Adjusting

Well, we're moved in but we're definitely not settled.  This has been harder on me than I expected. Before coming I knew that it would take a while to get things organized and finished in the new house, but now that we're here, I just want everything to be done now.  The pace is so much slower in Haiti and if you get a couple things accomplished in a day, you feel like you had a good day. The heat really zaps a lot of energy out of you.  I feel guilty if I don't keep moving and doing since it feels like there's so much to do.

Today I washed my first load of laundry in my new washing machine. Our water was so slow that I had to haul buckets of water to fill up the machine. Then, we watched the batteries and ran the generator while it washed making sure that we wouldn't suck all our power with one load of laundry!  One of the things I love about our neighborhood is that there is music everywhere all throughout the day. Our neighbors across the street have been very friendly and have welcomed us into their home to get to know them and learn more Creole.  Morgan and Jaron quickly became friends with the children there and many times a day they'll come knocking on our gate to see if they can play. We've also been invited to church with them. I'm excited to see what it's like.

The kids are ready and asking to start school, but we're just not quite ready with everything to get up and going. I want to be able to just jump right in and get into our routine but this is a process and it takes time. God is teaching me a lot about patience right now.

We've been out to the orphanage to see the children and they had all heard that we were staying for two years. We won't really start all of our duties until November so that we'll have time to get settled. The current in country rep will be here through December.

Please pray that we'll continue to settle in and that we'll all have patience and grace for each other as we're trying to adjust to so many new ways of life. These first days have really stretched us emotionally, socially, financially and so many other ways. We have learned even more to trust God to provide for all of our needs. Also pray for Morgan and Jaron - the mosquitoes just seem to love them. They don't complain (and yes, they're taking their malaria medicine mom and dad :-) ) but I know it's not comfortable to be so itchy.  Plus they get heat rash that can be uncomfortable too.  I'm very thankful that the ex-pat (non-Haitian) ladies here on the island meet up on Sunday nights for a little women's time. I have been so blessed with such an awesome group of ladies back home who have supported me and prayed with me for the past two and a half years and I'm feeling that void.

Well, I need to start getting dinner ready and Craig is getting ready to play in his first neighborhood soccer game! Don't want to miss this!! :-D