Chicken Time!

The last two weeks have gone great with the chicken coops. There have been 6 families who have signed up to be a part of the 1 year payment program where each family gives 10 eggs each week as a payment process where the eggs are then collected and sold by a lady that needed a job. She has done quite well and we have begun to see that many people want to buy the eggs and wish we could sell even more of them. I hope to be able to start a large chicken house this year where we can supply more eggs to Port Au Prince and the surrounding areas and hopefully even provide meat birds. Please pray with me on this that God will provide the needed support to get this started. In the mean time we will continue to deliver the coops. There are 6 more families interested in signing up this week.

Pictures from the last several weeks.

 Moving one of the coops to the orphanage.

 Delivering the 6 hens to our friends in the orphanage.

 Kids loving on Mama chicken

 Everyone admiring the new coops and hens.

 Marc, one of our staff with his new coop. He is excited about having an egg breakfast.

Hen in the nesting box up top.

Grace and More Grace

Monday afternoon we gather around the table with flies buzzing around and we open our Bibles. They all have the same one - it reads Bibla on the front and the Words of Life are in Creole. I decided to go back to foundations of Christianity. Find out what they know and don't know. We talk about the truths and the sharing in the community. I asked if they knew any nonbelievers and a couple of women start spouting off numbers. The houses on the hill are numbered like a street address and they are making reference to those who don't know the King. We pray for Gislene lying sick in the bed and I think what a beautiful sound in my ears to hear them all singing together and laying hands on her ailed body. I wish I could record the voices. They speak prayers in Creole too fast for me to follow and then I think of God knowing fluent Creole and hearing every word. My weaknesses are his strengths and his strengths know no limits. It all ends with a lingering Amen that fills every bit of the space in the little dorm.

Tuesday afternoon we climb into the back of the ambulance and I pray. The girls don't blink climbing in. Kelly, our intern, makes comments that this is not an every day occurrence to load up in the ambulance. We laugh for a minute and then as we put it in drive, I ask who wants to pray. The ambulance has been having trouble in some form or fashion lately. The brakes one week, the engine another. We lift up prayers in the back as we sit around the stretcher and wish for cool air. We get to Port Au Prince and the tire is flat. We make a few stops and barely get to the chicken feed store before closing. Alex agrees to go get the tire patched while we wait for the feed to be mixed. We all laugh as he pulls out of the parking lot with a few jolts and a siren. Alex doesn't drive much and hearing the sirens was almost a grace alert to let people know Alex would be on the streets, Watch out! He pulls out and we see a puddle of liquid the wrong color. Transmission fluid left in the rocks. Not good. We are on our last stop and better get that checked out when we get back to the Hope Center. Kelly says she is being consumed by chikingunya with each mosquito bite. I see swarms of mosquitos and I think hopefully the worst is over and we bypass that virus without hurting bones and high fevers. We laugh again as we hear the sirens and know that Alex is almost here. An ambulance siren has not warned me of Alex before but this day we all knew he was coming around the corner. We laughed from deep inside when we saw the ambulance bumper flapping with the bumps and wind. It had come loose. One more thing loose on the ambulance. The tire place close by was closed so flat tire and loose bumper. We load 8 bags of feed, each one weighing four of Lilly. Not five minutes later we are in the back in downtown Port Au Prince when we smell something bad. Transmission fluid. Charles says it won't budge. Then all we can hear is loud honking. It was by the grace of God that Vladimir was downtown and was there in minutes with the BGM truck. He had picked up Mickie and two team members along with Bickly and Johnny. Alex puts the girls in the backseat and Kelly and I climb in the bed of the truck. I say goodbye to Charles who is wearing a stressful expression on his face. He wants to disappear into thin air.

Kelly and I laugh hysterically in the first five minutes as we've determined my paper thin skirt is flying up to my face and it is a complete wardrobe failure. With the wind I couldn't even pretend to keep something so thin covering me so I hid behind a suitcase and laughed for the next hour.

Charles arrived back at the Hope Center at 9:30 pm after some miscommunication and a near death experience of blocking a main street with a broken down ambulance as a white person in a sea of angry Haitians who couldn't get through. Alex' phone was stolen and Charles was exhausted. Not the outcome anyone was hoping for when we set out to run a few errands for the afternoon.

Wednesday didn't fare much better when Mack got caught on a fence and tore about three inches of skin clear off his side. Charles waited for the BGM truck to return and took Mack to the vet - a six-hour round trip. It's hardly comprehensible to understand that things like a visit to the vet take 6 hours but life in Haiti almost is meant to stretch us in every way. It is all harder and more complicated but in the long run we are so happy it is possible that blessings overwhelm the challenge. Mack has a side of stitches and a cone around his neck to keep him from infection. Another night Charles and Alex were back after dark.

Our nights this week have been peppered with a little blond in our house not able to sleep. Charles and I are practically drawing straws to see whose turn it is to put her back to bed. Ava's stomach aches continue and we aren't sure why she won't sleep.

Thursday lent itself to no team and a day to stay here. I made a veggie pie with all of the veggies that Charles has grown in the back yard lately. It was wonderful. I was glad to send Kelly off with a good meal and one that ended in ice cream.

Friday we spent the day in Petionville at Karibe. It was meant to be a day off and one in the pool. The weather didn't cooperate and after a few hours the rains came in. Since we made a plan with Alex to meet us early evening, we made the best of a rainy afternoon with chocolate cake for Charles' birthday and some American style cheese pizza. We also met an American girl who offered information about pediatricians and other things that reassured me in so many ways. She left her number and like that we are new, fast friends. It doesn't take a lot in Haiti to become friends with another American because we all need each other here. We need the friendship and the commonalities that we miss otherwise.

Friday night we were met at Hope Center with hard news that international living has its own requirements and some of them equal challenges. We are praying through some hard realities of living overseas that will require patience and a lot of prayer.

Even though, the weekend has brought a sense of rest and contentment. We are grateful for Meredith coming for two nights to see the orphanage and the work she has agreed to do starting next year. I share thoughts on how to learn Creole and the ups and downs of life here. She is so excited about coming and it spills over into my thoughts.

Our friend Kelly sent an entire suitcase with Meredith of goodies for us. What a treat. The girls are delighted with new paints and books. Charles has restocked his beef jerky and I am excited to have more running shirts and tuna packets.

A new intern, Patton, arrives and has a box of goodies from Leyna and Heather. I continue to see blessings pour out of the box. Not just material things but love and support spilling over. Patton plays hide and seek with the girls and I am excited we are a revolving door for these interns.

God is so good. I find myself struggling to be content and at the same time wondering what it would take. I have been reiterating to Lilly to ask me for something, wait for the answer and then be respectful of my answer. I realized that's what we do when we ask God but so often I ask God and like Lilly and Ava, I hear his answer and then say ... but, please, please, pleeeeeeeease ...... as if his answer wasn't good enough or the right one. Here's to praying that I learn what I teach and that God uses parenting for my own good. Let us not grow weary!

God is blessing through packages, new friends, rest, ministry and many other ways.....

Mountain Run and More Adventures

The mountain view from our door

Miguelson and Aves on their way up ... Miguelson got a little nervous and opted to get out and walk

close to the top!

Talk about crowd support!

At the top!

Headed back down the mountain 

Tonight I marked off a run on my Haiti Bucket List. I've been looking at this mountain from my front door for several months that had etched out switchbacks and looked challenging but doable. I asked if Charles would drive me to the base and wait for me to run to the top and he agreed that we could do it this weekend. I had no idea what a good time it would be. After a long but good day in Port Au Prince, we quickly changed out of church clothes and grabbed a water bottle. We guestimated it would be about a 30-40 minute run up and maybe a little longer on the way down. We also thought it's about 2500-3000 ft climb altogether. Charles suspected he could make it up about half way and would wait for me there. After a quick ride in the truck Charles said, "ok, hop out ... this is it." I waved to Ava riding in Charles' lap behind the wheel and Miguelson in the passenger's side and hit the rocky road.

The switchbacks got shorter and the view became more and more vast. I could feel the cool air hitting my face and sweat soaked shirt. I heard the engine of the truck behind me and would occasionally look over my shoulder to see if all was well. Mack would bark at me for not letting him out of the back to run with me but with no ledge I didn't want to chance him knocking me over and off the side of the mountain. There were some narrow stretches. The gravel road was steep. I kept seeing motorcycles struggling to gain traction and make it up. People would get off the back and lighten the load to allow them to climb the mountain. At one point Miguelson asks a guy on motorcycle how far to the top and the guy says, "Far. Real Far." I think wow, my calves are already starting to burn. I keep waiting for Charles to honk to signal he can't keep climbing the mountain in the truck. And then I see blond hair and white little girl on top of dark shoulders. Ava is on top and Miguelson is taking on the lightening the load method for Charles. He laughs at me because we always seem to talk him into these "easy tasks" or "quick errands" and here he's hiking to the top with a little person on top. He tells me he's nervous to be in the truck with the steep climbs.

I love seeing the smiles on all these Haitian faces. All ages of girls, boys, men, women. Very rural locals. They are so happy to see a blanc running up the mountain and even happier about a truck going up behind me. Miguelson is in the bed of the truck now and people want to climb in too to save their weary legs and ride up instead of walk. The closer I got to the top, the more I was greeted with clapping, big smiles, thumbs up. It felt as if I was the local Olympian celebrity running through town. The dirt road was starting to line with community. Faces I haven't seen before. Women were running out of their mud and stick homes to greet me on the road and encourage me to make it to the top. Every time I thought I was at the top, the switchbacks continued, but so did the truck. Charles was enjoying the challenge and the draw of the community as well. By this time I had been running for more than an hour and a half. STRAIGHT UP. (We were way off on our guestimation). I could barely call it running in some spots because I felt like my goal was not to blow backwards. I had to lean in so much to meet gravity's demands to stay on my feet. Little groups of kids were gathering with chatter about the blancs and the machine going up the mountain. I'd hear a "what is your name?" and a "sa bon - good sport" along the way. Lots of clapping and big smiles. I honestly don't remember the last time I saw that much genuine excitement. Really. I was so floored by the sheer frenzy of it all. I thought I might see a few people along the way but wow. There was a whole multitude of people. Kids running with me. People cheering. Their dark skin and overjoyed smiles were something I hope to have etched in my mind forever. I finally made it to the top and so did Charles, Ava, Miguelson and Mack. Charles could barely get out of the truck because so many people were standing there. They were just as excited he made it in the truck as they were to see this blanc run to the top. We stood at the top and looked out, took a few pictures, and giggled with them. "They haven't seen any white people up here," Miguelson said. "They can't believe you came up here." We stood there and prayed for them and with them and shared the love of Christ with all of them right there on the top of the mountain. Mountain top experience doesn't even describe it.

Kids ran down behind the truck for quite a while and we promised to come back. I thought to myself how simple life is that a girl running and a truck behind her could bring such excitement and joy. I love it. It's not a new video game or a pair of new sneakers, it's just a visit to a community who rarely is visited. And we didn't even know God had that in mind.

I ran down a few steps but we were going to meet nightfall so I got back in and held Ava. She was so content ... She waved to all the running children, "oivre sheri, oivre ... bye." I could tell Miguelson was still nervous and not wanting to sit in the front seat. We had been gone over two hours by now and it would be a race against the clock to get down safely in the daylight we had left. The sunset over the mountains was unbelievable though! I say a prayer for safety with the descents including really drastic downhill stretches. Charles cracks a joke that Miguelson should start praying, even better, repenting. I say if the breaks go out we are going to meet Jesus today and Miguelson says with a hesitant expression, "I"m not ready yet." We all laugh that we are making it down just fine and everyone seems to be in good spirits. I replay the videos I took on the camera and we rehash the night's events. We all seem to be pleasantly surprised at how much genuine delight we got out of that adventure and thanked God that we saw more of Haiti than we had before the run. We made it down and back to the Hope Center right at 8pm as Charles predicted ... just in time for some home made tortillas and fresh fajitas. What a full heart and a fun run!



Going backwards from the run this evening ... we had a blast over the weekend ... it really started Thursday. I was up at 5a.m. and out of the gate a few minutes later. Debi and I met Dawn went to Wahoo Bay, a beach resort, for the day. No translators. No kids. No husbands. Just a girls day out. It was so good to stand in the ocean and talk about the ins and outs of ministry life. We talked about hurts and victories, funny patients and delivering babies. How to separate home life and ministry and balance with boundaries. We have so much in common raising kids in Haiti and serving literally all those right outside our door. As the day ended we laughed on the way home at not understanding the little Haitian trying to sell us a watermelon at the road side stand. Then the night went on when rain, traffic and wrong turns added to our drive time. Miguelson met me and Debi to take us back to Hope Center and by that night I was completely refreshed and ready to be mom, wife, teacher and hostess back at the Hope Center.

Friday night came with its own challenges as we said goodbye to teams and visited a former employees who is fighting severe acid reflux. Gislene has lost an unhealthy amount of weight and is struggling to swallow. We talked her into coming to the Hope Center to be under Tony's supervision and hopefully to start eating and drinking again. By the time we brought her on Saturday the girls had colored pictures for her and written notes of encouragement. They even had a smoothie ready for her to try.

We woke up to our first Saturday with no arriving team since May. This week's team had to cancel and we were left with an easy Saturday morning. The Farmer had a meeting with those in the community about the chicken coops and eggs program. It is discouraging and disappointing every time we "want to help" and the Haitians or anyone for that matter, don't want our help. The members of the community he met with were apprehensive to sign a contract saying they would return 10 eggs a week from their chickens for the buy in program. The Farmer walked away with confusing thoughts about next steps and lazy locals. "They want another free handout he says." He wasnt too worried. We would make a new plan. Lunch was egg sandwiches all around. It was good to have Vladimir and Miguelson at the bar eating lunch with the girls. It's a rare occasion that Miguelson and Vlad are here together.

Another highlight of the weekend was going to Vladimir's soccer game. We drove to the field for the tournament and as soon as we get inside the fenced field, Ava goes running to Vlad and says, "Hi Baldimir, I came to see you play. I love you." I think his heart melted right there on the soccer team in front of all the other team players dressed in blue uniform. Some bystanders pulled up a bench and we had front row seats. We stayed only for the first half but plenty enough time for the girls to yell and clap for "Baldimir's" best efforts. When we left Ava met his eyes and waved with a big grin. She said, "Baldimir sure is good at soccer." Vladimir told me several times thanks for coming. I thought it was cute his grin was from ear to ear that he had two little cheerleaders show up to be his biggest fans for the game.

I made home made pizza and took some up on the hill to Vierge and Marie Therese. They cook for my family every week and since there is no team this week, I offered to cook a meal for them. It brought smiles and light conversation on the front porch. We discussed Bible study and neighbors, pizza and soccer. I love interacting with our friends on the hill.

This morning we were able to go to Port Au Prince Fellowship and worship in English. It's like water to a dry soul when we worship in English. I don't have to work at the translation and my heart connects in song and praise. I love seeing the sea of white and black faces in the congregation. It's a beautiful thing to see that kind of diversity in the church. I was glad to sit with friends - back together with Dawn and Debi. Dawn's girls and mine embraced and shared seats. The fun with friends lasted through conversation at lunch. It was so good. Refreshing. Heart warming. Good for our souls.

So much to be thankful for.

Please pray

* as we start another week with homeschool and some new strategies
* Charles tries to find alternatives to help the locals be self sustaining through agricultural projects
* for the people on the top of that mountain. For salvation.
* rest as we have two weeks with no teams
* women's Bible study to be fruitful
* training in September for women in the church to help start Sunday School for the children

 Wahoo Bay!!

 This lady is carrying 300 + eggs on her head! 

 Vladimir and Miguelson spent the weekend with us

 Watch out Haitian drivers, Lilly is behind the wheel!

The girls with Vlad at his soccer tournament! Go Vlad Go!

An Egg a Day - A Note from the Farmer

Many of you know that Hannah and I started our journey in Hatit last February. I wanted to write you today to explain one of our first agriculture project that will be launched this week. Over the past 5 months we have been working on providing chicken coops for the families on the hill through the help and support of churches and team members. The coops were designed to be a mobile coop know as a chicken tractor. A chicken tractor is a small bottomless coop that can be moved around the garden. By moving the coop as needed the chickens can eat fresh grass and bugs in the garden and can work and fertilize the soil for the gardener. In addition, moving the coops helps offset the cost of feed even though feed will be available for purchase through our organization. Each coop has 2 nesting boxes, a perch, an access door, an egg collection door, and a double layered vented roof that covers the nesting boxes and provides shade underneath.

 Each family will have the opportunity to enter into a lease purchase agreement for 1 year to own 6 laying hens and 1 coop. The agreement was set up as a sustainable project that provides each family with eggs among other things. Each hen lays about one egg a day providing a family with the potential to have 42 eggs each week for food and sale if they desire to do so. I felt that a 1 year agreement is critical in making the project sustainable. By having each family enter into a contract they will be able to take pride in ownership, learn responsibility and care of the hens, and gain understanding of how a small business operates through buying feed and learning to sell eggs for more that the cost of the feed. The contract will also be a way to monitor the chickens and coops for care. By having contingencies in the contract, the family will have to understand that they cannot eat or neglect the chickens or they may face a penalty and even lose the hens and coop to another willing family. Once the 1 year contract is over, they will have full ownership of the coop and hens. Hopefully they will see the benefits at this point and will continue to have the hens for producing eggs for eating and sale.

The payment process will work through designating a person on the hill to collect 10 eggs each week for 52 weeks from each of the families. The 10 eggs collect will be used to create a sale opportunity for 1 to two ladies to sale in the market place. The money made from the sale of the eggs will do so much to not only give the ladies a job but also to study the egg market prior to setting up a larger poultry business that has the potential to provide food, jobs, and to be the first locally supported operation of the hope center.

Please keep us in your prayers as we launch this project. Please pray
* the families will understand the intent and need for the contract
* the hens will stay healthy and be a continued help to the families.
* God will give us wisdom and support as we continue to grow in the poultry business.

Also, please give God praise as he is the one that does it all and brought this project into existence. To Him be the Glory.

In addition we have been eating the harvest from the gardens. The gardens are a trial run and on a small scale but ideally will be much larger for the seasons in the future as will the yielded crops. In the mean time we are all enjoying okra, tomatoes, eggplant, beans, cantelope, watermelon, spinach, arugula, beets and cucumbers.

The grounds at the Hope Center continue to become greener after I, with the help of a team, planted more than 80 trees. The maintenance of the trees and plants without an easy water source and a lack of rain continues to be challenging. We are in the process of looking to increase water access so that the trees outside of the Hope Center will have a better likelihood of surviving the heat.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support. I look forward to updating you more as projects develop and evolve.

Two Thumbs Up

Alex and the girls! What would we do without him?

 Baby Elijah who was resuscitated for more than an hour with compressions and mouth-to-mouth and survived. He's currently in a NICU in a Port Au Prince hospital

 Baby M who weighs under 4 lbs and is fighting for her life

 Debi with a coke that couldn't describe her any better

 Two thumbs up Miguelson

 Big baby boy we delivered!

Tonight marks the first 24 hours in more than a week that a lady doesn't scream out in labor pains inside the Hope Center walls. Yesterday another baby came out in distress. The interesting story is that last Tuesday we didn't have what we needed (an ambu bag) to resuscitate a baby and so we did compressions and mouth-to-mouth for over an hour and made it to the hospital with a baby fighting for his life. While there, we saw a Canadian nurse who Debi knew who had doubted the baby's odds when she heard about our lack of resuscitation equipment. She gave us an ambu bag as a gift. (Small things go a long way in Haiti - or anywhere). Yesterday the baby girl born in distress had lost oxygen from a tight cord. Debi pulled out the ambu bag and the resuscitation was much quicker. Both babies survived. Hallelujah, Praise God! We lost count on babies delivered this week but it was enough to satisfy statistics on babies in distress.

Friday we rode into town with the team. Ava looks a little green. She gets carsick with every ride in. It's bumpy and no air conditioning. Carsick and Haiti go hand in hand for Ava. Alex offers a seat by him and fans her off. Alex is so happy to have his little buddy. She gives him a half smile. Who else can my kids be friends with when the 20 people who get off the bus on Saturdays get right back on a few days later? They learn like we do to invest in the constant and consistent.

We dropped the team off and went to a nearby hotel. Lunch with kelly, our current intern, and Debi who made it out of the clinic long enough to get dressed and enjoy some time outside the walls. Cheese pizza and sodas all around. Laughter and fast internet. A break. Sigh. Time in the pool. Blond hair turns to green streaks from the chlorine. Two happy little girls squeal with delight over the freedom in the water and the sunshine on their faces. Charles and I take a breath. No crisis, no gas leaks, missed flights, hospital breakdowns. Just an afternoon off. Miguelson walks in. I think to myself it's good Charles has a buddy to talk to. A little later Ava comes out with her cover up and shoes on the wrong feet. She's fretting about not being able to zip up the cover up. Miguelson squats down to her level and says, "come here, Doctor." She turns around and he zips it up for her and gently switches her shoes around. She gives two thumbs up and says it out loud. "Two thumbs up, Guelson." There is this one special second between these two. I think how fortunate that my girls see these men who are treating them well. Especially as their skin colors are a stark contrast and their ages lend a wide gap. Lilly hugs Miguelson's leg and they laugh over making him walk when they are hanging on him with their weight. All three laugh. Miguelson's smiles enough that his dimples show.

The girls spread out on the bus seat and snooze all the way back in. Meresse talks Creole to Alex and I watch the trucks play chicken in the bumpy road. Straight to bed after a quick dinner. It's good to have a break. I shed tears recently over having to share the girls with strangers every week who have an edge about them, a newness that draws Lilly and Ava right in. It's hard to compete with a 20 something who arrives with wonder and has never seen their trampoline or the pet turtle around the corner. So much discovery Lilly wants to share that I've already seen.

But outside the walls when it's just us, I see the discovery in their eyes and I sing and play with them. We connect. I struggle myself with wanting to give in to the team members - letting them take on a parenting role for the afternoon while I read my book or talk to a friend. But I know I can't collect the time back later.

Saturday we get ready to ride back in to get the next team. Has it already been 24 hours? We walk into the clinic in time to help a laboring mama get on the table and push. A big baby boy comes out and the clinic is filled with tiny cries and a weary mama.

It's time to go get the team. Dispute breaks out among staff and real life shines through. Not the pretty parts. The sinful, I-don't-want-to parts. I see Charles' anxiety grow and a tense walk up the steps of the bus. Running two teams 24-7 has its ups and downs. This is summer's end of non-stop pick up and drop off and knocks on the door at all hours. Hosting is a big job. Nights in clinic delivering babies, interpreting, hospital runs, etc. It's a broad job description that stretches all of us.

I realize by the time we are back on the bus we're tired and it's only noon. Ava cried in the night. Fever. Stomach ache. Same story since May. Just repeats now and again. I rest in her bed. Watch her sleep. It's peaceful but I'm not sleeping. She lays out on the bus again. Her head rests in Miguelson's lap and she's snoozing the whole way in. I can't help but take a picture. Black arm bracing a head full of blond hair from all the bumps in the road. The first team lands and we spend the afternoon waiting for the second before a long 2 hours of Port Au Prince traffic. Saturday dinner starts a new week of learning names, sharing space and a dusty country with new eyes.

A Sunday afternoon and I feel the wind in my hair on the rocky road. Another team member joins me and Mack for a quick loop. Bonswa. We greet those around us. We see a group of three Haitians walking with suitcases balanced on their heads and I say what if the airport looked like this. We would all be on our cell phones with suitcases on our heads. We laugh and go back to watching our feet and exchanging English words. We walk through the village after that. I stop at the orphanage and take four along with us. Hands held, big smiles. Stephenson can't hide a tooth because his heart is overflowing. We love him so much we thought to take him along. Christana and Edna ask in their best English, "What is your name?" and they giggle that they know the hand-locked team member understands them. After the walk we return to the orphanage and the other nine are filling the swings and slides on the playground. They run to Tony with arms open to embrace "Papa Tony" after his time in the States. The playground is so full and so happy with these 13. Their contentment overflows and my heart is convicted.

I just really like it here. I like the hard. I like that tears come because God didn't call us to easy or comfortable and lessons don't come that way. I look at the half built homes and know they ran out of money. Somehow that is more raw and honest than a house on credit. The kids ride back and forth to church today on donkeys and I think we barely get to church with a gas-filled car. It's so simple here. It's organic. No sugar coating. Hard. One team member says a girl just held my hand as we walked in the village and it was so tough. I told him we have to use more force to inject vaccines or start IVs because their skin is weathered and tough. It's a reflection of their life here. I hope I can learn something while I'm here. I want to learn contentment without all the American fill-ins I left behind.

I tell Charles I thought we were coming here to make an impact on Haitians. Of course I knew they would be making the bigger impact on me. What I didn't necessarily count on was that we would be impacting the lives of the team members who have an immeasurable capacity to take it back to the States and make an impact there. I'm not sure why I saw that as a secondary ministry but I'm continuing to see it as equally important. Lilly hears me say this to Charles and says ... remember, Mama, to Him who is able to more than all we ask or imagine ....

Wise beyond her years sometimes.