Friday, July 25, 2008

Excitement and Travel Plans

SOOO excited. One week from today we will have eight of our 10 family members at home and finally all together. It's just so hard to believe it is really happening! It is really happening though, isn't it?

I've enjoyed a great week with my family and will be leaving my parents house very soon to meet back up with Jim in the bay area. Tonight we will enjoy one last great date night. Kind of the childless calm before the child filled storm of fun. Tomorrow morning Jim and I will take the long drive home. Our first flight to Haiti is Monday morning but we will have to leave home around 2AM or so for the airport so it is more like Sunday night really. Tuesday morning we will be hugging our Haitian babies! Thursday afternoon we will say goodbye to our sweet Jacques and head to America with Stephanie, Jude, and Lovenie. Friday morning we will be back in Southern CA and Friday afternoon our family will be together again!

The time is flying by so fast now. Bryn told me that she is planning a going away party for the kids. I'm so excited for them. I've put together 60 goodie bags for the party. That's been so much fun to do and I can't wait to give them to Stephanie and Jude to pass out to their HFC friends!

Okay, I've gotta go say goodbye to our boys and my parents. I'll miss them SO much! Then I need to get on the road so I can be reunited with my very much missed husband.

Thanks so much for your many prayers, emails, and comments. We really do have the most amazing family and friends. We love you guys and I'll post again as soon as I can but it will probably be once we are home with the kids. What an exciting time!!!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Our Time Has Arrived

This morning we received the news we have waited so long for "Please come to Haiti ASAP to bring your children home."!!!!! 3 Visas are already in hand and flights are booked for us to leave a week from tomorrow. As you can imagine we are somewhere between ecstatic and shocked. It's so strange to wait so long and then finally get the news. Praising God big time today!

My online time is extra limited right now but just HAD to share the great news. More details to come very soon. We can't thank you enough for all your prayers!!!

Friday, July 18, 2008

What is that blazing bright light???

We've been in the very dark tunnel so long that it is hard to comprehend that what we are looking straight into may very well be the blazing bright light at the end of the tunnel!!! We were requested to email some simple information to the US consulate this morning. This is a very good sign that there does not seem to be any major problems with our visas. Now that they have this information we hope that they will QUICKLY print the visas and it will be time to jump a plane to Haiti. Please keep those prayer coming for our family!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Good Times Are Here Again

My online time has become pretty limited but I just wanted to take a minute to check in. I mentioned in my last post that things had not been as "rosy" as I had hoped for this trip but things have taken a wonderful turn and we are having a BLAST together! Too much to even blog about but some of the highlights were our family reunion/my Grandma's 80th birthday party. This city girl and her city boys rode a horse (pictures to prove it). Hanging out with my very much missed parents. Dinner with Jim's wonderful sister and family. Checking in to a new amazing hotel where we are ridiculously spoiled! I wish every day in waiting could have gone by so quickly. ;)

No "news" yet but of course I'll post if I hear anything exciting. Thank you so much for the many prayers and kind words.

I can't access my bookmarks so I have not been able to check out the blogs I regularly stalk (you know who you are). I MISS you guys!!!

Friday, July 11, 2008

GREAT NEWS!!!!!

We have waited SOOOOO long to receive the news we got today. After many many delays we are finally really on "Any day now" mode! Please pray that we do not hit any more of those painful brick walls and that we will very quickly be able to go and pick up our darling children. Please pray pray pray for us!!!

I'll share more as soon as we get the "ultimate" news!

Meanwhile, a quick update~ We are at the hotel in Hayward. I can't believe it is already Friday. I can't say it has really been that fun so far. The kids have been really wound up and getting into way more trouble then they do at home. It's been a bit exhausting. Today is starting off on a much happier note, so there is hope. I am VERY excited about our plans for the weekend. Early tomorrow morning we will have ourselves another road trip. This time it will take us to a party for my Grandmother's 80th birthday. We will be hanging out with TONS of family members that we have not seen in a long time. We are especially excited to see my grandparents, my parents, and my brother and his family. I've really missed them.

After the party we will return to Hayward and plan on staying until it is time to head to Haiti which will hopefully be in a few days or weeks if there are no problems (PLEASE pray for no problems!!!)

Monday, July 07, 2008

Beginning a little adventure

It is amazing how fast things happen around here. I'm pretty sure our lives could be used for one of those "Life comes at you fast" commercials! It's all good though. I don't know if we would know what to do with ourselves if we were not in a constant mode of change. Tomorrow we load up the car and head off for our trip to the bay area (Renee~ Please email me you phone #, maybe we could get together??!!). As is common with our lifestyle we have only known about this trip for a few days and we are already packed and ready to roll. How long we will stay is totally unknown! We are hoping to stay until we finally get the news that it is time to travel to Haiti.

So for the next... uhm.. well, I don't know how long... Me and the kids will get to hang out at a hotel, spend time at my parents house (woo hoo!!), spend time with some of Jim's family (Donna, Matt, and Edith~ we'll be in touch soon) and the thing I'm most excited about is NO DISHES, COOKING, CLEANING, and very little LAUNDRY. Life is real good. Crazy, but good!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Wanna Get Away?

I do! I was just thinking how great it would be to be able to just walk away from reality for a little while when God presented a really cool opportunity. We hope to leave on Monday to head back to the Bay area (where Jim and I met). Jim's help is needed at that plant and we are kind of going to be "scoping" out the area since that is one of the places we are seriously thinking we might move to in the somewhat near future. So poor Jim will be off to work each day and me and the kids will be lounging around the free hotel room! We had hoped to be in Haiti but since that is now not looking likely it will be nice to be able to go do something fun where I'm not obsessively checking emails for "news".

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Tantrum Over

I officially declare todays tantrum and pity party OVER! Now I'll begin waiting again and be excited to see what God is up to in our lives. I don't understand and can not explain the WHY when it comes to the brick wall after brick wall we seem to hit when it comes to bringing our children home but I can cling to:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

And

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Given the choice I would not choose for things to have turned out this way. However, I also know that I can not see what this will all mean for our future or the future of our children. I do know that so many times problems in the past have swung the doors wide open for wonderful things in our lives. This too will most certainly be used for the best in our lives... even if it doesn't feel like it while we are in the middle of it.

Disappointment... again!

We could use your prayers today. We just received news from Haiti that has us pretty sad and struggling with anger. We have suitcases packed and constantly checking airlines to make plans to leave "any day". It now looks like that will not happen for a while. We are deeply disappointed. We continue to try to hold on to a little hope that the news we received this morning is incorrect or we are misunderstanding it. Jim is on the phone trying to get some straight answers. I'll update soon but meanwhile we could totally use the prayers!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Bel Petit Nou/ Our Beautiful Children


If you hadn't already totally fallen in love with our "ti"Jude... How about now?
Our baby with a baby
Lots of friends
I'm pretty sure she is thinking "What do you mean you don't have my visa yet???"
Our gorgeous daughter with a gorgeous baby

Tann pou manje! (Time to eat!)


Thank you Bryn for these beautiful moments we can now share in with our children!