Stuff is Getting REAL Now!

Two weeks from now, I'll be waking up in Haiti and the team will be sitting down to breakfast.

TWO WEEKS!

Let me take a moment to THANK everyone who has been praying for us and supported us financially!  You may not be making the trip with us but you certainly are and continue to be a HUGE component in making this trip a reality.  Because of your generosity, we not only raised the funds we needed but exceeded the goal enabling the purchase of bibles written in Haitian Creole to pass out when we are there.  PRAISE GOD INDEED!!

Life around the house as of late has been filled with some unpleasant truths and realities and I think because of this, the days till Haiti have escaped me some.  It wasn't as "real" when I made a trip to get some clothing items I needed or got my various immunizations. It wasn't as "real" when I began putting aside the items on our "what to pack" list or packing and decorating a box to take to Edeline, our sponsor child.

I guess getting that flight information, schedule for our time in Haiti and working on scheduling rides to and from the airport made it real.  Now the nerves have kicked in a bit and the crap we've been dealing with here at home has taken its rightful seat compared to my trip - THE BACKSEAT!

One of the more difficult things I will manage is on a personal level.  This will be the first time since December 2007 that I will go without having ANY daily contact with my husband.  Be it in person, voice over the phone, online or via text we have not gone a single day without some kind of communication.  Haven't missed ONE in six and a half YEARS!  Going from everyday to 6 days in a row - yeah.  WOWZERS.  We will also have little time when I return since the very next day he travels for a job which takes him away for a week.  At least we can communicate in some way that week!

I say this often and almost in every blog post but I look forward to coming back with a changed perspective and being a changed person in some way or in many ways.  I look forward to meeting people from a world I have never experienced.  I look forward to meeting the little girl (who just reached her 10th birthday) that we sponsor to not only put real faces to the letters but to let her know in person that there is a family who prays for her and loves her.  I look forward to getting dirty - yeah, for some strange reason this is appealing to me and from all I've heard getting dirty will NOT be a problem!

I'm also looking forward to unplugging for a week.  I don't like the not being able to speak with my husband or daughter but we all need to unplug.  My daughter asked me last night what I'd do on the airplane without technology and I said I guess I'll read or talk to people!  Then I started thinking to myself ,"what will I do?" and frankly, that's kind of sad.  Between texting, Facebook, Twitting (I refuse to be a Twit!), Pinning, emailing... we've become a society that is moving away from people and this trip is ANYTHING BUT moving away - it is about getting closer and building a community and Christ centered relationships with people. I look forward to maybe becoming a little less of an introvert because of this experience.

While I'd love to blog about my trip as it unfolds, I'm going to ask my husband to share team updates while I'm gone on Facebook (ironic after a blurb about unplugging!) for anyone interested in keeping tabs on the team and hearing about all the things God is leading us to accomplish.

Please continue to pray for our team and the people in Haiti we are going to serve.  Please pray for all the sponsor children we will be visiting on behalf of our church family.  Yesterday I learned there are now 70 children being sponsored by families in my church and we are going to visit EVERY ONE of them! How AWESOME is that!?!?!?!

I'm off to make some lists of things left to do before I leave so TTFN....