Making Sense of the Blur

So many good intentions to blog; so little brainpower to do it. Time is getting away from me.  It felt like our first few months here were some bizarre time warp which is probably quite common for someone who feels like they’re adapting to life on another planet.

Helllooooo, welcome to your newwwwww liiiiiiffffffeeeeeeeeee. Eaaaaccccchhhhhhhhh daaaayyyyyyyy willlll feeeeel like 5 days and you’lllllll be readddddyyyyyy for bedddd at 6:455555555555pm....

wellllcooooommmmmeeeeee.

And then I blinked and all of the sudden we’ve been here 9 months. Excuse me, can someone tell me how that happened? Time warps. They’ll get ya every time. Many days life feels like this:

 crazy, messy and beautiful all at the same time.

We are by no means experts on life here, but we have a “routine” (I use the word loosely) and we have adapted to a level of functioning that gets us through most days with some level of success. And by success, I mean avoiding major catastrophes, head on collisions, remembering to eat and surviving dust clouds and drinking enough water to counteract the profuse sweating.

Somewhere along the line, time has found a way of marching on and picked up to a steady jog with moments of sprinting and moments of falling on our faces.  Keeps us humble.

To summarize the blur…(fyi...blurs are not in perfect chronological order...)

We’ve hosted mission teams, friends have visited, my dad came & adoptive families have brought home their children. 

Then my mom came. We traveled north of Port-au-Prince a few hours on one trip and a couple hours south on another trip to visit various orphanages and ministries.

We hosted our friend Hieu who is an amazing photographer who blessed us with his time & skills.  We’ve had rainy season, mango season and now its just plain burn-your-face-off-hot season.

We continue to assist with adoption paperwork, coordinate with orphanages, assist with food distribution through a fund that has been set up with AWAA, oversee daily happenings at the guesthouse, spend time with children at orphanages and connect with other missionaries & expats.

We took a trip to the U.S. for our church retreat, said goodbye to our missionary neighbors who moved back to TN, attended a women’s retreat, celebrated our 1 year anniversary, I attended a pottery class, got away to the mountains for a weekend and celebrated Tim’s birthday.

And in the midst of it all, we made the gut-wrenching decision to move back to the U.S. after our 1-year commitment is up in August/Sept.  Most difficult decision I’ve ever made on many levels. Not stopping too long on this thought or I'll waste much needed hydration on tears...and moving on.

**BREATHE**

That, my friends is why I haven’t had the energy to blog. Some days I feel like an overcooked spaghetti noodle.  My physical energy is zapped, my emotions are raw and I don’t take the time to focus what energy I do have on organizing my thoughts in a way that make any sense even to me, yet alone you in the blog-o-sphere. So in some ways, be glad this mess hasn't hit your screen.

Thankfully I have a constant stream of photos that can help me piece these last few months together!

Through it all, I can say that I’ve continued to see God work in many ways from small details on a daily basis to major life decisions where we cried out to Him for wisdom. 

Friends & family have sacrificed to bless us through visiting us here, orphans have become sons & daughters, people’s lives transformed as they step out and serve, tough topics of faith discussed with our Haitian friends, people have given everything from diapers to art supplies to bless the children we've come to love, protection from sickness and God’s continued provision for our physical, financial and spiritual needs. 


God’s hand is evident and in the storm of changes & emotions, He is our constant rock-- the foundation upon which we will continue to build our lives.



He is the one we will cling to as we trust His plan for our remaining time here and the days to come as we transition back home.  Until then, I am choosing to be ALL here soaking up every sweaty, crazy, amazing minute knowing its all been a gift and I don't want to miss any part of this amazing story He's writing...