January trip in pictures

The trip to Haiti in January was a difficult one in some ways, but overall it was a blessing as they all are!  :)  Here are some of the photos I took.  I didn't take many, but these are highlights.....

Landed and went immediately to the wedding of two good friends/fellow missionaries in Haiti.  It was a beautiful wedding- just as beautiful as their story and I was soooo blessed to be invited and able to attend.  :)

Day 2 we were able to drive to Mirbilais to see the girls again (haven't seen them since August).  I would love to do ministry in this area!  It is beautiful and so are they.  :)  :)  

Mimose and Darline with their mother.  She is a beautiful lady!

Here are all the girls from the orphanage who moved to this town.  How I miss them!  

The girls took me to their school.  It is very nice and they are proud to attend.  

Sparky is growing up so much!  Overall he is very well behaved but as you can see by the photo below he LOVES to get into mischief when left alone for long periods of time.  :)  

This was supposed to be paper for Sparky to go to the bathroom on.  Apparently no one told him it wasn't his duty to destroy it by shredding it.  But, I am sure he had a great time!  (in his defense- we did leave him alone for about 12 hours)

Thanks to funds donated by the December mission team we now have bars on our kitchen window so the entire house is now totally secure!  They look nice and are well done.... (the window glass was replaced later- he just had it out to drill and install the bars)

We were able to deliver the fruit since I was there over the 25th!  Each orphan got a large mango, a small mango and a large glass of milk!  Yum...... (I personally wanted to make mango smoothies, but not enough time)

Berlando enjoying his mango....  (the children were so cute- they ALL washed their mangos and hands even if it doesn't look like it and ran back to me with them dripping wet to show me- we ARE making progress!)

We were able to get interviews completed on a lot of the children but ran out of time.  It was crazy busy and I didn't really calculate how long it would take (if only 5 min. per child were spent you can only do 12 children per hour and believe me, no interview takes 5 min.... LOL)

28 new mattresses were purchased in December and are ready to use!  We just need to move the beds to the new living quarters and cover them with sheets and every child has their own bed.  :)

About two weeks before I left one of my Haitian friends who is involved with a choral group called Gospel Vision asked if I knew anyone who had extra choir robes to donate.  I put it on facebook and God put the details together.  A church in Michigan donated these beautiful robes to the group.  You should have seen the smiles and heard them as they tried them on.  Then, they sang a song to say "thank you" to the church.  I will send video to them.  It was beautiful and a blessing to be part of!  

More photos of  Gospel Vision in their robes (check them out on youtube- they are excellent).  

Well, that shows you SOME of what we were able to do.  We lost about 2 days of "work" due to different circumstances (a funeral Redgi needed to attend, some issues with his driver's license, missed planes/late arrival to Haiti, pre-carnival celebrations so roads were inaccessable, etc...) but when standing with that choir the last day and seeing their excitement it all melted away and I knew that God's plans are not ours ---- they are FAR more important and FAR more amazing!  We just need to take time to remember that and bask in the blessings He gives us....  Overall, we were blessed to have this week in Haiti and I was especially blessed to spend it with a GREAT friend and woman of God.  He used her to teach me much!  :)  :)