Workaholics

The guys arrived and have been working up a storm since the minute they stepped off the plane in Port au Prince. They have been busy building storage depots, shelves, shelves and more shelves. I think the last shelf they made took them 30 minutes flat. They are pros! Although now that I think of it it's probably because Samuel and Yder were helping them. Anyway needless to say they are working hard, giggling lots, getting to see a few of the sights in Port au Prince, and enjoying a lovely cold shower at the end of the day, right Derek?

Can't get much passed Supervisor Maia

Quality Control making sure every screw is tightLevi and his Daddy hanging out at the Baptist Mission on Saturday afternoon

My 3 Favourites

A little of this and a little of that

I mentioned in passing that the school was painted. This montrosity of a job was accomplished by two different teams. One was a small team that our friend Joanna brought in from Minneasota and the other was a huge team of 15 from somewhere in the USA, the leaders of the team are friends with Joanna and that is how we got hooked up. Thank you to both teams for beautifying our school and helping us out! I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture above but the school looks SO much better since it's been painted.
And since we're talking about teams, our next small team is flying in today. Frank, Derek and Marc are hopefully somewhere in the maze of airplanes and airports as I write this. They will be joining us for 9 days and doing a job list that is about four pages long... we're hoping they work hard and are optimistic :)
And below are two pictures of our little munchkins, just hanging out around the house. They are both doing really well. Maia is developing quite the personality. Although she doesn't talk much she understands EVERYTHING you say. And even with her pretty limited vocab will let you know EXACTLY what she wants. She's a lot of fun to hang out with and play with. And Little Levi is growing like a weed! He is just over three months and is a super happy, content little guy. He loves to hang out in his pack and play or his chair and as long as you give him a little bit of attention he smiles and flails his little arms and legs. It's been really fun watching Maia love on Levi with millions of kisses for him everyday.

Girlz Talk

A while back a good friend of ours, Joanna Thiele, was in town with a small group from Minnesota. They worked on painting the inside of the school, which looks fabulous, and they also did a special talk for us. They took some time one afternoon to sit down with some of our teenage girls in the program and talk about bodily changes, sex, relationships, pressures of society, and their worth in God's eyes. It was much appreciated by the girls as most of them stated that they rarely get an opportunity to talk about this stuff and especially talk about this stuff with only girls around.

Our prayer is that these girls may flourish into beautiful educated young woman who desire to serve the Lord with their whole heart. They all have different stories, trials and burdens in their lives. Pray with us that they may know and grow in Jesus and feel His presence in their lives.

Games Day

While Aunt Cole was here we organized a fun day for our staff. The benefits of having Aunt Cole here was definately her free babysitting and so we took advantage of that. We had a great time with our staff playing games, laughing, singing Happy Birthday, looking at old pictures, eating goodies, whipping balls at each other during dodge ball, showing Kim's hidden talent in the coke bottle game, a very competitive couple rounds of Bible Trivia, and, of course, an intense round of muscial chairs. It was a great day with some great people. Mezi Jezi.

Happy Birthday Cadeau!
The coke bottle game

Muscial Chairs

Bible Trivia

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jacmel

I'm a little behind on the blogging BUT I have a good excuse. Nicole and Danielle just came for a visit. Danielle (Aunt Dell) was here for one week and Nicole (Aunt Cole) stayed with us for two weeks... yes Maia was spoiled!

The first weekend that they were both here we headed South of Port au Prince to Jacmel. We had a super relaxing weekend playing St. Petersburg, heading to Basin Blue, Playing in the pool, snoozing, eating fish, playing the animal game (fyi X - Xenopus, a frog), jumping in the waves, shopping in Jacmel, eating club sandwhiches and the list could go on but instead we'll just let you enjoy some pictures!

Nicole, Danielle and Randy at Basin Blue

Aunt Cole enjoying her fish
Maia, soaking up the sunrays

Aunt Dell posing for a picture

Maia having fun in the pool with daddy

Levi enjoying some cuddles with Aunt Cole

Maia and Levi enjoying the pool!

Par-T

On Sunday we had a staff party at our place. All our staff were invited to join us for worship at Elgise Presbyterienne de Delmas and afterwards we headed to our place to enjoy food and fellowship. I think we all had a great time, at least that's what Reminais is saying in this photo.

All the kids

The guys enjoying some good eats

Lot's of food!

Maia and I ... all that good food and all Maia wants is a hotdog!

Photo Op

Today was picture day at Adoration!
Enjoy the pictures of our awesome staff. These individuals put in a lot of time, sweat, tears, prayer, energy and love into the Adoration Christian Centre. We are truly thankful and blessed for each of their parts in Adoration. They all have different talents and gifts and together we make a great team. We pray that through all of our staffs' efforts the Lord may be worshipped and Adored.
The teachers at Adoration Christian School Randy and the "guys"
The Staff - teachers, directors, gatekeeper, Property Supervisor, security guys and two little white babies.

Visiting

Last week we had the privilege of going to visit Reminais and his family. Reminais is the Grade 4 teacher at Adoration Christian School and him and his wife were recently blessed with a healthy baby girl, Christina. She is looking really healthy and has a beautiful head of hair! It was a blessing to be able to spend some time visiting with Reminais and have the opportunity to meet his wife and three beautiful children.

Maia had a good time visiting, it took a while for her to warm up to the other children but once they showed her some of their toys and started running around outside she was right in there with them. She even got so bold as to give out kisses on the lips to the little boys. I guess we'd better keep a closer eye on her!

And Levi got lots of attention but, as always, was oblivious to it as he slept the visit away in his car seat.

January 12, 2011

Today marks the one year anniversary of the earthquake.
A day that we will never forget.
A day that is filled with many emotions.
A day that we grieve the lives that were lost.
A day that we thank God for the grace he gave to us.
Today, as we reflect, it is amazingly clear that we serve a Faithful God.

"Thank you Jesus for your gift of salvation, for your love and your peace. May the Nation of Haiti rest in that peace today as they grieve and mourn lives lost and as they say mezi Jezi for your grace in their lives. May you continue to bring healing and hope in Jesus Christ."

Looking Good

Since Kim did such a fabulous job blogging about the beautification of the school I'm just going to send you over to her blog to view the pictures. Saves me about four hours of trying to download pictures with my ever so slow internet!

School Days

Today Maia, Levi and I were able to spend a bit of time at the school. Since we don't get down to the school too often it's always special for us to see everyone. Met Alix and some of the students striking a pose for us.
Hanging out at recreation Dr. Ed had some visitors with him today, one of them was a physiotherapist who did some work with some of our students from the special education class.

Randy multitasking, holding Levi and talking, now that is a talented daddy!Gotta love em!

Maia spending precious time with Tante Kim

This isn't the greatest picture but it's the only one I have. The school got repainted last week, it looks 30x better than it did before! Now we have the artists in putting the logo on the front so people know who we are, hopefully the finished product adds to the fabulosity of the building.

Not enough...

There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to do things besides changing diapers, feeding little mouths, bathing, playing, cleaning up , etc. And so the blog definately falls to the wayside. I had good intentions about blogging about the last day of school, the Christmas program, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, the gazebo, first day of school, painting the school, visiting Maman Manise, Levi's first smile, Maia's overflowing affection for Levi, the beautiful weather we are having, Levi sleeping longer hours at night, Maia happy again, The Reformed church of Delmas, visits from old friends. But this little list of things is going to have to suffice because our precious children are crying for some attention.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mesi Anpil

We've been back in Haiti just over two weeks... the transition was very difficult this time, especially for Maia as she battled an ear infection, a bad cold and the realization that Levi was coming with us and she would have to share her life here in Haiti with him as well. Things are settling down now and we are starting to get into a sense of routine, which we are all thankful for.

Before we share some of what has been going on here we just wanted to say thank you to all those in Canada who helped us out. Many of you kept us in your prayers, encouraged us, showered Maia and Levi with gifts, invited us into your homes, lent baby things, toddler things, vehicles, clothing etc. We wanted to thank you for blessing our family with your generosity. Escpecially thank you to Mom and Dad deJonge for letting us invade your home and beat you in Quirkle, to Aunt Cole for spoiling Maia rotten and giving her lots of attention, to Uncle Kev for playing with Maia when he should have been studying, and to Mom and Dad Lodder for the use of your vehicle and taking Maia for sleepovers so we could catch up on some sleep.

*here's a picture of Maia saying please, which means give me what I want, please, thank you, I know how to manipulate you etc. Today we are using it as the sweet thank you very much picture.

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish you all a

Merry Christmas.

May your hearts and homes be filled with

love, peace and joy

this Christmas season.

Love,

Randy, Karen, Maia Joy & Levi

Home Sweet Home

Just a quick post to let you know that the third time was a charm. We finally made it back home to Port au Prince. We apologize to anyone who was on the same flights as us. We take no responsibility for loss of hearing due to uncontrollable screaming from Maia. After our trip back I don't know if we'll ever fly again!
But... we are back, settling in, enjoying showing off Levi and seeing friends and co-workers again.
If you're looking for something to pray about please pray for Maia, the adjustment back is tough on her and she has this new routine of getting up in the middle of the night and not wanting to go back to bed, it started just over a week ago and has made for some long nights for all of us. We've almost exhausted all strategies - nap, no nap, stay up late, tylenol, gravol, bottle, scream it out, cuddling. Needless to say we are getting tired and Maia needs her sleep!
Thanks for the prayers, we'll post some more once we get a little more sleep and a little more settled.

Introducing....Levi Casey

With huge thankfulness to the LORD we want to introduce to you Levi Casey Lodder! He was born this morning at 9:15am, weighing in at 7lbs, 9 ounces. Mother and child are doing well (so is dad, in case anyone cares.) In a brief interview with Levi he stated that he loves his daddy very much but he is glad that he looks like his mom. He is ready to tackle this world, one nap at a time. And he likes his big sister Maia, because she hasn't poked him in the eye, yet, and shared with him the big apple she was eating. Mother and child are staying over at St.Joes, and D.V. willl be headed home tomorrow. A thankful dad, Randy

Above: Karen and Levi.

Below: Maia sporting her "Super-Sister" shirt, welcoming Levi to this crazy family.

Nicole and Opa meeting Levi.