What a year!

WOW! A lot of time has passed since I last updated this blog. I kept promising to update it and telling myself how much I love to blog but never got around to it. Let's start from December 2011. Tori-bug and I, along with a friend Amber took off for Haiti Dec. 1. I tried my best to prepare both Tori (my 11-yr-old) and my friend about things they might see, smell, and experience. I'm not even going to pretend I was not a little anxious with three females traveling alone to an extremely poor country. Haiti can be dangerous but thankfully we were very safe. After getting settled and introducing Tori and Amber to everyone we headed over to the orphanage. The kids absolutely fell in love with my little "blanc" or white girl that was their age. All the big girls thought Amber was beautiful as well. We got to do so much on this trip. Decorated for Christmas, made homemade Christmas ornaments, even bought two 4ft Christmas trees. We had 120 baked ornaments hanging all over them. The trip was very short and I hated to leave but it went by fast. Tori came home with this fire lit under her to serve again and was determined she would go back when our youth group went in May. I was trying to appease her so I said she could if she raised her funds. Little did I know that little thing would have all of her money raised before me! I thought I'd have to send her in May without me but I was able to get my fundraising too. This past May our church took a group of 23 of us. The orphanage director was not able to be in the country during our trip so myself, Brian (our youth minister), and my nurse friend Lillie lead this team. It was the largest team they had ever had visit them. Great experience and lots of new ppl went with us. I was able to reconnect with my dear friend Paschal (who calls me affectionately "mom"). He's 35 and has two kids. I'm only 38! Hehe! They had just had their second son Carlinsky in Jan. a lot of my friends helped us raise the money to get this child born safely in the D.R. Mom had lost a baby the previous year and she has lots of pregnancy issues. I love this family. They are like my own. Our project this year was to tile the boys dorm We also painted it and their bunkbeds. We were able to build a dresser for the girls to put their clothes in too. This trip was a little more stressful with me running the team house and organizing bc I'm not used to that. But, we made it. I think the highlight of this trip was the guys sleeping on the roof each night. They absolutely loved it! Every group that came after us has chosen to sleep up there as well. NOW, on to the most exciting news! I have just purchased our plane tickets to fly back to Haiti Dec. 22-29. My husband, Tori, and myself! Spending Christmas morning with 120 orphans is going to be the best!