More from today

I keep forgetting to mention this and I finally thought of it while I'm here in front of the computer. If anyone wants to check out the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission's website, they post pictures of what the groups are doing every day. Sometimes we show up on there as well. There were some pictures of us from the last trip that was in and there will be new ones posted every night now that the next group is here. The website is:

www.nwhcm.org

We had a full and wonderful day today. I'd say our spirits are a little lighter these last few days. Kerwin has been making good progress. He sat with me twice today for almost 45 minutes and worked in his sticker book and preschool work book. He is copying signs and learning concepts like colors, counting, matching, same/different, and coloring in/drawing lines. He really enjoys the sticker book. That's about all for today. Tomorrow the groups start doing VBS here at the mission so we will definitely be taking that in. Talk to you later.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to everyone (especially our dads). There are three dads here at the mission. Mike, Mike (the missionary) and Janeil. I am making a special Father's Day cake for tonight's dinner. We had pizza for lunch today. It was no Papa John's but it was pizza-ish. We went to church this morning and there was children's church. Even during the sermon Kerwin was not grumpy and he sat up and looked around. More answered prayers. We are having a good Father's Day so far. We are getting ready to watch a movie and we expect the new group in a few hours. Keriwn sat for a long time this morning and worked on his sticker book with me. Dads, write us and let us know what you did for Father's Day.

More cooking and soccer

I was back at it again today. It was biscuits and gravy in the morning, pigs in a blanket with green beans for lunch and tortilla soup with corn bread and applesauce for dinner. It is much easier to cook this weekend because we have so many more supplies. However, we have run out of salt which made a lot of things difficult. The tortilla soup was a big success and totally and experiment so that went well. Kerwin and Mike played with water guns again today. Kerwin also enjoyed playing Cariboo and looking at old pictures with one of the interns. She has pictures of a party that I set up for Kerwin's birthday. I couldn't be here at that time (February 18th is his birthday) but my friend was coming in to the mission at the beginning of March so I sent in a bunch of supplies to have a birthday party for him. Erin, the intern was here at the time so she had a lot of fun pictures from the party. Kerwin looked at them with her and named things in the pictures. He also enjoyed watching soccer today. The US team beat Panama. He has learned to say "missed" as in, he missed it, "soccer," "kick," and he puts his hands up in the air for GOOOOOAL. He also enjoyed running back and forth across the room between me and on of the interns. He also did a somersault on the carpet completely on his own. It was really cute. One more fun story from today. I am trying to teach him that not everything he finds should be picked up. We have been working on the words "trash" and "put that in the trash can." So today, I saw him on the ground messing with a dirty napkin that had been left behind. I gave him "the look" and he signed "trash" to me. I was very excited that he is getting the concept. It still doesn't keep him from examining the trash before he throws it away.

The next group comes in tomorrow. There are quite a few from Harrisburg, PA not far from where my extended family lives. There is also a group from Cincinnati and one from Georgia. There are about 30 people in all coming in. Tomorrow is church. One of the American missionaries is preaching tomorrow so at least we will know what's going on this week. Church is tough for Kerwin. It's hot and very boring. There was no children's church last Sunday. When I was here last, I taught children's church but nobody asked for volunteers this time. Pray for a good Sunday.

A few shots of us

Here are a few shots of us from the last few days. Kerwin had a good day today and has fallen right to sleep as usual. He worked some in his preschool workbook today and looked at a lot of pictures in his sticker book. He learned "pee" and "poop." He played with squirt guns for hours. He learned how to play Cariboo, one of my favorite preschool games. We have it at home but NeNe, Janeil and Heather's little girl, has it here at the mission. Tonight Kerwin took a real, fun bath for the first time. He has always been thrown in, thrown out and dried off. And where we are staying now, we don't have a bath we just have a shower so we have been sticking his feet in the sink and washing with a washcloth. It was fun to watch him in the tub. We threw in a few toys and things. At first it was like he didn't get it. He thought that maybe he had to wash the toys or something. I kept telling him to sit down and play. I think he was getting it toward the end. That's about it for today.

Much Better

Today was a much better day. Thanks everyone for the encouragement and the prayers. We could certainly feel them today. We had a fairly low key morning. We hung out for most of the morning in the Baby Orphanage. Kerwin likes it up there becuase they have a lot of new toys for him to peruse and there is a TV. We watched some DVD's and played some ball until lunch. In the afternoon we played even more ball and Kerwin did some activities from his preschool workbook. He was really proud of himself. He was matching colors and shapes and working the little mazes. He would get really excited when he would finish one. This afternoon, we took him with us and went to deliver food to the shut-ins in town. I had done this one or two times before but this was Mike's first time walking this route. You go down the mountain a bit from where the mission is right into down town St. Louis. From there you walk through the market and almost down to the beach and then come back again. It takes about 30 minutes but it is lightyears away from anything you've ever seen, smelled, or experienced before. I will try at some point to take pictures and post them but it's not fun to take your camera because you have to constantly turn down all the people who ask you for it or your watch or your earrings or your shoes. Kerwin was really interested throughout the whole walk. He looked around the whole time and would point to things he saw like goats and basketballs.

Tomorrow at 4:30 am the majority of the group is leaving. The only folks left will be us, the four interns, one missionary couple and the Haitian staff. It will be pretty quiet until the next group comes down on Sunday. One of the interns is a music education major and she is starting a band class with some of the fifth and sixth grade students from the school. I am going to try to help out with the group however I can. They are meeting three times a week over the summer in the mornings. I am going to go tomorrow and check it out.

Thanks again for the prayers. We are praying too and believing that God is who He says He is and He can do what He says He can do!

rough day today

Today was a bit of a rough day. It rained today, Kerwin cried several times: over a ball he threw over the railing that we couldn't find, over a straw he found on the floor that we wouldn't let him keep, and over a hat that didn't belong to him, and the Haitian ladies put a raw fish in our freezer so now our water bottles stink and it tastes like we're drinking some form of flavored fish water. We both have kind of hit a wall and feel like we're ready to be back in America, which will not happen any time soon. So we appreciate your prayers for our attitudes and also for our dealing with Kerwin's behavior. We have included a couple happy pictures.

Mike is Well

I just wanted to write a quick note to let everyone know that Mike is doing much better today. Praise God! He woke up with no fever and has felt pretty good all day. He even played basketball this afternoon with some of the other Americans and some Haitians. To say the least, the game was a bit physical. Mike only sustained one minor cut to the face. Kerwin enjoyed watching the game. It's almost time for dinner. Gotta run.