West Park Team

Hello friends!

Surprised to see a blog from me so soon?? So am I :)

If you couldn't tell from the title, we had a team here this past week from West Park United Methodist Church! I headed out after lunch with Dad to pick them up from the airport on Monday. We ran into Dave Graffinberger at the airport which was a fun surprise for Dad!

The team was supposed to come Saturday, but a snowstorm back in NJ made that impossible. Even though the trip was shorter than they wanted, the team was still a big help and a blessing to have around. 

Dad has tons and tons to do these days with the new building project. Needless to say the team was nice and busy the whole time they were here at Emmaus!

The girls were real troopers, they shoveled sand into the sifter for hours... Now all our sand is cement-ready!

The girls also got to see Kids Alive, where Lily and Sofie go to school, and then spent the morning helping out at Cowman!

Pastor Dave also came along with the team and taught one of the Emmaus Masters courses! He even preached in chapel one day!

One of the nights the team was here we did conversational English night with Stacey's English students!

Its always a fabulous way for teams to connect with our students at Emmaus.

We all split up into small groups and talk about whatever comes to mind (which can be quite interesting!)

The night was lots of fun for all involved...

Another one of the things the girls got to do while being here was visit the Bethesda clinic.

They got to work with some of Julie Edler's patients!

They did exercises with the little kids to increase their stability...

Some of the exercises included jumping up and sitting back down...There were lots of giggles from the little ones :)

Unfortunately the team's time in Haiti had to come to a close.

I had lots of fun with everyone! Its always nice to have visitors from Jersey ;)

We are all so thankful for West Park UMC!!

Thanks for reading!

Better Late Than Never

I know what you're gonna say... its been four months since my last blog! Sorry guys.... I've been slacking a little ;)

But hey, better late than never, am I right??

I guess I have to go back quite a bit, lets go back to Christmas.

As some of you know we had our Haitian Christmas as normal...

We did a Christmas chapel service and even had a Photobooth this year!

The students seemed to enjoy it :)

Not only did we get to have our own little Christmas in Haiti, but we also went back to the States this year to celebrate Christmas with our whole family for the first time in 5 years! 

For months I had been praying that I would see snowfall during our short two weeks in the US....

You have no idea how excited I was to wake up to seeing the sky full of flurries... I was absolutely freezing but it was worth it!

Even though there was literally only an inch on the ground, Ethan and I still went sledding :)

Our time in the US this Christmas was so precious. Getting to be a part of all the holiday fun with our family was wonderful. 

It was also wonderful seeing Ethan. We said goodbye to him in early August, and didn't see him again until we came home on December 19th. Not only did we just see him for those two weeks we were in New Jersey, but he also came back and spent two weeks with us in Haiti!

We kept it a surprise, so his friends were ecstatic to see him. 

Ethan and I had fun just talking and laughing together. We also have a new addition to the kids little "playground", that being this trampoline. Ethan had a blast as you can see :)

Unfortunately our two weeks with Ethan ending pretty quickly, we miss him already. He is doing college classes at Cumberland County College and living with Nana and Papa (in case anyone was wondering!)

We also had two lovely young ladies stay with us, Maddy and Amy! Maddy is a nutritionist, so she got to go to our little clinic down the road and do little seminars on nutrition. Amy came to help wherever she was needed! They sat in on classes at EBS, had deep conversations with our visiting professors, and they even did a girls weekend with me and my friends!

Another thing they did was go out with our students to see one of Emmaus's church plants! 

Thank you so much Maddy and Amy for coming! We loved having you <3

Dad jumped right back into work at the seminary. His list of things to do is never-ending! We recently extended the apartment and repainted it. Dad made a coffee table and some end tables for the living room, and Mom and I put together some IKEA couches from the Dominican!

Part of the extension including Dad making another bathroom. Here is his expert tiling job :)

Besides some generator troubles that just recently got resolved, everything has been running pretty smoothly at Emmaus! We are almost finished our intensive courses. Next week starts residentials at Emmaus, and Mom is teaching the Counseling class!! 

Thanks for reading!! Hopefully I won't wait another four months to post the next blog ;) 

Update

Hey guys! We have been back in Haiti for about two months now since our summer break in the United States!

We have been getting back into the swing of things recently. Attending chapel, doing English tutoring sessions, and working outside! Its been really great spending time with the Ayars and Edlers! 

Sofie and Sam <3 best buds

It has been nice and hot recently! Fortunately we have been getting rain in the evenings to cool everything down. 

We were not very affected by the hurricanes which is good. The beach we love was unfortunately quite destroyed. Many beautiful shells were washed ashore for us to collect though :)

Sadie is getting bigger! She is so sweet. Minus her underbite and excessive licking of everything in sight, she is pretty good.

I have been doing lots of school and hanging out with these lovely girlies. 

As usual, Dad is busy busy!! He has a million projects all patiently waiting for him to get to them. The upstairs bathroom in the men's dorm needed a new countertop, so Dad made (yes, made!) this one. Using concrete and glass, he made it look like granite!

We have a busy month ahead of us: with the CETA board coming this week, and with the medical team from Canada coming the first week of November! The seminary is flourishing. 

Our students dove right into the school year full force. With all the work projects and classes, this is quite the busy campus.

With all the rain right as the sun is setting everyday, we get to see these beautiful rainbows all the time.

What a blessing. 

Thank you for reading this short update! Be looking for another blog soon!