Spring has sprung!! Part 1!

Sooo, we've been home for almost a month that has flown by faster than just about any of the other months recently.

Here's what we've been up to as of 3/12/14

We finished (finally!) Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Yay!!!
We've been sick quite a bit for the last month. In fact, every week, at least two people were suffering from sickness at any given time. This resulted in us missing many of our weekly activities, rescheduling playdates and visits with friends multiple times, 2 trips to the doctor and 1 to the emergency room, since we've been back from Haiti alone!
We've been working on our backyard and garden area. It's a work in progress, but we put a fence up to keep the dog out of the garden area which we are expanding. FYI: It didn't work well, so we are going to have to reinforce it. We started our chicken coop, and there's been a pretty large learning curve, but we hope to have baby chicks here by the end of the month!

This was us laying the fencing down.

Trip blog #5

So Friday was our R&R day. We hadn't gotten to see much of the area except the drive to and from HOA, so Friday after a week of hard work, Fenel rewarded us by taking us to not 1 but 2 beautiful beaches.

The first beach, "the cove" is where we got to dip our toes in for a few minutes earlier in the week. We came back again for a few minutes to do a little souvenir shopping for family and friends. They had pretty bracelets, hand carved boxes, figures, wooden machetes, and even (albeit extremely inaccurate) hand made wooden globes. It was funny because the places on the globe were distorted at best, but it was still really cool. I know I could never do that any better!

Trip Blog #3

In continuing to recap our recent Haiti mission trip, I wanted to talk about what we did last week a little bit more each post. It's still hard for me to believe we've almost been back a week already. It feels like we were gone much longer than just a week, and it also feels like it was so much longer than just one week ago. It's a strange feeling that I can't really explain except that I'm sure other people who travel out of the country for something like that do feel out of sorts for a little bit.

Back to the trip, though!

Day 3 found us getting ready Monday morning for the first work day. We headed to the work site and the kids ran out to catch the action any time they had a brief break from their schoolwork.

Trip blog #4

Days 5 and 6

Wednesday and Thursday we got more time to play with the kids, and more work to do! Thursday was an especially busy day for the team, as we divided into 4 teams to get all the jobs accomplished. Jim worked on welding

Trip Blog #2

For those wondering, here's a summary of our recent trip to Jacmel, Haiti. If you have questions, feel free to leave them as a comment and I'll be happy to respond. We had such a jam packed, overwhelming week of new experiences, sometimes it's hard to really put it into words, but I can try!

Saturday: We got up bright and early at about 3 am to get ready to go to the airport, and my dad picked us up early because of all the snow and ice on the road. Once we boarded the plane, I wasn't sure what to expect. The only thing I knew was God had taken my fear away and replaced it with excitement and eager anticipation. It was more fun and less scary than I had assumed. Kind of like a big charter bus with wings, if that makes sense!

Trip blog #1

As I sat here this morning, drinking my Spark, and eating my apple slices for breakfast, I realize I am still trying to get back to the swing of things. See, all last week my husband and I had probably one of the coolest adventures we've had in our almost 9 years of marriage. We went to Jacmel, Haiti where we got to serve with members of three other churches on a mission trip team. We got up early, went to bed early, and for some reason it's been kind of wonky trying to get back on Mississippi time, even though it's only an hour difference, it literally feels like another world down there.  These last few months have been a series of firsts for my hubby and I, and I know already that it is going to continue in the coming months.

Some of you may know, if you know us personally or have kept up with this blog, that since September God has been pulling us out of our comfort zones and stretching our trust, further than I ever thought possible. He has torn down walls, shattered fears and expectations, and has been chipping away at the security bubble around us.

Modern Day Slavery

Slavery.

It's easy to think that slavery doesn't exist anymore.  It's especially easy to live in our comfy little US bubbles, where are are *free* to be blind and oblivious to oppression in all the other parts of the world. After all, slavery was abolished a long time ago, right? But the truth is, it happens every day. I have to admit, I was stupidly blind to this issue for quite some time. But it is all too common. Actually, it's probably right under you nose, in your city!  We just choose to look away, and after a while, it doesn't even phase us or worse-we're naive enough to think because we don't see it, it doesn't happen. Not even a blip on our radar.