Goodnight, Haiti

Mache sou pinga'w  pou pa pile si ou te konnen.

This is my favorite Haitian proverb.  It means "Walk on caution so you don't step on 'if I had known.'"

There were many times in the last year that I've either been thankful that I did exercise caution or realized too late that I was standing in "if I had known."

This morning my mind is drifting through some of those experiences as I'm sipping home-brewed Starbucks coffee from a Keurig from my mom's kitchen table in Illinois.  That's right, readers--We're back in the USA!  

Not long ago, we boarded MFI's DC-3 in Cap Haitien and slowly made our way back to Illinois. We've been working through some reverse culture shock and reconnecting with family and friends, and feeling completely blessed.

Ovwa, Ayiti.  We miss you already.

I miss hearing the choir sing "Alpha ak Omega" in church.

We miss the goats, dogs, and Freddy the Frog on my window each morning.

We miss your sparkly shore waters and palm trees on the beach.

We miss sunsets set to the sounds of waves crashing on the sand.

But most of all, we miss the people we came to love so much...

Our beloved Celine...

Buddies and classmates...

I miss my students...

We all miss Junior.

I miss these ladies who never, ever failed to greet me with a smile and who cared for us despite all the cultural mistakes we made.

We miss friends who came to feel more like family...

We miss people who took time to inspire the hearts and minds of our three girls.

And we miss many others that I can't find pictures of right now!

As we enjoy many of the comforts that life in America affords, we haven't stopped praying for and thinking about everyone we had to say goodbye to.

For now.

God willing, we'll see them all again soon...

1 John 4:19-21  "We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."