January 26th, 2010: Getting to Haiti is Half the Battle

Hi,

It is Tuesday night, January 26th. We left tyler on Monday afternoon to Orlando then drove 4 hours down to Fort Pierce where we are catching a missionary flight with Missionary Flights International Tuesday morning.
I am more excited than usual because we might be flying to Haiti on a
DC-3! Yes you heard right a WWII plane that was around before my dad was born.

When we got there we queued up wit several hundred other Christians seeking to get in and assist the first responders. There was every major NGO there, Samaritan's Purse, World Vision, MTI, Baptist Missions, and a whole host of others. As promissed there was DC-3's, but my group went on a turbo prop donated by Joe Gibb's Racing Team. We all crammed in with our backpacks full of energy bars and anti-mosquito devices and headed off to Haiti.

Flying to Haiti was beautiful until we came in for landing. The airport is now a militarized base with most aircraft being military aircraft. As we approached it looked as if the city was burning, but this was just the cement dust be blown by the wind.

As far as I can see the Haitian government no longer exists, it wasn't much to start with but now it is completely destroyed. Police, military and firemen are either dead or looking for their own family members. Even the UN forces stationed here under MUNISTAH have suffered massive loss to its senior leadership. As we drove the 20 miles to Mission of Hope we were struck by the devistation and the smell of death that wafted in the air.

Pray for these people, it would not be an exageration to say that every family here lost someone.

The depth and loss of these people is unimaginable.

Mark - Out

January 22nd, 2010: I am Deploying to Haiti

I was just notified that I will be deploying to Haiti on January 25th to begin our assessment in that country.

I am so excitied to get a chance to help these people. We will be working with 3 other Chrisitan agencies with permanent and long term presence in this country: Windows of Hope, Mission of Hope and Convoy of Hope. I know the "Hope" thing is a little redundant, but we run into the same problem with "Mercy"

I will be going with Captain Jon Fadely a long term maritime officer with Mercy Ships. Please pray for our safety and my my families safety as I once again deploy with out them.

Jan 13th, 2010: Haiti Earthquake

Yesterday, January 12, 2010, shortly before 5pm, a Richter scale 7.3 earthquake, lasting 35 seconds, struck Haiti. This was the most powerful earthquake to strike the country for 200 years. The hypocenter of the earthquake was close to the surface of the earth (10 km deep) and its epicenter was close to the city of Léogâne, 17 km South West of the capital city, Port-au-Prince.

Estimates say up to 200,000 people have died and 1.5 -2 million have been left homeless. Please pray for the nation of Haiti and those deploying as first responders to this crisis.

Mercy Ships and its partners in haiti are beginning the process of assessing the needs of this country and its people. I hope to be a part of this response as we assess what services and equipment we can provide to the first responders and eventually those involved in the reconstruction of these people's lives and nation.

A month of chaos

Well I am not even sure where the time has gone. But I am trying to get back at this again. Mark went to Africa and came home. In the mean time, i gave 1 month notice at my previous job and have started a new job. I am covering some nursing home work for the doctor I am working with and tomorrow we open an outpatient clinic. The name of the clinic will be Caris Medical Associates, which means grace/forgiveness. I am looking forward to getting back to outpatient work again. I really enjoy my new office and the people I am working with. We have had a few hard things in the last few weeks, but we are moving through the stress, I think. I will get caught up again, but here is a pic of the family when my brother and the boys came to visit last weekend.

Mark is off again-AFRICA

Well here we go again. Mark is off to Africa again. He leaves tomorrow for Benin and Togo. He goes to the ship for a day or two, then he drives 4 hours across the border into Togo. He is looking forward to the trip. He will be gone for 3 weeks. We always miss him when he is gone, but i know it is what God has for us at the moment. The girls really miss him when he is gone. Cailin was teary when she went to be tonight. She always gets really emotional when Mark leaves. Jessie is always stoic, but i know she really misses him. Jessie and Mark are much too alike in so many ways. He does so much around here, I get so tired when he is gone, oh and lonely.

Well for anyone who does not know, i have resigned my current position with the clinic I have been at for the last 2.5 years. It is time for many reasons. I am going to move on and work with another doctor here in Tyler. It will give some new variety to the things that I do. So i will spend my last month at the clinic without Mark here to support me. It will be a long September. It should be an interesting month.

please pray for our family, especially the girls. pray for mark to travel safe and return home healthy. pray for him to get the work completed that he needs. He loves what he does. Pray that he has a great time of connection with the missionaries in Togo, even if that is through peanut M&Ms. Pray for the community, for all of the people in our lives with H1N1!!!! We have had so many cases in the clinic. I pray that my SUPERHUMAN immunity holds strong:)

We are so blessed with all of the wonderful people in our lives.

First Day of School

Well first day of 5th and 8th grade. Time just flies. Jessie had fun re-uniting with her friends. Her history teacher/coach was impressed with the places she has been in her life. She is so excited to see everyone and about what the year is going to hold. Cailin on the other hand is stressed and it is only day one. She just felt the day was very hard. She is already afraid she will not pass, and it is only day one. Some tears as she went off to bed, everyone is quiet and sleeping at the moment. Makes me tired:)
We are getting ready for Mark to head to Togo on Sept 8th. He will actually go to the ship first in Benin and then off to Togo to get things in order for the ship. He is excited. he loves his trips to africa. Wish we were all going. Spending time now paying off Mark's school loans.
I am ready for the fall weather. It was hot again today.

We need help:)

OK, so apparantly we are not good at this. We are trying to figure out what we did wrong with the link to the blog. Perhaps my sweet husband has been out of IT too long, hehehe. So he is trying to fix things. Jessie worked at the office with me today and she thinks that she is going to run the front office tomorrow while Cynthia is out for the day. I guess we will see. She looked so grown up today. Our friend Cynthia took us out to dinner at tour favorite restaurant, Villa Montez. I had Chilean Seabass and it was heavenly. The girls always love the food and ended with the HUGE chocolate cake. I managed to avoid even licking the chocolate off my fingers. I have ended yet another day with some fresh cherries. I dont know what I will do when they are all gone for the year. I love them. We walked through the door and Cailin went to bed, she was soooo tired. Tomorrow is her last day of day camp and Jessie will work with me for the half day tomorrow. I love fridays!!!!! ok just figured out in my fatigue i spelled hitch hiker wrong when i first gave the link to mark to send out. oopppps.