Christmas on the Mountain

We hope all of our loved ones have enjoyed a blessed Christmas!  Ours was pretty good too, and probably a lot warmer than yours :D

Our Christmas pic we took in Illinois this fall...

The one we considered sending out - It's probably more real to life, lol....

Orrin and Cassia...best buds most of the time!!

We had a container arrive Christmas Eve.  Yay!  

And so, so, so exciting....a forklift was on this container!  With the forklift and new loading dock, we are totally in business :)

David reading the Christmas Story to the kids before our family Christmas.

Orrin's coolness sunglasses!

Cheesy smile, but he loves his blocks!!

Yup, she totally knew what that was for!

Cassia in my first Christmas dress from long long ago....

We celebrated at Lee and Desma's house, and of course had lots and lots of food :)

Two cookies?  Sure, it's Christmas :)

A pinata again this year!

Guess who was the last guy picking up candy??  

We heard it was a rare occasion to have a full moon on Christmas.  It was really pretty, even if there wasn't any snow :)

The day after Christmas, we went to a place past Cayes where a family has a mission.  They have a pond, a waterslide, these cool bicycle-built-for-4 things, and a new air soft court.  It was a full day of fun in the sun!

Updates

Here are a few updates on our lives....

New interns:
In the past few months, God has sent us two new interns!  Leah Bertschi came to help Desma with English school.  8 kids in about as many grades....a huge job for one person, so we are so glad Desma has help!!  Leah is great with kids and has taken ours a couple times to give us a break :)

Kirk Huber is here as a medical department intern...a vague term that means he does a lot of random jobs to help out Dr Lee with all the extra responsibility he has since Eric (the patient care manager) left.  We're very thankful for his help and cheerfulness!

So welcome, Leah and Kirk!  We hope you can find blessings here where God has led you for a time!  May He clearly lead your future of service to Him wherever that will be!

David's projects:
Clinic/ER - up and running!  Looks really nice, and getting organized with a lot of help from Kirk.

Pre-op/Post-op/Sterilization - We had a team from Rockville, CT that came to help finish out this project.  There are a few loose ends to wrap up, but it looks so clean and bright and open!  I just love going through there :)

Electrical building - Coming along, a little slowly :)  The roof is being prepared to be poured next week....hopefully done in time for our container to bring us solar equipment and batteries to be stored inside this building!!  YAY!! So exciting!!

David's business - This week David said he felt like he was finally getting caught up on some office stuff.  For so long he's just wished he could pick up a shovel and dig a hole with his guys, and this week he finally got to a point he could do some of that.  He worked on one of the Toyota's with Linonce and on a screen door with Christoph.  Next year is shaping up to be pretty busy with the solar project and lots of teams, but he's enjoying getting out and about a little more.

Surgery:
I'm going up to surgery two mornings a week, usually Wednesdays and Fridays.  It's a slow learning process.  I talked with one of the Nurse Anesthetists who comes and works here occasionally.  She said her training program in Cayes took two years!  So I guess I felt a little better that I'm not on my own yet :)  Our situation is a little different than it was several months ago, too.  We've been able to find really good anesthesia providers to come and cover the shifts.  So I basically am an assistant with whatever I can help with...checking the equipment and supplies, going and restocking, drawing up and giving meds, handing stuff that's needed :)  I really enjoy it, and am glad that staffing is not as much of a problem as it was a few months ago.
Childcare is a bit of an issue sometimes....I found this one day when I got home....

....so from then on I locked the bedroom doors when I left.  Then I found this a few days later...

...at which time I sent out a help wanted ad:

Wanted for immediate employment:  Person with the title of Grandma, 2 years or more experience required.  Loyal, dependable, punctual, honest.  Duties include repetitive activities, detailed observation, organization (caring for a 3 year old and 9 month old, diaper changes, feeding meals and snacks, playing blocks, reading books, giving naps, keeping toddler from playing in the bathroom alone (see photo).)  8-10 hours/week.  Benefits include living arrangements, meals and lots of snuggles.  Must be willing to relocate to an island in the Caribbean for up to 3 years.  Apply at listed email address or in person.

So we switched the bathroom lock around so that it could be unlocked easily by Merlene, the babysitter, when Orrin locks himself in the bathroom to go and then be "dezod" afterwards. It did help...I haven't found as many messes, but we're still working on this. We did get a new lock that's easier to open from the outside, since Orrin locked himself inside the bathroom a time or two and couldn't get back out... Madam Ino has started keeping them some and they seem to do better for her, probably since they're more used to her.

Chickens:
After neighborhood kids messing with and breaking open our chicken house, the chickens getting out, then us buying more, then they didn't lay, then they got out, then we lured them back in, we decided to butcher them before we left on furlough this fall.  We ate one before we left and it was terrible.  So they're not giving eggs, they're not worth cooking, and it's a headache.  There's also a really cheap and convenient egg farm down the road from us that started up after our Great Chicken Experiment.  So Wednesday, Madam Ino took the last chicken home with her.

Gardening:
I think we just may not be farmers.  Watering your lettuce with paint thinner doesn't help either.  (It honestly took us over a month to be able to talk about this....)  Oh, a three year old pulling out all the lettuce by the roots doesn't produce good results either.  Sigh.  We've yet to get a good lettuce crop, but we now have some dirt in an old outdoor sink (have to keep it up and away from roaming goats and pigs and chickens) and I think we're going to try again.

Kids' talents:
Orrin has started blabbing incoherently, and I thought he was talking baby talk.  But I'm thinking he's starting to experiment with the Creole words he hears.  He usually says the same things over and over when he's with other kids.  "Ou ka we jwe" ("you can see play") or "Ale" ("go") "Mesi pou jodia" ("Thanks for today") "Antre" ("come in") or "Bon jou!  Koman ou ye?  Buen! OK!"  (Good morning!  How are you? Good!  Ok!")

Cassia wants to walk - or rather be walked - everywhere these days.  She also wants to be outside all the time...which is good and bad.  The good is that at least winter here is about 75 degrees :)  The bad is that there are fire ants all over our yard, so until she walks by herself, I don't really let her out much.  I cleaned out our back porch area (got rid of some chicken feed) and put her out there in a walker....she loves it and I can get something done :)  I also get lots of helpers for her after school.  This is Galens and Chloe pushing Cass on the swing.

I think that's all for now ~ Thanks for reading :)

Answers to our Prayers

Here's a little of what's been going on in relation to our last post of prayer requests:

Test. David's recert test went really good!  We went to Peoria and dropped him off, met my parents and Emily and kiddos and went to the Peoria Zoo together.  As soon as we got there, David called and said he was done!  Getting done so quick is a good sign...it's about impossible to fail that quickly :)  So, yes, he did pass!  Now he gets to relax for another year or so before worrying about it again...

Elections.  Haiti had their first round of Presidential elections resulting in two candidates.  From what I've heard, people have good hope for the options.  It seems like there are an increasing amount of demonstrations around this time, which seem to be connected to politics, if timing is any indication.  We get emails from the US Embassy about where the demonstrations are and I've been getting one or two a day for the past month now.  We went through one or two demonstrations on our way back from Port au Prince to Bonne Fin, but it wasn't bad other than slowing us down a bit.  We got in the middle of one, which is not something we like to happen, but it was not violent and we got through ok.  I'm thinking they will continue until the final elections, and probably after.  Just hope and pray it doesn't escalate.

Kids sleeping.  We weren't sure how arrange this, but it worked out pretty good.  Cassia got the spare room and the pack-n-play, and Orrin got the floor of our closet :-D  He was close enough to feel secure, but in his own "room" so that we didn't wake him when we came in at night.  And it was sure nice to have grandparents who got Cassia when she wanted to be an early bird!  This momma is going through serious withdraws!!  Thankfully, the transition back has been going pretty good and they've been sleeping good.

Our Furlough.  I think this was our best one yet.  We decided we wanted to be Professional Furlough-ers.  :)  It was so nice.  We scheduled ourselves a lot more "down" time this time, and are learning to be more intentional with the time we had.  There were a lot of fun times.  And a lot of meaningful times.  We enjoyed being able to share about the hospital with some of you when we were back.  I hope you now know more about it!

Here are some pics of some of the good times we had on furlough:

"Playing" on construction equipment at Steidinger's one day.  We missed harvest and a combine ride by about a week, but I think this made up for it!!

Our trip to the Peoria Zoo

We took the kids to Champaign for a day, did some shopping and saw the ambulance.  We also checked out a small children's science museum.  It was so perfect for Orrin!  He had such a great time!

We enjoyed being back in the States for fall.  We had some nice fall days and went on walks and to the park.  We also enjoyed other States things...ate out lots, made "carpet" angels when we felt mom's new carpet, drank lots of milk, enjoyed the use of a dishwasher, flat roads, and used some of those long-sleeve clothes!

Visiting U Joel at his job at Route 24!!!

Orrin with Cole and Addi on Halloween.  He wasn't too sure of the beard :)

We visited our old neighborhood with Trent and Tiffany and kids, and then went to see Grandma.  It was fun to see the cute outfits and Orrin thought the getting candy stuff was alright!

We enjoyed different times with David's family, and one night with all of us together for supper.

We spent a week in Iowa, and Grandma Luthi, Sheryl, and Galen came down for the weekend too.  Orrin enjoyed all the toys and knew exactly where to find them :)

Orrin was more interested in raking leaves than in jumping in them.  If only we can keep that work ethic up :)

Last furlough I told Orrin that maybe someday we can go on a train ride when we come back to Grandma Gerst's.  He never forgot that, and we planned and talked for weeks about our train ride.  We got on at Burlington and rode a half hour to Mount Pleasant, which was about enough for Orrin since it was dark and hard to see anything outside.  As soon as we got on, he started asking for a drink.  I was an unprepared mom and didn't have any.  He really wanted to know when they were going to bring him a drink.  Pretty sure this guy is used to airline service and was waiting for the stewardess to come bring him a pop!

At the end of the train ride, we met up with Nola, Bill and Judy, Karla, and Grandma and ate at Pizza Ranch.  It was a good night.  It was also good to spend a little normal time with Grandma during our time there.  Before we left to go back to Illinois, she went into the hospital with kidney failure, and has since been moved to the Hospice House.  I think she has been showered with company, cookies, and love, which is so good.  I've been able to talk to her on the phone, and on Skype.  It's special to hear all the people who do a little something extra...a church group cooked a Thanksgiving meal, people bringing food, some young men from church came to sing one evening....Thanks to everyone who has taken time out and done a little something for our family during this time.

Haha, thought this one was too good not to share :)

The Hospital.  Day to day, things have continued on.  It seems like morale has been really good recently, and we're so thankful for that!!  One day when we were on furlough, we heard that our inpatient census number was 104 patients - and our capacity is 106!!!  It didn't stay that way, but wow!  That's incredible!




We were also blessed to be able to go to the Hospital Lumiere Auction.  We met with Eric and Jami beforehand, and were able to spend a little time with them, which was so good.  Then we saw so many people at the auction that we've gotten to know from being here at the hospital.  It was great to see so much support.  And it was so touching to watch as people bid on items.  Especially when the auctioneers asked for those who would give $1,000 to run the OB ward, and to hear all the numbers read off.  When they asked for $500 bidders, I lost count between 25 and 30 numbers.  And when they read off those who gave $100, the person writing couldn't keep up.  I know a lot of people asked me if I heard how much was raised, so the numbers I heard was around $191,000 that one night.  Thanks so much to everyone who gave that night and those who give throughout the year.  Even with this and with what patients pay for their care, we will still need several hundred thousand more for the next year's operation.

Language.  I was hoping that we wouldn't forget Creole while we were away, and it seems like it's gone pretty good getting back in.  It was nice to have a break and speak only English for a month.  I just realized how much energy it takes to think about what words you need to put in sentences to talk in another language.  Sometimes you just don't say what you would normally say because it's too much work...and then you find out that you got by alright by just not talking so much :)  Maybe by the end of this I'll learn how to not talk so much.....  The week we got back, we were able to learn more about communication...this time about communication in times of tough conversations.  A few people from ACCFS (Apostolic Christian Counseling and Family Services) came and had a few topics they shared with us.  The one was a class called Crucial Conversations.  Very good info that should help us in our communication in English or Creole!

We were really excited to travel back to Haiti with Dad and Mom Z.  Dad went to Dumay for the week to prep for the winter work project, and Mom came and spent time with us!!  We had a lot of fun and hopefully this was the most painful part of her time with us :)