Our Christmas this year is special and fun due to having Dana with her children – Jared, Ronel and Alexa; and Liette with her children – Mariah, Josiah, Ariane and Tevan here with our HATS family. Lots of happy noise and fun. My Haitian family loves to spend time with my Canadian family and I think it is safe to say the feeling is mutual.
Having my Canadian family with us meant a Christmas photo of the children and I could be done this year while we were celebrating Jesus’ birth. I was thankful for the photo but my heart was heavy due to Vladimy not being in it with us. It was a bitter sweet Christmas celebration.
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| Karen and children Christmas 2013 |
I know that many of you have been praying for Vladimy as well as for us who are greatly missing him. Thank you for this prayer support. Luckner and I were able to visit with Vladimy last week. We were thankful to see some improvements. We will be going to the hospital again tomorrow, Thursday, in hopes of
seeing him, even though it is not a visiting day. Our double family- (Haitian and Canadian) Christmas together is fun but it is just not the same without Vladimy.
Last night this ‘Newfie’ lady decided we needed to do some mummering here on the compound. It was a lot of fun. Our little Jonathan was the only one who was not quite sure, even to the end, that we were his family and we were having fun.
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| Once a Newfie, always a Newfie. Mummering fun at the mission in Haiti. |
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| JJ, Moise, and Tevan going mummering at HATS |
It did not take too long for Ti Sandra to figure things out. Before long she was running around in her pyjamas with one of the pillow case masks covering her face.
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| Ti Sandra got into the act too. |
Tomorrow I will lose part of my family as Dana and her three children, who arrived five days before Liette, head back to Canada. It is so very exciting to have them arrive and so very difficult to see them leave.
Dana has done a ton of things while here that, has made, and will continue to make, life a lot easier for her mama. Thank you, Dana. Thank you, too, for coming with Jared, Ronel, and Alexa so we could spend Christmas together Haitian style. Thank you to all four of you for all the help in many ways, for all the time spent with the children, for making more special memories that will stay with them.
Thank you for coming along side and helping us keep HATS moving forward for the children.
I t I S ALL ABOUT THE CHILDREN
~Karen
