BACK AT IT!!

I am back trying to do better at updating! Two times in one week!! LOOK OUT!! I have a mission trip planned to go back to Haiti in April! Have you ever been on a mission trip? Ever thought about it? I did think about it many years before going on my first one! I always thought I would go on a medical mission trip, but God had other plans for me. Two-and-a-half years later, I have been six times! Sometimes I "nurse" while I am there, but most of my time is spent investing in the kids! Sharing God's love with them and just loving them! My first trip was May 2011. You can find my pics from that visit on here in earlier posts. It changed my life. Here I was thinking that I would go bless some kids in a third world country when truthfully I was the one blessed. Always pay it forward! You will always be the one that is blessed. I love my Haitian Sensations and can't wait to see them again in April! It can't get here soon enough! Blessings, Wendy

WHOAH!

I was reminding today to get back to blogging. Not that I have anything all that interesting to say, but I enjoy writing for myself. When I started this blog.... it was to be a little journal about my life for my own self and for my daughter. It was to have a place to post pics and be reminded about all life's little happenings. Now, it has been another 9 months since I have journaled. BUT... I am going to restart. Let me see... where did I leave off? I went back to work in Feb. after being off for six weeks. I love my job and the doctors I work for. I am so blessed to have a job with Bible-believing, Jesus-loving bosses. It is a fast paced and very busy clinic. I have worked there as a pediatric nurse for the past 10 years. MARCH 2013 March 1st marked the second anniversary of my mom's death. I can hardly believe 2 years has passed since she passed away. It was literally the hardest thing I have ever endured. I miss her every day, but I am thankful for the legacy she left me and how I have been able to share love more abundantly b/c of her love for me. APRIL/MAY 2013 I celebrated my 39th birthday in April. I also found out this month that I would have the opportunity to return to my beloved Haiti. This would make my fifth trip to Haiti. I have had the beautiful experience of ministering to the Haitian people and loving on 120 kids in an orphanage. I was able to spend 2 weeks altogether in Haiti. It came as a surprise that I would be able to return since I had just taken off for six weeks. God has really blessed me. My Tori-bug was not able to go (I had not renewed her passport from when it expired). I missed my family at home terribly, but it was a fabulous trip. I said I would never go without her again (or at least one of my family members). Seeing my "kids" in Haiti was so awesome. Myself and all of our team members held a vacation bible school for the kids. I was in charge of crafts. Putting together five days of crafts for an entire orphanage was mind boggling. If I forgot something, it wasn't like I could run to Walmart and buy glue dots!! HAHA JUNE/JULY/AUGUST 2013 Tori-bug turned a teenager on June 14th. Hard to believe I had a teenager in the house. Tori is the light of my life. I have always said she is my mini me and it is true. She is! We didn't get to do much camping this summer. Life was busy b/c I had already used my vacation time to go to Haiti. Kevin continues to own and operate a heating/air business and thankfully God has blessed us with work in this area too. He was really busy all summer! School started back in August and Tori-bug started 8th. grade. Back at the top of the totem pole in her middle school. I remember when she first started in middle school in 6th grade she got in the car the first day and said she loved middle school b/c they "treat you like an adult, not like a little kid like they did in elementary school". Now she is really experiencing that (maybe too many responsibilities now). Tori-bug is still very active in gymnastics although we pulled her out of her gym in May and placed her at a new gym in July. She did take about 3 weeks off in there, but you can't have too much time off in this sport or you fall way behind. We have found a gym that really suits our needs and she is LOVING it again! She had sort-of lost her sparkle for gymnastics the past year with one injury after another (first a back injury/sprain then a stress fracture in her foot). She lost a lot of skills that she had already mastered, like her backwalkover on the beam, but she quickly gained it back after being at the new gym. SEPTEMBER 2013 Once again, I was surprised by a trip to Haiti. It kind of fell into my lap. My dear sweet Haitian friend and "son" had an appointment at the US Embassy on Sept 12, 2013 and I wanted to be there. Pascal speaks excellent english, but I was worried about him only being able to speak conversational english, NOT English-English!! I worried about him going to the appt. alone. Melissa, our American missionary was not in the country at the time so he was going alone. I had a dear friend purchase my airline ticket and I flew out on Sept. 11th by myself. Very scary for me to fly alone internationally on 9/11, but knew that God had called me to do so. This again made my now 6th time to Haiti. I am almost an expert at flying now :-) I have learned to speak quite a bit of Haitian Creole although I still can't carry on much of a conversation, but I know a lot of single words and can get by. I need to tell about my Embassy experience. Pascal was nervous as a cat the morning of the appt. Everybody in Haiti dreams of coming to America. They realize that even a short trip here would show them so much of a different life. I have prayed about Pascal coming to visit me for 2 years. We got up early that morning and I had bought us matching outfits. Corny I know, but I had a very nice baby blue shirt and tie for him and a blue/white dress for myself (my Easter dress). We get downtown PAP, the capital of Haiti and see hundreds of people in line waiting to get in to the Embassy for their appt. PAP is the busiest city in all the world (I am not really sure about that- haha, but it sure looks and feels like it to a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white girl from Georgia)! We walk up to the line and finally figured out there were two lines and which was the correct one to be in. A nice lady and her nephew were standing in line behind us. When Pascal got up to the first of the line, they said I couldn't come in. I thought he might cry and that I would too. What was I going to do while he was in the appt?? I told him, unsure of myself, but with all the confidence that I could muster, that I would be fine. He handed me his keys and cellphone and went in. I walked across the street and sat down in the blazing heat on a sidewall. The US Embassy had a little shopping mall like place across from it and the stores were closed but there were two armed guards there and this white girl was going to stand next to them!! I tried to look "busy" on my phone, but I was truly scared out of my mind. Here I was in downtown Port-au-Prince alone and not knowing how long it would take Pascal when a young man came up to me and said in perfect English, "hello ma'am. How are you"? I replied back that I was fine. He sat down and started talking to me and said that was his aunt in line behind my friend. He asked me who Pascal was to me and what he wanted to go to America for and that his aunt was trying to go back to Miami again for a wedding. He asked me what I was going to do while Pascal was in the appt and I said I guessed I would just sit here and wait. He said it was about to be REALLY hot and there was no way I could or should sit in the hot sun. He asked if I felt like I trusted him enough to walk to the store in the shopping center. I did. Don't ask me why, but I did. He was a very nice young man, maybe 20 years old. This was so out of character for me that I could hardly believe I said yes, but for some reason I felt God telling me I was fine. We walked slowly behind the armed guards and into a little park. The stores were all closed, but there were several lawn care men sweeping, cutting, and what-not in the park. It was historic and beautiful. Lots of trees, beautiful flowers, and park benches. I never knew Haiti was this beautiful. All you can see from the street is poverty, cars everywhere, and people begging on the streets. Lots had already asked me for money and kept "eyeing me". He started telling me his testimony and his story. Turns out he is a computer genius and did Christian ministry in an orphanage. His job was to do speaking engagements and set up sound systems for ministers to have revivals. I couldn't believe my ears! We talked for more than 2 hrs and I lost track of time. I was able to ask him many questions about what Haitians believe about Americans, is racism prevalent in Haiti, what they think of our president, and share with him how Americans think of Haiti. I also asked stuff like what he thought Haitians can do to help themselves and how someone like little 'ol me could make a difference in his country. His answers were surprisingly candid. I wish I could remember all of his answers. They did impact me though. Turns out also that his aunt is the professor of nursing at the largest university in Haiti. That was a God-thing too b/c some of our kids in the orphanage want to be nurses and perhaps she could give us information on some of their programs. He asked me for my phone number, but I told him I didn't give it out. He was confused about that b/c he wanted to be my friend. I explained that good women don't give out their numbers to men and especially in a third world country and the fact I was married. He wanted to know if he could find me on FB and I said yes and he gave me his name and I wrote down my name for him. He said he would look me up on FB, but never did. When I got home, I looked for his name too, but guess what? I couldn't find him. I honestly believe it is because he was an angel. Perhaps or perhaps not, but to me THAT day on THAT busy street in PAP he was to ME! I was not scared one tiny bit. Pascal had been standing and waiting on me for over an hour. He couldn't see me down in the park and remember I had his cell phone and his car keys! I knew he couldn't leave me. Pascal was denied the visa that day (they don't even really give you a reason why) but he WILL come to the U.S. some day. I know God will make a way. God Bless! Wendy

"Haiti is WILD"

Well hello friends! Long time no see. I swear I was trying to do better and getting back to blogging and I just never manage to get around to it. Since I last wrote, we have came and went to Haiti for Christmas and I had major surgery 5 days upon returning to the States. My surgery was planned. I've been out of work 6 weeks and I'm so ready to go back. I have the absolute best bosses in the world! They have been so good to me and I'm ready to get back to normal. Going to Haiti for Christmas is wild and we had the best time. I'm going to blog my Christmas experience for you and also my Tori-bug's perspective. Getting to spend 7 days with 120+ kids was an experience like you can't even imagine. Like I said, it was wild! In a good kind of way. We were able to share so much this visit and learn so much about them individually. My hubby got to go too. We are already planning next year (not really bc I never plan my next visit) but we would definitely go again at Christmas time.