Loss

My eyes are burning, I have been crying.  I almost feel numb.  How is this happening?  I receive the phone call from my mother her voice is different.  Something is definitely up.  Someone close to us just died.  He was not just someone, he was my brother.  I will not go into details, but I did not think I would experience death like this.  This is hard.  This sucks.  This is God's perfect plan and I know good has to come with this.  He is in Heaven and God would not take him if it was not his good and perfect will.  I am hurting for someone very special to me that cannot breathe because that is how hard this is hitting her.  Please pray for everyone that knew him.  I just needed to process this and writing seemed like the best way.  Thank you for reading this and thank you for respecting my families privacy.

Psalm 34:18:

"The LORD is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit"

Psalm 147:3

 "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds"

Happy Birthday Sean!

Today is Sean's birthday and I am so excited!  I took him on a surprise scavenger hunt through Moscow.  It was a ton of fun going through memory lane.  However, he told me I cannot post the pics, he wants them to be special between us.  I think that is a very sweet idea.  So I will fill you guys in later with more details.  I hope he has a wonderful Birthday!

PS how sexy is he?

This is why we love the Palouse

Busy Week

This week is crazy!  I feel like this Cheetah, just running trying to get everything done.  I will share a little bit of what is going on so you can relate (hopefully). 

Next Monday (July 25^th) we have to be moved out of our apartment by noon.  That means we need to have the U-Haul loaded up and all the boxes out of house.  Our place needs to be spick and span so we can get our deposit back J.  Sean also has to leave earlier than noon because he has to make it to our new apartment in Kirkland and get the key to our place before they close at 5 pm. 

So to get ready for our move we have a lot to do as well:

Thursday- Sean’s mom comes to see us and to help us move.

Friday- is Sean’s 25^th birthday!

Saturday morning- I am taking a teaching exam to be certified in WA in Spokane (2 hrs away).

Saturday night- my parents fly in to help us move and to also drive back with Sean, one in the U-Haul and one to help drive Sean’s car.  That means a packed house full of people.  I am really excited, but it will be crazy!

Sunday- last time Sean serves in children’s ministry- says goodbye to the kiddos and everyone at church.  We continue to pack up and clean.

Monday- Sean leaves with Rudy early.

This is going to be a rough week.  While we are packing up the house I am studying my booty off.  I am also planning fun activities for Sean’s bday and mentally preparing for our jam packed weekend!  Sean starts work soon and I signed my contact to work for WSU until August 13^th so I am going to be faithful to my commitment and stay an extra three weeks without my hunny and Rudy.  I am going to die without seeing Rudy for three weeks!  It will be nice though staying with Sonja and saying goodbye to all my friends before I move away.

Part 2 of Day 5 at Wahoo Bay

After Church we went to Wahoo Bay a resort in Haiti.  Haiti is a beautiful country.  The people are beautiful and the country is beautiful.  It was a lot of fun to relax with our team and to rest.  I had mixed feelings because I really wanted to see the water and go swimming, but seeing a resort that blasted American music with people drinking in the water, spending money on food left and right was difficult amongst all the poverty.  Literally, 4 minutes away children were starving and there was this resort!  The good thing though was that it did provide jobs for Haitian people.  I talked with one young man and he said he loves working at Wahoo Bay because he gets to live there and he loves it.  So there are a lot of positives I guess.  I just had a sinking feeling that this felt wrong.  I did swim and eventually, had a blast but it was weird.














Sean and I in the water


The guys on our team


Sean did get to enjoy some crab








Beautiful sunset








Can you see the mold?  We did not eat the bread....


My chicken BBQ chicken dinner, so good!

Sean's dinner: Creole BBQ chicken.

This juice tasted so good, like watermelon.


Weird plant/palm tree with berries.


Love all of the Haitian artwork.






Wrist bands we had to wear in the resort.



Thanks for reading!

No Makeup

I have stopped wearing makeup since Haiti.  And guess what....I feel beautiful!  I always hated the mess of taking it off when I was super tired before bed so I stopped.  Some people at work have commented, but I do not care.  I feel beautiful and my husband makes me feel beautiful.  Will I stop wearing makeup forever?  No, I will probably wear it every once in a while or go back to applying.  It was not like I had foundation and eye shadow, etc.  I just wore mascara. 

Challenge:  Try not wearing it for a week!  If you can't, try at least a couple days in a row where you go out in public!  I dare you to feel beautiful as you are and as God created you to be!

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Hayley

Day 5 Church in Haiti

Today, we got to go to church in Luly.  It is the same building as the school house in Luly where we have been doing the teacher training.  We had devotional this morning and it was my turn!  I decided to give each person a piece of paper to write themselves a letter that they will give me and in a year, two years, etc I will randomly give it to them to remind themselves of their time in Haiti.  Hopefully, it will be really encouraging for them to be reminded of Haiti.  I also had my favorite breakfast: French Toast!  woo hoo!

On the way to church I kept as much as I could soaking up the Haitian culture.  I was looking at everything, all the people, the houses, or I guess tarps, the markets and the busyness of Haiti.  I was quiet and just tried to take it all in.  I never want to forget everything I saw.  We got to church and the little school house was packed!!!!  There were a row of white lawn chairs on stage in the front and I knew they wanted us to sit there in front of everyone as guests.  Jason said we could not say no, so we just sat there.  They introduced us and went straight into worship.  Now, let me tell you, these Haitians can dance and sing!  They were praising the Lord like I have never seen it done before.  They have nothing, yet are praising Jesus!  How awesome.  It makes me feel awful for getting upset in America, if I had a bad day...Wow.  This people danced to songs that lasted 30 minutes.  I started dancing with the oldest lady there and she would not stop.  I have never sweated that much in my life.  My calves started to burn, it was awesome.  A woman was there to wipe the sweat off of the band members and she came to be twice to wipe the sweat off of my face and arms.  I felt honored that she respected me enough to wipe it off.  Of course it was hilarious because she did it and because I was sweating 3x more than anyone there.  The Haitians sing with all their heart, mind, soul, and body.  It was awesome.  It brought tears to my eyes, I could not stop.  They were praising the same Lord that we do, even with all of their poverty, they still dress up so nice and praise Jesus.  I could not understand anything except for Amen and Hallelujah, and Jesus (JZ).  I felt more alive during this worship service, than I have at home.

I sat next to an open window next to Sean.  When we were standing and singing I could see out the window and there were these little boys singing to the words and clapping their hands.  When I danced they would dance and laugh.  I would look out and see some boys without pants, and then I would look again and they would be naked dancing!  So funny!  There were also children in front of the stage sitting and clapping their hands to the music.

They asked Pastor Jason to speak so he talked about how beautiful the Haitian people are.  We practiced a skit about the Prodigal Son earlier that week and performed rather than have Jason just read it.  They loved it!  Our team each gave $20 to the church and that is a fortune for them.  It felt so good to bless them!  After church we hugged the Haitians and said good-bye but a lot of the kids stayed because we were there.  It was really uncomfortable because the church gave us crackers and pop to drink and the kids were just starting at us.  I did not drink the pop, but ate the cracker very quickly.  I offered my pop to a Haitian member on their staff team.

On our way to church

Jason speaking to the church and praying

The lady that wiped my sweat.

The kids are even dressed out

Rudy Wednesday

This is not Rudy, but what a life this pug has!  How fun.