Isaac continues to age well. He turned Seven at midnight. We’ll party with him after school today. Pizza and Cake are on the menu. Gifts procured in Michigan will be handed out. Jealousy of siblings will abound. We will do our annual birthday interview and let you know what he has to say about the coming year. Photos to come. We talked this morning about the one birthday of his that we missed. He said, "Yeah I remember that." We asked him what he remembered and he said, "Uh. Uh. Hhmmmm. Nothing really." We're SO SO SO thankful that God saw fit to place this joyful and wonderful little boy in our family. We're the lucky ones!
Pierre Update
Troy has Pierre at Healing Hands today. We need to bring him back at a certain time to have someone else read the X-ray we had done. Hopefully it is not something serious. They were supposed to be able to make his mold. Now we’re hearing they still don’t have the materials for making his mold. This would not be quite so frustrating if the poor one-legged guy did not just come from a mountain top and travel over three hours to get into town. Haiti requires three P’s
~Patience
~Persistence
~Perseverance
Being Real
In my former role I would get into a lot of trouble for using the word “crap” when I wrote on my blog. Some found it to be highly crude and offensive that I did not constantly blow sunshine and rainbows at the readers. They wanted only happy happy joy joy to be reported. They preferred we not say that Haiti can be frustrating, that things get stolen, that we feel SO unequal to the work a lot of the time. We're bad at faking ... so that did not work out so well for us.
Well … I laughed at the way things have changed when John McHoul introduced me to the Heartline Board Treasurer by saying, “This is Tara – she is the one who says crap all the time.” Some people desire fake and perfect – others prefer to know the truth and keep things real. I think we’re in the right spot!
Morale is a bit low due to:
Schedule
In spite of the lower morale we’re starting to have a real pattern and schedule to our days. A typical weekday looks like this:
6am
Put feet on floor, wake up three school kids get them going on breakfast and getting dressed/ready.
6:30
All three babies wake up. Attempt to appear terribly busy with older kids in order to escape at least one or two poopy diapers.
7:00
Depart for school (Troy does the morning run to school then heads to the office or to do whatever needs to be done that day.)
7:00
Run with Beth or run on treadmill or sit on couch and think about running
8:30 Sleepy Noah wakes up and begins his daily whine about "missing his daddy"
Start laundry (if there is EDH) Fold laundry and move laundry
Take the four non-school kids and play with them so Jeronne can get some cleaning done w/out worrying about any of them
11:00
lunch and three baby girls go down for nap - Engage Noah in some productive activity
Noon On Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon Jeronne escapes the house for school while I take kids and Tuesday and Thursday afternoon I (Tara) escapes the house for Women’s Program at Heartline ~ It is good to escape – for both of us. (Troy is gone doing his thing most of the time.)
By 3:30 Jeronne/Tara comes back home and whoever is picking up the school kids heads to get the school kids.
4:30
School kids get home – we do homework and start making dinner
5:45
Dinner
6:30
Clean up and baths for everyone - Read a book or watch a DVD
7:45
Lights out for all children 7 and under (6 of 7 accounted for and down for the count in one fell swoop) 7:46 - Party and celebrate the quiet. Speak to one another and HEAR one another.
9:00 -Troy, Tara, Paige, Jeronne and Tipap all go to bed too
We're very blessed to have your support and love. Please know that even when we get into a bit of a "Debbie Downer" rut -- we still feel so loved and cared for. We appreciate the way you encourage us with your time, words, friendship and by just reading about life here.
