Happy New Year from HAITI!! Playing UNO w/Nadine, Carline, Roberline, Ketiane, River, & Rodrigo! We even saw fireworks :D

2 celebrate new years we are playing games, singing, & dancing! Corine brought glow bracelets too. 2moro we will provide & eat traditional pumpkin soup!

Corine gave all the little girls undies today. They were so happy! Charley is a very busy guy! He'll be walking alone in no time!

Im pretty sure roselines life goal is 2 make me have a mental breakdown. She plays w/fire, kicks, hits, & all things opposite of what I ask. Help! lol

Serious adventure yesterday! We drove from Les Cayes 2 Les Angles u see schools & churches. Missed our girls BIGTIME! We had 2 get up@ 3am 2 get back 2 Leogane

Les Cayes

Today we went on an adventure! Josh, a guy from Texas who is working at the orphanage with us met a nun on his plane to Haiti. She invited us to come to Les Cayes to see where she works in a school. We certainly experienced Haitian time today. We understood we were to be picked up at 8am but really the driver left his city at 8am. As Americans clearly we have zero patience so we almost gave up waiting for our ride around 1:30pm. I'm so happy we did not! When our driver came & we headed to Les Cayes we saw why it took him sooo long to get to us...there was a major traffic jam. Of course we took a shortcut through a river :) Then there were men blocking the way that wanted people to pay to get through. By the grace of God we were right next to the police & they let us pass with no pay & no harm. We did not arrive in Les Cayes till about 7pm. The drive was BEAUTIFUL! We are staying in a catholic convent in Les Cayes. It is soooo very beautiful. The nun sister Judith is the most wonderful woman I have ever met. I love EVERYTHING about her! She even sang "I will follow him wherever he may go there isnt an ocean to deep...." Like on sister act! Too cool. They fed us an incredible feast. I was bursting with joy so much that I wanted to break into song. Tomorrow we will see schools and learn about this area. We are all thrilled! Thats all for now we are all very sleepy after a long day of travel. Look up Les Cayes, Sud, Haiti to see where we are.

Merry Christmas

Sorry I have not been very good about updating :( I have had a great few days here with the kids! I made them all bracelets with their names on them & it seemed like they liked them very much. My friend Pam sent Christmas Cards, cookies, & suckers the kids LOVED them! Chris another member of the Cornerstone Blan Haitians :) sent a big poster of the kids pictures. They went nuts! Rodrigo nailed it to the outside of the orphanage between the 2 girls rooms. They love it so much they just sit outside & talk about it all day everyday :) Pastor Kelly will be leaving home tomorrow for home. Please pray for him to have safe travels. A couple of the kids have gone. I'm sad to see them go. The ones who are no longer here are Marlie(Molly), Daniel, Sherline, Caleb his mom & sister, Telicienne, Ketia, Claudine, Rosemice, Bethanie, Widlene, Kerline, Roselande, and a couple other boys I was not familiar with. There are also 10 or so new boys. The boys orphanage is VERY nice. They have not moved in yet as it is not complete. They have also built a pastors quarters that looks nice too. One of Rodrigos friends from work sent a mini soccer goal & ball with us. We gave it to the boys & they LOVED it! Corine the woman who came with us collected underwear before coming. She gave it out to the boys & they were very happy. Soon we will pass out underwear & skirts to the girls and Im sure they will be happy as well. Thats all for now.

Joyeux Noel! Wearing red & green. Kids r good & very happy!

Bye Bye English, USA, American food, and home :D

Rodrigo & I saw SEAN PENN on our Flight!I said"Hey we're going 2 Haiti, r u going there 2?" he said yes.then I told him he does good work & we shook his hand!

Tomorrow

We're leaving for Haiti...TOMORROW! It feels like I have waited forever & now its happening. Wow. Please pray for the people who are going with us to Haiti. Corine & her son River are leaving this evening. They have never been to Haiti before. Please pray they will handle everything ok the day before I get there to lay out the land :) Please pray for us all to get along well, do great things together, and of course for safety!

On the subject of safety I'm sure you know that there is some "political unrest" in Haiti right now. If you didn't now you do. I will probably have to change my return flight because of this. SO please pray everything works out & that God will guide me every step of the way.

Surprise!

I spoke with one of the translators my friend Fred yesterday. Near the end of our conversation he said to me, "Will you be here the 23rd?" Oh man! I wanted my trip to Haiti to be a surprise. I tried to play it off. I told him that I'd already been twice this year & why would I be coming again already? Then he said to me "Coi-Coo told Kinzey & he told me." I still tried to play it off & replied that I hadn't talked to Coi-Coo so I don't know why he would know something like that. To which Fred quickly informed me, "Gil told him." He had me there. So they know I am coming & that I am bringing my husband. I was the one who ended up with the surprise.

Less than 1 week to go & lots to do. You may be sick of hearing this but I am just completely overwhelmed by everyones generosity. Let me be blunt & say there is NO WAY we could have made it to Haiti on our own.

We are busy planning things to teach the kids about hygiene, relationships, expressing their feelings, and of course about our LOVING GOD! I hope to learn about their Christmas & New Years Traditions, to comfort them on the 1 year anniversary of the terrible earthquake that tore apart their lives, and to show them that they are loved everyday. I really am going to try to connect to the internet while I am there so that I can upload pictures & give you more detail then 1 txt message length. Bear with me...I am not the best writer, editor, or punctuation master, and I dont always express things clearly. I hope that I can give you a window into Leogane with what I say however I say it!

18 days & counting...

Rodrigo & I will be headed to Haiti for Christmas! We haven't raised all the money we need to raise yet, but we are confident in Christs ability to provide. We are very thankful to all our friends & family for your support(with words, prayers, and money). I hope that Rodrigo will love Haiti. I can't wait to see everyone and to start helping to improve some things. Please keep us in your prayers!