Day 3: A Good Day

John put these up outside of GLA today!  :-)  Getting festive around here!

Trimble's House:  Outside, after church

We were playing "gonna get ya!"

Watching the football game...  Ruth, Tanya and Aaron

Joe and Sonice

We started off by getting a shower! Yes! Gotta love shower days! :-) Then we ate some power bars, found some coffee and headed up on the balcony with Samuel for about 1 hour.

We then PACKED into the SUV (9 of us in a car that fits 7 comfortably) to head to Joel and Yvonne Trimble's house (http://www.haitiforchrist.net/) for church. It felt like we were our own Tap-Tap (Haitian bus.) And the ride was bumpy, so I think I came out of that with a few bruises, as I was packed against the side on something that probably isn't supposed to be used as a seat. Church was good - it was a very good message about trusting God to take you to the place you need to be in life. Joe and I were also able to visit with Joel after church, which was good. He was adopted so it was good to hear his story...

We will go back to Trimble's house for Christmas, both a candlelight service and dinner (which I hear is going to be quite a feast!) After Tuesday though - GLA will get quiet... many staff members are leaving (Molly, Joyce, Susan, Melanie) and no more parents will be coming to get their children. The only volunteers will be us and the Ramsey family...

We got back for lunch and enjoyed talking to Dixie and Stephanie about her latest news on being able to go direct (not via an agency.) She said that Bethany is aware and that some families may choose to use them, but they just weren't brining in enough adoptive parents to sustain things. So she is opening it back up in hopes of getting more people to GLA. We discussed the "issues" we have seen with our agency and she was aware of everything... for sure. Also - LaDawn (Bethany worker who used to work at GLA in Haiti) has been re-assigned to some other staff support role and everyone is quite upset about that. We talked with Stephanie about the steps and she said right now Parquet seems to be the longest - just because of the new requirements/checks... and we found out that MOI is for the Haitian Passport (I thought he was getting a US passport?) We are all crossing our fingers that we hear good news (that we might be one of the 7?) before Christmas.....

Next?
Some kiddo balcony time... we hung out with the Ramsey's and their twins as well... but I finally had to call it quits and go take a nap, as I was just tired out (not sleeping well.) I woke up at 5pm - which is dinner time... oops! Joe came and got me up (fortunately!) It was just us and the Ramsey's, as everyone else ate elsewhere (I think Sunday's are generally like that.) We then all helped clean and put away dishes with the cooking staff - they sang to us in Creole and tried to learn our names. It was a fun time.

We were able to watch the Raider/Bronco game after dinner - Joe's team (Raiders) actually won! Didn't make Aaron Ramsey very happy (they are from CO.)

And Last, but not least... we gave SC, TA and Anri kisses and said goodnight... I am hoping we might be able to get them out to play tomorrow.

We have been assigned babies... 8 each. But will have time at night to play as well... Tanya and her mom also have 8 babies each. That will be "it" for volunteers the next 2 weeks (Aaron is the accountant for GLA and will be working with Laurie in the office.) Dixie also told Joe today that he and Aaron will probably also paint some rooms and head up to Ft. Jacques a couple of days.

Okay... TIRED. BED IS CALLING!  Tomorrow should be a good day. My first real day as a volunteer! :-)