November 9^th.

Happy Birthday to Brandon!!! For those of you know know me, I kind of really really love birthdays. So, it’s very difficult to swallow that my husband does not. So, since we already did an early birthday celebration with the family while we were home, I promised to keep it low key. I made him yummy scones for breakfast. We spent the day trying to get back to work and see what happened while we were gone. I was able to take Jordy around and show him all of the organizations that we make food for. He loved riding in the truck seeing crazy Port de Paix, stopping at each site with deliver to, and seeing the kids that receive the food. We had hoped to do all kitchen stuff, but turns out that cholera is creeping its way to where we live. The hospital in La Point (about 4 miles from us) was running out of room for patients. They were keeping them outside, even though it was pouring rain, cause they didn’t have any more room!! So, we offered to help set up a huge tent so they could treat more patients. Since we had our friend Jordy with us, we really wanted him to see the kitchen and all that entailed. However, how could we say no when literally people were dying?? He had no problem deviating from our plans, and off we all went to help. It was much more involved than I had imagined in my head!! It was a huge, almost three story army tent-23ftx35ft!!!

I was planning to make a tasty something for dinner when he told me that he needed to go to St. Louis with our partner organization to help with the cholera outbreak. So, I made him cookies and packed them in his bag. And he spent his birthday night in the hospital helping. What a great guy, huh??

 

Yes, we have been back for a week now, but we have no internet (again). We got tired of waiting so we drove  an hour to St. Loius to catch up on work email, personal email, blogs, all other life really.  Since bandwidth is limited here, I will pry have to post some pictures later…

November 8th

We made it back in country safe. There were no major plane issues or delays, which made for a pretty easy travel day. The fun part was we also flew back in with our friend, Jordy Szabo. He was originally scheduled to come and visit us today, and since we were delayed with Brandon being sick (We were supposed to leave Nov 1^st)  and then hurricane set us back (we supposed to come in with the Mikey Team the 4^th), so it worked out that we all came to Haiti together.

I was embarrassed that we arrived to a very dirty house. Our house is indoor/outdoor, which means after one day there is a layer of dirt throughout. So, you can imagine what it looked like after three weeks of being gone, including the hurricane rains, neighbors burning trash often, and normal dust floating around! We found a few creatures and areas that were growing new life…

I am happy, well, estatic really, to report there was some growing of wonderful things too!!! When I left, I had a few beautiful plants growing. I had a very healthy zucchini and cucumber plant, and a sad looking tomato and basil plant. After leaving them for God to look after for three week, I came home to a total reverse!!! The zucchini and cucumber wilted and look awful, while my basil plant with literally one baby leaf showing, turned into this…

 

We had planned to come home for a short two weeks…to have special time with family while Brandon’s brother and wife were in town, and his sister was having a baby. Two turned into three as Brandon got sick, there was a hurricane, and well, that was enough to buy us another week home! We are so thankful since it’s so hard to squeeze seeing all our family and loved ones into such a short time-especially with Bran sick for over 10 of those days! So, just wanted to share with you some fun photos of our time home….