Friday Photos

My good friend Kris with the kiddos tonight.


Today the team had a full day of work and fun. Some helped at a medical clinic with Mark Fulton's team (Kathy, see photos especially for you!) and some built benches at the Barbancourt feeding center.

At dinner tonight.

Noah trying to pick up a Haitian chick at the medical clinic. We got the Pimsleur Creole tapes before we moved here. They were not that helpful, except that they taught Noah how to offer to buy a drink for a lady (in Creole.) It finally came in handy today. He is one smooooth operator.

Britt and Mark and Gerry

Kris chatting with an long-time missionary here - John Ackerman.

The medical group with Mark.

Hey ROCHELLE, ILLINOIS friends ... THANK YOU so VERY much for the wonderful shower of gifts you sent down with Kris M. Below you will see Phoebe enjoying one of the wonderful things you sent down. THANKS!!!

Paige is loving having her friend Jill here. They are so happy to be together. :)

Tomorrow (Saturday) we have a Pastor's training session that Nate and Jason (from MI) will be teaching, then we will continue with some projects here and visit the market in Archaie. We're having a Haitian meal Saturday night.

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I don't plan to blog too much this weekend unless I am up with a cranky baby in the night. Between all that is going on with our team, having a friend here, and needing to sleep when Phoebe sleeps, it is going to be a slower time for blogging.

I have one of my best friends here -- A REAL LIVE HUMAN to talk to, it seems silly to sit and "talk" to cyber space when I've got a warm bod here. Not that I don't love sharing it all, but in this case I am getting tangible and immediate feedback so I've got to take advantage of it when I can. Blogging can wait and I will retain all information and share it as soon as I can. :)

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Have a great weekend.

-Tara

Disappearing Blog

I wrote Thursday night. It was there. Now, Friday morning, it is gone. Luckily, I said almost nothing, so you did not miss much.

Michigan- Your team is doing well, they had a full day Thursday and another planned today. I was busy with kids in the house a lot and then gone to Port to pick up a friend of mine. Because of that I took NO photos yesterday. I will try to do better today.

I don't have time to say more now. Troy and I are splitting up the team and I am in charge of getting half of them over to a one-day medical clinic. Gotta go. Have a good Friday.

-Tara

Trivial Things

We've got just a couple of minutes to spare.

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The team will get the mission and village tour and begin to work on projects today.

Isaac got to know Nikolas, a ten year old boy who his here with the team from Michigan. He came in last night and it went like this:

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"Oh my, I really like that Nikolas, he is such a nice boy Mom. I like him and he likes me too. Oh, he is so nice. I LOVE him being here." Then it went on for a good five minutes... Nikolas, Nikolas, Nikolas ... the best human being ever born, and on and on and on.

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Noah, who had not been allowed to go out and get to know Nikolas just got sick of it. And he got jealous. I tucked them in and left the room. I heard Noah say "Issac, that is enough about Nikolas - I don't like him!"

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HA! Noah has an advanced vocab for pre-three and he put it to good use last night. ENOUGH rubbing it in that you have a friend already!

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I have a friend from IL and her daughter coming later today to visit us (and another missionary.) She has a daughter that is a friend of Paige's so Paige is pretty pumped to have three days without a full school load while her buddy is here.

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Phoebe has one of the worst cases of Cradle Cap I have ever seen. Hope keeps calling it "seeds" - she says, "Mom do you want me to pick the seeds out of Phoebe's hair?" Hope and I are like mother monkey's constantly picking at the poor baby. It is really a bad case, but with all that hair it is hard to work on it. Any bright ideas on helping her get rid of it?
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Okay. I told you it was trivial. Sorry I don't have anything smart or funny for you.

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TINA- We see this truck a lot in Port au Prince. We finally got a photo of it for you. Maybe when you're here in April we can hook you up with a ride in the back. YOU, little sister, are premium quality too!

A Winner Found

The lucky winner has stepped forward. She just needs another day to make sure her legal affairs are in order. Anytime someone wins a prize of this caliber friends and family that they never knew they had come pouring out of the woodwork. She needs to protect her assets.

She wrote us (at our prodding and begging) and we will introduce you to her soon. She is checking into flights to come pick up the breasty Mermaid. Flights from PA are only like $600 - clearly that pales in comparison to the value of the prize.

More on Kendra from PA soon.

No longer in sub-zero temps

The team arrived, happy to leave behind the BRUTAL winter you are all having ... I noticed late this morning that it was 96 degrees warmer here than in MN. How are those below zilch temps treating you?

Just wanted to quickly assure all MI family members that your peeps made it and are all talking about going to bed soon.

Phoebenator - Three Week Stats

Phoebe is three months old this week (although we don't yet know what day) and she has been with us three weeks! She is a whompin 13 lbs 6 oz today. We think we can actually see her gut and cheeks growing day to day.

Wednesday Weirdness

The winners from PA have not made themselves known. It's probably a lot like when someone wins the big lotto. They always wait a few days to go public while they consult attorneys and such. They're just being cautious, who can blame them.
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To answer the posed question: If 100,000 does not come forward we're considering going to 100,001 from Allenwood, NJ, also a Verizon Internet customer. Lisa, hate to tell you, but you were only TEN from winning. Had you come to your computer just a few minutes earlier - you would have been the proud owner of the topless-Mermaid. Maybe next time. The next painting prize is going to be the HUGE booty picture on Delmas 33. That would work with your decor too, wouldn't it?



When my parents visited in late November the brought lots of gifts for the kids. Because Isaac and Noah are Superman obsessed they brought the first complete season of Superman from 1951. It is so cheesy and amazingly nerdy but the boys still like it. (nothing shocking there I guess) Today we reached episode number 18 called "Drums of Death" - in this episode Perry White's sister is kidnapped by a witch-doctor and Superman is tasked with saving her from a "voodoo cult."

I am *THE* farthest thing from politically correct. But let me just say after watching this, I think it serves a purpose. This 1951 episode played into every generalization and white-man paranoid thought-process that there could ever be. I was laughing out loud a number of times. Clark Kent meets with the Haitian government to enlist their help. Both Cap Haitian and Port au Prince are referred to a number of times. Below is Superman trying to get Perry White's sister to snap out of her trance and let him rescue her from the witch doctor.

The best part. All the Haitians speak English with some sort of Italian accent. Not French, not Creole. I guess 1951 was a big year for black Italians who spoke English on the island.

Our review: Two Stars (Ridiculous, yet entertaining)

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We're getting dinner ready to go in the oven before we head in to Port to get the team. Rumor has it that Zach is going to Caribbean Market to see if they have more ground beef for us today.

The other rumor was of course that *HE* is the one who bought them out in the first place.

Maybe it was his attempt to push me over the edge ... but he probably did not know that there were 8 two liters of diet Dr. Pepper still on the bottom shelf that he did not steal out from under me, so try as he might --- he cannot break me. ;-)

WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shortly after we started blogging we added a site meter to the blog. It was fun to see if somebody in Holland or Germany looked at the blog and fun to see that Mom checked it forty-seven times in one day. ;-) No. Not really. Just four.
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Most people with a blog get excited to learn that people are actually reading what they write. It makes it a little bit more than a journal and gives you added purpose and incentive to write. If our readership dropped way down to the original 6 people, we'd probably keep writing because it helps us to share things. Because we cannot talk it out with our friends/family, we write it out and it is both therapeutic and enjoyable.

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All of that is just to say that today we hit a major milestone. The 100,000th hit (thanks mom for 58,000 of those) occurred today. When the 100,000 customer walks through the door of the 7-11 store, bells and whistles sound and someone throws confetti. Pretend that is happening right now. It is here.

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We thought long and hard about what would be a valued and appreciated prize for such an occasion . We searched high, we searched low. Up and down Delmas 33 and Pan Amercaine. Finally, after weeks of searching, Troy found it. A diamond in the rough.

All the winner need do is come to Haiti to pick up the prize. It sits here waiting for you. A little touch of Haiti.

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We wanted to be sure and choose a unique Haitian painting.





We have chosen for you this prize: "The Topless Mermaid." This is a family-friendly blog so we've covered our bases to avoid getting sued. We decided not to cover her odd, and even painful-looking rib cage.

The 100,000 visitor to the blog has an Verizon IP address out of York, Pennsylvania.

PLEASE contact us to share your identity and redeem your prize. If you're willing, we'd love to allow you a blog-style press conference to share your good fortune, maybe some photos with the adoring public.

Regards and Congratulations,

The Management

Happenings ... But not a lot of them

TODAY:

Troy went to Port to meet up with Eddy and take care of some business, he forgot the video project assignment. Next time. The world will need to wait to meet the famous Eddy.

He dropped Fran off to head back to Virginia and did the team grocery shopping trip. The grocery store had five pounds of ground beef. Total. So, I hope the group coming from Lighthouse Church in Michigan will be packing their own hamburger. ;-) We'll go back and try again tomorrow. Because all of my dinner menus (I use the word menu loosely) have ground beef in them, it is fairly important that we locate it. Not panicked yet, but ask me again tomorrow.

Hope and Paige had braids put in. They went for cornrows this time around and were both pleased with the results.

These two clowns- hung out, poured pepper in glasses of water, caused trouble, fought, struggled with some sort of Haitian Happiness bug, which meant a few surprise clean-up jobs today, and sat watching for daddy to return from Port. (Paige wants credit for taking this photo. And for picking their clothes out with them this morning.) Credit given.

Phoebe took the longest nap ever, then celebrated by eating 8 ounces in one sitting. A first for her. Britt worked her butt off. Literally. She has to lay on her stomach or stand up. There is nothing left there to sit on. She helped getting team rooms ready and worked on some school stuff and saw patients.

Hey Water's Family - We got the loot. Thanks for the treats! Everybody will be on a good old fashioned sugar high for the next few days.

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We're almost ready for the team to arrive, feeling good about things and anxious to meet some new people. Isaac thanked God last night that a team was coming. We're so boring or something. He sees this as fresh meat to listen to his non-stop chatter.

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In his prayer last night Ike also thanked Jesus for dying on the cross for him and offered to die on a cross for Him too. Then he said "You know Lord, we just wanna come see you."

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I assured him that Jesus died on the cross and pretty much has everybody covered so there is no need for him to concern himself with being crucified. Not today anyway. It was a kind offer though.

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That is it from these parts for now.

Tenacious Tuesday

One word description of Haiti and her people-

tenacity n.- [tuh-nas-i-tee] - persistent determination.

te·na·cious adj. - [tuh-ney-shuh-s] - holding together; cohesive; not easily pulled asunder; tough.

Mutual Admiration Society?

Maybe.

But still, this post has some good guidelines.
Especially the list towards the end of the post.

Monday Madness

The very kind Neonatologist from IN that looked at Phoebe yesterday said that he thinks she hears, but that without tests we cannot know if she has some hearing loss. We are going to keep watching her and work on getting tests in the next few months if her responses do not improve and become more consistent. He said her ticker sounds great, she checked out fine in all other areas and he diagnosed her with "great hair." So, that was all good news to us. We can feel the bonding happening. Each day she is more responsive to us and she seems to have a preference for Tara and Isaac right now.

There is craziness afoot around here. The teacher problem seems to be snowballing into a coup attempt by some of the folks in the village. There are a few who are now trying to get another employee fired. It is a long story and is filled with the usual Haiti drama so I will need to tell it when I have more time to explain it well.

The problem for us is that it is draining to be in the middle of this stuff ... and very time-consuming. On top of a work load that is fairly heavy it feels like too much to have these village uprisings and threats of court, etc. Please pray for us. We are tired and entering into a very busy period of teams for February and March. It is bad timing for silly drama things to be happening. Coup attempts are very Haitian and not a part of the culture that I particularly appreciate. Troy has to meet with a bunch of folks at 5pm today to hear their concerns. We happen to have a WONDERFUL mole who has already filled us in on what the meeting is about and what they are planning. At least Troy goes in with an idea of what he is up against.

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The following topic is met with raised eye-brows when we try to explain it, but we'll try anyway. It will be good to be understood a bit. Don't be offended if you've visited here or are visiting in the future. This is the "big picture" sort of venting, we really do enjoy meeting so many cool people from all over the USA and Canada. This is really more about our ability to cope with it than it is about anything else.

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Short-term Teams are important. Probably MORE important for the work God will do in their hearts than for the physical work they might accomplish while here. We do understand that mission teams benefit greatly from coming here and in the end the mission will often benefit too.

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The hard part is the stress it puts on family-relationships and family time. So as we enter into these next weeks of non-stop "host mode" please pray that we can all make time for each other and time for God.

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The best way to help you understand what it is like is to just imagine yourself in this scenario:

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You live in rural USA. You have a large family with many needs of their own and a job that requires you be available 24 hours a day. There are some kind people from a city with absolutely NO similarities to your home that want to come stay and maybe help out for a while. You've never met them before, you just know their names and that 16 of them would like to come stay with you. You prepare for them, get beds and bathrooms ready. You need to be prepared to feed them but your grocery store is two hours away so you need to not make a mistake in your menu plans for the 21 meals they need to eat while staying with you. You need to not burn anything or buy anything that won't stay fresh for their entire stay with you.

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Some of the people will love your home and understand that you live in a different reality and will be so kind and helpful. Others will hate your home and be very annoyed with bugs, dirt, heat and lack of conveniences. Some might even complain about the food or the living conditions. Some will cry at what they see. Some will be very quiet. Some will offend your neighbors, leaving you to patch it up. Some will understand why you have systems in place and some will think you are hard and uncaring for having systems in place. Everyone will have an opinion about how you do your job. Some will respect the rules, others will think you're being uptight for having rules.

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Some will pick up after themselves and take care of their own basic day-to-day needs. Some will need constant attention. Some nights you will feel bad because people want to stay up and talk and ask questions late into the night, but you know that you've got to get to bed to be rested enough to do it all over again the next day and be able to handle the next days challenges with grace and love and patience.

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All of that --- is what it is, and is not really anything unexpected or out of the ordinary ... and it is common for different people to respond differently to seeing a place like Haiti. EXCEPT that - while you are trying to meet the needs of the people who are staying with you, feed them, help them stay busy, answer their questions, get to know them, help them with both seeing some of Haiti and meeting and talking to the people of Haiti, and accomplishing some projects ... you also need to keep your family on track. You need to figure out a way to love on your children and make time for them while you have an extra 16 people to care for. You need to not bite your husbands head off when he needs your help because he is exhausted too.

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Think about how stressful preparing for a big family holiday meal can be. That is usually preparing for ONE meal for ONE day. That is for folks you know well. That is when you have a grocery store five minutes from you and your guests are in familiar territory.

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This is the hardest part of being "missionaries" -- we appreciate that we can explain this part of our job without anyone taking it personally.

The bottom line ... God called us to Haiti. He called us to *this* job specifically. He can equip us to pull it off, and even pull it off WELL - if we try not to do it without Him.

Pray to that end for us between now and March 22 when the long-run of host-mode ends.

T & T

Superbowl Sunday

I did it. I gave in to the hype. Even here in Haiti - Superbowl madness caught up with me. Actually, if we hadn't had lunch with Dr. Mark today and all his Colts fanatics, I probably would have forgotten it was taking place. I thought about going over to their mission a few miles away to watch the big game on Direct TV...but a big voodoo parade out on the highway thwarted my plans. I'm sure many of you experienced the same problems en route to your Superbowl parties.

I can't say I was totally disappointed however, as I wasn't sure how enjoyable it would be to watch this Superbowl in a room full of Colts fans - when in good conscience I could never cheer for anyone but the Bears. I'm from Illinois...long since gone and many times removed...but from Illinois all the same. The only other "home" team I could lay claim to is the Minnesota Vikings...but I don't think anyone is on their side anymore. I pretended to be a Vikings fan just to irritate my Great-Grandmother who was a tried and true Bears fan, but now that she is my Late-Great-Grandmother...I will forever cheer on the Bears in her honor. I'm almost over my fears that our football rivalry was what sent her to the grave. I'm pretty sure it was something else.

(Probably Ditka going to coach the Saints.)

I decided to follow the big game as best I could from home. It was absolutely brutal. How is it that I can listen to my dear brother-in-law's HIGH SCHOOL football games in Forest Lake, MN on the internet - LIVE - full play by play............but can't hear or see a single play of the SUPERBOWL online?? Ok, I know it's because of ad revenue and broadcast rights and on and on - but it still stinks. And I probably could have found some other back-channel of questionable legality to watch it online...which I'd like to say I didn't use because of moral reasons...but in truth I just didn't have the time to figure it out.

Anyway, I "watched" the game using 'Game Tracker' online from Superbowl.com. Oh, it was SO exciting to see a cartoon helmet move up and down the cartoon drawing of a field and read the totally inadequate play-by-play. It was basically like reading a box score in the paper, but taking three hours to do it. I suppose I would have been more impressed had the Bears been victorious...and I have to admit the first quarter was pretty fun...but overall I would have been better off forgetting about the game entirely. I really liked when the commercial breaks and timeouts would come, and the screen would sit idle for five minutes, and I'd get busy actually doing something or being productive, and of course as soon as I'd leave an actual play would happen. Then the cartoon helmet would move and I'd try to get excited.

I know I sound bitter. I am. But the real reason is not that the Bears were defeated. The real reason is that I have no access to Buffalo Wings. That, to me...is what the Superbowl is all about.

-Troy

Sunday Photos

Mark's team from Indiana. Missing the Super Bowl hype of home to be here. That is love.

Three little Livesay's

Phoebe gets some Jack love.

Troy gets some Jack love.

Look closely at the photo Britt and Mark are checking out. Former Colts cheerleader - Kathy, you don't have to be in Haiti to make the blog!

Tara and Fran

Paige being mysterious.

Sorting Out Adoption Stuff - A Conversation with Ike

Isaac- "Mom, I'm really glad God made me come to you and daddy."

Me- "Yeah Isaac, I am glad God made us a family too."

Isaac- "This is the best family I ever had. It's the Haitian American Livesay Family."

Me- "Yep, something like that buddy."

Isaac- "When is God gonna make Phoebe a forever part of this family like he made me?"

Me- "As soon as it can happen bud, don't worry she is with us now."

Isaac- "But I really love her and I want her with us forever like I am with us forever. Adoption, I love it - it is so fun, it is so happy."

Since Phoebe came Isaac is really talking through it all. Hope is not saying quite as much. Ike seems to be understanding it a little bit and just trying to sort it all out. His birth-mother did not show up on Friday so we did not see her after-all.

Fran came yesterday. We have not seen each other since we were both adopting in 2002. It has been fun to catch up with her. In a bit we're all headed to the beach to meet up with Mark Fulton and his team. We're going to eat with them and have one of the Dr's take a look at Phoebe. We'll put a picture of Mark and his team up tonight --- for a certain family member in IN who might be missing him. ;-)

-tara

"Adoption, I love it. It is so fun, it is so happy." -Isaac Antoine Livesay

Hi Family in MN, WI and TX - Miss You!

The kids and I moved one year ago tomorrow, February 3rd. *That* was one long, difficult day.

2006 was one of the quickest years of my life. I'm glad it is complete and I have gotten through a lot of the cultural-change growing pains.

Some of the cultural change pains won't go away, I've simply got to learn to deal with it better. I'm the visitor after all. We are not here to change the culture.

We're all here to serve and help the people God puts on our path. Sometimes we do it really well, sometimes we just barely do it. We're just humans doing our best. Our best is not always all that impressive.

The blog from yesterday about advice ... yeah, when Troy made the "advice" de-motivational poster, and I wrote up the blog, he said "Someone will be offended and not know it is just a joke." He was right.

We are allowed to get tired of being corrected on the way we do every-day simple *life* things, aren't we?

Maybe not.

There are some who think we are supposed to be 110% always-tolerant and perfect. But, see ... we're not. We're normal. Sorry if that bums anybody out.

Whatever your opinion ... It is important for all readers to know that we would not be here if we did not have tremendous love and respect for the people and a desire to help in some tiny way to make things better or maybe a little bit easier.

We see the suffering all around us here and our hearts ache for the hurting. That is why we're here.

In doing that, we get tired, we get overworked, we get verbally assaulted, we get discouraged, sometimes we get lied to and cheated. That is not a complaint list at all, it is simply the reality.

Our best defensive mechanism for that fatigue is laughter. It always has been. It is a good one and it works for us. If teasing and sarcasm is offensive to you, we can certainly understand that ... but in that case, you might be reading the wrong blog because it is who we are. We laugh. We tease. We are jerky sarcastic fools.

On a rare day, the poster below will apply.

Thankfully, we serve a God of infinate grace, compassion and forgiveness. If we allow Him to, He picks us back up, brushes us off, and off we go again.




So ... We're writing to say --- We're going to keep it real and keep being ourselves and sometimes that means our blogs are not all roses and sunshine and sometimes we'll be sick of things. Sometimes we'll tease and joke and even be irreverant.

We'll all have our ups and downs and God will keep loving us right where we are and will carry us through it.



Our blog-free weekend has just begun.

Enjoy the Super Bowl. Enjoy your weekend.


With Love-
Tara, for all of us

PS- If anyone was offended when I called Punxsutawney Phil "lame" -- I apologize for that too.

Happy Groundhog's Day America

There is no reason for us to care what the groundhog says. It will be between 80 and 100 degrees every day for the next 365 days.

Keep Punxsutawney Phil, we don't need him.

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We have UN groundhogs here ... they are too busy promoting political stability to mess with watching for their silly shadows.

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This week my blogging flip-flopped between sassy and serious without warning, and then back again. Not sure what my problem is. Maybe its the waking up multiple times a night with multiple children.

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Friday we are taking Ikey boy to see his "fairy God-mother" also known to some, as a "birth-mother" we think the birth-dad may show up too, which would be very interesting to us all. The boy has always been big for his age, he can almost palm a basketball right now. His b-mom is tiny, so we want to see if his dad is a giant, or if Isaac is just a freak of nature.

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If you want to smile, hang with Ike for a few hours. Tonight Troy and I were getting dinner together when he walked into the kitchen, hands on hips and said "I'm just here to see who wants a hug and a kiss." Affection and Joy are his specialties.

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Saturday we have a friend from our adoption days coming to stay with us. Fran will be here until Tuesday. We're anxious to catch up with her.

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Let us know what your lame, unarmed groundhog tells you.

Have a great weekend.

tara

Everybody is an Expert

*First, none of us were in super great moods today ... maybe that plays into our annoyance. Sometimes even "missionaries" get cranky and tired of everyone. It's true.

It is some sort of miracle that we have five kids who have made it past babyhood. I'm not even sure how they managed without the expertise of all the folks in LaDigue. We are learning from many sources that we have *no idea* how to care for a baby.

• From our gateman Joseph (who is childless) - We learned that Troy holds the bottle too far into Phoebe's mouth when he feeds her.
• From an 11 year old girl from the village - We learned that Paige should not touch Phoebe's hair. For some unknown reason.
• From a friend of Paige's- You should not cradle a baby across your arm with the baby facing down. Even if you're burping them. That is bad.
• From all the ladies who work here- We learned that Phoebe MUST have socks on "Where are her socks??????? Where? WHERE?" Troy pointed out that it is 90 degrees and socks seem unnecessary.

WRONG! Babies must wear socks at all times. Temperature is irrelevant.

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Along those same lines ... we also don't know how to: care for a vehicle, (now that's a laugh) back-up or park a vehicle, transport heavy items, treat injuries, discipline children ... and on and on. We never knew all the things we were doing wrong. Until now.

A Different Reality

Last Saturday morning the phone rang early. It was Pastor Rony.

He wondered if Troy had some nails he could use. Curious about what Rony was working on Troy said "Sure, I have some, what are you building?"

Rony explained that a three year old had died in the night and that the mom did not have money to buy a coffin so they wanted to build one for her.

The phone rang again early this morning; Rony again. He explained that he is up in the mountains in his home town. Remember, that is where Troy went in December and it took more than five hours of walking to get there.

Rony said his brother is very ill, too sick to walk. He and some family were going to be carrying him down the mountain today to try and find some medical help for him. Five hours, going down a steep mountain, carrying a very ill person.

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I've never needed to figure out how to help someone bury a three year old, I've never walked five hours to find a Doctor for my loved one.

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These sorts of things continue to help me put my perceived problems into perspective.

~tara

(Click here for Mountain Video from December)

(Photo Credit Scott Tanner)