Spring Has Sprung!!!!

The weather is starting to warm up!  The grass is turning green!!  The trees are starting to bud!  The ducks are back!  :)  The birds have started singing again.....Summer is right around the corner!!

We have two boys running track!  Another boy is playing Lacrosse, one girl is involved in RAD (Race Against Drugs) and has all sorts of dance/play practices that go along with the program and we have a handful of Little's that are busy playing outside and having all sorts of great adventures!!

Look at this little Princess!!!

Happy Spring!!

Doll Baby!!

She's getting so big!

 

 

She loved wearing that dress!!!  It was perfect for putting in her mouth!  :)  She able to finally wear her cute little black patent shoes with her dress!  First time her tiny little feet have fit into a pair of shoes (they are size 0....newborn)! 

 

 

Last week, I also took these cute pictures of her sitting in her little bouncy seat!  We attached her toys to it so they don't fall off and she loves playing with them!

 

I love those little hands!! 

She was having all sorts of conversations that day!!

Lots of singing that day too!!  I wish I would have taken a video instead!!

 

 

 

We are enjoying Spring Break with our kids until April 7th!!  The school that they all attend gives them 2 1/2 weeks of break!!!!  We're praying for warm, sunny days!  Plus, we'll be re-doing braids for 4 girls (3 of ours and 1 of Levi's friends from school).  Each girl takes 10 hours, which I split into 2 days, so 8 days of vacation are spent watching lots of movies.....I have a feeling this time I will be able to memorize every word/song from Frozen!!!  Haha, we love that one!!!!



Life Is Good!

Life is good.  Life is always good.....busy, crazy, exhausting but we are so blessed.  Our Father in Heaven knows our needs and never leaves us hanging.  I wish I had more time to devote to my blog because it's important to me to have life documented but quite honestly, it gets pushed to the back burner all the time!

Sometimes I wish I had someone who could follow our family around, a videographer(?) to make a record of what we're doing and the craziness of our lives.  I'm guessing if I ever watched a movie of  a 'day in the life' of our family, I would be exhausted just watching it!!!!  Hahaha......

I just re-read that last paragraph and literally laughed out loud!!!  I typed that yesterday morning.  Let's do a little review of yesterday......

By 8am, I had showered, and was completely ready for the day, had done a load of laundry, picked up the house and had 8 kids out the door to school and was just getting the baby ready to head out the door to the Dr.  Oops, take that back.....7 kids were at school, one was at the ER getting stitches in her heel!  Vanessa was dancing in the kitchen before breakfast (we do a lot of that at our house.....) and hit her foot on the corner of the dishwasher and sliced open her heel!  She required 6 stitches to close it up!  Whew....anyway, took Olivia to the plastic surgeon who will perform the surgery for her eye openings, picked up the kindergartner, fed her lunch, did more laundry, went back to the kid's school to watch the pep assembly (because I heard a rumor that the Varsity basketball team was doing a 'dance-off' against the girl's varsity team).  There was no way I was going to miss that!!!  I will see if I can post the video....oh my.

Anyway, brought 2 boys home, helped one with homework, picked up the next 3, took Tanner to track practice, dropped of 2 girls at their church activity, came home and started dinner, got Thomas out the door to Lacrosse practice, I sent Scott to pick up Vanessa from dance try-outs at the school and pick up Levi from basketball practice, then I sent Scott to pick up the 2 girls, he dropped them off and headed back over to pick up Tanner from track.  Everyone was home, except Thomas at this point so we ate dinner, dropped the boys off at the church for youth activities, cleaned the kitchen, helped the 4 littles get their laundry put away, fed the baby, got the first 4 in bed, got my exercise clothes on, exercised on my TreadClimber for 25 minutes, then my TurboSonic for 10, then 30 minutes in my sauna, showered and got the next 3 to bed, finished cleaning the kitchen, got the baby ready for bed after she ate and was in bed by 10!!!!!  Whew!!  That's a record for us because many times it's closer to 11 and since I get up at 5 everyday,  11 is just too late for me to feel like I got enough sleep!! 

Just another day in paradise!!
Here are a couple of pictures of our sweet Olivia just to brighten your day!

Where are your teeth, sweet baby???

 

Look at those cute teeth!!!!

 

 

 

Happy Thursday!!!

Sunday....And Coming Home!!

Sunday Sabrina had a great time attending a local church.  The entire meeting was in Creole, so she understood very little nothing.  At one point a lizard crawled across the stage during the sermon and caused the Pastor to jump!  Haha, she got a kick out of that! 

After church, she was able to spend the afternoon at the baby orphanage!  So many sweet babies to love!!!  She enjoyed being able to love on the babies for a few hours! 

Monday morning they all got up early.  Breakfast was at 6 and then they left the house by 6:30 to go 12 miles to the airport.  They were hoping to get there by 9!!  Apparently with 14 million people in Port Au Prince, the streets are very busy early in the morning while they all wait for a tap tap (taxi). 

She made it in time and then went through 4 different security stations/immigration and had an hour to spare!  Once they arrived in NY, she had about a 5 hour layover for her flight to Portland.  Thankfully one of the men she was traveling with was a United Club member, so they got to wait in their lounge and have a few snacks!

She finally arrived in Portland just after midnight and since security was closed, once she collected her bags, she had to wait until 4 am to get back through security and head over to her gate for her 6:30 flight.  Needless to say, when I picked her up, she was ready for a hot shower!!  She was exhausted but knew better than to take a nap, so she did laundry and hung out before she had to go to work!

It was so fun to go through her pictures and hear the stories behind them!  I will have her go through them and post some here so you can see the beautiful people and country where she was!!! 

We're so thankful to all those who helped donate supplies for her to take!  They go through them so fast in the clinic and every little bit helps!!!

Saturday Update!

Saturday morning Sabrina worked in the clinic all morning, counting pills.  In the afternoon they left and went over to one of the other ministries that has a lot of stands (like a market) to barter.  She loved it!  She was able to buy some fun things! 

She sent a text that said: "I seriously love it here!  It feels like I've been gone for more than a week!  I decided the guy I marry is going to have to be real flexible because I pretty much want to travel and help in clinics for the rest of my life!  No joke.  Can you be addicted after 1 trip??"

And another text: "We have so much! I just want to like up root the whole family and let them see this kind of life!  The people here are so happy with nothing!!!  I got a video of boys playing soccer....Every boy has multiple rips and holes in either his shirt or pants and their shoes are almost completely falling apart.  Most of them have crocs on that were worn down so much you could hardly tell what they were!"

She sent a text that said: "I just had goat for dinner!"  Haha....turns out that the son of the people that own the guest house where she is staying, told them they were eating goat with some cat.  He had a totally straight face, but finally tells them it's just goat...like that's a relief or something.....they were talking to his mom later and she was cracking up...it was just beef!  Whew!!!

She sent me a text today that she just got home from church.  A lizard crawled across the floor in the middle of the sermon and they had to catch it and put it outside.  I asked her how big it was.  She said it was only a little gecko but the pastor jumped out of the way and so they put it outside!  Haha, yeah we don't have that problem at church very often......never.  :)

I got the email from the airline today to check her in for her flight tomorrow!!  Just a teensy bit excited to confirm her on the flight!!!!!!

Friday Update!!

Friday Sabrina was able to help with the playground that they are building at a school!  Along with that, she said she now has 70 pictures of kids from the school on her phone!!  They love being able to see themselves in pictures and videos, so they had a great time using her phone!!  She said they did a Valentine's Day craft with the younger children that was a lot of fun!

Of course I asked her what she ate for dinner!  This was her text back: "Rice!  And veggies. And ground beef with BBQ sauce??  I think au gratin potatoes. sorta.  Haha, they were good!  Lunch was rice with fish chunks and a red sauce!  Also pretty good!  We eat lunch with the some of the high schoolers, so we get whatever they do!"

Today she might be in the Clinic or finishing up the playground!

I am so thankful for the wonderful experiences she is having! I am so anxious to see all her pictures and hear the stories behind them!!!

Thursday At The Beach!!

Much to her delight, Thursday was spent at the beach!!!  I was getting a little anxious yesterday afternoon because I hadn't heard from her at the 'normal' time and then 2 more hours passed and I was starting to hyperventilate!  Finally I got a text from her that said, "Sorry!  Just walked in the door!  We had a 3 hour drive home from the beach!!"  And then she sent a text right after that one that said, "Don't worry :)  haha.."  She knows me too well, I was starting to completely panic!! 

They left for the beach at 6 am and got to the beach about 10.  She snorkeled for the first time in her life!!!!  This is what the text said that she sent: "I seriously thought I was going to die!! I sucked up salt water, which was disgusting but I saw so many cool fish!"

She said she saw like 500 puffer fish!!  The vendors on the beach would catch King Crab, cook them over a fire and serve the whole thing for $10 bucks!!  She said you have to pay to go to the beach, so typically only the wealthy go!  There was a pool, a floating trampoline and of course chairs and a few other things included in the cost to get in.  It was about 650 gourdes (or about $15 per person). 

She came home to a cold shower because the city turned off the electricity but half way through, it came back on!!  Dinner was fried chicken, rice, salad and rolls!!  She also said it was pretty cool outside, she thought it was about 65. 

I asked her if she could believe it was already Friday and she said, "I seriously can't believe that I'm halfway done!  It feels like I have been here forever, yet I don't want to leave!!" 

I finally realized what time it was for her, so I told her I would let her get to bed.  She was finishing up writing in her journal but said that she didn't have to be up until 7:30!  They are painting the playground today!!

We are so happy for her!  She is having such a great time and having life experiences that she couldn't have anywhere else!!!

Wednesday Update!!

Wednesday Sabrina was able to spend the day at an orphanage!  This is what her text said about her day:

"Spent today in the children's orphanage with the sweetest kids ever!!!  Almost brought them all home!  There was only like 13 of them, ages 2-7.  The orphanage director was amazing and the whole place was clean and neat and all the kids were healthy...and all the girls had their hair done! Awesome!"

She said a couple of the little boys snagged her phone and took videos and pictures.  Haha, we won't be able to post any of those online due to privacy rules but I'm anxious to see them!  She's hoping to make it to the beach today.  Friday and Saturday she will help finish up the playground that they're building. 

I asked what was for dinner last night and this was her response:  "Dinner is rice (surprise) and meat sauce (I think) with cooked and fresh veggies, bread and stewed spinach (probably)haha"  I'm guessing she ate rice for dinner....and bread! 

She said she is in bed by 9 every night...maybe 9:30.  She just puts her ear plugs in and is out like a light!  She has to wear ear plugs because the roosters and dogs are quite noisy during the night.  The roosters start at 4 and she doesn't get up until 5.  She says with all the walking that she's doing as well as having the heat/sun baking down on her, she is exhausted at the end of her day.

She's considering going on the next mission trip to Guatemala in June.  She's thinks it sounds great because they speak Spanish and that's much easier to understand then Creole!!  I have a feeling this is just the beginning for this girl!  Once she did one trip, she is going to be hooked!!