We DO Like Spiders and Snakes

Just wanted to post a few pics from the last couple of weeks to show that life went on, even as some of us were under the weather.  (By the way, thanks for the many prayers - I was able to complete a full day back at school last Friday and I'm feeling good heading into this new week!) 

We got a package in the mail last week from our dear friends, the Bradburns.  The box was packed with autumn-themed goodies and decorations for the house.  This is so helpful since everything around us tends to scream Perpetual Summer and we always LOVED fall in Indiana, with its cool days and trips to pumpkin patches and apple orchards.  



You know what those orange things are on top?  Carve-able foam pumpkins.  How fun is that?

The Bradburns even included a couple of fake spiders from the Halloween aisle.  Samuel latched onto one of these immediately and started plotting mischief.  The funny thing is, a fake spider THIS SIZE will scare virtually NOBODY in Indiana.  But HERE??

Here, It's actually a whole lot more realistic.  Melissa yelped when she turned on the kitchen light that night and saw it on the countertop! And then last Friday when I came home to grab a book I had forgotten to take with me to school, Madam Arnold (our sweet friend who helps us with cleaning and laundry a few times a week) re-enacted for my enjoyment how she found the spider under one of the couch cushions, screamed and ran out of the house!  When she found her courage, she poked it with a broom handle for a moment or two before realizing it was a toy.

On one of the days I stayed home sick from school, I was preparing to take a(nother) nap when I heard a bizarre little scream repeating from the backyard.  Curiosity drove me to check it out.  I found this beautiful green snake swallowing a terrified frog on the floor of our shed. 



The snake was so preoccupied with his lunch that he was fairly easy to catch.  I put him in a tote and was excited to take him into school the next day for a bit of show and tell.  

Many Haitians will run the opposite direction of a snake as quickly as possible, but we had a young visitor from Canada who wasn't afraid to handle it.



Eventually we let the snake go in our backyard where I found him.  We've not had any problems with rats inside our house over the past year and at least part of the credit goes to him, undoubtedly.

A FEW OTHER ODDS AND ENDS:

COWMAN:  I was feeling good enough after skipping school all day last Thursday, to meet my students' parents during Cowman's Open House that evening.  We had a fantastic turnout.  I was able to share info with the parents about improvements I am making this year to grade tracking and parent/teacher communication. AND we began discussing what does Cowman 9th Grade look like starting next year?  There's never been such a thing before!

BABY SHOWER: Melissa hosted a baby shower for Cheyenne, a sweet young lady who has been working at Emmaus Biblical Seminary over the past year with her husband Ryan.  This will be their first child and everyone is so excited for them!

MIKENN: My illness reminded us that Cowman could really use a substitute teacher.  Mikenn's medical school doesn't start until October and even once it does, there may be time in his schedule here and there to work elsewhere.  So I thought he might make a good candidate.  I was able to help him work up a first resume and print it off.  We'll see if anything comes of it.

WEED TEA: I'm not a big fan of tea of any sort - I usually joke that tea uses the same recipe as a mud puddle - dead leaves in water - but without the dead worms.  But when Madam Arnold graciously went out of her way to collect some leaves from our yard that she said would help my cough, I had to try it. 

The flavor was ... distinct. 

But I have to admit, it helped the cough.

AVOCADO SEASON: Avocados are one of a handful of foods cheaper in Haiti than in the States.  But it's feast or famine!  The trees are loaded with them right now and my three Haitian sons have helped pick us quite a few.

Break out the Mexican recipes!



A bowl of guacamole this size would cost $20 in the U.S.



The trade off?  We spent an hour and a half making our own tortillas from scratch!  I'll be looking into getting a tortilla press for Christmas...

A TRYING WEEK

It was a rough week for about half our household - Melissa and I and our littlest one.  I've been fighting a sinus infection (again!) and an all night rain moved it down into my lungs last Sunday night.  By 1:00 am on Monday morning, my breathing was so labored it woke me up - and then kept me awake until it was time to push the family out the door to school.  I taught throughout the day on Monday, but you'd have to ask my students if any of it made sense.  
By Monday night, Sarah was running a temperature.  That was the beginning of three days of spiking fevers, irritability, headaches, and finding ALL of Daddy's jokes entirely unamusing. 

Melissa and I took turns staying home from school with her throughout the week.  The low point came when I was subjected to a "Spy Kids" marathon: the original and three sequels.  

(The "Spy Kids" movies ARE educational - if you want to learn how to make mind-numbingly stupid children's movies.)

I'm exaggerating. The actual low point came in the last 24 hours when Melissa and I saw Sarah go through a complete loss of appetite for food AND drink, repeated vomiting when Mommy and Daddy tried to force the issue - losing three and a half pounds in the process.  (Which for this little girl represents about 10% of her body weight.)  The only things that brought her any comfort were several loooooong showers, seated on a lawn chair and letting the warm water run over her.  

In the midst of all of our anxieties Wednesday night over Sarah's health, we called in our resident nurse and then our doctor for consultation and reassurance.  (Both are such a blessing to us!) Dr, Rodney followed me up in the dark after I knocked on his front door at 9:30.  He told us that if Sarah continued to throw up, she would need an IV.  He gave her some anti-nausea medication and he waited with us the 20 minutes for it to take effect.  Then Melissa fed Sarah some crackers and water.  

And it all promptly came right back up.  

All the while, Sarah was begging to go to sleep.  We told Dr. Rodney that we would be seeing him in the morning if we couldn't get liquid into her overnight.  

Sarah woke in the middle of the night crying and babbling about being afraid of the "people who are trying to take our house back" and, a few minutes later, a concern over some "meanness in her own heart."  We took it to be the leftovers of a bad dream and/or the justifiable incoherence of a feverish 7 year old at 2:00 am. 

When morning finally came, Melissa and I kept dragging our feet on getting an IV started because the whole thought made Sarah so anxious.  And yet, she still couldn't keep anything down in general - although Melissa did get a dose of an antibiotic into her in case the illness was bacterial.  Otherwise, every little sip of juice and every crumb of food resulted in stomach pain and, ultimately, rejection.  

In the afternoon, Sarah was once again in the lawn chair soaking under the shower head when she turned and announced, "Satan has been torturing me."

Now, please understand that I've never heard anything even close to this phrasing coming out of any of our children's mouths, and certainly not my little blond second grader with the two missing front teeth.  Like the rational western church culture we were raised in, we're not a family that talks much about the devil and demons and such.  

So I asked, "By that do you mean that you feel so bad that it must be the devil's fault?"

Nope.  It was a "mean voice" in her head that would now and then "yell" things at her, she explained. It had started the previous day, often speaking specifically whenever she held something in her hands.

Melissa and I figured we were dealing with either dehydration-related hallucinations or spiritual warfare.  Maybe both - who knows how these things work?  Either way, it was a matter for family prayer.  Before bedtime on Thursday evening, the six of us held hands in the living room and looked to the Lord for guidance and healing and protection.  

Whatever the root causes of the fever and headaches and grouchiness and mean voices, Sarah turned the corner that evening, so happy to have avoided the dreaded IV.  There was one more incident in the middle of the night where she cried out and when I came running to her bedside she told me that the voice was "torturing" her again.  But she quickly fell back to sleep and by morning, she was 100% her old self, to God's glory!

Her brothers and sister were happy to have the old Sarah back. Mom and Dad were flat out RELIEVED.

It was a long week, but it was a good reminder for us as a family to be vigilant in prayer.  We KNOW that so many of you are praying for us as we serve here in Haiti - some on a daily basis even.  We are SO thankful!  We can never have too many prayers!


P.S. - My sinus infection continues - entering its third week now!  It's a nuisance that saps my strength and makes me grumpy.  My family would appreciate you lifting my health in prayer. ;-)

LOOKS LIKE WE MADE IT

After a few last restful, beautiful Indiana mornings...

And some crazy busy days for Melissa (packing hundreds of pounds of school supplies and personal items) and me (working to ready our old house - and yard - for new renters)...

(The pool and its deck are now gone!)

We loaded up two vans - our old red van with boxes and suitcases and a rental with kids and snacks - and headed towards Florida. We had put two grand into our personal vehicle to make sure it was roadworthy. The plan was to park it in Florida so that it wouldn't block Grandma Trudy's driveway for another nine months and it would save us the cost of a rental when we flew into Florida next summer.

After a late afternoon start, we only made it just past Nashville the first night. The next morning we drove about two miles before our old red van started to overheat.

Over the course of the next SEVEN hours, we drove in short spurts to a local mechanic, ate lunch while he looked at it, cringed at the diagnosis of a blown head gasket, sold it to him for $350 (minus the $150 charge for his time and effort at diagnosing!), rented another minivan, transferred our cargo, said goodbye to our faithful old friend, and got back on the road. Exhausted.

I know we're all smiling in this "selfie", but what else can you do?  In reality, Caleb was on the verge of tears over saying goodbye to that van.  Our kids grew up in that van.  They threw up in that van.  Roadtripped.  Ate Happy Meals.  Told stories. Had silly arguments. Survived a t-boning at a traffic light.  

It was emotional.  One more tie with our previous life unceremoniously cut with no warning.  We were on a schedule, though, and needed to keep moving.  At this point, there was no way to make it to Orlando by nightfall like we had planned.

So it was late Saturday afternoon before we hit the resort in Orlando where we had planned to stay three nights - now down to two.  (It was one of those time share deals where the weekend is next to free if you sit through a one hour meeting!  Well worth it.)

We were all relieved to have gotten this far.

Sunday was a relaxing day.  Time at the pool.

Caleb was excited about the giant sized chess board, but he couldn't convince anyone to play him for any length of time.

Monday morning we had to get to Fort Pierce by noon to unload and weigh our cargo at Missionary Flights International.

The rest of Monday was spent in last minute shopping and repacking a few last odds and ends.  We caught an early flight on Tuesday morning and the next thing we know, we're back in Haiti.

Our first few days back have been filled with critters, reunions, and preparations at Cowman School.

First critter: Buddy.  He's gotten bigger and wilder and louder over the summer.  He's a barker and he's been driving all the other residents crazy at night.  It's going to take some intentional training to get him under control. 

He doesn't look it in this picture, but he was thrilled to see us.



Those first days back were filled with sweet reunions - this one with my three Haitian sons.  They are modeling some new shirts we got for them over the summer.  They worked hard around the house while we were gone - the landscaping looks incredible.

We were pretty much the last missionaries to return after summer.  It's been so good getting caught up with everyone.

We've had an abundance of run-ins with various critters since we returned - the kids found a tarantula that had been chewing on a dead gecko in the rafters of our porch. Johnny got him down for a closer look.

Another critter.  Madam Arnold was here at our house helping with cleaning and announced, "I have a visitor!"



At Cowman, we've found plenty of cleaning and straightening to be done before the new school year starts this coming Wednesday.  This is my room, looking a bit frazzled.

And here's what Melissa's room looked like:

One afternoon, Mikenn and Ruysdael helped paint my shelves while Johnny cleaned.

Our kids have done a fair share of work around school too.  Mostly without complaining. ;-)

Today they were even washing up things that had been in Melissa's closet/bathroom - a place that had also become a summer rat hangout.  

We were pulling items out of the closet and there were droppings and chewed up bits of paper everywhere.  I started pulling items off the shelves one by one until I got to the last three totes.

Melissa and I were sure the rat was still in the closet, so it struck me as a type of rat shell game.

I entered the room alone, secured the door, and, armed only with the shoes on my feet and a broom, I moved one tote at a time, looking to do in a rat.

Right tote to shelf: no rat.

Middle tote to shelf: no rat.

Oh yeah.  He was behind the final tote.  Even though I knew it, I still jumped when he came charging past me in his attempt to squeeze out under the door. The broom broke with my first swing at him.  I ended up stomping on the little beast's tail and using the broom handle as a rat harpoon.  

It was oddly exhilarating. (Don't judge me!)

I had to repeatedly assure Melissa that the rat was truly dead before she agreed to let me open the door.  She was brave enough to take the following disturbing picture.

[Stop scrolling now if you don't care to see a dead rat! Or the maniacal grin on my face.]

I think I look a bit like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining", right?

For all the ups and downs, the joys and headaches of this past week and a half as we have transitioned back to Haiti, we thank God for His protection, provision and patience.

And thank you, also, to all the individuals and churches whose support God used to put us here!

It's good to be back!