We’ve been back from Haiti for just over a week now, and I’m pretty sure my mind is still whirling from all the events, sights, and activities that we put into the days we were there. I am so thankful for all that God has done and will continue to do. Roger said the hardest thing about me being gone this time was the amount of food that Chandler and Wyatt can eat these days! Roger didn’t plan to work all the days we were gone, but he ended up working almost every day. I’m so thankful that God orchestrated it for Chandler to stay home this year as he was able to keep the laundry caught up, the dogs taken care of (my sisters dogs) and everyone fed (a lot of eggs, ramen noodles, and bread!). We are also deeply thankful for so many of our friends that either helped to transport our children, kept them overnight, loved on them, and encouraged them. Wow! We are so very blessed! My friend, Renee, told me that one of the days that I was away Emma looked rather sad at lunchtime. Renee went over to talk to Emma and asked her if she missed her mom. Emma replied, “yes, I miss my mom.” Renee asked if there was anything she could do to help Emma. Emma looked at her for a moment and then answered hopefully, “Maybe some ice cream?” Oh goodness! That girl! Renee did have a doughnut hole so that seemed to help Emma not miss mom so much! I got a good chuckle out of hearing about that!
I journaled every day that we were in Haiti, but the days were long and tiring. I know that I left out more details that I normally have in years past, but between getting up between four and five am, working hard all day, coming back from clinic and resorting and counting meds, and then going to bed around 10pm, I was tired! However, I do want to write about the journal entries that I did make and share some photos from the trip. We are currently working on a slideshow for church and it’s been a challenge! I took over 1000 photos and now we are trying to make a four minute slideshow! But, by the grace of God, we will figure it out.
When we came back from Haiti, Garett had a slight stomach bug so he stayed home on Thursday, but I went right back to teaching kindergarten! I was so happy to see my students again, and I was reminded of how thankful I am that I get to teach them. Chandler also stayed home from school that Thursday as he was tired too. Roger said that he had done a lot of the helping to pack lunches, meals, laundry, vacuuming...I’m always amazed at how everyone steps up when mom is away!
Anyways...I’m ready to write. Day #1 - January 11, 2021
We can probably all relate to the fact that God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes we can see those works clearly evident and today was one of those days!
Garett, Ashley and myself left firm school around 10:30am. I had wanted to teach this morning as I want to be away from my class as little as possible. Needless to say, that decision made for a crazy Sunday of packing and preparing! It was a late night, but we arrived at the school by 6:50am. on Monday morning with all our bags in tow! Travis ended up forgetting his backpack and lunch box in the flurry of the excitement, but he will survive on some snacks from the school snack box today.
We arrived early at the Bangor airport -around noon. I figured we would have about an hour wait before anyone else showed up, but just as we were unloading our bags, Hannah and Josh showed up. Then it was a mad dash to weigh all the bags, redistribute weight, and make sure all the bags were at the right weight....50 lbs! Most of the bags were already at 48.5-50lbs. So there was not a lot of extra weight space! We still had some vitamins that needed to go somewhere and some hygiene kits and some odds and ends. I had kinda poked fun at Ashley earlier for not having a backpack AND a carryon, so I was giving her grief about not having a carryon for us to put all this miscellaneous stuff into! But then Hannah said, “Well, we have a lot of time before the flight. If Ashley wants to drive over to Marshalls, maybe they’ll have a carryon there.” So Ashley and I hopped in her van and drove over to Marshalls. In less than ten minutes we had found a carryon (and on the clearance rack for $32.00) and had checked out. While driving back to the airport, Hannah called to say she didn’t think we would need the carryon after all because the two other ladies coming from Maine had arrived. Gina and Jodi both had space and weight in their bags. But since we had already checked out, Ashley decided to just keep the carryon. And when we arrived back at the airport, we stuck a few random things in the carryon anyways.
We went to check in with all our bags, and between the seven of us coming from Maine we only had about seven pounds to spare! Yes, we packed with a scale and we squeezed out our 50lbs each! We had thirteen checked bags each weighing about 50lbs. After going through security, we headed for our gate. The flight attendant asked if anyone would like to gate check their carryon. Hannah’s husband, Josh, said “Yes, please!” His carryon was full of prenatal vitamins and weighed about 65 pounds! The flight attendant took it down the ramp, but then returned to tell Josh that the carryon was too heavy, and the bag would have to go as a checked bag and not a carryon. And we couldn’t just redistribute the weight among our other carryons because the flight attendant had sent the bag to the ticket counter! Now what?! We had about twenty minutes until the flight left and one of our bags was at the ticket counter and overweight! And it was a very important bag to boot!
Hannah and Josh took the carryon that Ashley had just bought and headed to the ticket counter. After about five minutes, Hannah called me to tell me that she had left her passport in her backpack at the flight gate! So I took my passport and boarding pass, and Hannah’s passport and headed to the ticket counter. Thankfully the ticket agent was very helpful! He was willing to check the carryon at no additional fee if we could get the bag to weigh at or under fifty pounds. So Hannah took out fifteen pounds of vitamins and put them into the carryon that Ashley had just bought! Now to hurry back through security dragging Ashley’s carryon along. We made it through security and back to the gate. We were the last ones to board that plane. Without that carryon we would’ve been struggling to figure out what to do as Josh’s carryon was too heavy to go as a checked bag, and none of us had a lot of extra space in any of our carryons.
I’m so thankful that God worked out all those details so that we would have exactly what we needed, and right on time!
We flew from Bangor to Charlotte and then Charlotte to Miami. We had an overnight layover in Miami, and then an early morning flight to Port-au-Prince tomorrow. We arrived in Miami around 9:00pm, and we figured out how to Uber to our hotel. The hotel shuttle isn’t running due to Covid, but thankfully all our checked bags are checked through to Port-Au-Prince. All we had to worry about was getting ourselves and our carryons to the hotel.
We are thankful to be at our hotel. It was nice to spend some time praying with Ashley before falling asleep. I am very much looking forward to seeing all that God is going to do in the next week. To God be the glory!
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