Update: Sweat, food, babies, cats...

Well, friends – I don’t know about what weather is like back in the States, but it is getting HOT in Haiti!

All of the missionary stories I’ve heard about being constantly sweaty? It’s true. In the morning, afternoon, evening, all night long… You can’t escape the heat and humidity! I’m afraid it’s only going to get hotter… I really feel for all of the maintenance guys who spend their entire days outside doing hard work. I sweat just sitting in the house or at the office – I can’t even imagine! Bless those guys. Seriously! They deserve some ice cream.

Prepare yourself for a long update:

Things around campus have been really quiet since all of the students and staff left. I miss those daily interactions, and I really miss having a big plate of rice and beans for lunch every day.

Ryan and I? We’re starving over here without those amazing cooks! Okay, starving is a bit of an exaggeration. But really, we’re living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and/or fried eggs for lunch. And if Ryan is feeling extra hungry, I’ll throw together a quesadilla using the precious tortillas that have been sent to us. Those things are worth their weight in gold! We ration those. :)

I haven’t written in a while. There’s so much to say! I haven’t even gotten the chance to publicly thank EVERY SINGLE PERSON who sent goodies to us when Galen and Sharon came for board meetings.  You guys (and ladies) --- you have no idea how much that meant to us.

Jeez, we were overwhelmed with the amount of amazing stuff that was packed in Galen and Sharon’s suitcases in May. Candy, chocolate, PICKLES, lima beans, paint, beef jerky, just to name a few. I really can't believe I didn't take a picture of the suitcase they brought in. It was a lovely surprise!

I can’t repeat this enough – if you want to show your love to a missionary in Haiti, sending American food is one of the easiest ways to do it! We were/still are blessed by everything that you all sent to us. We can’t thank you enough!

This might sound really silly from the outside, but the hardest part about living in Haiti (for us) is the food. I’ll be the first to say that I really love eating Haitian food. But it’s gotta be authentic and it has to be cooked by a Haitian. (Thank you, EBS cooks!!!)

Let me tell you a little about the two dinky grocery stores in all of Cap Haitien. First, those two stores, dinky as they may be, are a real blessing to us missionaries. Depending on the day, they have some novelty items like pringles and jelly and sometimes oreos and one time I even saw a can of mountain dew.

But to give you a better picture of what the stores are like, they have maybe 7 aisles in them.  And half of which includes powdered milk, canned corn and peas, drinks, rice, pasta, flour, sugar, etc. Things that you can generally find in the markets. The main item that we usually make a trip there for is butter or margarine. The better of the two stores is a good 45 minute drive from us, so we only make it there when we are already that far into town or on our way to the airport. Basically, these two stores are all we’ve got. The rest of the food we can get is fresh produce, which includes most of your tropical fruits and lots of veggies.

Oh, and I have to mention one thing that is pretty darn cool: apparently we have land crabs on the campus. Yummy :)

My point is that most of the food that is readily available here is great for making Haitian food, which is delicious – but not a cooking adventure that I’m ready to tackle. And all of the food, Haitian or not, has to be made from scratch. Which was a fun adventure for a while, but now that I’ve been having some extreme fatigue and morning sickness for the past few months (SURPRISE! If you didn’t already know, we’re due with our first baby in December!), I haven’t had the energy or will to do much cooking/baking. It just takes so much time! So my poor husband has pretty much been living off of ramen noodles, PB&J’s and some Captain Crunch that we ordered from Amazon. I’m thanking the Lord every day that he has been really understanding about my lack of energy/desire to make much! And I am also thanking the Lord for all of you who sent yummy food for him (us) to snack on. It’s amazing. You’re amazing. He’s amazing. :)

Needless to say, I’m REALLY EXCITED for all of the delicious, convenient, greasy AMERICAN FOOD when we come back for a 3-week visit in August. I’m really really excited to see all of our friends and family, too  - but am thankful that there are 3 meals a day (plus snacks!) that can be both filled with deliciousness AND shared with our loved ones. :) So…. If you want to take us out to eat while we are back, I’ve got a list of places I’d love to go. Don’t worry – I’m a cheap date, I promise. :) Taco Bell and Chick fil A are at the top of my list! Mmmmm. And I’m looking forward to many evenings filled with friendship and chips and salsa. And watermelon. And ice cream. What a lovely combination! Hehe.

So….. I’ll end my very long rant about food with this: Other missionaries continue to tell me that most of my cravings are just because I am in a foreign country with foreign food, but I really believe this pregnancy is amplifying those cravings to be at least one million times more than normal. For reals. I’m practically drooling over here at the thought of all of the food possibilities I will get to encounter two months from now.

[Here's our announcement photo in case you missed it on FB!]

Okay – so I realize that was all me just rambling on about food and I haven’t really given an update yet.

We’re both doing well!

Other than feeling really crummy throughout the first trimester of pregnancy, I’m doing well. I’m sad that I am missing out on being able to go to the doctor and have checkups and sonograms and all of that fun stuff that comes along with pregnancy – but amidst what I’m missing out on, I’m gaining so much from this experience. (And not just weight, hehe:) I’ve got no choice but to put all of my trust in God and believe with all of my heart that He is in control. That He is protecting our baby. That things will be okay. I truly believe that, and that makes things a lot easier. I appreciate all of your prayers with us throughout the next months leading up to December. :)

Ryan’s been keeping busy with a heavy workload of summer classes, and he’s been spending a lot of time looking into furthering his education next year. When he’s not writing papers or reading books, he’s been helping work on some of the projects around campus. You can pray with him about all of the decisions to be made about what to do once he finishes his masters degree in August! He's also been busy rescuing cats in his spare time.

I’ve been really busy between the finance office and working on a huge library project. Not to mention that I often have to find time for mandatory naps during the day, although the heat puts a damper on those plans quite often. ;)

Again, it’s really quiet here this summer without everyone here. We are really missing the Ayars family since they are gone for the summer. At least their cat is keeping us company (sort of) while they are gone. She even takes cat naps with me on occasion. :)

When we aren’t working, things are pretty boring around here. We are really thankful that the Heckman family is here for another month, but I think we are all getting a little restless as there are only so many movies you can watch before you start looking elsewhere for entertainment, which there isn’t a whole lot of here. :P

We’ve got a big team of 19 people coming in on Saturday. They’ll be here for a week and they have a really full schedule! I think they will leave here with a great experience and I hope that they are able to build relationships among the people that they will be working with all week. They are going to lead a youth retreat at Prudence and Prodell’s church for a few days and they will be working on the construction for a new hangout/worship place for the students here at Emmaus. Be praying for this team as they come ready and willing to serve God and His Haitian people.

I think that’s all for now. In the midst of ordinary day-to-day things, I always feel like I don’t have anything to write about. I guess I have more on my mind than I thought!

We just want to thank you all so much for the love and support you have given us. We love hearing from you! Please let me know how we can be praying for you this summer.