...Everything as loss...FOR GREAT GAIN

Day 6 What are they actually learning?  I feel like I have often thought this question over and over and over after we dove into homeschooling. But, to be honest, I know I asked that question before we jumped into educating our munchkins at home.  Back story:  When we lived in Colorado we had Malachi and Rachel enrolled in a wonderful charter school that was incredible! When the Lord called us to sell our home and move to San Diego for a discipleship school, I really had no idea we would end up homeschooling...NO IDEA! It was not on my radar. I had a very wrong perspective of homeschooling and the children that came out of it. So because Aaron would attend the school in the morning for 5+ hours and I would then go to the night class I knew I wouldn't see my kids, so the best option was home school. I can tell you this...it was so hard! Trying to figure out what they needed to learn; what kind of math, what English, how to do P.E. at home?? HA! It was a rough start but God

Day 5 There is no doubt in my mind that one of my favorite things to do in Haiti was ride a moto! Motorcycles are the main form of motorized transportation in our town. For the first 9 months in Haiti we didn't have a vehicle. It really made life interesting. We became used to the walks down the mountain when teams came to visit.  I think the most fun was wondering how many eggs would crack riding on the moto to our home....hmmm, let me show you what most of the road looks like to our home...some places are worse:) We have tons of absolutely crazy stories from traveling in Haiti. I hope I get to take you guys along some of those rides. INSANE and so Indiana Jones-ish....if that's a word? In the fun of not having a vehicle we would find ourselves pretty stranded, often. In most cases we would be ok. On one special day we had gotten our family ready for the adventure of walking to Lindsay's place. I believe we intended to try to find 2 motorcycles to split ou

Day 4 If the phone rang and your best friend said "Hello..", would you know it was them?  Not many of us would struggle to know who it was. I think we'd know their voice pretty well...even though some of you don't know what it's like to not have caller ID on your cell phone.  But think about how close you are to someone that you can pin point that voice in a huge crowd.  Calling your name.  A familiar whistle. Could you pick out their laugh in a video full of noise? Not very long into the roller coaster of transitioning to Haiti, I felt like I'd lost the sweet voice of my Father. When I sat down to begin writing this blog I spent half a day looking for my journals from Haiti. For me, journaling is something I LOVE! I literally have piles of journals of prayers and messages stored in boxes. And I was devastated when I found that for the first 5 months...nothing. I have my notes from language....but not one prayer. I did ministry work every

Day 3   Do not work for food that spoils,  but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.  -John 6:27 Come into my kitchen.  Come to a place that I used to find so peaceful and so restful. Especially for a person God gave hands that find joy in the preparation of food. This sweet moment captures Rachel's 8th birthday. And that little munchkin at the bottom found his 2nd favorite place to hang out....in the kitchen watching our Haitian cook prepare food. Mainly because she fell in love with him and Isaiah and kept giving them bites:)  This kitchen took months and months to make it feel like I could cook anything. It was so super challenging to have hired someone to cook for our family. For so many reasons! An area of my thoughts and expectations had not been dealt with until we began life in Haiti. That area was the beliefs I had, as to what an oversees missionary did.  Yo

Day 2 Parenting and relationships.  Sounds like a fantastic topic. Tons of people would flood the doors to sit and learn how to get better at them both! Well, we are forever learning in these areas. In our preparation to move to Haiti let's be honest. We did not take classes or training on how to jump into another culture with our children. We didn't sit through marriage conferences on how to protect your marriage when you become an oversees missionary.  We surely didn't take training on becoming the minority and how that would effect all relationships around you. But, of course we spent every minute we had available doing amazing trainings that were NOT directly focused on these things, but would be foundational tools we desperately needed.  Care counseling and deliverance through forgiveness. Design and the dynamics of peoples personalities together. Conflict RESOLUTION!  Oh, praise Jesus for these things. Yes, I would've paid half our rent to have focu

Day 1 The Lord has pressed on my heart for months...encouraging me to write, so today I begin to share with you...whoever you are, stories that we may never have shared. Before I dive into the depths I want to explain a few things that may help you understand why much of this was never shared. Some of the reasons I personally held back stories were; being a first time "oversees missionary" I allowed the idea that our lives had to look a certain way. Every struggle I should be praisin Jesus right through it, no problemo. A perfect family that ALL wanted to leave everything and everyone and live in a third world country. Someone who had no needs, because of course...we gave up almost everything...we shouldn't want anything! And the list of what I thought everyone thought we should be like went on and on.... Some of the other major reasons I didn't share much, was the struggle with what was good to share, that wouldn't damage the already damaged country of Hai