Summer Fun

We are having a great summer in the states!  Seeing family and friends, visiting cool places, and just having fun!  Enjoy the pictures! PS... We head back to Haiti on August 10th. We are excited to go home but are thankful we still have a couple more weeks here to enjoy our family and friends!

My Sister, Abby, and I at a baseball game.

The boys with their cousins.

Scott's birthday dinner at Maggiano's!!!

 Our land...without our home!  My family is doing great!  They have been blessed abundantly through a lot of you...Thank You!

At my dad's house...they boys were in heaven!

My brother-in-law, Titus...him and Scott are hillarious together!

My dad's bird, Rebel...Cameron thought that was pretty cool!

Family get together in Branson!

The boys and MORE cousins!

Ethan LOVED the horses...he wants his own!

Fun at the lake!

Riley and Cameron having a blast on the tube!

Baseball night with my home church.

What to say?

No words...I have started this blog about 4 times in the last couple weeks.  I can't think of how to put things into words on a page for you to read.  It has been such a great year!  Here are some of the highlights...

• Cameron in my class
• students trusting God
• 14 students baptized
• Completion of SonCenter (our buidling used for Sonlight Bible College, Sonlight Church, High School classes)
• Started a girls Bible study
• Cameron and Ethan developing great friendships
• SBC (college) is advancing
• My boys have a heart for helping people
• Helpiing at the Creche (an orphanage)

Thank you, God, for an amazing year!

As most of you know, my family lost their home during the tornado that passed through Moore, OK.  Right now I have no words to describle how thankful I am that my family is safe!  Thank you all for your prayers and support for them...they are overwhelmed with blessings!  I have no words...

overnighter pictures

M fatige: I'm tired!

There are no words to express how incredibly tired I am...

Last night was my annual 4th grade overnighter...yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.  26 kids come ready and willing to stay up as late as they can while they eat, play and laugh at top volume!

First...I have to start at the beginning.  Cameron has been sick for a week now.  He has had a lot of pain in his stomach which is keeping him up during the nights...so, for this whole week there have been a few nights when I was up with him more than I was asleep.  Scott helped a ton and was probably up more than me on most of those nights! 

So, being extremely tired already, we had the 4th grade overnighter last night.  It is always a fun night but it completely wears me out!  We played kickball, dragon tag, parachute toss, steal the bacon,and  a crazy spaghetti relay before heading to the roof.  This part of the night is my favorite!  We sit on the top of the school and have a time of worship.  We also share fun memories about the year.  Oh, this class is so funny and sweet!  As we do this, the sky changes from blue to black and a million stars come out for our enjoyment!  We talk about how amazing God is and we thank him for loving us!  Then...

We headed back to our "sleeping room" and had a dance party, pillow fight, drag me across the floor game(this one was new to me), "let me show you what I can do" kind of thing (involved kartwheels, backbends...) and then 3 movies!  Well, the movies started in the midst of all these activities.  Finally, I made them get in their beds and "stay there".  That is always the fun part because they are just so excited they really can't just stay there...they have to move around-so they crawl! :) 

I think most of the kids were finally falling asleep around 2am.  Now, normally I have to wake them all up the next morning so we can get things rolling...that was not the case this year!  They were up by 6am on their own. 

So we got ready, had some breakfast and headed home around 8am.  Oh yeah, we had pizza and brownies last night for dinner too. :) 

It is such a fun night for me to be able to see my kids out of our normal school setting...they are so fun to know! 

I will do it again next year no matter how tired I feel right now because all I will remember in a couple days is how much we laughed!  I love what I do!

(tried to attach pictures but can't get a great connection right now...pictures will come soon!)

Fun Friday

Scott and I went to a party today that his English class had.  It was fun!  The food was awesome!  Scott's students love him...it was fun for me to watch them interact with him!  These students are learning more than English...they are learning that there is a God who loves them..I love what God allows us to do here in Haiti!

 

This was the view from outside the classroom where we had the party...I love this place!  I love this picture because it shows beauty in the midst of the trash and destruction...God is truly here in Haiti and these kinds of things I see everyday remind me of that fact!  Happy Friday!

Pictures from the Creche

This is the new boy, Jamesly and little Crista

 

 

This is my student, Audra: an amazing young lady!

 

Here is our lesson time-they are good listeners!

An afternoon with sweet kids...

We love Wednesday afternoons!  I take creole lessons with Susan right after school while Cameron has tutoring and Ethan plays...THEN we go to the Creche.  The boys and I and usually Susan and her girls walk down the streets of our neighborhood.  They are muddy, narrow and littered with trash and yet they take us to an amazingly beautiful place.  On the way there I pick up one of my old 4th graders who has an amazing heart!  Audra is a beautiful young lady who loves to come with me and play with the kids.

When we get to the gate the kids just run to greet us.  We can't even get fully into the gate before the hugs and kisses start...my kind of greeting!  Huge smiles are shining on the faces of kids with no parents.  Smiles beaming from the faces of kids who have lived and experienced more horrors than I could imagine.  These kids are so precious!

While there we help them learn English, we play with them, laugh with them, joke with them, love on them and sing with them.  I LOVE my Wednesday afternoons!

Please pray for these children.  There is a boy who came a couple weeks ago who was severely beaten in his old home.  You can see it in his eyes and yet he is starting to let us in.  He smiles with us and wants us to love on him...we willingly do so!  All of them have their own story...please pray for their little hearts to be healed and for them to truly believe there is a God who loves them with a forever love!