Archive for January, 2011

Please keep our families in your prayers.  There is nothing easy in Haiti and even those who we have so earnestly blessed just seem to be attacked continuously.  Take Job for instance.  We thought by now he would be running his business with money in the bank, but that has not been the case.  It seems that every week there is a major problem.  Just a few weeks ago his brakes let go and he hit another vehicle.  Not only did he need his brakes repaired, but he also had to pay the other driver for damage.  I have asked Matthew to go and talk to Job.  I encouraged him to suggest to Job that he sit in his vehicle every morning before he starts his day and ask the Lord to protect him and his vehicle from harm, to thank Him for the vehicle, and just simply worship God before anything else.

There is some praise in all of this as well.  Job has been an outstanding person from the moment we have met him.  There is nothing that we ask of him that he doesn’t graciously do.  I have asked him to help our other families and it is always a yes.  This last incident, one of our other families were able to help him.  Mr Previlus told me that he knew how to repair vehicles and so I asked him to help Job with his brakes.  Mr Previlus went right to Job and repaired his brakes saving us lots of money.  I am so blessed when I see our families willing to help each other out.  They are not all willing, but these two guys sure are.   This meant more to me than I can say.

Venise had a baby girl.  She is about 1 month old.  She and her husband Mr Previlus are working hard to solve their families financial problems.  Mr Previlus would like for us to help him buy a vehicle so he could be a driver.  I am reluctant because of the trials I have seen Job face.  I realize that buying a vehicle at any price could end up being a $10,000. proposition.  That’s more money than we have.  But they are eager to work and are talking about their future.  This is all good.

Hyppolite is trying to change what he does for work.  He is thinking about buying shoes in bulk and selling them.  I have asked him to prepare some information for us and he is working on that now.

Please pray for our families that God would bless them with ideas and opportunities that will allow them to provide for their families adequately.  Thank you.

Although I haven’t had the time to blog I have still been running the office and doing the essential things.  Last week we sent almost 1000 pounds of medical supplies to Three Angels.  We also sent funds for the following:

Smith $50.00 to buy clothes and shoes for church and home.

Matthew was sent food.

Job Lira was sent $85.00 for brakes

Matthew was sent $125.00 for materials related to taking the SAT’s.

Job Lira was sent $250.00 to repair a vehicle he hit.

Hyppolite was sent $316.00 for his children’s school tuition.

$25.00 was sent to Venise for baby supplies

Food was sent to the Previlus family.

I don’t think I have ever laughed as much as I have in the last 4-6 weeks.  The transformation that has taken place in our family is incredible and it has been hugely fun.

First, our children are way smarter than us.  No truly!  Magnalie’s third language is English and she gets 105 on her report card for English.  Spanish is her fourth language and she is two years in.  Say Day Paw speaks three languages and English is her fourth.  She speaks Karen, Karenni, and Burmese, but also knows a little Spanish and French.  BuReh is working on his second language, English.  This makes watching a movie at our house quite interesting, as surprise we don’t usually watch them in English and this can be heavily debated. In my wildest dreams I could not have imagined that happening in my home.  I was thinking out loud with Say one day and mentioned we have seven languages in the house and she informed me that I was wrong because Ka Paw speaks seven languages.  She continued that he is really smart.  However, when I asked her what languages he spoke I couldn’t even pronounce the names of them.  So, I am sticking with the seven I actually know.  I figure if we can’t pronounce the names of the languages I am safe not counting them.  Tyler and I are still working on mastering English.

Say is a jokester and I think Tyler may have met his match.  A majority of their school work is just reading right now and we are having some challenges that are common to people who speak an Asian dialect and who are learning English.  One of these, I like to call the added n.  Whenever there is a short sounding vowel followed by a d they add an n sound, so that ed is end, edge is endge.  We laugh about it all the time.  This last weekend we were in the car with Say and she was purposely adding an n sound to her words, but she didn’t know that I already knew that she doesn’t do this with long sounding vowels, just short, so she was saying the word reand for read and I caught her.  She laughed hysterically.

Another word we have fun with is lunch.  Although I can spell this I can’t actually say it, but Say is always offering to make us lunsh. Go ahead, try and say it.

Then, there was our vacation in Newport.  We took the kids across the street to walk the wharf and Say was leaning into dad singing High School Musical to him and then informed him he needed to sing his part.  Tyler doesn’t sing much, but he definitely doesn’t sing High School Musical.  She teased him for days to sing to her.

We had a fun time doing Hu jokes when the President of China was here.  Say and Bu just got a kick out of the Hu?  Hu? jokes, then we heard that another higher up in Chinese government was named Wen.  It just started all over again.  Then this weekend Bu slept over at the Karenni house as they call it, and was watching Jackie Chan and I guess there was a you/me joke and Bu came home laughing so hard while he tried to impersonate Jackie Chan.

Say already knows our families insider jokes.  She could tell you all the stuff that you don’t learn unless you are really close and she calls us on it all the time.  Sometimes I am amazed that she figured it out so fast.

BuReh is dads guy.  He wants to be with him every moment.  It’s really such a blessing.  He kept wearing Tyler’s boots, so Tyler went and bought him some for his birthday.  This last week while we were visiting Grama he told her that dad is his best friend.  Yeah wow.  Today, as I struggled to motivate him to do school dad called and told him he could go to work with him on Friday if he gets all his school work done and I had a star student for the rest of the day.

Magnalie has been great.  OK in some ways she has knocked my socks off.  She is a young woman now and it shows.  She is mentoring Say and Bu and has been so gracious teaching piano, reading, and much more.  Thank you Lord again.

There are so many things I would like to share, but I think you get the idea.  This has been a lot of work but also a lot of fun.  We are doing good.

I feel terrible for having gone so long without blogging.  The truth is that I just haven’t had a moment to keep you informed.  Tonight I am pulling an all nighter simply because I must.  For those who know me well, you know that this isn’t a problem. It’s the sleeping I have trouble with.

Our new children Say Day Paw and BuReh have been here now for 1 month.  It has been a month filled with laughter, joy, and answered prayers.  I can still hardly believe that these children that I have waited for, for so long are finally here.  We are homeschooling which is wonderful because I want to spend every waking moment with them.  The neat thing is that they feel the same way about us.  I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed us in this incredible way.

Ka Paw Htoo, their guardian is doing well also.  He was hired by Walmart and really enjoys the people he is working with.  I am very happy for him.

Thank you for your patience.  I am sure that I will eventually work into a schedule that allows for more office time.  We are still just trying to make it all work.