Summer is here

The celebrations have not been all that big in our house lately. There is just too much going on and Father's Day was no exception. I couldn't seem to get my act together and make much happen. However,  for Father's Day Kaylin made her dad an amazing blueberry lemon cake with cream cheese icing. Yum.

My parents came for a few days last week. It was great to have them. Gaëlle especially enjoyed some extra attention and family game time. 

My mom is the queen of creativity and parties and she always has these amazing "theme" meals. So we decided to throw a "It's Summer" party. 

We made s'more ice cream cones. Just add chocolate & peanut butter chips, Rolos, and mini marshmallows to waffle cones. Wrap in tin foil and place in the oven for 10 minutes. If you are lucky enough to be around a campfire, they can be heated up at the edge of the fire. 

It melted leaving enough room for ice cream. Easy and good.

I found a game on Pinterest which involved making marshmallow shooters out of Dixie Cups. It was difficult to control the marshmallows, but it provided a few laughs. 

My mom often does some kind of gift exchange so I headed to the local Thrift store and came back with some inexpensive gifts. I also gave the kids only a bag of candy. After all, "It's SUMMER."

The reason my parents came last week was a memorial for a relative of my dad's. The service was nice and it was great to have some of my extended family over for supper. 

We took a few photos on the back deck in the sun.

Smiles all around. 

Our summer flowers have been really slow coming out. This past weekend the Lupines were putting on their show. I just love the purples and pinks and will definitely miss this sign of the end of spring and the beginning of summer when we are in Haiti. But for now, we will enjoy our Maritime summer. 

MTI June 2015

Missionary Training Institute was at Indiana Wesleyan University from June 7- 19. The kids were all there and had their own daily program and instruction. They learned about being missionary kids and living in different cultures and had a lot of fun at the same time. 

The kids' program was based in the lounge of the dorm we were all staying at. 

The kids were taught by two Missionary Kids.

The youth had their own program and were also taught by two missionary kids.

One day the youth traveled to Ohio to an amusement park. They had a full fun day. 

Our final night of the 2 weeks ended with a consecration service. It was a great service and full of encouragement and prayer.

I didn't take any photos so I grabbed these from somebody else. I don't know if I will get any others. 

The adults had training from 8:30 - 5:00 each day. We had 7 different tracks with current missionaries doing the teaching. There were lots of highlights and lots of information. It was so helpful to have the wisdom from those who have served in so many different capacities. 

There were 15 of us in 5 family units headed to Haiti so one family brought a flag for our floor. 

One of the tracks was on language. The trainer has a Masters Degree in linguistics so some of our handouts reminded me of Emily and all of the topics she is learning. 

Robin celebrated his 50th birthday while we were there. The kids sent videos to Kaylin and she put them together in a video for Robin. As you can tell, he enjoyed it very much. 

Our 2nd week of training there were 25 current missionaries back in the US for Partnership Development. They had devotions with us but then had their own sessions. They brought different foods and drinks for us all to try. Some was devoured. The "Qurt Balls" were not a favourite but definitely the talk of the week. 

Each week we went to a local ice cream place. Robin enjoyed a banana split which was huge. 

We all did a bit of hanging out at night in the dorm. The kids were in heaven with all of the socializing. 

This is the outside of our dorm.

Loading up the van and heading to the airport. 

There were lots of kids and lots of babies. It really added to the mix and was a lot of fun.

Retreat 2015

Well, this was it. The highly anticipated trip to Haiti for the missionary retreat. Gaëlle seemed most excited about the plane ride but I knew she would love the entire experience. 

I made sure to get a photo of the kids as soon as the plane touched down in Haiti. What a moment. It has been 5 years and 5 months since Gaëlle has been back and the first time the kids have been back together.

The above picture is at the Port au Prince airport as the bus took them from the Canadian Embassy the morning of January 27, 2010. Their smiles just get me every time. 

Our first night in Haiti was at the Ortlip Ministry Center. It's about 1 1/2 hours from the airport. Needless to say, Gaëlle was already making friends with one of the missionary kids. 

Wednesday morning we went on the Wesleyana to La Gonave. We had a good crossing with just a gentle swell. 

Gaëlle was fascinated with the goats all over and managed to take a few pictures of them. 

We did a bit of walking around La Gonave and got a tour of the Wesleyan and WISH compounds. Peter played soccer with some kids and a soccer coach/ police officer visiting from the states. We enjoyed our quick visit to the island and it's nice that the kids could get a sense of where we will live and where they will have school. 

Now onto the retreat. We arrived at Moulin Sur Mer Resort on Thursday night and we started off with a time of introduction to the retreat. Throughout the 4 days, there was a rich time of fellowship, teaching, sharing, praying, and just having fun.

A church from Pennsylvania has come for the past 3 years to work with the kids and youth. They were great and it looks like they kept the kids busy. 

I was asked to provide team building games for the adults. We brought down small Post-It notes and had the groups create a scene that you would find in Haiti. Some of the adults had a hard time wasting all of those Post-It notes but I think it was fun.

In this game we recreated Bananagrams. That went over well and we gave our "tiles" to a missionary who is helping to organize another retreat. 

The kids had a talent show for us one night. The younger kids sang songs and did some fun hand bell songs. You can tell there was a music teacher in the group. So it was really fun to watch. 

The youth also did a couple of songs and "skits" for us. They even pulled 3 adults up to compete in a sword drill. There were 10 scriptures to look up. Some how we all had 3 points and so the final passage was the tie breaker. I walked away the winner. 

Every afternoon we had free time so I pretty much put on my bathing suit and watched Gaëlle enjoying the water. 

She got to experience freshly cut coconuts. And while I loved the ocean water, she much preferred the pool. The salt water actually seemed to dry out her skin. 

She spent many hours at the pool. All of the kids would eat together and Gaëlle was in heaven the whole time. 

The resort was beautiful which made it nice to just relax and get to know the other families. 

Peter did a lot of hanging out with the other youth. On our final afternoon the youth and some adults spent a few hours playing volleyball. Every night the youth would hang out in the air conditioned conference room or one of the hotel rooms and play games or music. I'm so pleased we were able to go and be spiritually nourished as well as start making connections to fellow missionaries. 

Time Flies

I didn't realize how long it has been since I updated this part of my life. Emily and Kaylin both asked me to put up some photos so they would know what was going on with us. So... Let's see how I do.

Robin had a great time in Haiti with his colleagues. There were several highs and several sad moments. It was a trip where they saw the contrasts that exist for people in Haiti. Robin loves the photo above because the other trips to Terre Sel were so quick and all of the kids were somber. This photo shows their joy. 

Sorry this photo is blurry but you can see both kids in Grand Manan at Dan and Edie's. We were there 2 weekends in a row in May. We stayed at The Power House both times. Peter and Gaëlle LOVED Grand Manan. It was a beautiful weekend and we were able to connect with a few special people. 

Looking for shells in Blacks Harbour before the boat came. 

It's a new ferry but it's all basically the same. 

There's the lighthouse. 

We found out that we have faulty plumbing pipes in the house. So we decided to be pro-active and replace them all. It was a week long job where they cut several holes in the wall and took down a large part of the basement ceiling to get at the kitchen in floor heating. But we're glad it is done. The crack filler was amazing. Robin painted it all up and you can't even tell.

Gaëlle asked me to take a picture of her big hair before I put in a new style. So cute. 

Kaylin made me a really sweet photo collage for Mother's Day. Love it. 

Dan was polishing shoes before church so Robin got in line. Edie had just gotten back from Guinea and so,had lots of stories to share. I wish we had more time with her. She has some emotional stories of the impact from Ebola, but while she was there, it was all gone. She has made some wonderful connections there and it is inspiring to hear.

Peter played in Jeux de L'Acadie this past weekend. The games were held in Halifax which was nice for us. Their volleyball team won all,of their games until the Gold Medal game. They lost but it was a well fought game. It could have gone either way but this time the other time came out on top. The boys were obviously disappointed but it was a good weekend. 

Kaylin was home for the weekend so we all went to the final game.

Somebody is pretty excited to be on the plane going to Haiti.

In the airport at Montreal. Almost on our way.