These days has become too horrendous to handle. Honestly!

By 6:00 a.m. it is hot. By 8:00 I am very much in need of the second shower of the day. By 9:00 it does not matter if I showered or not because I sure don’t look like it or feel like it, but neither does anyone else. So who cares. I do. And in two days I get to leave this horrible heat for a short time. Thank you, God, I say. I am going to the most wonderful area of the world – Nova Scotia and then Newfoundland. Does not get much better than than in my book!! I will visit with family and friends but I will also be working for HATS. I will be sharing my heart on Haiti and the HATS mission on many occasions.

I will not be blogging as often but I do plan to do the promised blog on my girls while away. And I just might blog on some other interesting things. So stay tuned folks. You just never know!

I recently took photos of the outside of the HATS Mission for Mr Wonderful Dickie so decided I should share one with you folks. Actually I think it looks quite nice.

I knew we were going to get the foundation for the new Kid’s Home, Kay Timbrmart, started early on Monday so Sunday after church I had Vladimy, JJ and Moise start moving some of the rebar pillars already prepared to another area of the compound. They were quite willing to do so in anticipation of the new house getting underway.

The digging for the foundation did get started Monday morning and today Tuesday they were already mixing and pouring cement to hold some of the rebar.

School. It is almost that time again and I am so very thankful to God that I am getting away to eastern Canada before school reopens, in October, this year. Due to all the schools lost in the earthquake, etc the government has announced that schools will reopen in October. Without getting away I might not be able to face the opening of our school again. School opening means tons of preparation work. For the past two years I have said that I cannot face another reopening of school without having support missionaries here with me. Well, guess what. That is not yet a reality but I have the preparation work well underway. I have pulled in Martha, Antoinette and Vladimy to help me. It is 10:30 p.m. as I write this and Antoinette and Vladimy are still here helping cut, fold and sort the three different kinds of fabric to give parents of sponsored students tomorrow morning. I am not looking forward to tomorrow at all, but God will see me through it once again.

I will be set up at the school to receive all parents. All textbooks from last year must be returned tomorrow before I give fabric and sewing funds for the uniforms for this year. Recording all names and grades and keeping it straight and organized is a huge job and especially for me with the spelling of the names, etc. Besides, some of the students go by a couple of different names. O fun and games tomorrow. Anyone want to come and give me a hand?

Great news today about our HATS School. The results came out today on the government exams for grades six and nine. All schools, including HATS, were prepared for other than stellar results due to the earthquake and how that affected all teachers and students. I am thrilled to report that our school did extremely well again this year. We had only one student in grade six who did not pass and five in our grade nine class. Our results again are better than other schools in our area. We are pleased and we are very thankful.

Thank you to all who have sent in your sponsorship funds. The fees are being put to use for your students. We have already spent a lot of money on uniform fabric and are preparing to purchase textbooks.

All the HATS children continue to do well. I had told you that our littlest one was to be named Tayanna Mariah. We have decided to change her name to Karena Mariah. Luckner will be working on a birth certificate for her while I am away. On Sunday I spent some time with the kids and took some photos of them to share with you. In the photo of the girls there are two missing – Ti Fi and Ismyis. In the photo of the boys there is one missing – Vladimy. Hopefully next time I do groups I will have them all with me. They decided to have me sit down with Karena while they took photos of the two of us. I told them the best photo of Karena and I would go on the blog and here it is. It was taken by JJ.

Too, we have a new girl added to our family. Karma is five and another student for our prescolaire class. This year I have six in prescolaire. Almost enough for our own class. Anyone interested in sponsoring Karma please let me know.

Again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all the love and support that comes to HATS. Thank you to those who have come and are returning, and to all who plan to come for the first time. Thank you for your encouraging words that keep me going. I can’t do any of this without you. HATS would not be HATS without all of you. Together we are a great team! Jesus is our leader and our defender and we all play equally as team members. Haiti needs our team. Let’s keep playing together to help as many children as possible. Let’s help make a change where needed.

“Remember one person’s life being changed is more important than all the material things the world has to offer.”

God’s richest blessings to you all.

~Karen