Friday, September 30, 2011

seven seriously sedulous days




16 of us out celebrating
Happy Hendricks
Ryan & Melissa (Guesthouse Managers)
"The Aussies" Bec and Barry
The photos above were taken last Friday night - one week ago. We all went to a fancy place to celebrate Beth.  It was so much fun. That was the night Troy rear-ended the son of a prominent Haitian politician on our way to Beth's birthday celebration. Everyone watched him do it. John predictably made jokes about wanting to drive behind Troy. Good times I tell you, nothing like having everyone you work with see you rear-end someone. If you are going to plow into the back of someone, make it count.  We're still waiting to hear what that is gonna cost us. (And also what better brakes will cost too. Ahem.)

Saturday was a zero photo day. We (and by we I mean I) went for a long run with Beth and we cleaned out a few scary drawers and chillaxed at home most of the day.

Sunday - Troy led worship at church and Mirlene gave birth. We left church early to try to be at her delivery but missed it by a nano-second. The Harbor House moms are all invited to spend a night at our house after they give birth.  The greatest compliment of all time came from Mirlene.  She was at our house for about four hours when she shyly asked me if she could possibly go home to see her friends and housemates. She said "I miss them." So at 8:30 we loaded her and baby Bianca up and took them home to a happy house full of celebrating friends.

Mirlene & Bianca

Welcoming Mirlene home
Harbor House welcome for baby Bianca Sunday night

Monday:
Latin competition

Hope giving her speech
dance show by three girls


Every Monday we compete with our kids at school.  They learn all week and we try to keep up with them. We usually fail. In a rare role reversal, we happened to win Monday.  But I don't wanna gloat. So I won't even mention that we won. Or that we beat them. Fairly significantly.

On Monday night Lydia, Phoebe, and Hope performed a dance for us.  Lydia became enraged when I told her that I loved her tutu.  What she is wearing in the photos is NOT a tutu.  She couldn't believe how dull I was to think that. She said she has to have pink shoes in order for it to be a tutu.  Her birthday is coming soon, we're going to get this tutu thing right if it is the last thing we do.

Once the kids were all down on Monday night the call about Widlene came ....  

Widlene labored all night and gave birth early Monday morning. After her baby arrived we dealt with the rat that had entered at 3:45. Marley the Mastiff chased the disgusting rat back out of the house.  I won't mention how brave we were being in that room with the rat for hours.(Pretty brave.)
Heather being a little less brave
Jen helping move furniture (brave!)
We showered and drank lots of caffeine and then it was off to a very busy Tuesday of Early Childhood Development Class and baby check-ups .... There were five new born exams to do and Esther came to be checked too.

Tuesday class

Mirlande and Eli

Eli
Esther on Tuesday
Wednesday was the day that went crazy-bananas ...  Lourdes Milla went to the hospital by ambulance and Alloune delivered far quicker than we imagined she would. It was insanity.  God showed up.
Alloune slept over night at our house that night. On our way from the Maternity Center to our house we stopped so her friends could peek and congratulate.

Noah holding Ashlyne
Harbor House girls doing a quick drive-by congratulations
On Thursday we had our very busy prenatal madness that we all love and enjoy ...

Alloune, Ashlyne, Mirlene, Bianca

Jen and Beth learning ultrasound
Olina

Mama Emmanuel

Thursday Class

Olina
Jen teaching ultrasound
Friday:
Lourdes Milla was released from the hospital Friday, we don't have any photos yet. We'll get them. Her baby has a name that we must see written down before we attempt to share it.

We said goodbye to our bestie Dokte Jen (and cried doing it) this morning and sent her toward Mpls/StPaul. Jen is family and it feels weird when she goes. The dining room turned bedroom suite awaits her return. So do a bunch of Livesay lard-kids and their parents.

After we dropped Jennifer off we headed to the little airport to catch a MAF plane.  I want to share the photos from COTP and more about dropping off Moses and the sweet reception they all gave us. I will do that when I am less tired and less on the edge of wah waaaaaaah.

For now a few of the photos of us heading north to Cap Haitian ...


Paige, Moe, Geronne


Moses flies the friendly skies
Citadel from the sky
Pilot, M. Broyles
That.Was.A.Week!?! (howisthatpossible?)

(some photos provided by Jen, Jonna, Beth, Troy)