Wedding Pictures - Britt & Chris Bernard

Porter Family (Our Family with Tara's Parents and Tina and Matt)

All of these photos were taken by Marcia Erickson. For those who have been reading you know that Marcia is one of the leaders of Providence Ministries in Haiti and a close family friend. (Also the Mom of our favorite nanny and friend Tess.) We love our Ericksons SO much. Thank you Marcia and Greg for coming to Florida to help make this a perfect day. We are so thankful that Haiti brought us together.

Britt was escorted down the aisle by both of her Dads. The entire ceremony was so lovely. They wrote their own vows and had Troy sing one song. Chris's Dad is a Pastor and performed the ceremony.

Paige cried so hard through the ceremony that the rest of us were crying watching her cry. Here at the end she pulled it together. :)

The fact that our sweet Britty girl is off and truly beginning her life as an adult feels surreal to us. We are so proud of her and know that she and Chris will work hard to grow together in life and in faith. We're excited to watch and cheer! Congratulations to newest Mr. & Mrs. Bernard!

(Troy took some photos and will post a couple of his favorites later tonight. Right now we're taking off for awhile. Marica let me cheat and sent me these via email ... there are of course tons more of the entire wedding party, the Bernard and Berg families - but Marica hooked us up with some Livesay pics ... that is the beauty of knowing the photographer.)

Rehearsal Pics

We are off for a day of family fun. We return to Haiti on Wednesday ... We will try to put up some photos from the wedding tonight. These are Paige's photos from Friday. It was an amazing day, it could not have been more beautiful. The Bride and Groom are happy and we're so excited for them. Thanks for all of your kind words and thoughts.
With love-
"The mother-in-law"

I should be sleeping ... but the hyper-nervous is setting in. I think everyone is mostly ready for a wedding tomorrow. Noah and Isaac and Troy had some major wardrobe issues but we think that tomorrow morning we will go pick up pants that fit. Isaac's pants were a capri-length and Noah's fell off of him.

Paige is ready to be a supportive Maid of Honor. Hope confuses the roles of flower girl and princess - but doubles as both. Ike and Noah are ring bearers ... and Troy is singing. I will be the one laughing and crying and wondering where the last 18 years went. (Do you know?)

We keep reminding poor Noah that "this is not about you -this is about Britt and Chris" - to no avail. All things are about four year olds. They cannot imagine it any other way. Because he cannot apply the "it is not about you" message very well- he got bounced out of the rehearsal and sent to be with Grandma and Grandpa for the night.

We're laughing at the goofy things the kids are saying. Their "normal" is so far removed from this American way of life that we're constantly laughing at their observations. Isaac "L O V E S" parking ramps ... he said, "oh oh oh -- those things those things, I love those things -- what are they called?!?!?"

For some reason Florida being *IN* America is not computing for him. He will see something new or different (from his Haiti life) and say, "ooohhhh, yeah ... they have that in America too."

The flight here was sold out. We did not get seats together. Isaac and Hope sat together but in a row far from my row and far from Troy and Noah's row. At the end of the flight I stood waiting for them at the front of the plane and a sweet older Haitian gentleman asked, "are those your two kids sitting back there?" He told me he thought they were pretty darn cute. When Ike got off I asked him if he had talked to the people in his row. Ike said, "Yeah, I talked to them the whole time. I told about everyone in my family and told him my Mom is white and ... I told him everything really." :) If you have ever met Isaac, you know he probably did.

Have a great weekend.
With love from southern Florida,
all of us

The Joys of Air Travel

We're headed to the Sunshine state. (But not in First Class.)

We're kind of healthy and very excited. Our girl is all grownz-up! Let the laughing mixed with crying begin.

BE GONE 2008!!!

I won't go into boring long drawn out details about the ailments, the who and the what, or any of the current drama - I will just humbly ask for prayers for our family to be healthy and ready to travel to the wedding of our oldest daughter by "go time" later this week. We need a miraculous healing to come over the home. Like soon. Four are currently not well.

Today Troy and I were driving home from a lab appointment with Lydie and we were both tired and emotional and started reviewing the year. Between kids, houses, Haiti, deadly illness, letting go, changing missions, letting go some more ... we realized there is a reason we're looking forward to a NEW year. Let it be known that 2008 will not be missed by either Troy or Tara. We say good riddance to bad rubbish. It was a year of change, challenge, and letting go. I would not care to live it over again.

2009 will kick the backside of 2008. Mark my word.

We are super busy the next few days and then we jet off to give away the bride. To close out this year we would like to ask each of you to describe YOUR 2008 in five words or less.

Our short description is - "Change, challenge, letting go." So we did it in four words.

Anyone who wraps up 2008 with a five word or less description will be entered into a drawing for Troy's Haiti photo book, Rocks in the Sun. We'll draw a winner on January 4th. If you don't want the book - we will have Hope draw you a picture.

This video below was produced by the famous one, Luke Renner. The Renner Family is Haiti bound in 2009. He did this as a favor for us when we needed a tool to speak in churches in 2007. We love the front half of it where he draws attention to the beauty of Haiti. We want to continue to see beauty and feel hopeful.


We wish you all a very Happy New Year ... may *He* be your provision, your peace, your protector and friend. May you grow in the deep, wide, amazing truth of His love for you.

See you next year!

Livesays Out

Babies avek Puppies

Late Edit - MK Dance Party on a Sat. night.


(Song going out to the Radar Men)



The easiest things to blog about are happy fun things. Like these two little girls.

So lets do that.

We've been without any helpers since Wednesday. With great fear and trepidation we watched Paige, Jeronne and Tipap all leave us. But ... it has been good.

Troy and I are pretty much walking around singing, "We are the champions".

But only because - we ARE.

It is six little kids, two puppies, one giant dog vs. two somewhat capable & patient adults until Monday -- We are totally handing these kids/dogs their butts!

(oh, okay ... I mean - we are totally wiping a lot of butts - and cleaning up a lot of puppy poop.)
Our zone defense is nothing short of amazing.

We will - we will - rock you. (Maybe even to sleep.)

Restavek

In the truest definition of the word it means "one who stays with".

As Paige shared there are a number of these children living in our neighborhood. We are in an area that would be considered middle class - or as close to it as you'll find.

Most folks in our neighborhood did not inherit a bunch of money, nor are they descendants of the upper class French "bourgeois". Most own a small business and work hard to have a larger home in a more secure neighborhood. All of these working class have relatives, acquaintances and friends in the poorer mountain villages and out in the provinces.

The poor send their children in to work for the less poor. They figure their kids might get to eat more, possibly go to school. They often send them out of desperation. Sometimes they just cannot deal with their own children, so they send them away.

These children are easy to pick out. Usually when we see them they are working. Most of them do not appear to be as well taken care of as the other children living in their home. The girls will often have very short hair and be plain looking, giving them less self esteem. They speak quietly and keep their heads down.

Paige shared with you that she was thrilled that one little girl who is a restavek has been coming to her Kids Club and has even been allowed to come for some tutoring. We've felt at a loss when we think about her and are feeling a burden for her. She does not make eye contact when we talk to her. The people she lives with openly call her stupid and dull. She washes dishes and sweeps for them. They say that they "tried to send her to school, but she was too afraid and just cried". We are uncertain of how true that story is, but we do know that a child who believes they are stupid would not do well in school. The people she lives with offered her to us. Literally they said, "She is a hard worker, you can have her if you want."

You. can. have. her.

My God.

My stomach turns when I think about a valuable human being, created in the image of God, being treated this way. I want to scream, I want to lay down and cry, I want to fix it.

I am a foreigner learning about a new culture. Three years here has not taught me enough to confidently say much. I try very hard not to jump to conclusions about things or judge harshly. I cannot possibly understand everything that happens in this culture, it is not my own.

Having said that, this "system" might be one of the most frustrating ones of all for me to accept. The fact that children are used for labor and for the benefit of adults is beyond incomprehensible. There are occasions wherein the child benefits from this arrangement. But that seems to be more the exception than the rule.

[As an aside for adoptive parents. In general adoption is misunderstood. In this culture, if you take someone's child, it is so they can work for you. A lot of people will assume that is also why you are adopting. Jeronne recently told us that once everyone in LaDigue saw how kind we were to our Haitian children, they wanted to know if we would help with their children. We hope that our love and equal treatment of our kids will be evident when we're out and about in Port. Troy noticed a lady at a store observing his shopping with Hope. She later said to him, "You really love her, don't you!?!?!" She was surprised by it and pleased.]

This is a very well done piece about the system, I encourage you to read it.
I quote the author:

"I want to acknowledge that there are families in Haiti that do welcome children into their homes with the primary purpose being to care for the children and promote their well-being. However, in the case of the restavèk system, the main reason the child is in the home is to work. It is not for the sake of the child; it is for the sake of the child’s masters. Today in Haiti, at least one in ten children does everything for free – getting up long before dawn, going to bed (on the floor) long after dark, doing all of the work of the house in the hours in between."

Here is another opinion piece.

And from others living here, read this.

In a recent comment, someone asked us what a restavek is.

I wish we did not know.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Break

On all ministry fronts things are going well. Thank you for praying for our neighbors, that means a lot to us and to them. We appreciate it.

Britt and Chris are busy getting ready for their wedding in Florida. Britt just called and said Chris cut part of his finger off surfing. We are waiting to hear more and hoping it was not his left hand ring finger! Isaac is very excited to get to Florida and be able to call Chris his "big brother."

We celebrated the gift of Hope with some friends the other night. She is 7 today! Last weekend we started a fun Christmas tradition with our kids and enjoyed one night and one day at a beautiful spot in the hills of Port au Prince.

Our Christmas season has been filled with beauty and has been remarkably peaceful ... we're hopeful that you're experiencing the same.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: And the government shall be upon his shoulder: And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6

By: Rick Porter

*Our blogging break continues, the silence is wonderful!
As promised - a guest writer...
Please welcome our Uncle Rick ...
(We affectionately call him our Funky Unky.)
Read previous Christmas post here.

(Listen) A few words for Christmas

We all know someone who speaks rarely and powerfully. Often older, it is as if they’ve learned that a few precise words cut through the thick fog of verbal overkill. The verbose among us envy them.

The ability to restrain talk while initiating thought is not my gift. I launch, then aim. This results in collateral damage to me, and sadly, sometimes to others.

Over-supply devalues. Print too much money and you have inflation, even hyper-inflation. Too much product on hand forces price cuts. If the same is true of words, then verbal value is at an all-time low. Whole television networks exist for the primary purpose of filling hours with opinion, observation, and reaction, some of it informed. AM radio is all talk.

The internet has made us all authors if not movie-stars. From updating our Facebook status to blogging endlessly, we produce cheap words tasking others to sift through the wordpile for value.

Not only are we filling every page, screen, and airwave with words, we are told to keep the updates and information coming. There you have it. The literary equivalent of an all you can eat buffet! “We are out of opinions over here!” Get more.

One must ask. In a world of nearly 7 billion people, is one more opinion really what we need? Like my college speech teacher used to say tongue firmly in cheek: “Shout more, your argument is weak.”

But, I continue to pile syllables on sentences on paragraphs, adding to the clutter at the insistence of people dear to me, the Livesay tribe. [LIVE-SAY...a name which in one word captures the balance of living and speaking in proper order after the manner of St. Francis: Preach the Gospel at all times – if necessary use words.”].

The Bible is clear that God works with words. According to Genesis, He spoke all that is into being. But He was amazingly economical. “Let there be” a few times over pretty much did it. Unlike today, when we haggle over the meaning of meaning and what “is” - is. It was a simpler time.

Non-being was non-existence. “Let there be” from an all-powerful Creator brought existence out of non-existence. God, both ancient and big, could speak words that changed everything.

Christmastime is the celebration of God’s ultimate Word. All creation, which, according to Psalm 19, now “pours forth speech” "day and night” is trumped by re-creation. Taking verbal economy to new levels, God speaks His loudest, most lasting Word through a non-speaker. Gurgles, coos, and cries made infantile declaration of a new era. Hebrews 1:1-2, in the quaint rhythms of the King James says: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son...”

Indeed He has.

And before they could say “Is not this the carpenter’s son?”, that Son was speaking from a wooden cross: “It is finished.” And it was - but it wasn’t. He still speaks to our Father on our behalf and makes a declaration (that is currently being fulfilled) from the throne of God, “I am making everything new.”

I really do not need to know the up-to-the-minute price of crude, the ups and downs of the Dow, or the wind chill temperature in some place great distances from my own wind chill. These are transitory.

But I do need a better word.

I do want to know His name: “...JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” And I long for His invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” We all need His hope: “I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Perhaps there is a reason that “Silent Night” is the best loved of the Christmas carols. Out in the world there arises such a clatter.

Listen. Do you hear what I hear?

Do not lose this Christmas Word in the reporting, relating, retailing, and retelling.

Turn everything off and let the Child’s whimper whisper as in the phrase from Gloria Gaither: “The word of the Father became Mary’s little child, and His love reached all the way to where I was.”

Journey to Bethlehem

(If you would like to see it on a larger screen, double click on the screen to go to the YouTube site and watch it there instead of here on the blog.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Love,

Troy & Tara
Britt, Chris, Paige, Isaac, Hope,
Noah, Phoebe, Lydia, Annie, Peanut

Paige loves ...

(Paige working with a little girl in our neighborhood. After spending more time with her we are so concerned for her. We're sorting through it and praying about it ... not at all sure what to do.)

Wrap

• Lydie finally starting taking multiple steps - we are hesitant to call it walking, but she is certainly headed that direction. She is all the way with whatever mood she is in. If she is not happy -- holy cow, she is mean and mad. If she is happy ... whoa, she is silly and odd. No happy medium for this one.

• Hope lost a front tooth ... the other one will be gone soon...And just in time to sing the "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" song.
• Today we get to meet the adoptive mom of Hope and Phoebe's older sister Gracie. We are VERY pumped. We have been writing to each other for years and now we'll get to hug and become REAL to one another.

• Annie and Phoebe seem to be mentioned very little in recent weeks. Here is the latest on these two clowns -

1. Annie is so tiny for her age, she looks weird walking ... but she does it and she does it fast. For the first time, we started talking about her leaving. That will be one crazy emotional day. Happy and sad and wonderful and ... sad. Like half the universe, she waits in the office called "IBESR" for a stamp of approval. Her family would love for her to be in MN. We want that for them in spite of really loving having her here. We rely fully on God, the only "government official" that will ever get this deal done. And we wait.
   
2. Phoebe has taken to calling her Daddy, "Troy" she pretty much refuses to call him anything else. At night, he tucks her in, she says, "Thanks Troy." He gets her juice, it's "thanks Troy"! I think it is funny. Troy, not so much. We tried potty training with her. Fail. Fail. Fail. Too soon. Bad idea.

• Isaac asked tonight "How much did you have to pay to get me?" I said, "Who said I had to pay for you?" He said, "Well, I just figured it might have cost money to get me." I assured him that the money spent was to process paper work but that there is not enough money in the world to pay for him ... he is worth billions upon billions.

• Paige had a great turnout for Kids Club week three, she is also working with Leme on Mondays and Thursdays for 90 minutes each day. Gorge tried to *give* Leme to us. Truly, he did. Gulp. PLEASE pray that we are able to be light and love to her and that we can come to see and discern her situation as it actually is.

• Troy and Noah made a quick trip with the Iveys to Boutiliers last week. (See Photos) He'd never been there before.
• Tuesday we're hosting a shindig. It is for the ladies of Port au Prince Fellowship - a Christmas party! Very fun, very excited. (And no, I don't have to cook - therefore I am truly excited to host.)

• QCS Christmas break starts Thursday! Our kids are pretty pumped. Merry Christmas to all of the teachers and staff that love and teach and shepherd our kids, we thank you!

• I've realized that while the sometimes over-the-top materialism-driven portion of Christmas and the pressures of running and shopping for gifts is not something I want to be a large part of our traditions, there are traditions that I want to create for my children. We are starting new traditions this year, figuring that Haiti will be where we spend many future Decembers. The things I remember about Christmas as a kid have nothing to do with the gifts I got. The memories center on the family time and the music and the food and the special things we did together year after year.

• Zoe comes to live with us this Wednesday morning. For two weeks we will have Zoe and Harley, her brother. Because, what we need around here is a little more activity, a little chaos ... a stinkin' challenge or something. ;-) On Dec 31 Harley will go back home when his family gets back from Christmas in the States ... and soon after that Zoe will visit the crabby Vet to get her papers and pack her duffle bag and fly to Florida to meet her new parental unit.

• Our friend Luke Renner is coming to crash here next Sunday. We're excited to enjoy his stories and irreverent ways of telling them.

• Next week Paige will travel the world solo and go to MN for Christmas with her other family. Prayers for traveling mercies are VERY appreciated. It has been two years since she last winged it alone. She is much wiser and experienced now, and pretty much owns the airports. I no longer feel like I will vomit when I think of her traveling without me.

• The wedding is less than three weeks away. That is just crazy talk.

• Jeronne will be taking a test to pass and finish literacy class on December 22. Prayers for her are appreciated. Assuming she passes we will attend her graduation in January!

• Hope will celebrate her 7th Birthday on December 24 ... click to read her story. We will post her party photos on her big day.

• We will be taking a two week break from blogging ... we have a couple of phenomenal guest bloggers planned to fill in the gaps. Besides our normal ministry duties and routines - we're spending a little extra time meeting up with friends, reflecting, praying, and hearing this Christmas season. While we hear from Him, you'll hear less from us. It'll be a good thing all around. We will be back the last day of 2008.
  

• The second annual Christmas video production is about to wrap! Things got a bit complicated with video coming in via email to production headquarters (sideways) from Texas ... And Prima Donna cast members needing to be coddled and pampered and pulled along ... But, it will debut very soon. Stand by.
  

May you stay rooted by the stream of water that gives you life and causes you to produce fruit in its season.

And may you walk boldly towards what needs preserving in this world - bringing great value to it - knowing that it is God who declares that you can do it.

And may you live the radical life of a revolutionary - prompting the world to ask of you, "What are we going to do with you?"

Amen.

Coming Soon ... to a blog near you

This is the post where we build anticipation and create hype.

The bigger and better
2008 edition of the
(Livesay) Christmas Production ...

Stay Tuned!

To see the 2007 Edition Click Here.

The cast and crew are rehearsing, the costume design team is working through the night, the writers/producers and directors are on a serious caffeine high as they tweak the script and work with the actors on the final scenes ... the buzz surrounding this production is enormous.

Don't miss it.

Sewing School

The machines are treadle machines, no electricity required. :)

Women's program was encouraging today ... a lady that we were super worried about gained four pounds in one week. Little victories are all it takes to bring us up.