Eight days and counting

Paul at RHFH (August 2011)

One week from tomorrow evening, Paul and I will start our journey back to Haiti.  This will be our first time traveling to Haiti together in nearly four years!!  Though we've each been back multiple times since that particular trip (sometimes even within a few weeks of each other), this is the first time that we've both been able to go at the same time in far too long, so I'm pretty excited about it.  We'll actually be going our separate ways on the third day of the trip, but it'll still be nice to travel together and to get to spend at least a few days in this place that we both love.

We'll be flying from Texas to South Florida on the 10th, spending what I'm sure will be a comfortable and restful night at the airport (<---sarcasm), and then arriving in Port au Prince in the morning on the 11th.  We'll both spend the first two nights of the trip at Heartline's fantastic guesthouse, and then on the 13th, Paul will head out to Cazale for the week to work with Real Hope for Haiti.  As I've done on my past two trips, I'm planning to split my time between Notre Maison and Heartline, though I will probably be spending more time at Heartline this time.  We'll fly back to South Florida on May 20th, and then we'll be renting a car and driving up to North Florida to visit our family for a few days before returning to Texas on the 22nd.  It's going to be a full 12 days (and I'm sure it'll all go by too fast)!

with baby Raphael at Heartline
(November 2011)

As always, we would greatly appreciate your prayers as we travel.  A few specific requests:

1. That we would joyfully, humbly, and selflessly serve those around us.
2. That the Lord would use this trip to teach us more about Himself and His heart for those in need.
3. For me, for wisdom in deciding when to be at Notre Maison and when to be at Heartline. I very much want to be both places the whole time, which obviously is not possible.  Since this is a shorter trip, I'm especially aware of time constraints.

Due to the craziness of the past few months, pretty much the only trip preparation I've managed to this point -- 8 days before we leave! -- is setting up the travel arrangements.  My boss and I had been planning to take advantage of Starbucks' month of community service in April to collect items for Heartline at our store, but unfortunately that ended up falling through.  So instead of already having suitcases full of donated items, I have...nothing.  Not the end of the world, because I can (and will) go buy as many of their requested items as possible, but if anyone is interested in helping me finance this, it would be greatly appreciated!  Click here to donate.

Again, thank you all for your prayers and encouragement and support.  I'll try to update as much as possible from Haiti!