hiatus much?

I'm not going to lie, I've tried several times to post over the past week but to no avail.  It's difficult to decide just what to post after not posting for such a long time... though that's clearly not the only decision I've had difficulty making recently (see below).

I suppose I owe it to you all to explain what in the world I've been doing.

First, I took a girls' trip to L.A. with my two best friend's from high school.  

Here we are outside the Chinese Theater.

Santa Monica Pier

Villa Blanca in Beverly Hills - Owned by a "Real Housewife"

 We've been enjoying the last two days where we got to watch this stuff called "RAIN" fall out of the sky.  We felt like modern day Noahs.  Henry for sure felt like Noah, since we realized that he probably has not seen rain since he can consciously remember.  Needless to say, we were soo soo thankful that God gave us some real rainfall this weekend!

 

He was totally fascinated.

We have also been watching some college football (and by "we" I mean Matt). I was so excited for Henry to get to sport this shirt my cousin gave him for his birthday!

It says "genetically confused.  So cute, huh?

Today, we realized that we officially have TWO MONTHS till Baby #2 is due to enter the world.  I like the way Matt put it, "You only have two more months of this [pointing to belly, referring to pregnancy], then you get a break for awhile."  Ha ha.  Gee thanks.  With that said.  Here is a list of the things we have NOT been doing.

1. Choosing a name.
2. Decorating a room.
3. Nesting in any form or fashion.
4. Exercising.  (Matt has been, Leah has not.  Just thought I'd throw that in there.)

Although, I FINALLY think I decided on what to do with the rooms tonight, and so Matt will get to work on that next weekend.  After we made our game plan, I sternly told him, "DO NOT LET ME CHANGE MY MIND."

You see, I have suffered from a complete inability to make up my mind regarding almost everything during this pregnancy.  It's not unlikely that we will be taking our name list (which currently has about 5 or 6 names) to the hospital.

More posts to come soon.  Love!

where have I gone?

I usually don't announce our vacations in advance... since there's a good chance that all you readers out there would try to rob my house.  Hopefully you know I'm kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, we just got back from a week-long trip to Orange Beach, Alabama with my pregnant sister, her hubs, her two crazy boys (5 yrs and 2 yrs), my mom and her hubs.

As luck would have it, I forgot to bring my camera, so we relied on Matt's iPhone to document Henry's first trip to the beach.  Pictures to come.  (Oh and I promise to get those ultrasound pics up soon.)

Thoughts on the trip?

-Vacation is NOT the same w/ a toddler.  It is still work.  To actually get R&R, there'd have to be no children there.  But I loved watching Henry have fun, which must be why parents ever take their children on vacation!

-That being said, it was nice for Henry to have a 24/7 playmate, his cousin Bennett, who is about 10 months older than him (and could easily beat Henry up if he wanted to).  They just LOVED each other and were so freaking cute together.  So we weren't responsible for entertaining baby boy 100% of the time.

-Call me crazy, but hanging out in a maternity swimsuit (an ugly one) on the beach isn't really my idea of a good time.

-To add to the last thought... hanging out in a maternity swimsuit next to my also pregnant sister isn't very fun either.  My sister and I currently weigh about the same and she is due in 4 weeks. (I'm due in 18 weeks.)  We are 14 weeks apart, but we looked more like 4 weeks apart.  It was lovely.

- I wore 50 spf the whole time.  My family looks like we have been in an igloo... not on the beach.

-On our way home, at about 11 pm at night after driving all day long, I was barely awake trying to decide on names for our next child (and surely I was not helping Matt stay awake as I spewed my thoughts about the names incessantly), and we just might have finally settled on one... but we aren't 100% sure so I'll work on that and get back to you.

And I had two diet cokes at dinner tonight, definitely putting me over the limit for the amount of caffeine I should have in one day... so that is why this post was written from 4-5 am. :)  Where would my blog be w/out insomnia?

concrete jungle where dreams are made of...

City never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien!  We just got back from a quick trip to NYC to visit Matt's brother and his wife, who are in grad school up at NYU.

We would have been in big trouble with Uncle Michael and Aunt Brittany if we hadn't brought Henry, so we braved the city that never sleeps with a 15 month old- and lived to tell about it.

We are terrible picture takers.  We probably have five pictures to show for the whole trip, and as per usual, they are all of Henry.  Here are two of them.  This is in Brooklyn and the background is downtown NYC/Manhattan.

We also got to visit w/ our friends, The Gentrys, who are braving the Big Apple EVERY SINGLE DAY with three children! It was so fun to see how they do life in NYC w/ three.  I was amazed.

The trip was super laid back.  We have done the touristy stuff before, so we just got to hang out and watch how locals live.  My legs are STILL sore from walking so much. How sad is that?  I saw on "The Doctor's" the other day that New Yorkers walk an average of five miles a day.  Translation= we'd all be better off physically if we moved to New York.  However, and this is probably TMI, my boogers (yes, the things inside my nose) always turn black when I go to NYC.  So perhaps the air pollution and dirt offsets the extra five miles a day.  But probably not.  Our expensive jogging stroller ALMOST got lost forever on the flight to La Guardia, but thank goodness, it showed up the day before we had to leave to come back to Austin.  Close call.

That is all.

Day 4 in the Melting Pot

Sunday, December 21

Matt on the subway. The rest of us usually were quick to grab seats. Result = Matt's left standing a lot. Is it me, or does he sort of look like the uni-bomber in this pic?

We woke up in time to get to Redeemer Presbyterian's 2nd service, which was about one subway stop away from our Hotel. FYI, Redeemer is church home to Pastor Timothy Keller. For Presbyterians (Presby Church of America), Keller is like Billy Graham. He is also pretty popular if you go to Austin Stone. Whatev. I'm weary of churchy trends right now, but I love Keller. He is author to three incredible books that I read this last year. 1- Reason for God, 2- The Prodigal God, and 3- Ministries of Mercy. Also, I first heard his sermon series "In Christ Jesus" about a year ago, and it was profound - to say the least.

So visiting Redeemer was definitely an item on our list this time around. It was a Christmas service, and bc of the diversity in NYC they read all the passages of scripture in different languages (Hebrew, Taiwanese, German, etc.) I loved it, but I'm biased. Brooke and Peter loved it, and they weren't biased... so boo ya.

Next, we tried to go to Serendipity, but the wait was like 2 hours and we had skipped breakfast. So we settled for a Pizza place called Patsy's that Brooke and I had gone to the last time around. Next up? The MoMA! (Museum of Modern Art) Haha. I can't even begin to tell you how much we loved the MoMA.

LET'S JUST SAYYYYY that we don't have much of a taste for modern art. However, we were thoroughly entertained. Let me share...


Meet the pile of bricks. Nope, there's not anything more to this. It is literally just a pile of bricks displayed on the floor of the MoMA. My inquisitive sister did some research when we got home and found out that the MoMA paid $1M for this pile of bricks. If you think this is art, then I think you're a nut, and that's just the honest truth.

Some of our other favorites? A piece of yarn tacked to the wall, and a white canvas painted white. Also, the museum has a temporary exhibit featuring art by Marlene Dumas. I would post pictures, but you would probably report me because that woman is seriously disturbed. Whatev. If you're into that kind of thing, you should google her. It's inspiring.

Don't get me wrong, there were several displays by very talented artists. We were just taken aback by some of the other stuff that somehow qualifies as art. Maybe I'm not cultured enough, but I still think you're a nut if you think that pile of bricks is anything special.

NEXT. Top of the Rock! Last time in NYC, we did the Empire State Building which was crowded and overpriced. This time we took your advice and went to the Top of Rockefeller Center instead.

A view of Central Park from Top of the Rock.

Ah, another TOTR advantage- You can see the Empire State Building from the top of the rock.

Aawwwwwwwweeeeeeeee. Haha. Matt has hoodie-hair, and I'm not doing much better.

Well the day gets better yet. Let me pause to say that at this point, one of us is NOT in a good mood. One of us has had enough of the "art" and the crowds. That one is Peter. Haha. We love Peter. He has a very strong personality, though, so usually if he's not happy, then we must all ignore him in order to somehow be happy. On the other hand, when he's in a good mood, he's always the life of the party. Needless to say, it's getting a little old, but to me and Matt it's a little funny. Brooke, on the other hand is a little fed up w/ the 'tude. It is right at this point that we decide to go to Carnegie Deli for dinner. Bad decision.

Now we had been there before, and so we knew what to expect, but we forgot to consider that the setup is Peter's worst nightmare. In a word? Crowded. On top of that, as a party of 4, we got seated at a table for 8, right next to another party of 4. On top of that, they don't take credit cards, and Peter's not very tolerant of cheap people. And on top of that, the food was average. This was all adding up to disaster. It all went down the crapper when I asked Brooke and Peter about their exact plans for Christmas Day, which uncovered a little miscommunication. Aaaah.

The now infamous Carnegie Deli.

Yikes.

This night needed redemption... and fast. All I wanted was for Brooke and Peter to be happy and nice to each other (for my own sake, people), and for Brooke NOT to go back to the hotel early, and also I wanted dessert. About 45 min to 1 hr later, after some failed attempts to find dessert, God saved the night by directing us to this little non-touristy Italian restaurant called Mimi's in East Midtown.

They were playing lively music, and they had GREAT cheesecake. In fact, after we finished off the first order, we ordered another one. They also had very clean bathrooms, and some delicious coffee. Sigh of relief. Everyone was happy and our night wasn't ruined.

Ironically enough, on the way home, Matt tripped on an icy curb, skinned his knee, and almost hit his head on a streetlight pole. Why is this ironic? Because without a doubt, Matt was the best-behaved all day. I don't care what they say, bad things happen to good people and vis versa. And karma is a joke. (Thank God for that.)

The Big Apple - Day 3

The 3rd day went much better than the 2nd. We woke up, introduced Brooke and Peter to Ess-A-Bagel, and then walked over to the Theater District to pick up tickets for Phantom of the Opera. Yes, we got boxed seats. (Don't kid yourself, they were actually cheap.) Peter also made dinner reservations for us for 11pm. Only in NYC, my friends.

Second item on the agenda? Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge! Once again, we braved the dirty subway into Brooklyn, and came out less than 1/4 mile from the bridge. Pictures below.

Here's the four of us + Downtown Manhattan in the background.
Here's us, or as Matt likes to say it, "The Gibsons."

I really enjoyed walking across the bridge. Mind you, this was the day that it didn't get above 22 degrees. And the wind chill was negative for at least a part of the day. The last time I came to NYC (December '05), I was grossly unprepared for the weather. And that can ruin your trip if you're touring a city where walking outside is imperative to doing anything- I know because it nearly did ruin the last trip. So, I was over prepared this time. I wore at least two pairs of long underwear under my jeans and two tops under my sweaters, in addition to more layers, gloves (pop top mittens, to be specific) that went all the way up to my elbows, socks that went to my knees, and a scarf, ear muffs, and a beanie. So, needless to say, walking outside was no trouble this time around.

Peter was cold and windburned. Matt leisurely skated/slid across the bridge like a child. At least this time I wasn't the one acting like a child. Brooke had the baby to keep her warm. Here's one more picture for you.
Next we took a break at Starbucks, hopped back on the Subway, and decided to continue braving the cold on a walk through Central Park. It's huge.

Here's the ice skaters. See if you can find Matt in this picture.

Here's Matt. He was using his Uggs to slide down hills. As you can see, it was icey, and not very safe to be walking on. We saw several people completely bite it.

After CP we did a little more shopping (Maternity GAP and Bloomingdales), and then started looking for a place to eat lunch. We winded up at a random little cafe (I think it was called Oxford Cafe) that was marginal... but when you're hungry, everything tastes good. We went back to the hotel to rest before our big night. Since Brooke is now 30 yrs old and pregnant we needed to make sure that she'd be able to stay up till 2am or however late we'd be up.

That night, we headed to see Phantom. I was thoroughly made fun of for ordering Junior Mints to go along with my cocktail before the show started. Now who is being childish?

Sort of blurry, but don't you like Brooke's winter white coat?

The show was awesome!! It was really good, and then... the best part of all... PASTIS! Pastis is a little French restaurant (I think it's in the West Village). In our touristy book, it said that you're most likely to spot someone famous at this place, but we had no such luck. (We didn't know that when we made our reservations. One of Peter's clients had suggested it.) We couldn't read the menu, so we just figured out which item was steak and got that. Matt got Spaghetti. Spaghetti at a French restaurant? Whatev.


We also ALL got dessert. Yes, 4 desserts. It was so good. I think Brooke and Peter have a picture of me and Matt at Pastis on their camera, but I don't have one. I will post some more pics when Brooke sends me hers. Anyway, it was a great end to a great day. Highly recommended if you are in NYC. And it was surprisingly not as expensive as we expected.

By the way, joke's on you. Matt is not in that ice skating picture. Second half of the trip coming soon.

NYC Day 2

Friday December 19

Our original plan for Day 2 was waking up at the crack of dawn and heading out to Ellis Island/Liberty Island, but that plan changed fast when we decided we'd rather sleep in.

Instead we woke up at 11, went to a bagel place called "Ess-a-bagel" where some angry Jewish dudes were serving up some of the most delicious bagels I've ever tasted. Mmm. I got the Cinnamon Raisin Bagel, toasted with butter. There was probably a whole stick of butter on my bagel- and it was worth every gram of saturated fat.

Next we took a trek down to Ground Zero and Wall Street. Last time I came to NYC there was a little more to see at Ground Zero, but since they have started construction on the new buildings, there really is just a big space down there. The weather was also blizzard-like, so it wasn't the most condusive for exploring. Matt did take my picture in front of GZ.

As you can see, I was very happy about it.


NYSE/Wall Street!

Peter and Brooke arrived around 1pm on Friday, and we ended our Wall Street trek to go meet them for Lunch at John's Pizzeria in the Theater District. Also highly recommended.


There's Matt and Peter at John's. Afterwards we wanted Matt and Peter to see the ginormous Macy's with 3 or 4 different Starbuck's inside, so we walked the overly crowded streets of Times Square in the freezing snow/slush, and everyone's feet were wet by the end of the afternoon.

After a little shopping, we went back to the hotel to rest for a little bit before we headed out for dinner, and what an event this was! Before our trip, I bought a highly recommended "Not For Tourists Guide to NYC..."and actually went to three different bookstores to find it. So, we used the trusty book to find a restaurant we wanted to go to called Grand Sichuan Int'l...Chinese food.

Brooke had a craving, and well, she's pregnant, so she was pretty much determined to eat Chinese food that night, and there was no stopping her. The rest of us wanted to earn our dinner, so we hiked about 7 long city blocks from out hotel to the restaurant. (I almost fell and broke my neck like 25 times because of the ice but that's another story.) You can imagine how happy we were to reach the destination (9th Ave and 50th St) only to find that the Grand Sichuan Int'l was nowhere to be found. Let's just say it put Peter in a good mood.

Not. He would have burned my NFT book if I had let him get a hold of it. It got worse before it got better. Thanks to the trusty Blackberry, we were able to get the Restaurant's number and figure out the address, which was nowhere near where we were. So we got in a taxi, gave him the address, and he dropped us off at the wrong location. We of course got out, and it took us about 20 more minutes to figure out where we were and what we were doing. We tried several times to change the plan and just try something nearby, but as I said before... Brooke + pregnant + craving = determination. We tried to consult the NFT and a concierge in vain. Fortunately, all it took was one more taxi ride, and we finally got to THE Grand Sichuan Int'l! Also fortunately for Brooke, it was a hit. I'm afraid to think of how Peter would have reacted if it had been a bust.

The funniest part was that we kept asking the people at the location we ended up at if they had moved or if they had shut down a location, and they just looked at us like they didn't know what we were talking about. Well, all you have to do is google "Grand Sichuan Int'l" to see that the location we originally tried to go to was shut down a year or so ago by the health dept. Whatev.

It was totally worth it. Afterwards we made Matt ride in the front of a Taxi back to our hotel so that he could have the full experience. They didn't make me ride in the front because they knew I'd have a heart attack.

New York, New York! Day 1.

Day 1 in a nutshell. Thursday, December 18.


We left for the San Antonio airport around 6:30 am to avoid any surprise traffic delays. We got to the airport way early and we were offered an earlier flight to NYC. Yes, please!

We got to NYC around 4pm eastern time, and we decided to take the adventurous (aka cheap) route to our hotel. Yes, we took the bus/subway into midtown Manhattan from La Guardia. It was quite interesting. Memorable moment of the day...

Hotel Check-in People: "So how was your taxi ride from the airport?"
Matt: "Well, we actually took the subway."
Hotel Check-in People: Funny look/"Wow, we've never heard of anyone doing that before."
Leah: "It was definitely cheap."
Hotel Check-in People: Laugh.

I must add that we found that route on several touristy websites. We definitely considered that it might not be the best way to go (think big bags on a crowded subway train), but decided to stick with it because we had seen the route in multiple different books/websites. Whatev... it was easy, and we came up out of the subway RIGHT next to our hotel, the Doubletree Metropolitan (51st and Lexington!)

There you go. Our first night, we walked all around midtown... Rockefeller Center/5th Avenue/Times Square. We wandered around and found a restaurant we had seen in one of our tourist books called Burger Heaven (chain) in midtown. It was delectable!


Next, we did what any young, love birds would do in NYC, we went ice skating in front of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center. Sorry, we didn't get a picture making out.


That's me in the back. GIRL skated in front of our camera!


All of our touristy books said that the Rockefeller rink would be crowded, but it really wasn't bad. We only waited like 15 minutes to get on the rink. The central park rinks were much more crowded.

big city, bright lights

We leave tomorrow for our trip to NYC!

Haiti - Matt's First Blog Post!

This is my first and potentially last blog posting ☺. I’m not a gifted writer when it comes to detailing what I’ve learned, experienced, or felt. I’ve tried to be concise, but know much has been left out. I do better in face to face conversation and would love to talk with anyone that is interested about my time in Haiti! It was an eye opening and life changing experience that I’m very thankful for. At the end of this post I’ve added a link to a blog for RHFH. I’ve also copied a comment from a blog visitor that explains in a much clearer and more concise way a lot of what I thought and felt during my time in Haiti.

My trip to Haiti was actually a very spontaneous decision for me as I decided on Thursday the 18th to go on a trip that started Monday the 22nd! The purpose of the trip was multi-fold. First, we were going to observe a children’s rescue center and clinic called “Real Hope for Haiti”, or “RHFH” and to vision cast possible future involvement of Austin Stone in Haiti. Second, we wanted to observe and document a water pipeline that was recently destroyed in Hurricane Ike that provided clean water to thousands of villagers where RHFH is located. Finally, one of the team members is in the process of adopting two Haitian children and needed to file paperwork with the US Embassy.

We flew into Port Au Prince, which is the capital city and home to approximately 2.5 million people. Port Au Prince was a little intimidating as it felt very chaotic. Streets are extremely crowded and full of activity from street vendors. It’s polite to honk your car horn to let other cars know you’re passing, that you’d like them to move faster, that you’re moving into the intersection, etc. so horns are constantly sounding. Traffic laws are virtually non-existent, though traffic lights were recently put into place. Adding to the intimidation factor was the fact that Haiti is very unstable politically, not considered a “safe” place for foreigners, no one looks like you and very few speak English.

While in Port Au Prince we visited the US Embassy so that our team member could file adoption paperwork. Adoption in Haiti is a difficult process due to the corruption of the government. Laws change regularly and timetables for adoption largely depend on whether government officials feel like signing paperwork and in many cases, whether cash is handed over under the table. This is just one example of excessive government corruption.

The embassy was very busy with Haitians hoping to get a visa to the US. Many Haitians try to leave the country in hopes of a better life in the US; however, fewer Haitians are granted access to the US these days as the US has become more cautious in giving out visas. Some of the US caution can be traced back to violence attributed to Haitians (mainly young men) in Miami in recent years and cases of Haitians not returning to Haiti when their visa expired.

The afternoon of day 2 we made the trip to Cazale, a village located north of Port Au Prince, to visit RHFH. The trip took 2.5 hours, 3 trucks (“tap-taps”), and lots of help from locals in carrying bags and food across washed out roads and collapsed bridges destroyed by recent hurricanes (namely Ike).

RHFH is run by two sisters (Lori & Licia) from Indiana and approximately 75 hired Haitians. Most of the Haitians are not educated past elementary school, but have been trained by Lori (a nurse) and Licia to care for mal-nutritioned children, provide medical assistance, and take care of administrative tasks.

One part of RHFH’s work in Cazale is taking care of mal-nutritioned children. Currently the center houses approximately 60 malnutritioned children. The children are typically dropped off by a parent or family member that is not able to care for the child. RHFH will care for and nurse the child back to health until they are strong enough to return to their home. In some cases, children will be left at the gate of RHFH and abandoned, in which case RHFH tries to find adoptive parents for the child. It’s heartbreaking to see children that are too weak to cry or children that have been abandoned because of a deformity, lack of want, or in some cases, the inability to provide adequate care or nourishment. What’s striking after so much trouble at their age is the smile on each of their faces. They just want to laugh and play and to be shown love and attention.

RHFH also provides medical services for those in Cazale and surrounding villages. Patients sometimes walk hours to get to the clinic and come to RHFH for things as minor as headaches and as major as AIDS, severe burns, pregnancy, machete wounds, etc. Typically people will start lining up outside the RHFH gate around 3am. By the time clinic opens at 7am, it’s not uncommon for there to be a line of 250-300 people waiting to be cared for. At 7am, clinic workers will go out to the people in the line, hand them a card with a number on it, and collect little cards containing medical information from prior visits. Patients are brought into the clinic in groups of 10-15. While waiting to be cared for, they sit on benches, take part in singing, and are presented with the Gospel.

This summer, Haiti was hit by multiple tropical storms or hurricanes, the most recent being Ike. Ike caused large scale flooding and massive damage throughout Haiti. In Cazale, houses were leveled, farms washed out and covered in boulders and rocks, and their clean water pipeline completely destroyed. Since the flooding, RHFH has been using filters to produce 600 gallons of clean water a day, which is distributed to the community. All 600 gallons were used each day. Within the last week and a half, Water Missions International installed a filter at RHFH that will pump 6,000 gallons of clean water a day!

RHFH is also involved in community development within Cazale. At some point in the past, Lori and Licia started a “community group” composed of villagers that are interested in serving their community. Members pay $5 a year and meet every Sunday for 2 hours to discuss the needs and current situations within the community. The group undertakes projects to meet the needs of villagers and better the community. Currently the group has approximately 30 members.

Part of our time at RHFH was also spent packaging and distributing food to villagers impacted by Hurricane Ike. We packaged and distributed beans, rice, peanut butter, soap, and other supplies to about 70 families. Most of the family representatives that picked up the supplies were women. They stuffed the supplies into large rice bags and carried them home on their heads!

One thing I learned first hand in Haiti is that showing mercy to those considered “undeserving” is not always popular or commended. Recently RHFH took in a man they found unconscious at their gate. This man had murdered multiple people in the village and the villagers had cut off his lips and left him to die. The man somehow made it to the RHFH gate. Lori & Licia knew the history of this man, but felt that if he still had life in him, they had to help him, both physically by caring for his wounds, and spiritually through prayer and sharing the Gospel. This display of mercy was not popular amongst the villagers as they felt justice for this man was death. The mercy showed by Lori & Licia is a great representation of the mercy God has shown me through Jesus.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved.” Ephesian 2:1,4-5

I also realized during my time in Haiti that I have grown very accustomed to the comforts of suburbia USA that much of the world does not have. There’s nothing wrong with these comforts God has blessed many Americans with; however, it’s my fear that comforts lull many to sleep. My prayer is that my heart would never be so attached to the comforts of the world that I’m hesitant to obey if/when God calls me to abandon them for the sake of his name and purpose.

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http://haitirescuecenter.wordpress.com/

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“It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve visited this site.
I forgot that as my hectic life continued, lives there continued to end.
It’s easier to not look, so you don’t have to feel the sadness. Just because I don’t look doesn’t mean that they don’t hurt.
I forget.
How can I forget about them?
Because my perfect, blessed life here in my own bubble continues.
I promise to look more.
When I do look, I find myself almost holding my breath. To see children the same ages as my own suffering.
Dying. To become almost in a way attached to a picture of a child, only to see the pictures of their lifeless feet at the end their beds, just days later. I can’t-not do anything about it.
It’s not right. It’s not fair. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I promise to remember more, and to be thankful for our health and the health of our children.
To do something more about what they are going through.
We all fall asleep under the same moon each night and wake to the same sun.
I wonder what the motherless and fatherless have to look forward to?
Do they know who Jesus is? Do they know that he suffers with them?
I wish that I could get my hands on them.
I plan to make that a reality.
Remember them tonight while you pray and seek within your hearts, to help these precious children.
Blessed are they to be within arms reach of these women and in the Hands of our Heavenly Father.”

Pictures AND STORIES

Click to see Haiti pictures.

Of course, Matt failed to include himself in these pictures.

I thought I would add this link to Jamie's blog. She was on the trip with Matt and updated daily while they were there. She and her husband are adopting two children from Haiti.

Matt says he will blog about the trip, but that's highly unlikely.

These links go directly to Jamie's Haiti posts:

Pictures with Explanations

More Pics w/ Captions

Day 2

Day 3 Part 1

Day 3

Day 4

Haiti Updates

Some updates about Matt's Haiti trip here.

big apple here we come!!!

December 18th-23rd we will be traveling to NYC for a little Christmas Spectacular of our own! I am super-pumped.