HATS has been buzzing with busyness as always. Karen and Mariah have their hands full with school, the children are studying away, Seth and I are wrapping up our projects before we head home for Christmas, and the little ones, well, as always are causing just enough commotion not to get in trouble. As I mentioned, Seth and I will be heading home in 4 days. We are really, really excited to be with our families for Christmas. We are so thankful for all of you who have supported us over the last year and have allowed us to take time to be with our family over this special holiday. Thank you so much for your financial support, prayers, and encouragement. You guys are all such a blessing to us. We, of course, will miss Karen, Mariah, the staff here at HATS, and especially the kids, but we are excited for some family time!
I just wanted to catch you up on the happenings around here, before we take off. It was such a blast having Liette and Yvette around. They did such a fantastic and very efficient job with the school sponsorships. They knocked it out in no time. You can definitely tell Liette and Karen are from the same family with the way they get things done. Thank you both for your help. While they were here, they gave each of the kids a blanket and some photos. The next morning we put the photos the kids received up in their rooms; they couldn’t wait to put them on their walls! The blankets also came at the perfect time, as the weather has dropped down to an all-time low at night since Seth and I have been here…70! 🙂
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| Karma Putting Up Her Picture |
We have been continuing the crafts and Children’s Church on the Creation story, as I had mentioned before, and we just wrapped it up this weekend. We went through all 7 days of the creation story and who God shows himself to be throughout the story. Then, this past Saturday, we had a Creation Party. We had Creation games, a scavenger hunt, we made a video of what we learned, we had a talk time about how God knows us each individually and made us each very special all for the purpose to serve, love, and to give Him glory. We then made pictures with our fingerprints (because it is a reminder of God making us special since no one else has the same one.) To finish off the night, we had a cookout and made a dessert out of creation candies. It was a blast and I was amazed at how much the kids remembered. God is so good!
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| Creation Party |
The kids are doing fantastic. School is moving right along. Next week they will start their first set of exams. Actually Vladimy, in secondary school, started writing his exams this week. They have three sets every year. So, currently they are in the process of reviewing for exams. When they come home, they eat, then study, and finish off the afternoon with soccer, cards games, or playing house. The younger kids, (the three musketeers is what I call them) Anne, Jofky, and Karena, are as cute as ever. I used to always picture Karena and Jofky as an older, married couple by the way they would interact with each other, but Anne has slid right into the dynamic. They all play so well together and it is so interesting to watch them be creative and play without really even using any words. Sandra and Jonathan are still a bit too young to keep up with them, but Sandra is getting there. She has yet to learn how to crawl, but she sure can slide on her belly wherever she wants to go. Below are some random pictures of all the kids’ adventures:
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| Sauce Pwa (Bean Sauce) Episode 1 |
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| Sauce Pwa Episode 2 |
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| Anne’s Hair Filled With Shampoo |
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| Leica grew hair overnight! |
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| Sandra too |
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| Judel’s Surfer Hairdo |
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| Juice Mustache |
As I mentioned, Mariah and Karen are busy at school. I am pretty sure every time I run into Mariah in the office she is working on activities for school. I hear she is doing a fantastic job with her students, even though her class is a tough one. Just imagine 15 3&4-year olds. YIKES! 🙂 This past week she has been filling out reports on each of the students. Karen is still doing what Karen does …EVERYTHING! She has been organizing Christmas decorations, doing financial reports for Canada, and keeping things running at the school, dealing with some staff problems on the main site, helping teach English at the Trade School. Speaking of Christmas decorations, Seth and I were in charge of putting up the Christmas lights, lets just say God had to give us a little more patience that day. Oh, what a crazy, tangled, blinking mess…
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| Seth’s Patience |
Karen, Mariah, Seth and I aren’t the only busy ones around the compound, Look at Jacques beautiful find below. He put out rat poison one night and got 11 the next morning! Job well done, I must say!
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| Jacques’ Find |
We have been continuing to do our walks by the canal whenever we get time. Recently, we had one gorgeous walk with the sun setting. We drank some juice and Ti-Luc walked the ENTIRE walk. We were all so proud! When we returned to the compound the children all stood just inside the main gate with Ti Luc for a group photo. At the same time someone called Papa Luckner on the telephone and all the kids yelled out to him the good news of Ti Luc’s long walk.
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| Gorgeous Sunset |
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| Ti Luc’s Accomplishment |
Before we head home, we are planning on doing one last thing as a whole family together. We are going to make Christmas cookies Friday with the kids! So, be looking forward to some awesome pictures!
Have a blessed Christmas everyone.
