Okay. So I don’t call, I don’t write, does it feel like I’m trying to ditch you and get out of a second date?

I didn’t realize it has been almost a month from the last time I wrote on here! I have had a few people encouraging me and nudging me to update, and yet I still am lacking the time and motivation.

I think part of that is due to the fact that we spent three weeks in the states-and I may or may not have extended my stay another week cause I still wasn’t ready to head back! I find that life when we come home and visit is, well, crazy busy. However, it’s all worth it because it’s a true delight to see family and friends we are so desperately missing!

And the truth of the matter is, we had such a great time, and of course I took a million and one photos. I would love to share some with you, so let me just myself organized so I can post a few!

In the meantime, how about a very quick update? Maybe even bullet points for a quicker read!

~We are moving soon!! We have signed the lease on the new place and are working hard to get the house and land ready. It’s a bigger house with a huge yard cause we need the land to store the materials we need to repair and drill, and it will better accommodate teams and visitors.

~ There are three wonderful people staying with us right now to help us in this process, and we are so thankful to have them! (More photos and updates from that! We’ve been working non stop thus far!)

~Avocados are officially in season-that is reason to celebrate in our house. What doesn’t go with an avocado?

~We have a huge meeting the endish of August with all the Haiti staff and heavy weights from LWI-we are so excited to get together with everyone and talk Haiti and strategy!

~It is hot, hot, hot here. The amazing weather we had in Southern California did not prepare  us for the onslaught of humidity and sweat pouring from every location.

 

Well, hope you’ll forgive me for my ‘invisibleness’ ! How about I promise that the next post won’t be three week from now? ha.

 

I guess the normal thing to do would be to go to an orientation/training before you start a job…but, who likes to be normal??

We signed on with Living Water International in March, and immediately moved from Port de Paix to Cap Haitian. They needed us to start right away, and they didn’t really have a training/orientation set up yet, so we began working. We had read a lot about them before we signed on, and loved everything we heard, read, and had experienced thus far. In June they scheduled a orientation for us, the other couple working in Port au Prince, our new boss who was hired to oversee Haiti and the America’s, a new country director for Liberia, and sweet lady who had just started in the accounting area right at the headquarters in Texas.

So, off we went for a week in Houston, Texas. Turns out, in the summer time, Haiti and Texas feel pretty similar!! The only difference being there is a/c everywhere, and everyone cranks it up! So we had a whole week in Texas to see the LWI headquarters, meet everyone that works for LWI stateside, hear from the CEO himself, and learn more about LWI.

It was a great week. It was jammed packed with back to back meetings, videos, and activities. They fed us well too, and we enjoyed our first go around of Tex Mex-pretty good! Of course not as wonderful as our Mexican food in Southern California, but very tasty! It was so great to be able to sit down the the CEO, Mike Mantel, and learn about the vision and plans for LWI. He has a heart for the Lord, and it was so great to catch a glimpse of that and get to know him. He brings so much knowledge and experience to LWI. We even heard from each department, almost each person too, to learn specifically what they do. It was so great to see what amazing people work for LWI, and how many talented people it takes to run such a great organization. The Houston office has about fifty people there-all in cubes too, even the CEO!!-and it was fun to meet them all.

Then on Wednesday we drove about an hour outside the city to this amazing get away place. It’s the home of a wonderful couple who own 250 acres of land, and they charge people to come there and fish their huge bass fish.  The cool part is they allow LWI to use it for training purposes! They have given them land to drill a few wells and LWI made a “training” area where people can come to learn about how to repair pumps. They use it to train teams, if they want, before they come to a country to do drilling or pump repair they come to this facility and learn how to do it properly. It’s so cool! And the fun part for Brandon and I was learning about all the different pumps they use around the world, and hanging out and fixing those pumps with other people from LWI. Turns out there were about 25 of us there! LWI had several employees who had never been to pump repair training, and many interns too, and this was a perfect time to get everyone out there and learn the actual mechanics of how to fix pumps. I was blown away by the facility, the generosity of this couple, the men who volunteer their time to teach these special classes, and I especially loved learning how the pumps in other countries work.

 

 

What was so fun too, was that while we only there for a short week, we even made a few friends. Some of the LWI staff took us out and showed us the Lone Star State-and we had so much fun. We re-connected with sweet Shannon (who had just come to Haiti with our awesome Mississippi team) and so it was a blast to see her again.

 

All and all, it was a delightful week. We were already pretty excited about Living Water, but after an entire week learning more about the organization, how it started, where it’s going, and the new plans for the future-we are pumped!!! They have a heart and passion for the Lord, they want to serve and love on other people, and they are committed to helping to bring people around the world the good news of Jesus along with helping them to get clean water. Good stuff. We are excited and thankful to be a part of such an incredible team.

 

My heart is heavy. For those of you who don’t have pets or care for them, feel free to skip over my rambling-but if you view your animals as part of your family, as we do, read on.

You met Rosco. We have had him for two months. Such a short time really, but long enough for that sassy little puppy to dig into our hearts. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we have been feeling a bit lonely the past few months already. Cap Haitian has proven to be more of a challenge in finding community and friends. God is faithful, and he has brought a long a few gems here and there thus far. We know He will continue to provide in this area and we wait in expectation.

But in the meantime, we got Rosco. For companionship and for added protection and security. Both Brandon and I are not used to Rottweilers, as they are a little less snuggly than our last dog. But, over the last two months he has been warming up to us, and would even start wondering into a room just to hang out in there with us. It was a drastic change from our last dog, Zoe, who would follow you even to the bathroom cause she didn’t want to leave your side for one minute!

When we knew we were leaving for three weeks we had mixed feelings. Mostly we were overjoyed for a break which we both desperately needed! But we also thought we pry weren’t heading home till Christmas, which was why we thought getting a puppy in May was going to work out great-we’d have plenty of time with him before we left him alone. So, we had to figure out what to do with Rosco while we were gone. We thought about asking sweet Manette, but considering she’s Haitian and pretty much terrified of him, we thought that wouldn’t work for all parties involved. So we asked our sweet friends Meg and Wilbert. Thankfully, they willingly agreed. We even took Rosco over a few times to see how he did with their dogs to make sure he would be okay.

The dreaded day come of leaving him behind and wouldn’t you know it he was also sick. He threw up the night before and a few times the next day. It was awful. I already felt guilty for leaving him behind, and now he was sick, all curled up and snuggling with me-which was so unlike him. It sounds silly to admit, but I actually prayed over him. I can truthfully say, I’m don’t recall having prayed for a pet, but it felt like the right thing to do, and the only thing I could do. Anyway, we dropped him off, and I’m embarrassed to admit I teared up. I was leaving him, and while he was sick.  Meg was so great, and promised me she would comfort him and take care of him. We called the next day from Port au Prince (we had to take care of some things there before we flew out) and he wasn’t doing better. In fact, she had brought over their friend who is a vet to look at him. The vet thought he had a disease that you can get from eating poop-and I had to admit that was his favorite thing to do-play detective and sniff out poo to eat it. Sick I know, and I stopped him every chance I got, but he persisted nonetheless. He supposedly had shots for that in the DR-but we decided who knows if we could trust that paperwork. Well, the vet gave him an IV and antibiotics. The next day he looked better, and started drinking water. Well, that night he was not okay again, and the vet came by to check him again. He decided he didn’t have the poop eating disease-but was unsure what was going on. He had other things happening which I’d rather not discuss.

Today we had  a long-but great-day of meetings today at Living Water headquarters in Houston.  (More to share on that…) But a huge highlight of the day was as a sweet and delightful surprise, Shannon -the LWI employee I told you about that just came to Haiti with the Mississippi team-set up a skype date with that team from Crossgates! So the three of us in Houston, chatted with almost all of them in Mississippi! They crowded around the computer at their church-and three of them even drove into the church just to make the surprise skype date! It was so great to see them, joke with them, and chat with them. At the end, one of them asked about little rascal Rosco, and since this group has a way of peering right into my soul, I told them his status. And wouldn’t you know the moment I stopped talking they asked if they could pray over him. I laughed, and they did too, but said they were serious, and they did. There was a line from David Cherry’s prayer that God used to touch my heart, and I’d like to share it with you. It was something like, “God we lift up Rosco-because you are a God who cares about the details of our lives, the big and the little things. You care about the things we do, and we thank you for that” I needed to hear that,be reminded of that truth, and trust in that. Even if it’s about a dog, it’s on my heart and the Lord cares what is on my heart no matter what it may be.

Well, after a sweet goodbye we hung up and I called Meg to check on Rosco. He died the day before, on Sunday.

I was crushed. I still am.

The vet never knew what was wrong with him…and we’ll never know for sure. We think there is a possibility of foul play-by a man who doesn’t know the love of Jesus and is not very nice. In my heart and spirit I feel this, and am not sure what really happened. And truthfully, I could use prayer for my heart. It wants to hate him and blame him, when we don’t know for sure if it was him. And it’s sad over loosing another sweet pet, a member of our family, even for a brief time.