Alright, I have done an absolutely terrible job at keeping
up with this blog. Embarrassingly, my
last post was in November 2015. But it’s
January, and I can make some goals for 2017, right?
So what has happened since the last post? In short, a lot! I like “year in review” updates, so here is a
simplified and long overdue version.
December 2015
We moved in this little one, our fifth child and our first
(and still only) girl. J loved to
“scream cry” and did this for about two weeks straight while she was adjusting
to her new home, house parents, friends, nannies, schedule, food, etc.
This little guy’s small operation was scheduled for November
but didn’t work out for various reasons.
So he got it done in December.
Unfortunately, we were not able to be here for it, and it was very hard on
us. We made so many phone calls from
buses and taxis that day.
This is the reason we missed it. We got to meet up with my
brother, Chris, and sister-in-law, Ashley, for a much needed vacation in Punta
Cana. Here they are on the plane before they arrived to meet us.
We also got to see our pal, Glenn, who we got to know
through our church in Nashville. We ate
so much good food in Santiago.
We had our first annual Christmas dinner at our house with
all our kids, nannies, and some friends.
Check out the turkey!
Whew, that month was busy!
January 2016
We were gifted with Christmas money to take all our nannies
and kids to the beach. Our friend,
Courtney, joined us.
This little guy celebrated his fourth birthday.
This little guy had a small procedure, which required a
night at the hospital we won’t ever forget.
We spent the night in the same room with one of our nannies because of an
emergency operation for her youngest child.
We were also there with one of our other nannies, who was there with her baby,
who unfortunately ended up passing away at the hospital.
And we were also there with this cute little guy who we met
that night because the hospital was overcrowded due to ongoing strikes.
Surprise! He moved in
with us. This is Baby T, our sixth
child.
February 2016
This month was pretty much spent adjusting to life with
another preemie in our house and gearing up for our first trip to the States
since moving here. We spent three weeks
in the States catching up with friends and family, eating tons of food, and
trying to rest.
March 2016
Remember our nanny’s little guy who had an operation in
January? Well, he had to have another
one in March. We went to visit him in
the hospital right before surgery, but he was delayed because he needed
blood. In Haiti, you can go buy blood or
you can have someone donate. So I got to
donate for the first time in a long time since I am ineligible in the States
(traveled too frequently to Haiti). I
hadn’t had anything to eat or drink yet that day since we were in a hurry, so I
went to the street, had some street food and a bottle of water, and off we
went.
We got to host our first visitors since living here! It was so nice to see familiar faces in
Haiti. Bill and Mary Ann have been
coming to Haiti for years doing short term missions, but they came on this trip
just to spend time with us and encourage us.
It was such a nice visit.
April 2016
We moved in our seventh and last child, S. For the most part, it was a smooth transition
since he had already lived at COTP for a couple months before moving into our
house.
We celebrated my 27th birthday. I chose to go to the beach (Why wouldn’t
I?). This was our first overnight trip
in Haiti, and it was a wonderful getaway.
May 2016
Okay, we didn’t really celebrate Mother’s Day, but look at
this adorable picture on Haitian Mother’s Day! M and two of his nannies.
We celebrated F’s fourth birthday. He loooooooooves tacos and sombreros, so we
killed two birds with one stone and celebrated Cinco de Mayo the same day.
June 2016
This guy turned one!
He got to celebrate with three of his sponsors with a trip to the beach,
presents, and cake.
Roni and I also got a nice Groupon deal for an all inclusive
in the Dominican Republic a few hours from the border. It was such a nice break. Our house was very well taken care of by our
friends, Al and Mindy, and our nannies.
July 2016
We don’t have many pictures from this month, so I think we
were kind of in survival mode for a little while. We did go to our first Haitian funeral. Not a great reason to be dressed up, but here
is a picture anyway.
August 2016
We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary.
And I realized I lost over 40 pounds since living in Haiti.
September 2016
A and F started school.
They go to a Christian school that is taught in English. We are so, so happy for them to have this
opportunity. And look how cute they
look!
T got his first haircut.
Here is a picture when it was halfway done.
October 2016
Roni celebrated his 31st birthday, and B
celebrated his 3rd birthday.
Here we are preparing for Hurricane Matthew the day before
it was due to hit Haiti. Fortunately and
still shockingly, our area was totally spared from damage. Southern Haiti got a lot of damage. It was very unnerving watching the news and
bracing ourselves for what could have been very bad. Praise God we were spared!
November 2016
My mom came to visit.
We had all kinds of plans to show her our favorite spots, including a
beautiful beach resort, but instead we got to share a hotel room when we all
thought for a few scary minutes that we might not survive the flash flooding. Here is a picture of my mom on a moto during the one sunny day she had here.
Remember how we were spared from the hurricane? Well, we had over 40” of rain in about a week. So many of you reading this have helped us
help our Haitian friends who lost everything or close to everything. It was a very difficult month for us because
the rains lasted for weeks, and we saw a lot of people we love struggling.
Fortunately, the rains slowed down, and the month ended well when this little guy celebrated his 1st
birthday. We no longer have anyone under
the age of one in our house!
December 2016
This pretty girl turned two.
We had our second annual Christmas dinner, this time with
some of the nannies’ kids. It was a
great time spent just relaxing and visiting with each other.
On Christmas Day, we had a fun time opening presents and playing with new toys. THANK YOU to everyone who sent gifts-- sponsors, friends, and churches.
So, what are we up to now, you ask? We are still super busy with our home but
loving it. We still have all seven kids
with us. Please pray for adoptions to
move forward for them and their families.
We are also managing another child home while they are waiting for the
next house parent(s) to accept the position and move in. It is a very busy season, but we are loving
our work here.
And what do we have coming up in the near future? On February 12, Roni will run his second ever marathon, and this time, IN HAITI. He is trying to raise $26,200, which is approximately what it takes to run our house for a year (groceries, diapers, formula, medical needs, nanny salaries, etc.). If you are interested in watching a great video and donating to his run, you can click HERE. I would be so happy to see him reach his goal!
And finally, we will be visiting the States in
February/March for three weeks. So if
you live near Nashville or Pittsburgh and want to catch up, let’s talk. :)
Thanks for hanging in there! I will try much harder to keep this up to date.
