Whatnot Wednesday

I think I've mentioned that Jack's new obsession is movies and movie previews. I'm not even close to exaggerating when I say "obsession" either. One of Jack's friends is really into the Three Little Pigs right now and he was huffing and puffing the other day. I told Jack, "Look, Will is pretending to be the big, bad wolf." Jack turned to him and out of the side of his mouth said, "I can't do nothing for ya, son." I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm Mr. Cogburn. I'm True Grit." Some kids like Three Little Pigs and some kids like modern westerns. To each his own, ya know?

Speaking of odd things my child watches on television, he told me the other day that he needed to "go to Grandaddy's and watch Bill O'Reilly." I'm pretty sure he just wanted to go to his grandparents house but it was still a little scary. I'm planning to let him watch "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The Conspirator" soon. I feel like a little Al Gore and Robert Redford will level the playing field on nuts from each side pretty well.

Speaking of Robert Redford, has anybody EVER aged so well??? Honestly, the man's got to be like 100 years old and I could easily still consider him sexy.

Speaking of politics (which I really hate to do), is anyone else dreading an upcoming presidential election like you dread a root canal? I really can't wait to read who everyone on facebook is backing too cause you know I'm waiting on the person who tells me what time they took a shower each day and exactly how long they spent in Walmart on any given day (with all the words spelled correctly - phonetically anyway:) to tell me how to vote for President.

Speaking of snobs, (I know that I wasn't but I sort of had a little thing going today with the Speaking of...) I know that I totally sounded like a word snob just now. I do love words, but I'm betting there are tons of grammatical errors in this post because God's just got a sense of humor:)

Speaking of humor, my new friend Davidson from Haiti (my translator for the week) was NOT impressed with my humor. I would assume there was a break in communication and so I would attempt to explain my jokes. He would always answer with, "Yes, I get it." He just never laughed. He did spend a good part of the week laughing AT me though assuring me that the fact that I'm only funny unintentionally is universal.

Speaking of Haiti, we started the week off saying that we were going to be flexible. After about 10 changes in our itinerary (in the first hour of the trip) and a group leader who missed his flight and didn't arrive until the next day, we decided that we wouldn't be flexible but instead be fluid. I gotta tell you, in a third world country, being fluid is not only a necessity , but can also create a lot of laughs. Again, a lot of them were AT me, but laughs are laughs.

Speaking of laughing, head on over to The Wonderful Happens and fill us in on all the funny things in your head right now - both intentional and unintentional... I've found that people laughing at you can be just as good as them laughing with you. You just have to be fluid:)

A Good Gift

Our mission team got back from Haiti late Saturday night. It was nice to come home, but I had such a wonderful trip that I was really sad to leave. I've been on mission trips before and they've all been very meaningful to me, but I've never experienced the feeling of leaving my friends - people that quickly became very important to me. That was the feeling I had on this trip that I wasn't prepared for. My church's association has been partnered with the association in Jacmel, Haiti for over a year now. Our church became involved in this partnership during the fall of last year. We are excited about everything that God is doing between us and the Haitian people in this partnership and I was thrilled to get to go and experience first hand our connection with these people.

Tara, Misty and I were doing a Bible Study on the book of Esther with the women during the trip. We visited five different churches throughout the week and our morning was spent with the women each day. We wanted to focus on what God has personally shown us in our lives through the book of Esther. It was very important to us that we say things that would have meaning for these women and would be something beneficial to them. We focused on Esther 4:14 and how God has a plan for each of us and has called us for "just such a time as this." I talked about how God calls us as mothers; Misty talked about how God calls us as wives; and Tara talked about how God calls us to situations that only He can equip us for. We enjoyed our time with the women so much and especially praying with each of them individually - just touching sisters in Christ and praying for their specific needs.

Then we spent a few hours visiting with the children of each church. We talked about Jonah and "attempted" to sing some songs with them. Let's just say we would have been dead in the water without some help from our translators. The first day, we heard crickets. I think we know better now how to prepare for the kids on future trips, but the language barrier proved to be more difficult with the kids than we anticipated. Thankfully, we had some FABULOUS translators who went above and beyond anything they were expected to do. They rescued us and the kids ended up LOVING the time we spent with them.

My pastor and youth pastor spent time in the afternoons and at night in bible study with the men of the church talking about the importance of spending time with God in prayer and bible study and being spiritual leaders in their home. We were all amazed at how receptive the churches were with us. The head pastor in Jacmel said these bible studies were worth more to them than a million US dollars. That was so humbling for us... to see how much they hungered for knowledge about how God works in and through us.

While I so enjoyed spending time with the women and children, I have to say that the most meaningful thing about the trip was the team God put together. The team from Alabama and the team from Jacmel who ministered with us. We got to spend so much time together - all day, every day - and we formed friendships and connections that were something I never anticipated on this trip. There was so much laughter and joy and peace; I just felt that God was giving us good and precious gifts in each person he put with us. I really feel that I was allowed to be part of something beautiful from God and I'm humbled and grateful for the experience. There's no way to explain the trip and all I saw and experienced but I'm going to share some pictures that might give a small glimpse into these lovely people and their country that I enjoyed so much.

Barry, Misty, Tara and me on our ride from Port Au Prince to Jacmel:

Three of our translators: Illes, Edrick, Davidson

The others swapped around translators all week, but I had Davidson every time. I just felt such a connection with him and enjoyed him SO much! He was one of my most precious gifts from God on this trip and I'm so thankful to have him as a friend now. I can't imagine where he got that Alabama bandanna from:)

Davidson brought me one of his paintings as a gift our last day. I'm not a crier y'all, but a girl can only take so much! I insisted on buying it from him and I plan to have it hanging on my wall by the end of this week:

One of the highlights was praying with these ladies individually - just touching them and trying to stand in the gap for them with our Father. It was such an honor. This is me and Davidson praying with one of the ladies:

Edrick and Davidson were having some fun with my camera and sunglasses while I was working hard with the kids. I guess they were on a "break." I found these pictures after I got home:

There are two orphanages that our association is planning to combine and move to a new building soon. We have had some land donated and we are working on building living space for all of them at this time. We are hoping to eventually have a school and church on the grounds as well. Our children and youth had made slap bracelets and bookmarks for all of them with their names on them. We had also brought each child an outfit and school supplies. We have these kids' pictures on the wall of our church and pray from them by name often. It was such a pleasure to meet them face to face:

One of the tent cities in Port Au Prince:

Our team on the Tap Tap - our mode of transportation for the week:

My pastor and our head translator, Pastor Francky. This man is just a hero of the faith. I would never be able to do him justice by trying to tell you about him here, but let me just say that I consider spending time with him and hearing all that God has done in his life as a great privilege and honor! I could have sat at his feet for hours and let him tell me all that God has shown him:

From our hotel - not a bad view, right:

At one of the orphanages -The two men are brothers: Sam and Samuel. Samuel is kneeling down but Sam was born without knees so he is standing at full height in this picture. Samuel is the oldest and is 21 years old. He and his brother have been caring for 17 orphans since the earthquake. Our association found them all living in a tent about a year ago. They are now in this rented home but will soon move to the new orphanage we are building. It was such an honor to meet these men of God we having been praying for:

A picture of me teaching with Davidson:

One of the churches:

Davidson, me, Tara, Edrick, Pastor Bichotte; Pastor Marcel:

Most of our crew in one of the churches:

Pastor Bichotte's church (This is the church that a team from my church built a few months ago. It was go wonderful to be able attend a worship service there. Pastor Bichotte was with us all week - just serving God and us.):

The inside of Pastor Edjame's orphange - toughest day of the trip:

That was it. Throughout the whole house - there was nothing but cement walls and floors. No beds, no toys, nothing. Seventeen kids are sleeping in that room right now. We are so THRILLED they will be moving to a new home soon!

Group picture at Pastor Edjame's orphanage:

Our team - this was the group God put together for this trip. We were together all day, every

day:

Colossians says that as we are thankful in all things, our thankfulness will spill over into joy. I just feel as though God gave me gift after gift this past week and as I was thankful, he spilled it over into joy in my life. I really felt that this week would be hard, heartwrenching, and sad. It was those things as times, but when I think about the week, I think about laughter, joy, fellowship, and compassion. These people in this picture above are gifts that I will forever treasure and I hope to see them again very soon!

Dum Dums, Jonah on a Stick, and Two Large Bottles of Pepto Bismal...

...are just a few of the things I've been gathering up the last few days. It's been a whirlwind around here. We had lots of July 4th celebrating last weekend and then a quick beach trip and meetings at church plus throw a little work in there made last week busy, but fun. This weekend, we spent time out of town and at birthday parties and in swimming pools and at church - busy, but FUN!!!

Today was my last day with my current job. I've been in this job for ten years now (WOW!) but I've mentioned that I'm going from full time work to part time and to do that, I need to move to the foster care unit of our agency as opposed to the family support unit. When I left the office today, mostly I was relieved to know that I'm going to have a much shorter schedule and I'm going to get to be home with Jack so much more, but I was also sad. It was a tough move from somewhere I've been a long time and really enjoyed.

Thankfully, I had almost no time to think of it because I'm leaving for Haiti on Friday and I haven't even begun to start to pack. I have (thankfully) prepared most of my portion of the Bible study we are going to be doing with the ladies there. But, I've been rounding up 1000 dum dum suckers for the kids we are going to see, two large bottles of Pepto Bismal for the preacher that has severe ulcers (as a gift to him - cool gift, right:), and lots of other stuff.

I have this weird thing though where I can't pack unless the house is clean - like really clean so I've been cleaning out my bonus room and outside storage room tonight. I know it doesn't sound like I'm getting ready for Haiti, but that's all part of my process:) During the next hour, I'm going to try to sweet talk my sweet heart into making me a "Jonah on a stick" for our skit for the children. It's gonna be a fun trip....

Whatnot Wednesday

I've spent a lot of the last week with Harry Potter. I'm about to start the fifth book in the series. But, I need a break. I need some real people - some that don't attend Hogwarts. So, I'm taking a break to read "To Kill a Mockingbird" - again. Cause who's more real than Scout, Jem, and Atticus, right??

I realized as I planned a day trip to the beach tomorrow with a friend and her son that it's July and I haven't seen the beach AT ALL this summer. This summer has been so different for so many reasons, but that's just NUTS! If not for tomorrow, I literally would have seen the beaches of Haiti before I saw the Florida coast this year. I'm guessing there are going to be differences between the two.

-Speaking of Haiti, there are apparently all sorts of precautions you are supposed to take before you go there. You know, shots, pills, things like that. Honestly, I'm a good traveler and I don't get nervous about it. I get it's a third world country and all, but they told me I didn't need to wear my TOMS because they weren't protective enough and I was just like "whatever..." I may pay for that, but overall, I just don't get nervous about traveling and really don't think much of "extra" precautions. So, when they told me like six months ago that I needed to visit the health department on two to three different occasions to get my shots, I thought "whatever...." So last week (at the last available appointment before my trip:), I went and had about 100 shots in both my arms (more like 5 total, but it FELT like 100). Seriously, it's been a week and I still can't sleep on one of my sides. I also just got my malaria pills today (that I should have been taking for three weeks). I now have to take them while I'm there. The side effects should be fun in a country with little to no plumbing or sewage systems, huh?

- An update on couponing: I've gone bonkers for it. I totally made fun of those people that bought like 100 tubes of toothpaste just b/c they could get it for free. I was like "Why?" But I have about seven bottles of mustard and now, I get it. I really do.

- We've never really worn red, white, and blue for July 4th. I'm just not the Mom that can pull all that together (or the Mom that wants to). But, in honor of my new "part-time stay at home Mom" status, I decided that we WOULD be that family this year!! It took about four screaming fits and going through several drawers worth of clothing, but we (I) did it. Here's the proof:

Feel free to call me Super Mom! There's even a little camo in there as a shout out to the troops. WHAT UP??? (Super Mom that loves Barney:)

- If you didn't get the reference above, Barney is not the purple dinosaur (who by the grace of God, Jack never liked), but Barney from How I Met Your Mother. We went and saw Cars 2 the other night (that premiere was a BIG deal in our family) and the Smurfs preview came on. When Neil Patrick Harris came on the screen, Jack said, "Look Mom, there's Barney. He's how I met your mother."

In other 4th of July news, this picture is funny:

and so is this one:

- After celebrating the birth of our country, we came home and Jack's superheros were fighting each other. After a while, I heard "FATALITY!" I think that may be enough Norville Come Back (aka Mortal Kombat) for a while, kid. We are going to move on to Tiger Woods' Golf for a while I think.

Link up with The Wonderful Happens for more Whatnot Wednesday fun!