard driving, free roaming livestock, and more. Haiti is a beautiful country. It’s tropical and can be very picturesque, especially the mountains and beaches.

Our team had the privilege of staying at the home of the pastor of the church that we went to serve. Pastor Celestin and his wife have 8 children (5 still at home) and are humble, faithful servants. We were humbled by the fact that the family gave up two of the three rooms in their house for our team. This meant Pastor C and his boys slept outside on the concrete patio on a piece of carpet, while Madame Celestin and their two girls slept in the remaining bedroom. Without any air-conditioning or fans and half the time no power any ways, most of our team ended up sleeping outside also, since the bedrooms felt more like saunas.  We spread out all over the place: some in hammocks, some on the roof, some in tents, some in sleeping bags and a few remained inside. And no, it doesn’t get cooler at night.

The whole purpose of our trip was to come alongside the church in Tabarre and serve them and their community. We wanted to join in the ministry they are currently involved in and provide some encouragement and any kind of “boost” that might have been possible. The large focus of our energy was spent with children, which was great. Several years ago, the church started a primary school that now runs around 50 children. In the mornings, we were able to go and teach in the classrooms for a few hours. This stretched us and made us reach back to our basics like math, time, measurements, and geography.  Thanks to my wife’s idea, I went prepared to use my degree and teach a little life science. So our class of 5^th & 6^th graders spent the week learning the water cycle, nitrogen cycle, plant reproductive cycle, and photosynthesis. This was all fresh to them and even their professor asked some questions (he was a little skeptical I think). The great thing about the school was that we incorporated Bible teaching into everyday as well. We had times of worship and devotionals, and even saw several children come to faith in Christ!

The school (and church)

My 5th & 6th grade class

The afternoons were also spent with children. In the middle of the neighborhood there’s a huge field where we hosted a sports camp. 80-90 kids, ages 4 to 14 would show up to play everything from tug-a-war to duck-duck-goose. These were long, hot 2-hour segments of the day but provided a great ministry to the children of the community.

In between school and the sports camp, our team had the opportunity to divide up and do some mercy ministry. This is basically door-to-door visitation with specific families for the purpose of sharing the gospel, praying with them, and blessing them with a small gift of rice, beans, oil, and pasta. We were able to see a lot of the community this way and a wide variety of living conditions. The thing that stood out to me doing the mercy ministry was the honesty of the people we met. They either openly denied the gospel (but weren’t rude about it) or they had accepted it and openly confessed they were living in sin. It was oddly refreshing. We saw several of the people we visited during the day show up at the services that the church was having each night. That was really neat for our team to see the immediate impact of that visit. At the end of the week we even saw two girls accept Christ as a result of that ministry!

The field where we played sports

This was the bulk of our time and mission in Haiti. There is so much I could share. I preached my first translated sermon at the church, we learned to eat mangos and sugar cane, the sounds of the night, the American family pizza restaurant we discovered next door to the Celestins’, the Port Au Prince airport experience, and more. But, mostly I was so proud of the 11 college students we took. These guys and girls remained unified throughout the week, worked super hard, were very flexible, sacrificial, bold, and relational. It was a very successful trip and a great experience.

I want to give a special shout out to Darrell Johnson, who we partnered with for this trip. His organization is Global Ethos. Pastor Johnson is an incredible man of God who gets short-term missions. Our trip would not have been possible and definitely would not have been successful with him. He loves God, loves people, and led us well. We also took two awesome translators: Pastor Alain and Immanuel. Both of these men are Haitian but are US citizens. Pastor Alain pastors a Haitian church Miami. He also was a great asset and leader for our team. Manny (Immanuel) lives in Atlanta and just loves the Lord. His passion for people and worship is so evident. These guys made our trip so much better and our team gleaned so much from all three of them.

The church

Happy 2nd Birthday Honor!!

My sweet, precious Honor is two years old! Zack and I were talking the other day and while the two years have gone by quickly, it seems funny to think she is just now turning two mainly because of her extensive vocabulary.  This girl can talk! and talk she does, almost constantly.  We didn't throw Honor a birthday party this year, which I felt kind of guilty about, but with Zack being out of town, trying to function on "newborn sleep" and the wedding coming up, I just didn't have time to plan anything spectacular. We took some time to plan a special day for her. We took her to the zoo, Toys R Us and Gigi's. On her actual birthday, we went to the museum and got a corndog from Sonic (per her request) and opened her presents.   This past Sunday, our families got together and had a birthday lunch to celebrate sweet Honor with Daddy back home.  We ate hot dogs and sang Happy Birthday to her. She hopped around saying "It's my birthday, it's my birthday"

The day Honor was born was such a sweet special day. Becoming a Mom to a little girl was a dream come true. What a challenge for me also, to mother a daughter, to show her what a woman is like and teach her the blessing of pursuing heavenly things. She has a sweet heart and is precious! Everyone that knows Honor adores her. I wanted to make a list of some of the things I want to remember about her at this age:
She loves anything and everything princess. Her favorite Disney princess is Ariel.
She loves playing tea party and with her babies. She will wrap her babies up with a towel or blanket. She has named several of her babies, some of them include Baby Princess Ariel, Baby Chloe, Big Baby, Baby Cici, and Baby Samantha (which sounds like Baby Mantis)
She loves to sing. She makes up her own songs, which I love! She sings ABC's, Jesus Loves Me, The Red song, and several worship songs that Mommy likes to listen to in the car.
She loves her brother and her sister. She will try to do anything Asher does. She follows him around and copies everything he does. She adores Baby Isla and I know she is going to be such a good big sister.  She kisses on her all the time. Her go to phrase when she talks to Isla is "She's lookin at me" and "She's wakin up" (she says this even if she's been awake for an hour, it's always she's waking up)
She is MESSY! especially when she is eating. It reminds me of the character Pigpen on Charlie Brown that walks around in a cloud of dirt. I try to keep her clean, but the second I wipe her face, it gets dirty again. Please know I try people! :)
When you ask her to say her full name, she says Honor Casey Boo.  This may be one of my favorite things about her. I love it! I don't know where she came up with it, but she just one day started calling herself that and it stuck. Her nicknames include Honor Boo, Honnie Bonnie, and Boo Cakes.
She loves to eat. She's not super picky. Her favorite foods right now are macaroni, or any type of pasta, fruit, cheese, hot dogs and chex mix. Chex Mix is her favorite snack!
She is happy pretty much all the time. We have been very blessed with pleasant and happy children.
When she eats, she says she is a beaver and makes a funny beaver face.
She has to sleep with her two blankies and at least two pacifiers and sometimes one of her dolls.
She loves to have her back scratched before she goes to sleep (just like her momma).
She is so smart! She has been talking in sentences since she was 18 months old.  She likes to read and will actually sit down with a familiar book and "read it" to herself.

There are so many things I can say about this sassy little girl. Sometimes I look at her and still can't believe she is mine. She is such a joy and such a blessing. Happy 2nd Birthday Honor! We love you!!

Honor's "birth"day

Honor on her first birthday. Photos taken by the awesome Tin Can Photography

Happy Birthday Honor!

Happenings

What a week so far! Zack is in Haiti this week on a mission trip with the college students. I was so excited for him to go and I will admit scared to death for him to leave me--hah! We co-parent. We are definitely NOT one of those families where Daddy sits in front of the t.v. after work while Mama takes care of the kids haha! I am always amazed at how much of a help he is to me, especially at bedtime. The bedtime routine can be somewhat of a nightmare mainly since we have had our newest precious addition and that is her fussy time of day. Getting the older two in bed while she is crying is a mighty task all by yourself. Thankfully I have had my mom with me since Monday, but she and Shan left yesterday to go out of town until Saturday. But never fear- my sisters will be here with me and my fabulous in-laws are up the street, so I am very well taken care of while Daddy is away :) Things like this make me realize how blessed we are with people that we love and that love us. I had so many people offer to help me with the kids while Zack is gone. The Lord is so gracious to bless us with community! I am so thankful for that!

So with Daddy being gone, (aside from counting down the days till he's back :)) I have tried my best to keep the kids, Asher especially, distracted and busy. Asher and Zack have such a special relationship. I have never seen a child love a father so. Zack gets home from work and Asher tackles him and they play everything from super boys to wrestling to army men and legos until it's time to go to bed.  I knew this week would be hard for Asher so we have tried to stay busy. They have gone to school all day Monday. They love Wee Care. Asher is such a social butterfly. (He adores other children--anyone, honestly, I have never seen him meet a child he dislikes. He is an instant friend. It is one of the things that make me crazy about him :))
 Tuesday, oh Tuesday. Tuesday has been our hardest day so far. We took a trip to the mall and let the kids play at the Play Place hoping to wear them out so they would have a good nap.

 Bouncy fun

 And sweet Isla slept the whole time

 After all that fun, both my kids decided they did not need a nap, which I am sure impaired their judgement severely, which is how Honor ended up nearly bald. Yes my friends, it happened. A day dreaded by parents everywhere. Haircuts by the hands of a three year old.

The pictures doesn't do it justice. It was bad. And she also had a nice chunk missing from the front.

And I'd like to just say in my defense that I only left the room to change Isla's diaper, a mere two and a half minutes. Just goes to show I guess that trouble can come upon us in an instant. As soon as I noticed, I texted a picture to Jennifer who cuts our hair and she is now our family's most treasured friend because she came right over, to our house, on her day off to fix my girl's hair. I would have been able to laugh it off a little easier if she weren't the flower girl in my sister's wedding in two weeks.....and if it hadn't taken two years to get what little hair she did have to grow that length (which wasn't very long) Sigh. At least it will grow back. And she looks pretty darn cute no matter what her hair looks like anyways.

Wednesday somewhat made up for the horribleness that was Tuesday. We went on a great birthday adventure for Honor's birthday (which is tomorrow!!--is it crazy that she is about to be two?!) We set out in the rainy weather and headed to Birmingham. We made our first stop at Toys-R-us. and we probably could have just stayed there all day. Asher found the battery powered cars and spent literally 45 minutes getting on and off of them, pretending to drive.

Next stop was lunch at Jason's deli (mommy's choice:)) and then GiGi's for a birthday cupcake! Honor is such a hoot. If anyone knows my sassy little girl, you know she will talk your ear off and loves to sing. She makes up songs all the time. When we told her we were going for cupcakes, she started singing "I lick it, then I eat it. I lick it. I eat it" over and over. and she did just that with her Mississippi Mud cupcake. (Shan and Zack--you will appreciate this trait she got from her Mama: she changed her cupcake choice three times before finally picking out one:))

ZOO time! The sunshine finally came out after lunch. It was the perfect day, because the rain really made it cooler. so it was very enjoyable! We saw all the animals and even rode the train!

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Worn out after a long day....

 but not this guy

A special day for a special girl!

Family and Friends please continue to pray for Zack and the mission team in Haiti. They will be back Monday night. Pray for us here. We have had many tears for Daddy, but we are so excited about the good work he is doing and can't wait to share that with all of you.

 Some things coming up: Isla and Honor both have well-visit doctor appointments on Tuesday. Two girls, two sets of shots---one Mommy...need I say more?
Isla will be going to the Eye Foundation June 18th, So please keep that date on your calendar. We are excited about starting this process and meeting the people there that we will be getting to know quite well I'm sure in the coming years. (speaking of Isla, she has tagged along on all our adventures like a champ! She is awake more and more now and starting to look around and notice things. She loves to watch her toy zebra on her carseat. Every time I notice her watching things I just think about how grateful I am that the Lord blessed her with sight. She can see!! Praise God for his goodness!)
And last but not least--my sister and BFF is getting married in two weeks! Woohoo! Excited for their special day and to welcome Stephen to the family!
Check back for a BIG BIRTHDAY update on precious Honor Casey Boo! :)

Haircut with a side of Awesome Sauce

Today Asher got a B-I-G hair cut. This is the shortest his hair has ever been, but he went in and told Mrs Jen that he wanted a spikey haircut. I kind of can't believe we cut it because people always comment on his hair and even strangers say how much they love his hair, especially when it was really long. But I let him do it because I know it will be hot this summer and his hair is so so thick and it will be much cooler like this. And he looks so stinkin big now.

...Isla likes it too :)

Easter Pictures

Some photography friends of ours did a fund raiser photo shoot for the trip to Haiti our church is taking and we were so excited to support Hali and Micah (and also to get our sweet kiddos pictures made:)) Isla was not particularly in the mood to have her picture taken, but we got a few cute ones of them wearing their Easter best.

My Honor Casey-boo

Sibling Love

Our attempts at a family picture after lunch on Easter Sunday....

My favorite...

6 weeks old

Isla Rose is six weeks old today! What a blessed 6 weeks they have been. Our family has adjusted more beautifully than I could have ever imagined, welcoming a new sister with such love. She is a joy, most of the time. She definitely has her fussy moments. Every night she "wakes up" between 8 and 1030 and cries. After that, she usually sleeps until about 230, wakes up to eat and then goes back to sleep until 4 or 5. We are getting good rest (for now) When we went to the doctor for our one month check up, she weighed 9 pounds and is growing and healthy. Dr Ebba talked to us a lot about genetic testing and counseling. We have decided not to have her tested any further. When we talked to Dr Elsas, he said it was something we could do, but genetic testing takes so long that it could be years before we ever had any results and if she seemed healthy and didn't show any other problems, then there was really no reason to do it. (We also opted not to have any counseling ourselves. We trust the Lord for our future and our future children and don't feel like that is necessary.)
My sweet Isla had her first smiles for her big brother and just this week really seems to "mean it" when she smiles. Asher loves when she smiles and him. Honor's two phrases she says when she plays with Isla are: "She's nookin' at me" (looking at me) and "She's waking up Mommy!" (Even if she's been awake for an hour :)) I haven't been able to capture many of her grins on camera yet, but I'm sure I will soon. She nurses like a champ, every two hours, except during that 4 hour stretch at night. She loves for me to keep her in my Moby wrap and it is wonderful for Mommy too as it is the only way I can get anything done that requires two hands! :) She is happy wherever you lay her: Moses basket, bouncy seat, swing, until she is bothered by the other two little people in our house that can't seem to keep their hands off of her. Another reason why I usually end up wearing her haha! She loves her Daddy! He is often the only one able to get her to calm down during her fussy time. We are looking forward to watching this precious girl grow and change and watch her personality develop.

We had some pictures made of Isla when she was 7 days old by H+M photo and I am crazy about them! These are some of my faves.

Analyze this....

I always have this obsession when I meet a new baby of trying to figure out who the baby looks like? Does he have Mommy's nose, Daddy's ears? Does she look like her sister, does he favor his brother? I will not rest until I find some sort of resemblance between the newest baby and some family member. and then of course you have the wild card, like we did when we had not one, but two red headed babies. Everyone wants to know where our girls get their red hair from, because it sure ain't from Mommy or Daddy--haha! So to satisfy myself I pulled up some baby pictures for comparison....

Asher when he was just a few days old





Two day old Isla....not much resemblance

 Two day old Honor

 Three day old Isla Rose

So....who does Isla look like? :)