Perhaps God has a silly sense of humor, or maybe we are just plain nuts.

We are fixing up our third home in the last two years. We bought our house in Fallbrook and right away gutted the entire kitchen and living room, making it beautiful and, well, perfect. After we parted with that sweet house, we went to Haiti. When we moved  to Port de Paix, we had to remodel the entire campus which was about an acre  of concrete. We made the kitchen for OTB, and rehabbed dorms and a huge group kitchen. Then we moved to Cap, and enjoyed five months of living in a quiet home that didn’t need a much work done to it. And here were are now, August, and we are remodeling a gigantic house. The house we’re in now is plenty big for the two of us, but it’s not always just the two of us. When groups come, two small rooms and one bathroom just won’t cut it. In addition, LWI now has 7 large cargo containers needed for supplies and no where to put them. So the new place can accommodate all that and then some.

The cool part about all of our remodeling and working is we’ve always had people there to help along the way! (And a special thank you to all of you,you know who you are!) This time was no exception, and three Americans came  to help, along with a whole crew of Haitians  that have been working already.

Meet Bob. He’s been coming to Haiti for about ten years, what a great guy. He’s lead  repair teams, and helped with dozens of construction projects. He had planned to rehab a compound for LWI, then hoped to build one. Because of that, almost two years ago he shipped in an entire container of building supplies-complete with paint, screens, doors, all kinds of tools..it was amazing to see him set up shop! The first day we got there he dedicated an entire room and it was dubbed ‘home depot’ as it pretty much had everything and was just about as complete as the two tiny shops we have downtown! Incredible side story-all the tools he packed we so special because when his dad passed away, he gave them to Bob. But since Bob had all his own stuff, and he still of course wanted to still use them, he had them packed up and shipped over here! And they have been such a blessing, and been put to great use! In a place where on a good day we can find just a few things-what a huge gift it was to see him share such special treasures and have the all the right tools we needed.

Meet Jo and Charl. What a stinkin’ cute couple they are! They are dairy farmers (yes, real live legit farmers! Being from CA and all, I found them so fascinating!! ) They are from Wisconsin, and we sure had a fun time with them!! And wow, they know how to put in a full day of hard work! We needed a huge area leveled with rock where we wanted to set the containers, and we needed a way to remove the 200 or so plantain trees we had cut down to make room for trucks and containers. Turns out, Jo has been driving tractors since he was about four, and he did an amazing job clearing that acre! Charl was just a delight too, she was always so excited and positive-she was so refreshing to be around. Everyday when we headed home she would say, “Man we sure got a lot accomplished today!” and we did! Her and I tackled the inside of the house-cleaning, wiping, scraping, trimming, rolling, painting, painting!

 

 

 

You wouldn’t know it, but all that was done in just about two weeks! Thankfully we still have our other house, so we don’t have to live there while all this is going on.  Don’t worry, more pictures of the work and progress to come…

 

Just some photos highlights of our short time in California…

We had so much fun seeing and hanging out with Brandon’s brother Clinton and his wife Cortney. They have been living in Hawaii for the last few years, and just moved to California right up the freeway. It’s been so fun to see them and visit with them.

We even were able to go down to TJ, Mexico, and visit with our friends Eric and Dejah. They are working on the latest kitchen with OTB (the last organization we worked with). We absolutely love them, and it was so great to see their sweet baby girl, Malena, and check out what is going on in Mexico. To read more about them and the amazing work they are doing, check our their blog under our “friends” section, right to the right-Eric and Dejah Miranda-Huxley.

 

And Tina surprised me with this great gift too! She bought me these sandals made by Reef. They make the best sandals, much better than Rainbows. Brandon, my brother, and perhaps some of you might fight me on this, but I don’t care what you say-Reef are superior. I mean really, a sandal that can’t get wet, will stain your feet and smell if they do get wet, and needs two months to ‘break in’ -no thank you. My point being, she bought me Reefs that have these really cool beads on them-and turns out they are from 31 Bits!!! I LOVE that organization,and I really think you should too! Click here to check a photo of them, and to read more about 31 Bits you can also click on the link to the far right side of our blog under “Organizations we like”.

How lucky was I that my sweet friend Nikki was in town from Seattle and we got some precious time together..ya! She works for World Vision and is pretty amazing I’m not going to lie. Guess what? They are also on our blog under “stuff we like” you can check them out too if you want….

I just can’t get enough of these girls. They were in our old growth group, one that we miss terribly, and will forever be on the search for people who really will never be able to fill that void! The husbands had some good bonding time too.

Of course we hung out with many more of you, but turns out I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to, and often forgot my camera.And my sister, (and a few others of you out there too) always convinces me to use her camera when we are together, so I don’t even have one shot of our time with them out in California!  (Maybe she’ll email me a few and I can post them??) I guess I was just too busy enjoying the company and seeing those familiar and loving faces! And even though it doesn’t look like it, Brandon was indeed home with me! He does get pretty annoyed with my incessant photo taking, so I let him off the hook this visit-guess I’ll just have to make up for it later!

Things I found the surprising during our latest visit to the United States of America:

1. There are a lot of new cars on the road. Did this just happen overnight?-everyone decided that a car over 10 years old is banned from the road? Or is it just that we are so used to seeing old beat trucks that look like they can’t even run in Haiti?

2. Target. I have always loved this place, but really, how nice is it to have so many things you need located in ONE spot??

3. Americans are just not that friendly to each other. Or, maybe it’s just Southern Californian’s? I’m so used to walking around greeting everyone living in Haiti- I sure got some strange looks as I stuck up conversations and chatting with random strangers.

4.Did you get the memo that everyone cool has an iPhone?

5.  I have always been told that S. California is so great because of the weather. And now, I finally understand. Where else is it 65 or 70 all year long, sunny and lovely every day? BUT, I also realized that is why there is so much traffic. We could not attend some family functions because they were on the same day and with traffic, we couldn’t attend both parties! Crazy!

6. After rarely seeing anything above a knee cap on women in Haiti- I felt like a 90 year old grandma noticing all the short shorts and scandalously clothed girls!

7. Did you know how amazing it is that living in America you can get all different kinds of food in one shopping center? I mean, in a very  small radius you can have a multi-cultural experience. What country do you feel like visiting tonight? Italy? Asia? Japan? How about India?

8. Frozen yogurt. I’m thinking of opening a joint in downtown Cap Haitian. Man I love that stuff.

9. Church. I didn’t realize how much I was missing meeting with fellow believers, singing familiar worship songs, and listening to a sermon that I actually understand. Big shocker, I cried on more than one occasion.

10. I miss baseball. And baseball is so patriotic-I don’t think I ever noticed that before. It’s about as American as eating apple pie and barbecuing something tasty. So go to a game this season for me okay? We only made one while we were home, but it was so delightful.