Today, I’m sitting here on our front porch again and drinking in the beauty of our yard. It’s rained since we’ve been gone and everything is so green. The tall trees are stretching their limbs toward Heaven. I can hear the laughter of the schoolchildren playing outside just on the other side of the compound. Life is everywhere!

Marie is in the kitchen working on lunch and Anuz is washing clothes. I’ve already been over the marché list with Cola and sent him on his way to town to buy essentials. This little old, new house is buzzing with activity. Everyone’s delighted to be back at work.

Our house is usually low on food by the time we return, so we stuffed our suitcases with everything we could to tie us over. I took the risk of bringing two blocks of frozen cheddar cheese with me, hoping it wouldn’t melt everywhere before we arrived to Cap. It made it just fine! We filled every nook and cranny of each “malette” (suitcase) with food bars, wild rice, tortilla chips, oatmeal, soup, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, curtains and two toner cartridges for our photocopier. Oh, I forgot to mention a foot pedal for our electric guitar at church and two laptops for some “soon to be very happy” university students that attend our church.

Our suitcases were not the only things that were overstuffed. We returned to find our beautiful calico cat has a protruding stomach. Yes, Mish is pregnant and Prit is happy. If you read my previous blog post about Mish, you’ll know that Prit is the cat lover. Brunel (one of our church leaders) took one look at her and said, “There’s three kittens in there.” How does he do that? I told him I would be sending one his way once they are born. He smiled and nodded his approval. All Haitians are happy to get a cat so they can keep the rats at bay. (Yes, I said “rats.”)

We returned to find our jeep battery needed to be replaced (an expenditure we hadn’t counted on). Prit’s cell phone also died. How does that happen after spending less than a month in the States? I’m convinced there must be trolls or dwarfs working in some back room of the telephone company rubbing their hands in glee as they conspire as to how they can bleed more money out of us.

Of course, all these things we take in stride. It would be quite different if the generator broke down or the jeep no longer worked. Happy to say, the battery’s been replaced and Prit has a new number. I believe it’s #5 this year (we’ve lost count). We never remember our phone numbers by heart because they’re always changing!

Today is our son, Gabe’s, 26th birthday. Happy Birthday, Gabe! We wish we could be there to celebrate with you. We’re so proud of you. 26 years ago today, I was at Canapé Vert Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti giving birth. The doctor induced labor and Gabe came quickly!

I’m sure glad I’m sitting here on this porch instead of in a maternity ward! At any rate, we’re celebrating life today – in all its forms.