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• The puppies are still a hot topic. Beth McHoul is insane to take on that project on top of all she has going, but it is precisely that insanity that has kept her in Haiti for 21 years. For that reason we'll love her rather than mock her for it. We have not chosen our newest family member yet.  Lydie is in love with them all.   

• Leoni is pictured to the right.  She is a very shy, and often times sad young woman that lives at the Harbor House. She is due to deliver the second week of June. Her pregnancy has been mostly uneventful but a bad case of Malaria gave us a scare earlier this year.  She lost 8 pounds during that illness and had a lot of catch up to do. Please be praying for her in these last days of pregnancy.  We love this sweet, quiet young woman. We're anxious to meet her little one.

• Dokte Jen is here a bit longer. We love having her here. She seems to field most of Isaac's random and bizarre questions. Yesterday she spent her Sunday doing lots of unscheduled veterinarian work. She gave seizure meds to a dog. We get a kick out of teasing her about all of it, as her job in Haiti expands from her specialty of pediatrics, into adults, and onto other more hairy mammals.  Versatile much?

• Last week Lydia tried to chase Paige's cat, Cosmo. The chase led her to a questionable decision. She decided that climbing over the rail on the upstairs patio and out onto a steep and slanted portion of the roof was an okay idea. When I saw it I screeched so loud that I scared the pants off of her (except she is usually only in her underwear anyway). She cried for fifteen minutes angrily repeating "You scared me Mama!".   Uh.  Yeah ... Okay kid that could have fallen two stories to the cement driveway.  Jen might be an awesome veterinarian but I don't think she really wants to deal with massive head trauma on this trip.

• We finally hired a Haitian House Mama at the Harbor House. She has two weeks in and things are going well. More about Magarette (our new house mom) and updates at the house in a coming post. 

• On Friday Paige was in a class play.  After we went to see it we celebrated with our first 2011 trip to Epi D'or.  Epi D'or is the Port au Prince version of "fast" food.  It's a bit of trap/trick because it is fast in that it is faster than other places you might buy food  - but it is not fast in that it is not fast. At least not in the traditional sense of the word. Nobody in our family really likes their hamburgers, too much mystery there, instead we got pizza and ice cream.  Paige and I had to fight for the ice cream. The lady we paid seemed mad. Once you pay, then you take your ticket to another counter. At the counter we had to negotiate for what kind because of course they did not have vanilla, chocolate, or cookies and cream and of course nothing is ever straight forward. Our friend Aaron said he was once refused the kind he wanted because it was "too hard to scoop". For real. "Customer service", an inadvertent oxymoron.  TIH  After the two hour "fast food" dinner the boys ran to the restroom before we left to drive home.  Isaac came out to report that there was an issue that needed adult intervention.  Troy was the lucky parent to go because the crisis was taking place in the men's room.  Long story short, some underwear needed to be disposed of and Noah needed to lie down and groan most of the way home.  :(

• School is officially done for all of our kids on Tuesday at noon.  I am excited and also slightly nervous.  I love having them home but they need things to do. This summer needs structure and schedules or we'll all go insane.  Working on how that will look and work and realizing that I need to be home a lot with these urchins or they will become one with their video games. 

• We're anxious for our friend Joanna T. to arrive tomorrow.  She is an "earthquake buddy" which is  a really cheesy way of saying she is one of the people we're tightly and deeply bonded to fo-evaah because we walked through those intense days together.  Jo is coming to help with our kids while Troy and I are busy and out of town for a few days.  Jo (a nurse) and Jen (a doctor) watching our kids - That is definitely the A team right there.  Our kids would probably be better off it this was a permanent arrangement.