Thank you for praying that we would be part of God’s plan. We appreciate your prayers and pray God’s blessings on you for supporting us.

We are settled! From the moment we arrived, Kaeli has been saying, “We’re home, we’re home!” And yes, we’re home. We are ready to learn what Karen would have us do. Already, I attended a meeting with Luckner, Karen, and all the house mothers. Many things were clarified for me and I have an idea of what my job there will be. Please pray for me, that my Creole would continue to improve so I can understand Creole spoken at full speed. Please pray for Marta and me, that our relationship would be blessed and that we can lead the house mothers to a peaceful contentment with their work. They have a big job to do, what with caring for the children, cooking their meals, cleaning the two houses, and washing & ironing all the children’s clothes. They must work together….we know that many hands make light work. Marta is a wonderful lady who supervises the house mothers and purchases supplies for the orphanage. She measures out the food for the house moms to cook. Everything is done with care, that the donations coming in would be used for the work God has planned for this mission.

We are hoping that all we do can lighten Karen’s load. Brad will start checking toilets and sinks for leaks and he needs to treat the septic tank regularly. He will start learning how to keep up with the accounting, recording how each dollar is spent. Karen and Brad have to get all the keys figured out so Brad can have his own set and be able to find what he needs.

After I get the kids started in school and we ask for prayer that they might be able to work independently so that I can help Karen with communications.

Karen has been wonderful and I’m sure she feels like she’s been talking non-stop as each question asked requires some history, some facts and some thoughts for the future. She is trying to give us the full picture, which we appreciate. She has had everyone around involved in getting our house set up for us and we are quite enjoying the home we have.

We have spent time with the children we came to serve, playing with them in the yard, walking along the canal, and checking out their school. Already, their personalities are showing and we haven’t found one who isn’t ticklish. There is certainly energy in abundance here.

Kaeli is loving being back with babies and she is once again a baby magnet. The little ones fight over who can sit on her lap and she willingly plays all the games they can come up with. Already braided, she feels very much at home and is looking forward to starting school next week.

the baby magnet

Peter has found Moise and JJ to be his buddies. They play soccer, ride bikes and go for walks by the canal. Right now, the boys are washing the truck…I’ll go get some pictures and I bet the truck is not the only thing that’s wet!! ….as you can see, ALL the boys were ‘washing the truck’…ahem.

Washing the truck ?

Something we have been very grateful for these last few days is our house staff Margeurite. She has been preparing amazing meals…in fact we have had to tell her to cut down. She was preparing two full meals and I don’t want to become a gwo mama!! Everything she has made for us has been so tasty; rice with beans, chicken sauce, spaghetti & meat sauce, meatballs, a dish like shepherds pie, pumpkin soup, salad, fancy tuna salad…in such a few days. We’ve tried a new vegetable, called callaloo (sp?) that I really like and the kids will eat too:) Can’t wait for the mangoes to come into season. I will try freezing some and if I had had room for jars, I would have brought some down, as Brad & I would love to can some. Anything to have mango season last longer!! Our meals will be Haitian, except for pancakes for Peter, waffles by Brad, tiny rations of cheese, green apples for Kaeli and banana bread by Mom. We are blessed.

And now for a prayer request. Next week is Mardi Gras. Many of the staff have three days off next week, including our Marguerite. Let’s pray for God’s presence to be felt, for God’s people to continue to shine — ourselves included, and for Him to be glorified. God is awesome and can do all this.

Love to you all and thank you for praying

~Lois for us all