And Now...

Oma, Opa, Maia & Levi

And now that the blog is FINALLY updated - no I didn't get it all, there is just too much going on - but I got some of it and I can now cross it off my to-do list of things I want to get done before the baby comes!
Here are a few pics of us Canadianizing our children and enjoying some cooler temps and some different precipitation!

Maia and Levi with their snowmen

Playing in their snow tunnel

Oma, Opa and Maia posing with their look-alikes

January Workteam

In the middle of January we found 8 men willing to escape the Great White North and spend 9 days working their butts off at Adoration Christian Centre.  These men put in some long, hard days of work and got a lot accomplished!  To name a few things they : built a LOT of cubbies, raised the tent, redid the paving stone, cleaned out some nasty plumbing lines, hung curtains, built some offices, hung fans, etc. 

Thank you Tim, Tim, Jake, Wes, Toni, Rick, Klaas and Conrad for all of the physical labour that you did at Adoration as well as the time you took to get to know our staff and students.  It was truly a blessing to have hosted you during your time in Haiti.  

I don't have a lot of pictures of the team... but here are a few and you can check out Cornelius and Mindy's blog for more pictures... here, here, here, here, and here.

Tim and Tim working hard

Klaas working alongside Franklin (his Sponsor student)

The new look for the entrance to the tent

The raised tent - so much more space and airflow!

Maia & Levi & Friends

Riding on the train... yes Aunt Trisha had to go for a ride too!

Snack Time!

Buddies

Jacmel!

To start off the New Year we headed to the South of the island to Jacmel for some time r&r with some friends.  It was a great time of relaxing, games and good talks.  It was fun to meet up with a bunch of different friends during our stay there.  And while there we got to enjoy some of the beauty of Haiti - the beach and bassin bleu - what an amazing Creator we serve!  

Bocce Ball on the beach

Buddies on the Beach

Levi's stellar photography abilities

Mmmmm

Heading to Bassin Bleu

Swimming in on of the bassins...

Christmas Day Festivites

Christmas Day was spent with some of our special friends in Haiti celebrating Jesus' birth by fellowshipping, playing games, laughing, eating, cookie decorating, singing, and meditating on God's Words.  

Just a few pics from the festivities

Gingerbread cookie decorating

"Cheese!"

Christmas carolling

Thanks Sharon for playing the piano!

 

The children singing for us

Maia's 1st Christmas Pageant

The Sunday before Christmas Maia had an opportunity to participate in her first Christmas Pageant!  Maia and some other 2 and 3 year-olds in the neighbourhood participate in a weekly program called Little Lambs where they have guided play time and then learn a Bible story.  When the English Speaking Chapel decided to do a Christmas pageant the Little Lambs were asked to join in and so they practiced their songs and actions week after week and did an excellent job performing.  

We are very proud of our little star and pray that her little heart never forgets how much Jesus loves her!

"We love you staff... deep down in our hearts"

What would Adoration Christian Centre be without our staff?  I think we can fairly say NON-EXISTENT!!  

We love our staff and are thankful for the time, effort, love, tears and prayer that they put into their work at the centre.  Whether they be a gatekeeper, a director, a cook, a property supervisor, a teacher, an assistant, an errand person, or a chauffeur, they are all vital to Adoration and the programs that are run.  

Thank you, thank you!  Bondye beni ou.

"Cluck, Cluck"

This year as a token of our appreciation to our staff we gave them all a chicken for Christmas.  Fun times were had picking out the chickens, tying up their legs and preparing them for the trek home.

Tying up the legs

Ready for the trek to their new home...

The gatekeeper, Joseph proudly displaying his chicken

And... Erneste received a goat as a gift
for his upcoming wedding at the end of December!

Elf P-A-R-T-Y

At the end of December in 2006 when we were visiting Ian and Nadia Wildeboer in Papua New Guinea we started the tradition of watching ELF.  I think we watched the movie 3 times in 3 nights we loved it so much!  We don't watch it continually anymore but we do, every year, get together with friends, order pizza and watch ELF.

We had to make A Ginourmous change to the date this year

So, the date for the

E - extrahunkidory

L - Laugherosky

F - Fantastikurifik
extravaganza, will be on this Thursday, instead of friday. All the other details are the same.

The change takes place because we think there will be snow in the forecast on thursday so we can make snowmen, snowballs and have a snow ball fight.

Let us know if you can plan on attending. Bring your mittens.

Even though we had to change the date we still enjoyed the P-A-R-T-Y

What kind of P - A - R - T - Y you ask

Well, its an

E - extrahunkidory

L - Laugherosky

F - Fantastikurifik

yep, thats right - you guessed it - Elf.

We are going to eat Pizza and watch Elf and laugh and cry, (I don`t know which order - to be determined) and repeat elf one-liners all night (like ``ginormous``, and `singing is my favourite`` and YESSS!)

So, strap your winter boots on, put on your party hat, and make like Tom and Cruise over to the Lodder`s house.

5:30 doors open

6:00 pizza is served

6:15 sharp Elf begins

8:00 watch Fle (thats elf backwards - purely for those with nothing else to do)

(Those times are all PM - don`t get any funny ideas Tarek)

Thanks to all those who joined us for our Elf Party, we'll see you again next year!

Special Special Education Party

Early on in December a friend of ours, Liz Schandorff (MAF), sent out an email asking for help.  For Christmas her parents wanted her to host a Christmas party for Haitian children and to send them photos.  As soon as we saw the email I responded saying we have lot's of students who love to party!  So she came and visited the school and decided on the special education class.  The head of our Special education department, Ketia, loves to plan and loves to have parties so she took full responsibility for the festivities - inviting the parents and students, preparing a little snack and buying gifts for the students.

Thank You Liz and family for blessing our Special Education classes with your kindness!

Adoration's Christmas Program

On December 21st we gathered as a school to remember and reflect on the reason for Christmas.  The students put on a excellent program, displaying their different talents and gifts, and reminding us all the reason we celebrate Christmas.  Hearing children sing about Jesus' birth is always special!  Once again their was a full house of students and parents as we celebrated our Savior's birth together. 

And after the Christmas program we took some time to congratulate students who had excelled in their first controle of the school year.  The school year is divided into three controles and at the end of each controle the students receive their report cards and the school gives out awards for different achievements.  One of the awards that is given out is for students who are never late and never absent.  Because Adoration charges a very minimal fee to the parents for sending their students to Adoration we are very strict on attendance of our students and so we like to acknowledge those who are never late and never absent.  The other awards that are given out are to students who received the top mark in their class as well as those who put forth the most effort.  Congratulations students!

Shoe Shine

Leading up to Christmas Randy wanted to give a gift to our school community and so he decided to that he would provide free shoe shining.   Some days it was just him out there and other days Cornelius and Pastor Octavius lent a helping hand.  In Haitian culture having clean shoes is very important, however, for many of our students having those few extra gourdes to get your shoes cleaned is not a priority for their family.  And so to have their shoes cleaned was very exciting for them.  They, of course, giggled lots and had lots of words of wisdom for Randy as a white man doesn't really know what he is doing cleaning shoes but they did enjoy the free service that was provided to them.  

Daniel getting his shoes cleaned ...

and giving a thumbs up for a job well done!

Thank you One Stop Market for donating the shoe polish!

The Shoeshiners

Football Match

Well it's been a while since we've been in the blogging world... I had good intentions to blog about things but they never really turned into any type of action.  But I thought I should try to update the blog so we have some blogging done about what's been going on the last couple of months.      

So... here we go... 

                                                              

In December Adoration Christian School invited the Wesleyan School from down the road to a little football (soccer) competition.  A team was picked from Adoration to represent us and the rest of the school showed up for some serious moral support.  Adoration did very well and one of the highlights was definitely watching the crowd cheer and dance whenever there was a goal.  

Serious Concentration

Check out those cute little white fans

GOAL!