We are safe and sound in the Mole. It was quite the adventure here. We had two flat tires which made for a 6 hour drive! Malaya was sick the entire time – throwing-up outside the window because the driver didn’t want to stop anymore! Gabriel was hungry and crying most of the trip and Gigi was making monkey noise! The twins and Mikela and Rosie weren’t too bad although we were all going stir crazy.
It was harder than I thought when we pulled outside the mission gates. Several of the employees had come by Monday morning to say good-bye. They waited in the courtyard as we pulled away. Something about sitting on my steps and seeing my front door closed – realizing we don’t live there anymore – it really hit me. Jose too. The dogs thought we were leaving them but were excited when we put them in the back of the truck.
The house was already fixed up and ready from the week before. So it was a nice transition for the children to come here and see all their things. The girls really love their home. Gabriel was on the floor playing with his cars within 5 minutes of arriving. Gigi was a little nervous about walking up the steps to the house. She definitely didn’t know where she was. But when we brought her to the daybed and had her doll laying there – she made a loud happy noise and started bouncing on the bed and chewing on her dolls’ hair!! It’s her favorite thing to do!
The twins are walking!! Not sure if I told you that already or not. They have been walking all over the house and getting into EVERYTHING! They will turn 1 on June 25th. Hard to believe it’s been a year. Hard to believe what all has changed since they came into this world. When I connect all the pieces – they’re actually the reason we are in the Mole. Listen to this and tell me if this isn’t some sort of God’s great plan:
1) We’re told we cannot get pregnant without medical intervention.
2) We end up with twins – TOTALLY UNEXPECTEDLY
3) I’m sick and have to go the states for 9 months
4) Because I have to leave Haiti due to the pregnancy – we bring Melonnie on as my assistant
5) Melonnie learns to manage all the groups and daily operations while I’m gone
6) Because we finally have help with groups in St. Louis- I can now go to the Mole and start a new campus plant
– – and it all started because we got pregnant with twins!
So the kids do seem to be adjusting. We were most worried about Gigi but I really think she’s doing well considering everything is new. We walked her to the pastor’s house last night. Granted – everyone stares at her – but we haven’t heard anyone making fun of her.
If I had to say if anyone was struggling I’d say it was our dogs. Most of you who’ve been to Haiti know that our dogs bark at everything and Diddle likes to snip/bite. We’ve had people in our house all day long and not once have they made a noise. I don’t think they know what to think yet. We were actually worried that they would bite the people here because they’re very protective of our house in St. Louis – but so far – they’ve been very friendly!
We met with Tate Williams from Global Orphan Project last night. We walked on the land and started to lay out all the plans for the campus. Dreaming about all the programs and all the people we could help – it was REALLY exciting! We had a great discussion about how we can really partner together and I feel like for the first time we have a real grasp on the potential for this Mole campus.
As for the summer:
We have Borden/ Northside Group with us right now. There are about 35 people total. We rented out the entire hotel. They will spend the night tonight, do a VBS tomorrow, give out goats to a few needy families, and then head to PAP in the afternoon. When they leave – Savannah Christian Church joins us and are here for a week to do a community census. The day they leave – we have another group of 30 join us from Kansas City!! Then we have a week break and then more groups until August 6th. There’s only about one week this summer where we don’t have a group! Pretty exciting since we just moved here.