Haiti Pt. 1 - Initial Experience

I've heard it said that there are moments in peoples lives, defining moments, that shape us into who we are. It's not something I had ever given much thought or consideration to until recently. On January 12th one of the biggest natural disasters in recent history struck the impoverish nation of Haiti. My job took me to Haiti less than a week after the earthquake, which killed over 250,000 people. Bodies were still on the streets, little food or water had been distributed, and in parts of Port-au-Prince chaos reined. I'll never forget the heavy, almost palpable smell of death. In my excitement for the opportunity I didn't put a second thought into it when the opportunity presented itself to go and help. In fact, I went down excited to experience the situation. To say I was unprepared is totally inadequate. I didn't have a clue what I was getting into, if I did I probably wouldn't have gone. A couple months removed from the experience and having a chance to catch my breath and begin processing the experience, I can say I'd do it again and the same way. There were a couple of moments, possibly defining moments, that I'd like to share and also say a few words about the fallout in my personal life after I returned.

My first day in Haiti was spent driving around in a white van, imagine a VW bus and you'll have a good mental picture. The bus driver was from the Dominican Republic and the interpreter, Lou, lived in the DR but was from Haiti. Lou's wife and young daughter lived in Port-au-Prince. The first moment that really made an impact on me was towards the end of the first day. As we were driving down a crowded street with building after building down or standing but destroyed I looked out the window to my right, there, not 4 feet from me, was the naked, lifeless body of a man that looked to be about 40 years old. I froze. I'd like to say I was courageous but that would be a lie. I sat in the van hardly able to breath, lost all color, and seriously feared for my life.

As we continued further down the road we came upon a scene that is pretty etched in my memory...

Notice, in the photo below, two guys in the foreground holding a rope as motorcycles are coming towards them... why are they doing that?  This was the first time in my life that I genuinely felt like things were out of my control. In this moment I asked God, out of fear, to get me out of this. I felt helpless and afraid. I must say that seeing the body in the street and then coming up on this scene put me into sensory overload. My mind shutdown the systems that weren't a necessity. Had it not been for my friend sitting next to me shouting, "F***ING BREATH!" i'm not sure what I would have done... it snapped me back to reality. Looking back on the experience, this was really the only time I felt a real fear. In the moment, I didn't think we were going to make it out alive. I know it sounds over-the-top but it was a genuine feeling. We kept driving down block after block of devastated buildings.

Another moment that really struck me was at my hotel in the DR. I had come out of Haiti and was with my interpreter. We were walking into the hotel and Lou says to me in very broken english, "my life is very difficult, please help me." Of everything we saw and smelled, this is what spoke to my heart the most and overwhelmed me emotionally when I returned to the US. What Lou said didn't really set in. But when I got home and Carrie and I were driving home the drop-off point, I broke down. It just kept replaying in my head... please help me, please help me, please help... I once again felt completely helpless and hopeless. Here I was back in the US on my way home with virtually anything I wanted at my fingertips and my interpreter is in the same situation as when I left the DR. It broke my heart. I felt selfish and unworthy of all God has given Carrie and I.

I believe that my God allowed me to take in all the sites and sounds of Haiti and store them in my brain for processing at a later time. He knew that I couldn't deal with all at once or I would have had a similar experience as in the van. However, as the weeks and months have passed since the experience I've had numerous moments of clarity. God is using the experience to speak a lot of truth into my life. I went to Haiti a selfish, complaining, ungrateful jerk and came out, I think at least, a little less selfish, a little more grateful, but still a jerk.

Lou with his family for the first time in months.

I'll share more later.

Arts and Crafts

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged. My friend Deb of Simply Mae inspired me to post a little today...

I've had a few art projects as of late and thought I'd share them.

The girls in my community group and I got together one Saturday and spent over 3 hours painting pottery at All Fired Up (my dad's favorite place now when he visits us). I had a blast and am very pleased with my travel mug. The design took lots of patience and a very steady hand!

Next project was a little night stand I found at the Estate Specialist (I love that place). It was originally a dingy, peeling white. I wish I had a before picture, but I never think of that until it's too late... Anyway, I stripped the paint and stained it an antique walnut. It fits perfectly in our guest room!

On that same trip, I also found the adorable white porcelain lamp. I love it! Oh, and that owl is a cross-stitch I made when I was probably 13.

When we were snowed in (for the second time), I made a collage out of Jesse's cigar labels. He collects the labels from all his cigars and also collects them from friends, and even people he doesn't like. One year, we decorated a table top for his step-dad and have been wanting to make something else ever since then. This will end up in Jesse's man-cave.

I love how elaborate and beautiful some of the labels are.

That's all for now. Hopefully, I will not wait 3 months to post again.

Snow Day!!

Wow! This snow sure took us by surprise! Sure, they'd been calling for it all day and the previous day, but how many times have we actually had the snow that's expected?

As the snow began to fall Friday night, we invited our community group over for some pizza, snacks and games. We all watched in amazement as the snow kept coming, and coming... Two of the couples left together and called us about 20 minutes later - they only made it halfway down the street and were stuck! They started walking back with plans to crash with us for the night, but some friendly stranger with 4-wheel drive stopped and took them home. It's nice to hear good samaritans like that still exist today.

Jesse and I stayed up until the wee hours of the night, enjoying the fire and watching the snow fall....

Saturday morning arrived and it was STILL SNOWING!! Jesse measured and estimates we got about 15 inches. Unbelievable!! I haven't seen that much snow in a really long time.

It really is a Winter Wonderland. Madi loves the snow and jumped right in, whereas Rummy stood on the porch shivering. I didn't want to embarrass him by posting a picture, he tries to come across as a manly dog.

So, what do you do when you're snowed in?? Jesse and Scott played Xbox 360 pretty much all day long and then went to the neighbor's and played pool for awhile. I, on the hand, painted part of our living room. It took me pretty much all day long. The color is Smoky Blue and it covers 3 walls. I'll be finishing the rest over New Year vacation (hopefully). The other color is called Prelude and is a lighter shade of blue. I'll post more pictures when everything is complete and the house is put back together!

Merry Christmas

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Blessed New Year!

Love, Jesse and Carrie

Fun with Sharon and Charie Rose

Sharon and Charie Rose are on the West Coast Team of the Children of the World Choir. Once the tour begins, they usually don't make it back to Virginia until the end. This year, however, they were able to perform with Steven Curtis Chapman in Tennessee and then they came to Lynchburg to perform at Thomas Road Baptist Church. So, we got to have a few days with the girls again. I had such a great time with these two special girls. We played at Kids Cove at TRBC, went to the pet store, saw G-Force at the dollar show, went to Cold Stone Creamery (where the girls made disgusting concoctions and therefore proceeded to eat my ice-cream instead of their own), and drew lots and lots of pictures. It was hard to say good-bye again knowing I won't see them again until June. :(

Fake dogs outside of TRBC (why??)

Our fridge is covered in their beautiful drawings right now!

Me and Charie Rose

Me and Sharon

Our Yard

In a recent post, you saw Jesse cutting down the 2 dying cherry trees our yard. I was sad to see them go. Jesse had more plans for our yard though, and for this, I am excited! We have a retaining wall in our yard that was made out of cinder block (side 1) and railroad ties (side 2). Side 1 was slowly starting to fall over because whoever put it in didn't do it right. It looked terrible. So we tore out the wall and are having a new stone wall and paver patio put in, complete with a walkway to our back shed. Here are some pictures of the progress so far:

Side 1 wall removed and land prepared for pavers

Side 2 wall removed

The area directly behind our deck has always been uneven and hole-filled. As Jesse was clearing the area for the walkway, he came across what turned into a HUGE project: The retaining wall behind the deck was one 6x6 that was rotting away and some more crumbling cinderblock. Dirt was slowly sliding past it underneath our deck, thus the reason for the holes. Jesse spent all evening fixing this, working well into the night. Our neighbor's friend helped him place the new 6x6's. I helped carry them from the truck though (She-Ra!).

Measuring depth to make sure new wall will fit

Working into the night...

New wall in place

A job well done!

Next up was digging out the path for the walkway. We all pitched in and worked this time

digging the line

dig, dig, dig!

I told you, I'm She-Ra!

new pathway

Finally, I have some pictures of the progress made so far on the new retaining walls and patio. It's gonna look good!!

Side 1 new wall and pavers

Side 1

Stairs on Side 2 and part of new wall

We'll post more soon!

Experimenting...

Earlier this week, we had Mariam from the Children of the World stay with us for 2 nights. She had to have hernia surgery earlier in the month and was staying behind until she fully recovered and was able join back with her team today.

The first night I asked Mariam what she would like for dinner, and she requested spaghetti. That's easy enough, until I discovered I was out of spaghetti sauce! I remembered all the frozen roma tomatoes from our garden I had in our freezer, and the green peppers we just picked and decided to make my own rather than run to the store. It was my first attempt at homemade spaghetti sauce, and I think it turned out pretty well. Mariam liked it at least!

homemade spaghetti sauce with turkey meatballs

Mariam

For my next meal, I decided to try to make Panang Curry, one of my favorite Thai dishes. I didn't have all of the necessary ingredients, so I had to improvise a little... I'd love to tell you what I did, but I can't remember now! I was happy with the way it turned out. Jesse said he didn't care for it, but he said the same thing when he ate it from Thai 99, so I counted it as success!

Unfortunately, with both of these meals since I was just "winging it" I didn't write everything down! I don't think I'll ever be able to recreate them!

Our yard. Cherry trees.

So, our yard is going through another transformation of sorts. I didn't do much yard work over the Summer because it's no fun in the heat. However, the weather is now agreeable to spending to many hours and weekends working in the yard. My newest project is cutting down the cherry trees in the back yard. I love them but they are at the end of their 25 year life span. Branches are dying and we barely got any cherries last year - they were moldy. I had a helper named Buddy assisting me for a while today.

I made a lot of progress with my 10" folding saw! More to come.