We finally are in Haiti!

It's hard to believe we are here!

I  think that we both could say that these last five or six weeks have been a whirlwind!  So much is happening in our lives, arriving where we KNOW that God wants us to be on September 5!  We can't believe to thank all our great supporters, family, friends, can churches in Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida for helping to get us here!

Our flight left Gainesville at 7:30, but we arrived at the airport a little after 5:30 with extra bags and close to the allotted weight on EACH piece.  Whew! Christine Burgett drove us to the airport (Thanks, Christine!) and we were surprised to see Fernanda, one of our international friends, there to say farewell as well as Don Forrester, our dear brother from Creekside.  Once we got on the plane, we knew it was real!

On our way to our new home with Greg and Star Harvie!

Port-au-Prince airport, drastically improved from my last trip, with earthquake damage almost all replaced!  Although the line through immigration took quite a while, everyone was there to help.  And then, we stepped out into the hot, bright sun and saw fellow RMI Missionaries Greg and Star Harvie!  We were on our way to the Citi Lumiere mission center in Les Cayes, and our new home!

All our belongings in ONE room!

We were SO thankful to accept their invitation to stay with them a week or so while we got "our" house ready to live in.  This was recently an office, so needed a wall knocked out, some painting, and A LOT of moving boxes and furniture around!


We stayed in this house before when it was a guest house, so we were very familiar with being there.  It is such a blessing to be here. It's a 10 minute walk to the RMI office, has a lot of privacy, and is really large!  But being so large (4 bedrooms) means that it is too big for just two people.

Living space is at a premium at Citi Lumiere, the mission center for several agencies. So, in the spring, it will become the home of a family of six.  We'll be moving to our permanent home in the village of Simon, probably a 15 minute walk (but up or downhill) from the office.  We'll talk more about it as the time gets closer to living there.







We've really enjoyed this season's crop of avocados from the tree in the yard! We probably still have 5 or more in the refrigerator!

Our present transportation around Citi Lumiere!

The LARGE back porch with lots of breezes and beautiful sunrises!

Saying "Good-bye" for now .....

In Alexandria, VA at Glen and Michele's

The LONG Trip.......

Whew!  Forty-five hundred miles and almost 5 weeks, 12 states and Washington, DC twice.  The trip We were so blessed to go up the east coast from Florida to D.C. to visit cousins there, (Glen and Michele) then to Pennsylvania to visit my (Laura's) parents, sister (Linda and family), and present our mission at the two churches. there

Then, off to near Cleveland to see our daughter, Leah, and her housemate, Denise.  They had to work almost all of the few days we were there, but we got to run some errands and drop off the U-Haul trailer and the "family" heirloom furniture and some personal items not going to Haiti (Thanks for keeping them for us!). The only problem was that I finally realized the scope of this move.  As we got ready to leave, I started sobbing because I was leaving my mantel clock made by my great-grandfather.  Poor Joel, he just held me!  Then, it was over and I've totally been excited and full of anticipation for what was doing in our lives! PTL!

From Conference, we continued to be so thankful to spend time with  the rest of almost all of our children and grandchildren in Dayton, OH (Seth's family), St. Clairsville, OH (Jarrod's family except Katie), Clint's family (Cameron, WV), and Garreth's family (Bonnie and the children in Morgantown, WV while she finished her employment commitment and Garreth in Silver Spring, MD) and Jill's family in Alexandria, VA.  We were so glad to spend time with Jesse and his family in July when we went to Lehigh Acres, FL to ship our things to Haiti!