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. 

Bunny Day 2015

Robin and Gaëlle decided we needed Chocolate Cake Waffles with whip cream. I'm not sure why but they saw a picture and decided this was a "MUST TRY" recipe. 

The final creation. It was good. After all, what's not to love about warm chocolate and whip cream? 

Peter has several volleyball tournaments this spring. Last Saturday we were in Truro for the first one. His team had enough players to enter 2 teams. One team came in 2nd and the other team came in 4th. 

Peter seems tall to us but all of the teams had a couple of tall players. He does well at the net blocking the ball and really enjoys volleyball. It's fun to watch which is good, because we'll be watching a lot more in the coming weeks. 

Today is Bunny Day. There is still so much snow on the ground so I made clues and sent the kids around the house. Only 10 clues and they were apparently easy.

 It didn't take the kids long and when they struggled, I gave more clues and they were quickly on their way. 

The final clue led to a basket of candy. Bunny Day 2015 is over again. 

Snowy Travels

Josh turned 26 this week. How does this happen? How do the years fly by so fast? Emily posted this picture of the 2 of them at a wedding last June at Catons Island. This summer Josh hopes to be at Family Camp at Beulah. I can't wait!!!

Last weekend Robin and I traveled to Fort Fairfield, Maine to present at the church there. I used the time in the car to get some writing done and some planning. We were able to have lunch with Kaylin on our way and then spent Saturday night with Dean & Carol Stephenson and really enjoyed our time together.

Sunday morning it was snowing a little, because that's what it does around here on Sunday. It snows. But let's just say New Brunswick has the coolest snowplows. We couldn't tell if the back end of the truck was being swept around by the wind. 

As we passed it we could see that it was angled to plow one complete lane of traffic and the shoulder all at the same time. 

Robin's mom grew up in Fort Fairfield and so before we headed home, we tried to find the home she grew up in. Robin is positive this is the house. 

We had a great time at the church there. It's a small congregation but they were friendly and hosted a soup social afterwards so we were able to talk with some of the people more. 

Our drive home was a bit of an adventure. Once we passed Moncton, the blowing snow became an issue. We would drive along and it would be perfectly clear, and then we would have to slow down to almost nothing as it became white out conditions. We could hear on the news that there were a couple of multi vehicle crashes that afternoon. And when we were at Stewiacke, a vehicle spun around and went off the road right in front of us. 

But we made it home and then wouldn't you know it, school was cancelled on Monday. The kids were staying with friends for the weekend so that worked out well for all of us. We are so thankful for their support and help. And so thankful for churches to invite us to come and share with them. 

It's March Madness

On Robin's last day of work, his co-worker took him out for ribs. Robin has huge respect for the people he works with and will miss the camaraderie, but so far is not missing the job at all.

Robin's cooking interest is coming out a bit. He got a craving for his mom's gingerbread cake. So he made some. Unfortunately, it was not quite like moms. I think he over beat it and it was too dense. He'll try again. 

March is birthday month around here. Kaylin got Peter a shirt that just made her laugh. Peter loves it. 

I tried a new cake for Kaylin's birthday and that's what Peter requested for his birthday cake. For the past few years I think we've had the lemon meringue cake. This year it is Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. It is like a giant cookie. 

It is currently March Break for the kids. No school. Robin is off so on Tuesday, he took the kids bowling. He got a picture of Gaëlle in her eclectic dress style. She loves skirts with leggings under them. 

The big story of March is our snow. On Sunday we had a storm that shut a lot of things down. In fact a lot of churches, including ours, had services on Saturday night. Then Wednesday morning we woke up to another blizzard. We knew it was coming but we ended up with twice as much snow as we thought we would get. And it was windy. All day long. 

We haven't worried too much about the snow on the back deck, but during Wednesday's storm, Robin decided he should clear it off. So he climbed a ladder and went to work. 

After lunch we all went outside and had a go at it. 

This is the view from the road to our house. The black car is pretty much covered. 

I don't know if you can tell but Peter and Robin are standing on snow trying to dig down. 

Robin and Peter were outside for 3 solid hours. Whew. 

This was a good afternoon to be inside playing games. I haven't played the Bazaar game in a long time and had forgotten how great it is. It's from Discovery Toys and one of the games my mom got at a garage sale. I just have to say that I have loved all of the games and puzzles we have had from Discovery Toys. Good times.