Back down the Rabbit Hole….

 ...to the realities of our “other world” life.

Tomorrow we leave on another a short trip home to Haiti to address some of our responsibilities there and to introduce Tania Grace to our home abroad.

Why are we still in the US??

Several reasons have led us to remain here...

1) Our support has been coming in steadily at about 40-50% of our budgeted needs.

2) Transition for Tynan & Emma into “normal” life back in the states for a while.

3) Rebecca is preparing for her midwifery program by working in L&D this contract.

4) In order to gain funds to upgrade our electricity situation.

5) Spending the holidays with our older girls, Tania & Ana and our grandson, Oliver.

The complexities of a life of ministry...in Haiti...bring unique challenges.

To explain these 5 points a little further…

We are able to bare-bones “exist” in Haiti on 40-50%, but it doesn’t allow for regular vehicle or household maintenance costs, utilities, travel, evacuation & health insurance or next year’s rent. Without those needs addressed, we had to send Rebecca to the US to work and cover/provide them. We are also looking at moving to a new housing situation for 2014, low cost US based insurance, providing short term housing and other creative ways to address the support gap.

Coupled with Rebecca’s need to have her US maternity and birthing skills refreshed, it seemed like a good option for her to take a job for 2-4 months, before starting her training. This has turned into one 2 month contract in postpartum & one 3 month contract in Labor & delivery. She should be ready go after such a substantial refresher AND hopefully there will be a little extra to stabilize us until our support reaches 100% again.

The electricity issues remain a big factor in Haiti.  So, we are having to make some longer term investments that allow us to sleep better, reduce stress, spend less time addressing power problems, and ultimately be more effective in our ministry there. Our fridge is no longer working AT ALL during the day unless the generator is running.  We can’t conceivably run the generator all day at $5/gallon of gas, to refrigerate our “island” priced food supplies. So we are hoping to put in a basic solar powered system and switch over to using a chest freezer with a thermostat that converts to fridge temps. It should take 90% less power & run fine on solar throughout the day! It will also mean that our batteries won’t be drained for nights without power, so we can sleep through the night with our fans.

Lastly, extended time in CA addresses our family's needs. While Tynan & Emma have been fabulous helpers in Haiti, we have all realized that after 2 years there, they need some time doing the things that other kids their age are doing...getting jobs, driving, having a “social life”. They have also expressed not wanting to have to do that at the expense of separation & lack of support. This was a main reason for extending their furlough & remaining nearby while they navigate this period in life. It allows time for them to decide their future plans either here or abroad. At the same time, our oldest, Tania Grace, has just moved back to No. California, so we are providing some “family” stability, encouragement & support for her as well, while she settles in and starts a new career. In late December, Ana & Oliver will be in the area for a visit, so nearly all of us will be together for Christmas!!

With our big projects still in development, a lot of our work can be done from here at the moment. Rebecca is planning & grant writing for the birthing center. Ted is continuing to develop other areas of Apparent Project’s ministry reach in both the US & Haiti. There is some organizational transition and planning for 2014 that we will participate in with the Seattle-based Apparent Project team & board members in December & January as well.

Please keep us all in your prayers this holiday season as we seek to follow and glorify God… in this ministry... with our family… in the US & in Haiti… in English, Russian, German, French & Haitian Kreyol… and above all as the unique individuals that He has made each one of us to be!!

"Renovation Realities" - Haiti style

Some may be aware of our housing drama from a few facebook posts over the past week. For everyone else, here is the whole “scoop”…

Over the summer, we decided that at the end of our lease we needed to find a place that would be more suitable for the long term. In September, we located and began negotiating a contract on a different house to live in, that is very close to the current guest house.  It takes a long time here to finalize these things, so we got started early. Finally at the end of October, we gave our initial deposit, made a list of the needed repairs (it was an incomplete remodel from earthquake damage) and had the owner sign off his agreement to finish it out. We asked to move into the house by Nov 15^th, while fully prepared to give until the end of the month.

So, November 15^th came & went – NO surprise to us – then we began checking more frequently & found out that little to none of the repairs had been finished. We met again with the owner to find out when it would be done and were promised it would be ready by the end of the month.

Last week we were given notice that the owner of our original house wanted us out immediately. We had signed the rental agreement last year in November, but didn’t move in until Dec 28^th, so weren’t sure exactly when he expected us out, until the ultimatum came. We scrambled and put everything into moving out. Thankfully we had the guest house to fall back on, & no guests scheduled at the time!!

A double move is never ideal, but we find very few GOOD reasons to complain about our life here in comparison to others’.  So began the wait…more visits to the owner …to the house…moments of frustration, rawness & re-evaluation surfaced as other realities that we have been facing here crept in. We went to look at the “progress” which seemed to be picking up, and found more piece-it-together, messy workmanship. Finally we came to our limit. The owner blamed it on his workers, but he owns a hardware store, so we couldn’t figure out why he didn’t have a list of reliable craftsmen.  

On Friday, we decided to see if the owner would discount the remainder of our annual rent and just let us do the rest of the work ourselves. There is a large team coming in early January, so we have to be out of the guest house by then. To add more to the mix, we had developed a plan with World Orphans to house the overflow of this upcoming team (18 high school boys) in our new place, since it is only a few blocks away. This agreement covered our difference in rent for the year. Everything seemed held in the balance with the house timing and ability to pay rent.

That brings us up to today. This morning, we found out what was really going on. The owner has been putting little to no resources into the house repairs, because he wanted us to ask for our deposit back - he admitted to having had an offer and a full advance by another party to rent the place for a year at $5k more than he had agreed to from us. They were also taking it "as is". He said since he didn’t know us, that he figured he would rent it to us for just a year & then push us out with a huge rent increase next year.  After looking all day yesterday at what else was available & the prices for rent, we decided to step out on faith & offer to take it at the agreed upon price with no further repairs. He said that he would honor the initial agreement & since we were going to do the work now, he would (verbally) agree to rent it to us continuing on in the future, rather than pushing us out next year.

Not at all a perfect situation, but we have a deep peace about this house & the potential that it brings for our ministry here. We are excited to see how God’s plans for its use continue to unfold as we move in. There are several interesting ideas in the works…

In the meantime, we now have a monumental task ahead of us. While we have a good amount of remodeling experience, we have never done it here in Haiti! Ted has tiled floors & kitchen countertops, but never bathroom walls. Looking at the current work, it’s not hard to do better, but if anyone who has experience would like to take an impromptu trip down to help out we would gladly welcome it! We’re going to spend the holidays putting our spirit of adventure – and the hundreds of “This Old House” reruns we’ve watched – to the test!  Our own version of HGTV's Renovation Realities, is going down this month, right here in Haiti.

Thank you all for your prayers the past few weeks. It sounds much easier as I type this out, than it has truthfully been for us. Another layer has been stripped away. We continue to be made new every moment here.

Right now we're just glad to have a home to move into before the holidays!

...more "before" photos here.

Fall? Autumn? Thanksgiving? Holiday Season?

November in Haiti...looks like this:

11/12/12 - Fellowship with friends visiting from NH & Sue Spinney

Quite deceiving, isn't it???

While it is our second round of holidays here in Haiti, we've yet to get our heads wrapped around it, and not sure if that will ever change. There are no leaves turning colors, falling off, raking, bright orange pumpkins, or apple pie smells. We don't have any family flying in for a feast, and aren't being bombarded by the steady stream of ads or wafting music signaling the countdown to Christmas either.

We're learning to interpret a new set of signals that the holidays are approaching here, & most of them are subtle:

Rather than changing leaves, we have changing weather, the temp has dropped at least 10 degrees at night now, so cold morning showers start to make you screech. Thus, heating water on the stove for bucket baths is on the rise. Hot tea seems like an appealing notion now too. Never mind that we bought watermelon on the way up the coast this week, note that rather than large orange pumpkins, the roadside stands seem to be overflowing with orange oranges...in fact all types of citrus (orange yellow & green) seem to be the fall harvest!

Our second annual Staff Appreciation/Thanksgiving celebration tradition is in order next weekend, which should get help get us in a grateful holiday spirit too.

With Christmas lights starting to pop up here & there at a few shops around Port Au Prince, it should be more obvious, but when in doubt about the season these ideas may help us with a festive mood:

Drop by DeliMart - they are always up on their holiday displays, complete with snoring black Santa on a folding chair! If still struggling - turn on the Christmas albums, reset laptop background to fireplace, snow scene or other holiday photo. Drink HOT chocolate. Watch video to wax reminiscent of the last Christmas tree that we cut on our property in TX. Shop online for a a few gifts. String up twinkle lights on railings, & decorate a palm tree. Last but not least, it's hard to miss the steady increase in street parties, near the guesthouse and around town. It should be pretty obvious that Christmas is near when DJ Benny's birthday arrives on Rue St Estime, Dec 19th - usually a BIG bash spilling on to Rebecca's birthday in the wee hours. If all else fails, let a Haitian dress you up like Santa and parade you around to cheer up the dark-skinned neighbor kids! (I'm sure that Jn Robert will be happy to oblige)

When NOTHING else works...post recent beach day pictures on blog & FB in hopes of enticing family or friends to come down & spend their holidays with you!!! :)

The signs may be different, but the meaning of the holidays are the same. There is much for us to be thankful for here, much to celebrate about life no matter where we are. God's LOVE is an abundant and undeserved GIFT...meant for everyone!