Wednesday, August 10, 2016

New faces, farewells and hosting company


When we arrived back in Haiti, we were happy to meet a new family that was staying on the campus here for about a month.  Our kids really had fun playing and hanging out with Tucker (pictured with Toby and Hadley) and Layna!




Kurt turned 40 in July!  We enjoyed hosting a little party at our house to celebrate!




At the end of July we had to say good-bye to the Klops (Des and Lee are on the right).  Lee has put much time and talent into the hospital and will be greatly missed!  Desma tirelessly taught our kids school, and we appreciated her energy, enthusiasm and love for our kids!  Sheila (on the left) has been a dear friend and mentor to us, and we will really miss her when she moves to Cayes in September!  Also, I will be taking over her role managing the Doctor's Hotel that we have here on campus for the doctors on call.  Hopefully that will be a good experience for me:)





 We enjoyed having our friends Brent and Alisha (and son Silas) over for supper one evening.  They also brought a couple of our kids' friends along who then stayed the night and played with the boys the next day.



This was a fun day with friends, and the boys loved the air-soft wars:)




 Another night we invited the OB Dr. at the hospital and his wife and daughter to have supper with us.  Also, Patty is a new Dr. that has moved here to work at the hospital.  We are very thankful to have her here, and are enjoying getting to know her!




Before the Zimms head home for furlough, we wanted to have them for pizza on the grill.  We had a fun night together!




I found a recipe for copy-cat Chik-Fil-A nuggets---deep fried yumminess!  We have to get our little taste of America however we can!



Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Furlough-Fun-Family-Friends

We are so thankful to have had a safe, wonderful, refreshing vacation to Illinois, Florida, Canada, and Wisconsin!  Wow, we really fit a lot in!  We will let the pictures do the talking....





                  
Kurt and the boys spent a week in Canada on a fishing trip with Dad P. and the Plattner guys.
 They caught, ate, and brought home lots of fish!   



 

Since the guys went fishing, we girls thought it only fair to go on our own road trip!  We headed south the Destin, FL and spent a wonderful week of relaxing, swimming, eating, and just enjoying time together!  Many great memories were made!




 Brenna got to hold a fawn that we found on a jeep trail.       Supper on the porch at the Roth's!  (this was only one of the many meals and gatherings they hosted--thanks a million!).  So many great times!  





 We spent 3 beautiful days in Fish Creek, WI with my mom and dad!  Such sweet memories of biking, ice cream, swimming, sunsets over Lake Michigan and mini-golfing (my mother beat us all!).






Our next trip to WI was to St. Germaine with our good friends the Grimms!  We spent lots of time on the water and also found time for baseball, eating out, bag toss, and even a fire in the fireplace when it got cold!  Very special times!





Kurt and his bro!

Waiting for the 4th of July parade!

July 4 was a special day with the Plattner family!  This is Brenna and her cousins playing in the creek.




Steak n Shake is a family favorite for the Wiegands.  We enjoyed an adults-only night out!





It was so great to spend a day with Leah at her family's lake house!  Also, our friend Kirk came for the day, and we were so happy to see him.  Leah's dad flew the Haitian flag on their dock for the day in honor of us "Haitian" visitors!





Our boys spent so much time playing baseball this summer, and they loved it!





The Wiegand cousins and Dads had a campout at Evergreen Lake.  That's always a fun tradition the boys look forward to!






The line-up of cousins at my Uncle's cabin!  We spent a couple days there with my family and had more fun than I could ever write in this blog post!  We are hoping it becomes an annual event!  

Canoeing the Walnut Creek.





Dear, dear Grandma!  Brenna and I went to Hardee's with her one day and really appreciated the time we had together!  Kurt and I each have a grandma in Eureka, and they are both so special to us!


A special thanks to each of you hosted us, showered us with love, and bent over backward to make our trip so wonderful!  Praise God from whom all blessing flow!

We've been back in Haiti for 3 weeks now and definitely settling in to life here again.  

Here's a quick update on the situation in Bonne Fin.  Unfortunately, the first week we were back in Haiti, there were some roadblocks again in Bonne Fin.  Thankfully, it's been pretty quiet since then. We continue to see some benefits from the ongoing dialogue we've had with the community regarding the electricity situation.  In recent meetings, there seems to be a greater sense of reasonableness and more open, productive dialogue.   Last week, Kurt was visited by Minustah officers.  These officers are part of the United Nations (UN) presence here in Haiti.  They work along side of the Haitian National Police.  Kurt was thankful to have their support & was glad to know that they are available to help us if we have more difficulties in the future.  Thanks for the continued prayer support as we serve God here at our mission in southern Haiti.