- Furlough- Rocks. (Mostly.) It has been ENERGIZING to spend time with people I know and love. It's been energizing to speak English. It's been great to see the fam. HOWEVER, my I am missing my kids back in Haiti more and more everyday and it's really troubling me
- Seclusion- Restful. (Mostly.) I mean, we are sleeping a lot (or at least trying to.) We have no commitments in terms of childcare (because we have the most gracious family ever.) We just get to be still and process. That part has dug back up a lot of the trash we've been through lately, which is painful. But it's also really good because we're finally dealing with it. Pray that we could "go there" with our teams of therapists over the next two weeks. Pray that we could process in a healthy way and be able to put the events of the past in our past so that we are accessible to each other as husband and wife, and to our family and ministry. So thankful to have a ministry and home church that love us enough to care for our emotional/mental health in this way.
- Pictures of the day-- I am still taking them and writing captions each day. However, (as was mentioned earlier) I am on a break from facebook/email during our therapy and so I won't be able to post them until I get back to Haiti.
- Mad props for the story-telling events TEAM-- The other night we had a night of story-telling. It was so good for us in so many ways. It was a serious time to tell some stories of our last 14 months... earthquake, cholera, Pwoje Konekte, De Izin, our kids. It had a serious tone, but we also tried to keep it light at times. It was a special event for our supporters in the Cary area. Thanks to the TEAM of people who helped get ready for it. (You know who you are.) Thanks also to Stick Boy Bread Company for the AMAZING deserts and coffee that they provided for 150 people. We are so honored you'd come behind us in such a significant way.
- Nick's hilarious slip. As I mentioned, the stories we told were heavy at times. But we tried to keep it light if possible. Nick obliged PERFECTLY with this. Here's the set up. Nick was telling a story about his birthday, December 27 of last year, and how he started up into the mountains on a hike and when rural Haitians' cholera fears presented themselves in a very real way. Okay, so this is what he meant to say:
What he ACTUALLY said was this:
"My beautiful wife gave me the breast present... uh, (pause for eruptions of
laughter and Nick, though being embarrassed by his slip, goes on to say)...
"How about we just let that simmer for a while..." (More laughter.)
I know it was an accident and he felt embarrassed (and now, me bringing it up brings
more attention to it,) but DANG, it was HILARIOUS. The next day at church everyone
kept coming up with breast jokes for him. He's a good sport.
- The Bose store-- A few weeks ago our Bose speakers stopped working. They are an amazing invention and keep our house quite cheerful, so thinking it was a power supply issue, we brought them back with us to see if we could get them repaired. The man at the store kind of made us feel a bit stupid about how banged up they were, but after explaining that we lived in an orphanage, IN HAITI, he kind of let us off the hook. It was just the power supply which, according to him, "amazed him" but one of the speakers was starting to go too. So, (and this is cool) for $99 you can have them refurbish it. It includes a new power supply and speakers-- the whole 9 yards. AND, we get another year warranty with it. So, I will just have to mark down on my calendar to let the kids start playing with it again in January, and then we can cash in on the warranty FOR SURE. Here's a little tip for those of you who live (or hope to live) in Haiti. With electronics, you need to go high end. You really need to purchase quality materials. That usually means more money and it usually means that they will get damaged and stop working at some point necessitating pricey fixes. BUT, cheap stuff lasts days (if you're lucky) in that harsh climate.
- (Which brings me nicely to my next bullet...) The Apple Store-- 2 (semi-enthusiastic) thumbs up. I was a slow convert, but I can now (confidently) say that (while the climate is hard on them-- or any computer) a Mac is the way to go in Haiti. (And yes, I realize I just lost some supporters with that statement.) But I love the Genius bar. I loved that I brought my computer in with a problem, and left 20 minutes later with it fixed. Now, the barely-adolescent teen who was our "genius" was a bit condescending (which is the reason for the "semi enthusiastic" rating) and just typed things so quickly I couldn't follow him, necessitating further trips to the Genius bar if I ever have the same problem, but hey, he fixed it. It's nice to have Iphoto back. (As a post-script to this bullet point, I'd be HAPPY to host any "geniuses" in my home in Haiti to service all the Mac-missionaries in the area.
- Trauma survey. Yeah, realized we have encountered a lot of trauma. Earthquake(s), civil unrest, death threats, riots, contact with dead bodies, witnessing accidents, serious medical conditions... Haiti is not for the weak. (*sigh, I just remembered how much I miss my kids, who, incidentally, are getting in trouble when I get back because they haven't been doing their homework... after I kiss them and hug them and (maybe) give them junk food.*)
- One last thought. I remember Brian, our Director, using the phrase, "Trust is the only currency that can be spent in relationships." I love that thought. But later as I was thinking about it more, I thought, "No, actually trust and GUILT are the only currencies that can be spent in relationships." I have been digging into the idea of guilt and I have been chewing on this thought that one of our therapists brought up-- there is true guilt and there is false guilt. True guilt is something that comes from the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God convicting you of sin in your life. That kind of guilt is good. It is designed to bring you to repentance. False guilt is what people try to leverage in relationships to try to get their own way. It does NOT come from the Lord, it comes from selfishness, but it can FEEL like true guilt. The thing is, unless we ask the Lord for discernment, it can be hard to tell which is which. As we (Nick and I) examine the events of our lives that we're trying to process, submit them to truth and ask the Lord to show us where we have sin and where we are not experiencing true guilt, it's been FREEING. Right now I am doing the Bible study, "Breaking Free" and all of this is working together to accomplish some beautiful things in my soul. I am excited to see where I could possibly end up at the end of all this!
