Weather! Wow!

Never in my life have I been in a place that I went from sweltering heat to the point of near heat exhaustion for some, to a monsoon type rain and flooding, then chills because of the cold in one day. I have now!

We had a rocky start to the day today. God is continuing to teach me flexibility and patience. (Will I ever learn???) We thought we had a plan and knew what the day had in store for us, but it quickly became apparent that our plans were not God's plans. I had to let go of it. And I'm so glad I did. We showed up at a Children's Home and had planned on meeting up with some people from GA we have talked with on the phone several times since Lance's first trip to Haiti. They weren't there. And we didn't know then what we were going to do. And Lance and I had plans on visiting an orphanage to make some contacts and we found out that we wouldn't be able to do that. I was getting frustrated.

Then, we let go and just went with the flow. And God showed up. (Actually, He was always there, we just got out of His way.) Isn't that how it always is? The team set up a clinic for the community at the Children's Home. Lance and I and Erin (our Thirst No More contact) took a driver and went to meet the folks from GA. We found out we were only 30 minutes from the orphanage that we had wanted to visit. So we took off and met a true man of God, Pierre Prinvil.

It was so hot that when we got back to the clinic and Lance started helping to see patients, he got overheated and was close to passing out.

When we loaded up and started heading back, we got caught again in the same traffic as we did this morning except this time the roads were flooded because of rain in the mountains. What should have been a 2 hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive. And the rain came down the mountain and we got soaked. Then when we headed up the mountain towards our house, it got colder and I was freezing! I had to come in and take a hot shower to warm up. Strange experience!

It has been a great day, and tomorrow holds some special things in store. Can't wait to see what God does next!

What an Awesome God We Serve!

We set up medical clinic today at the same school as yesterday. There were several people that we weren't able to see yesterday because we had to close down. So we saw them and several more others. We were able to treat around 150 people today.

We got smart (or should I say Paul got smart) and instead of trying to share Christ one on one with the Haitians as they left the clinic, he would share with a group of people after we triaged them while they were waiting to see a doctor. That way we didn't miss the opportunity to talk to anyone. And we had 20 professions of faith today.

It's natural to wonder if all of those professions were genuine, but let me tell you that 2 for sure were. There was one teenage girl who prayed to accept Christ. Paul was using a bracelet that has symbols explaining the plane of salvation and after she prayed, she asked him to go over the symbols again because she wanted to make sure that she remembered it correctly so she could go share it with her friends. That is life change.

And there was an older gentleman who came in to be seen. When I was questioning him about his complaints, he was pleasant, but no smile on his face. After Paul shared the gospel he prayed to accept Christ. After he saw the doctor and then went to the pharmacy, he made his way to me with a huge smile on his face and gave me a hug and said, "Merci!" many times. That is life change.

We can only rest in the Lord that He is in control and through His Spirit will continue to change these people's lives. We are referring them to local churches, but God has repeatedly shown me that he doesn't need our help. He just allows us to be participants in His plan.

First Full Day in Haiti

I don't even know how to begin. There are so many emotions surging through me right now. We've set up a clinic today and ministered to over 200 people. It was heartbreaking, amazing, and exhilarating all at the same time.

Most of the children are the happiest things. They aren't used to seeing white people, so we were quite a novelty. Most of them would smile at us shyly while others were brave and smile and wave at us. One little girl said something to me in Creole but my translator had stepped away. She was grinning when she said it and seemed a little embarrassed. When my translator got back, I asked him to ask him to ask her to say it again. He did and smiled when he looked at me. "She said, 'she loves you.'" So sweet. I took a picture with her, but it takes too long to upload here.

We saw several older people. One lady 88, one man 80 and one lady 90! The 88 year old was spunky! Several of our team were taking pictures of her and she was hamming it up! I got my picture taken with her.

And there were so many heartbreaking cases. One lady probably has cervical cancer, one little girl with possible leprosy, one lady with severe edema in her arm, one little girl with a damaged eye who will never see out of it again. It is hard for me to think that if any one of these people were in the states, they wouldn't be experiencing this heartache. They could be treated.

Driving through the country of Haiti is an experience that I can't describe. Even with Lance telling me about it and seeing the pictures he took when he was here the first time couldn't prepare me. I know it's a futile effort to try to explain to people when I get home. There is no way to comprehend it unless you are here to see, smell, and taste it. Utter devastation and abject poverty. The only hope these people have is Christ.

I am so excited to be able to share this with Lance. He is amazing. Even his translator jokingly said he needed a break because Lance was so fast. And the love on his face for these people is evident. God had the best in store when he prepared Lance Faddis for me!

I'm in Haiti!!!

It has been such a whirlwind week. We had an activity every night, plus we were getting ready for the trip. I fell into bed every night and didn't have anytime to blog. The girls' end of the year preschool celebration was Thursday and Sara "graduated" (cap and gown and all!) I'll have to blog about that next week and load some pics.

Right now, I'm in Haiti!!!! Crazy how fast it all happened, once again. We were so incredibly busy preparing. And once again, I'm bursting with pride. My husband is amazing! We spent the day traveling and getting to know all the people on our trip. All but 2 go to our church, but we all didn't know each other that well. That is already changing and by the end of the week, we will have a bond that most people won't understand.

I am anxiously anticipating what the Lord is going to do this week. I feel it in my soul. I don't know what it is, but I know it is going to be big. As we were landing in Port Au Prince, I was praying and just opening myself up for whatever God has planned. As we drove through the city, my heart broke. There is no way to describe this place. Even the pictures can't convey.

We have our supplies organized and are ready for tomorrow. That is, as ready as we know how to be. Each day will be a new day. We are splitting up a little tomorrow. The other Dr. and a nurse and 2 other team members are doing a mini clinic and Lance, myself and a father/son team are going to start construction on a house. And by house, I mean shed. 12x12 plywood building with a tin roof. A mansion for most people living in Haiti.

Momma/Son Day

I have felt badly that the girls and I get to do all kinds of fun stuff during the day, and Luke is at school and doesn't get to do any fun one on one things. So I decided on Tues that today would be his day! I cleared it with his teacher and we had a day! The girls were ate MDO and Mom picked them up and took them to my house to a babysitter who watched them until I got home.

We started the day at Chuck E Cheese's playing games. It was so much fun! We go a lot, but with the girls, it's hard for me to play games because I'm having to keep my eyes on them. It was so fun to be able to play games with Luke and really get into them with him. He love video games!

Me and my Boy!

Next up was lunch at Red Lobster. Lance had been given a gift card so the bonus was that lunch was free! Woo Hoo! I had already decided to take Luke there because he loves shrimp and when I told Lance, he told be about the gift card. Score!

Shrimp! Yummy!

Lunch was great, but the high light was him getting to pet a lobster! We had a great waitress. She took him up front to see them and when he came back he told me he got to pet one! I was bummed I didn't get a picture, so she let him do it again on the way out. So sweet. And Luke was so precious at lunch. We had gone by Lance's office before we started our day and Lance gave him a rubber bracelet that has some symbols on it that you can use to share Christ. He asked our waitress if she believed in God and when she said yes, he proceeded to share his bracelet with her. I couldn't have been prouder of him!

Nice lobster!

Then we ended our outing at the movies watching How to Train Your Dragon. It was GREAT! It wasn't really a cartoon. It's better described as a story that's animated. If that makes sense. It was soooo good. And Luke LOVED it! It was so much fun just getting into his world and doing things he loves to do.

That's a big coke!

Today was the best day. We really needed it. It's been a rough year in many ways. I'm ready for 2nd grade to be over. Just being able relax and enjoy Luke was amazing. And God showed me some things, too. Not to worry about Luke bothering people, just to let him be himself. He has the best personality. I'm worried so much that he will overwhelm people, and I stress him and myself out trying to stifle him. All day today, he was being himself and people loved him. He got to pet a lobster, he played soccer in Old Navy with and employee and he got to hang up clothes hangers and scan clothes while we were there, too! ha! He is an amazing child. Such a blessing and privilege to be him Mom. And I'm so undeserving of him!

Celebrating Mother's Day!

What do you get your Mom when she has everything??? Well this year for Mothers Day I made up a gift certificate for lunch at a local restaurant "The Tea Room" and then cupcakes after at a new cupcake store on the town square. It was a fun day!

The Tea Room is in a neat old building in the downtown area of the town next to us. All the tables have tablecloths and you eat off of mismatched china and drink your tea from mismatched tea cups. It has a great atmosphere! The owner put some toys and dress up things in the hallway that little girls can play with. It is a really cool place! The girls have been a couple times, but this was the first time Mom has been. It's going to be a fun girls outing place in the future!

Mom and her girls

The cupcake store is a lot of fun! It's new and some of my friends (one friend in particular, KELLY!) love it, so I thought it would be fun to try! The girls loved it! It's a little pricey, but a fun thing to do for a special treat. And I have to say, the lemon cupcake was awesome!

Yummy!!

This picture cracks me up! Look at Sara and how she's sitting! And then look at Hope!!! That's my two girls!

No!

Emma's new favorite word. Yep, she's almost 2! Haha! She's not been too ugly with it, but she definately knows what it means. :) She just looks at you and says, "nnno!" It's so funny because I love hearing her actually saying something besides "uh, uh, uh." Her expressive language is starting to take off. She can garble out "I want that one." And she was playing with some rocks today and wouldn't stop patting my leg to get my attention and then she held one up and said, "rock."

It's fun to see her starting to communicate with us! She's growing fast right now!

Disco, Disco Duck!

Tonight was the girls' dance recital. It was soooo cute! We are so blessed with our families. Both sets of grandparents, and my brother and sis in law all came to the recital. I'm so glad they did. It was one of the cutest things I've seen!

It was so cute, in fact, that I bought the stinkin' $35 video!!!! haha! I videoed it at dress rehearsal, because I thought it was crazy to pay that kind of money for the video of my almost 4 and 5 year olds dance. Hope was as sweet as could be, and Sara was absolutely hysterical! She got into it, let me tell you! I looked at Lance and told him there was no way I couldn't buy it!

All of the Disco Ducks

My sweet Disco Ducks :)

The Ducks and their Daddy giving them flowers after the recital.

Now here's the cutest and funniest thing! We all went to a restaurant after the performance to eat. It was late when we got done, but some friends from church had come in and were talking to us. They mentioned the girls and how cute they were and said something about their dance and Sara looked at me and asked if they could do it! ha! She had me get out my iPhone that had the dance on it and play the music for them! lol!!!! Right there in the restaurant, full costume, no inhibitions. Proud Momma alert!!!

Shake Your Groove Thang!

This year, the girls took dance lessons. A friend of theirs from church started and her mom called and asked me if the girls would want to take lessons, too. I asked them, and they did! So we've been going every Wednesday morning this school year and it all culminates this Friday night with their recital. They are so excited! And can I say, they're awfully darn cute???

Tonight was dress rehearsal. We can't take pictures or video on Friday, so I took some tonight. I'll have better pictures of them in their costumes then, but here are some from the dance.

Shake it, don't break it! Took your Momma 9 months to make it!!

Sara is head and shoulders taller than anyone else! :)

Shake it baby!

I love this one!

Disco Duck!

See ya later!

2 Readers in the House!

Someone told me a while back about a couple of educational websites that my kids would like. I "wrote" them down in my phone and forgot about them. I found them today and got the kids on them. One is Starfall.com. It teaches letters all the way up to actual reading depending on age. I started Sara on it and within 10 minutes, she was reading!!!! She was so proud of herself. (and her Momma was pretty proud too!)

She's been trying to sound out words a lot in recent weeks and asking me how to spell words and telling me what letter words start with when she hears them, so I've known that she's ready to learn to read. Luke did the exact same thing the summer before he started kindergarten. I couldn't believe how fast she did it. And she wasn't just memorizing what she just heard. When Lance got home 2 hours later, I pulled up the website so she could show him and without hearing using the site to help her hear the phonics, she read 2 sentences by sounding out the words! Way to go Sara!!

Hope had fun working on the alphabet in the games in her age range. She is getting better at controlling the mouse and got so excited when she was told that she got an answer right. She would yell in glee at the top of her lungs!

3 Mothers Days and a Birthday

Happy Mother's Day to my two moms!

Mom, you've always been there as a constant support in my life. My memories of you as a child are ones of crafts, reading, awesome birthday parties, and love. The teen years were a little rocky, but you always supported me in anything I wanted to do. You were at every basketball game, track meet, OM competition, and church youth activity. And now, for you to be here to be a part of my kids everyday lives is the best gift you could have ever given me. To see how much they love you brings joy to my soul. Thanks for still supporting me and being there to help me when I need it. I love you more than you'll ever know!

Neat, thank you for being such a great mom to the love of my life. The godly legacy that you passed on to him has allowed him to be such an amazing father to our kids. And thanks for being the best Gigi my kids could have! They love you so much. They light up when they see you with a loud "Giiii Giiiii!!!" :) And a special Happy Birthday!! We love you!

And Happy Mothers Day to me! It has been a great day. I got up this morning and Lance and the kids gave me my Mothers Day cards and gifts. Luke had picked out a card at WalMart for me. It was cute. He was so proud of getting one by himself. And Sara has been waiting since Thursday to give me my card. She made it at school. In it was a bracelet that she made for me. A cheap plastic bead bracelet, but when I put it on and didn't take it off when I got dressed I heard her say to Hope, "Hope! Momma's wearing her bracelet to Sunday School!" There was such pride and joy in her voice. It made my day! Hope gave me her card Thursday after school. She couldn't wait! haha! And Lance gave me a card with pictures of all the girls. It was a hint at my real gift. He's ordered the girls' one year portraits!!! We've had Luke's 1 year portrait and a portrait of Lance, Luke, and I on the walls since we moved into this house. We bought the frames for the girls' portraits years ago, but have never developed their portraits. I'm so excited to finally get them up on the wall!

After church, we went to lunch with Mom and Dad. It took a little while to get in, but when we did, it was worth it. We ate at local Chinese restaurant that we all love. It was a lot of fun. And the kids acted great.

Then it was home and I got a Mothers Day nap! When I got up, Lance was hard at work cleaning out our garage. It has been a huge mess!! I got to work with him while all the kids played out in the yard and rode their bikes. Then it was hot dogs for dinner and getting ready for bed.

Before bed, we all were in the living room together, and Luke read a couple chapters from one of his books to the girls. It was so sweet.

Almost eight years ago, I became a mom. I never knew how much that day would change my life. I never dreamed how I would fall in love with that little boy and his sisters later. It totally changed me. My husband and my kids are the most important things in my life. I'm am so humbled that God would allow me to be the mother to 4 beautiful and precious children. I am so unworthy. I screw it up daily. I pray that my love will cover a multitude of sins. I hope they know how much I love them and would give up my life for them.

Fun Field Trip

I went with Luke on a field trip to a local creek and hiking trail. We had a lot of fun! These are the reasons I'm sooooo glad that I'm a stay at home mom. I haven't missed any of Luke's field trips since he started school. And the only party I've missed was when we were in Thailand 2 years ago. And I am soooo thankful to my mother for watching all the girls so I could go. Love you Mom!

We did this same field trip when Luke was in kindergarten. It was a much better experience today! Last go around, it was 89 degrees and 160 5 and 6 year olds walking on a hiking trail by a creek without being able to stop. NOT fun! Today, though, one of the other moms and I were responsible for 5 boys and we had a blast! So glad to be making these memories!

Me and my boy!

This afternoon, we played outside until Lance got home from work. Our neighbors across the street have 3 boys that match up to 3 of ours. 2 of their boys are in 3rd and 1st grad and their baby is 6 months younger than Emma. We have so much fun playing in the front yards, visiting and letting the kids ride their bikes up and down the street. Hudson has a Little Tykes car and Emma loves it! They take turns riding it. Amanda (the mom) and I were talking today about having to find another one for Emma and tonight I took some stuff to my friend Sarah's house for her garage sale and she had one in her driveway! haha! Emma is going to be sooo happy!

Emma and Hudson (he cracks me up with the bike helmet!)

We got home tonight from going out to eat and were putting the kids in bed, and my close friend Mary Claire called. Somehow, she got a fishing lure caught in her finger. (It's too long of a story to write here, but suffice it to say, I laughed my hiney off!!) Anyway, she had to come over so Lance could numb up her finger and get it out. I haven't laughed that hard in a while!!

It was quite a mini surgery!

Can she be any cuter??

OK, so I know everyone thinks that their kids are the cutest in the world, but I'm sorry to let the world know that mine are! haha! Tonight, Emma was fussy after I put her to bed. That's not normal. She usually just falls into her bed and that's the last we hear from her. The only time she fusses is when she's getting an ear infection. (Lance did check her tonight and they looked fine, so who knows!) I went to her room a couple of times and calmed her down. Around 9:00, Lance got home from a meeting and she started crying again. He went to get her so we could check her ears and give her some ibuprofen.

She was absolutely fine!! The little stinker! She sat by her Daddy on the couch and when I'd look at her, she would grin this mischievous grin right at me. It was hysterical! We let her stay up for about 20 min and then Lance put her back to bed. She cried for about 45 seconds and we didn't hear anything else from her. What a mess!

"Haha, look at me Momma! I'm fine, just wanted some Daddy time!" LOL!

The Lord's Timing is Perfect

Well, it's official. Lance and I are going back to/to Haiti! It has been so neat to see God lead us in this whole thing. When Lance went in February, I knew that I would have gone with his except for the unknown of what he was heading into and our kids. But we both knew that he would be going back and that I would go with him.

After he returned, we talked about the timing of us both going. We felt that it would be in late spring sometime. I've been kinda pushing Lance the past couple of months a few times about pinning down a time for us to go. We haven't been able to see the right time. I finally just quit asking and trusted that God would lead us.

A few days ago, our friend John, who is the Executive Pastor at our church and went with Lance on the last trip, called me and said that he needed Lance and I to go to Haiti at the end of the month. I knew right then in my heart that we were going. This was God's timing. After discussing it, Lance and I agreed that the Lord was leading us on this trip.

I'm so excited. And we can already see His hand working again like it did last time. We "met" some friends of a friend that serve in Haiti several times a year before Lance went on the first trip. Well, they are going to be in Haiti the same dates as us. I called her today and we laughed about the fact the first time we are going to physically meet will be in Haiti. They have some great contacts for us and places to serve.

I can't wait to see what all the Lord has in store!