Dear Alex & Olivia

Dear Alex & Olivia,

Today the reality that life moves quickly is sitting right in front of me. Today and tomorrow are holidays in Haiti, so we get a 4 day weekend, which is a nice treat. It is, however, providing lots of time to reflect on stuff.

Olivia, this morning we took our last “school drive” for this year. You have your closing program next week, but today is the last day of classes for you. With it being a holiday I almost forgot that you had school, until you came out of your room this morning a bit bleary eyed and said, “Is today a school day?” like you do almost every morning. You’ve loved this year and we’ve loved seeing you blossom and get excited about learning. I was thinking yesterday that this time last year the thought of trying you in school this year was just a thought and a conversation and an “I think we’re doing this come September” thing. At first we were only going to send you two days a week, but after the first week we decided to go whole hog and we’ve developed a nice little routine. Yesterday I realized that it was one of the best decisions I think we’ve made as parents so far. You were ready and you’ve loved it. You’ve had so much fun this year learning letters and making friends. You even surprised me on Mother’s Day when we gave you some paper and pens to distract you during the missionary meeting and you wrote your name. You’ve been working on it for a long time, but it was there clear as day.

This morning on our drive you filled the time by telling me all sorts of stories. This is something new for you since Daddy has been making up stories about Chippy, Blackie and Bluey for bedtime. You love them and it’s opened up this whole concept that people can make up stories to tell without having to always read a book. Today all of your stories revolved around you being married, and everything being pink and having babies. You and your husband went to your school several times and did all sorts of things. When I asked how old you were going to be when you got married you thought about it for a second and said, “Um, I think 14.” I’m glad you have no concept of age and time yet. When you started talking about having babies in your tummy I asked if you knew that you should be married before you had babies, and thankfully you gave me that, “Um, duh Mom,” sigh and eye roll from the back seat when you said, “Yes Mom, I know that!” I figure it’s good to start these lessons early.

Baby Girl, Daddy and I are so proud of you and are so excited to see you becoming more of the little person that you are. You’re a ball of fun, even when you drive us crazy. Some days I wonder if we aren’t doing more damage than good as parents, but then you go and do something that makes me realize that we’re on the right track. Like the other day when you apologized to Daddy, all on your own, for hurting him. And then you apologized to me for having a complete melt down. “Mommy, I’m sorry I cried so much.” Sigh. These are the days an moments that make us realize that maybe we won’t be complete failures as parents.

First day of pre-school.

Last day of Pre-school, May 2012.

Alex, you’re almost 11 months old and it’s becoming very obvious that you are an entirely different parenting experience unfolding before our eyes. Your sister was a lot more subdued and calm at this stage in the game. She was content to hang out in her bouncy seat or sit on the floor playing with toys, watching the world go by. Not you. You are one active little monkey. And yes, monkey is a very fitting description of you right now. You’ve been standing up for a while now, but in the last few weeks you realized that you had the ability to climb things. It’s not uncommon for us to find you standing on the back of the couch looking out the window and contemplating how to get yourself up onto the 8″ window sill so you can be that six inches higher up. Oh yes, you’ve crashed, but that doesn’t stop you. Last weekend as I was making breakfast I turned around and found you up on one of the kitchen chairs. You had pushed the little red chair around the house until it crashed into the kitchen chair, then decided to climb on the little chair (something you’ve been doing for about a month) and soon realized that it was a mere stepping stone to the bigger chair. You were happily playing with the salt and pepper shakers when I saw you, but by the time you Dad came into the room a few minutes later after I had turned my back for less than a minute we found you on the table. You apparently think this is a fun place to be because you tried it again several times yesterday.

I wish that was where it stopped, but it’s not. You’ve realized that if you push the little chair over to the counters you can actually see what’s up there and start taking things down. You almost gave me a heart attack when I found you, chair pushed up against the sink, you standing on it, and holding a paring knife by the handle swinging it around like you were doing some sort of ninja show. Yonese had been washing dishes and stepped away for a couple minutes and I guess you thought it looked fun. Thankfully we learned with your sister that being really calm is often the best thing in these situations so I just walked over and took the knife, then moved you, and then you got mad. Sorry for ruining your fun kid.

I don’t want you to feel like everything you do is causing trouble. The other day I was working and I heard swishing from the bathroom and realized we’d forgotten to put the toilet seat down. I went to check things out expecting to find you having a grand old time splashing around in the bowl and instead found this…

The next day you were out on the deck and I found you doing this…

Apparently you’re an observant child. I figure we might as well harness it while we can. Yonese hit the nail on the head yesterday when we were shaking our heads at what you’ve been up to in the last week when she said, “Your work has just doubled because you’re going to have to watch everything that he’s doing.” Amen, sister. Especially when it results in something like this:

I’m hoping that the lesson learned was that you should NOT climb up on the cooler on the deck then grab the door handle and bang on the door for someone to open it, even if it is very slowly, because it causes one to lose their balance and fall on their face resulting in a nose bleed, two cuts to the inner upper lip and scratches from the door mat that leaves one looking like they were in a gang fight. Considering that you later climbed onto one of the patio chairs and shook it until it fell over and gave you a bruise on your forehead, the lesson probably didn’t sink in.

One really fun thing right now is that you’re working on your land legs. With all your climbing we’ve taught you how to get yourself down off certain pieces of furniture which has eliminated a lot of stranded adventurer whining, and has also given you more confidence. In the past few days you’ve been working on your balance and have been surprising Daddy and I with testing out your standing abilities. Just this morning you discovered that you can see your reflection in the oven door and we sat there watching you stand all by yourself admiring your reflection for about a minute without holding on to anything before you gently lowered yourself down to squatting. We’re pretty sure you’ll be walking soon and that’s exciting, but after the things we’ve been seeing from you recently, it’s also a bit scary.

You are really inquisitive and I can see you’ve got a brain that wants to know how things work. You love to figure out the process behind things. Like, if you hit something it makes a sound. The other day we were at the table and you were playing with the napkin hold and banging on it like a drum. You decided to stand it back on end and moved it around a bit to see what would happen, but when it didn’t do much you turned it back on it’s side and went back to drumming. You love to drop things out of the bathtub to see what happens.

You love food. You sit right at the table with us now and I usually just put pieces of food from our meal in front of you. You like being independent and feeding yourself. One day recently we were eating lasagna and it was too messy for you to eat on your own, so I tried spoon feeding you. You pushed my hand away and protested because I wasn’t letting you do it yourself. You also like to peek around the table while we’re eating to see what everyone else has on their plates, and you protest if you don’t have the same things.

You love water. I got you a very small blow up pool while in the DR as a present and you love to have us fill it up so you can play on the deck. It’s small enough that you can crawl in and out and you’ll play out there for hours, happy as a little clam, er, fish.

You’re also playing around with speech. For a while we just thought you were babbling, but you are definitely experimenting with different sounds and like to repeat things. You’re definitely starting to say “Mama” or “Mum”. Even your Daddy agrees. Not always in reference to me, but you’re working on it. “Oh!” is your favorite. Just this morning Yonese was doing dishes and dropped some things and it made a loud noise. From your seat at the table you looked at her and said, “Oh!” We all had a good giggle from that, especially since it’s a Haitian expression. I’m pretty sure you’ll end up speaking better Creole than the rest of us because you’ll be starting so much younger.

You’re smily and happy most of the time, and you love to laugh. You’re a big cheese too. As soon as the camera comes out you are all smiles. You do have a bit of a temper and have been getting more vocal when you don’t get your own way.  Sometimes it’s funny, but other times it makes me realize that we’re going to have to be on our parenting game from an earlier age than your sister. She didn’t really realize she had opinions about things until well after turning a year old. Fun, fun!

One thing that I love about you kids is that you love each other. You enjoy playing together and you’re excited to see each other if you’ve been a part. Olivia, you can make Alex giggle and laugh at your silly antics, and Alex, I’ve never seen a 10 month old able to pin their 4 year old sibling on the floor quite like you do. Recently, with the days getting a bit longer here, you two have had a hard time going to bed. Several nights per week, even after a good ol’ college try, you aren’t quite ready to go to go down. What results is Alex running around in his crib squawking at Olivia, and Olivia hissing, “Al-lex! Go to sleep!” which just sort of eggs you on, dear boy.  You both like bath time with the bubble machine, and finding other uses for bubbles besides bathing.

“Al-lex! Look at the cam-er-AHHH!”

Well kidlets, I’m going to sign off there. Mommy wants to enjoy the day off too! Daddy and I love you so much it almost breaks my heart. We’re so blessed by the two of you and while we wish we could bottle you and save you like this forever, we’re also excited to watch you grow up and become the people God has made you to be.

~Love Mom

Check THAT off my list

I had all these great plans about blogging post trip, but alas it has not come to pass.

While I was away Chris was sick and he thought it was just bowel issues so handled it accordingly, but all his energy was sapped right out of him. Then his symptoms started to come back. After some checking we realized he had typhoid and that the treatment for his bowel issues and typhoid were the same, just longer and because he’d only thought he had bowel issues he’d only taken half the course of needed meds. Thankfully Dr. Lori left us with ample drugs after her last visit and we had what we needed to treat him. A couple days later I got it. So, here we are with typhoid. The irony is that we knew we needed to get our typhoid vaccinations updated this summer while home in Canada.

So here we are slothing around. It’s kind of crazy because your brain isn’t tired, and you’ll have times where you feel mostly normal. Then you do something like eat and start to feel slightly nauseous and wiped out. When I do lay down to sleep it’ll be several hours of sleeping really deeply, then sort of coming to, but not enough to be able to open my eyes, and then into a deep sleep for about 20 minutes and the cycle repeats until my eyes finally do open. And then maybe I just roll over and start all over again. Chris is getting better slowly, but still needs to rest during the day. Right now I”m harnessing the energy I do have to make a casserole so we have so there’s at least some decent food to eat for the kids and us when we do feel hungry. It’s funny to me what I am craving when I am hungry – red meat, salad, protein – all healthy stuff. They say your body knows what it needs, you just need to listen.

I’m doing something that is hard for me in the whole listening to your body department – I’m actually listening and not feeling obligated to get work done or “be the strong one” and pretend that I’m feeling better than I am, all while being completely cranky about the fact that I’m sick and no one is noticing how bad I feel. I’m so thankful for Yonese right now. She’s been in almost every day to help with Alex and has kept the dishes washed and is cleaning the house from top to bottom which is so needed after a training class last week where we were all busy doing other things.

So, the other posts will come in due time. Until then I’m going to sleep :)

~Leslie

Santo Domingo: Part 1-The Tourist

Elsie and I had a great time of seeing what we wanted to see at a pace that wasn’t too fast, or too slow. I know there are going to be questions from Haiti people and non-Haiti people alike about the trip, so consider this my version of how to do it.

Getting There:

From Haiti there are several bus companies that do daily runs into Santo Domingo. We went with Capital Coach Lines, but there is also Caribe Tours. Sorry, I don’t have a website for them. With Capital Coach Lines you can book tickets online through Paypal (either with an account or with a credit card). The cost was $75 US round trip, which was completely reasonable. The busses were comfortable and clean. They served a sandwich, fruit juice and water on each trip. We did the 8 am both ways, which I would recommend because you never know how long you’re going to get held up at the border. Each passenger is allowed 2 50lb bags each way.

We knew we were going to be in Santo Domingo the whole time, but if you want to go to another part of the country the same company has busses that go all over the place, you just need to check the routes and destinations on the website.

Note: Don’t plan to travel on Thursdays. Thursday is the day that they open the border for people to buy and sell between the two countries. It took us 5 hours to cross the border. 3 of those were sitting on the bus traveling a distance of no more than 1 km. The other time was spent in DR customs, getting back on the bus, then Haitian customs & immigration.

Crossing the Border:

The nice thing about traveling on the bus is that most of the immigration stuff is taken care of for you. At the bus station you are issued your ticket, and they take your passport and the visa fees. Visa fees are $20 US each direction, and 100 Goudes on the way there, and 100 Pesos on the way back. You pay all this up front, and the bus company staffer that rides with you holds onto all of it (passports included) until you get to the border. At the border they hand out passports and everyone gets in line. The immigration officer takes your passport and the immigration form you were given on the bus, stamps everything and you give your passport back to the staffer. Passports are returned on the bus sometime before you arrive in Santo Domingo.

After going through Immigration everyone retrieved their bags off the bus, went to the customs desk, which was really a table with several non-uniformed people checking bags. It was a bit sketchy in the sense that it felt like federales were checking our bags, but it is what it is. The thing I really didn’t like was that when they opened the bus so we could get our bags there were a ton of urchins young men trying to grab your bags to “help”. At times there were more of them that bus passengers, and it was annoying, but after living in Haiti you get good at warding them off.

There were a few people selling drinks and snacks so we were able to get some cold cokes which was nice. We were lucky in that our border stop only took about an hour on the way there. We were prepared for about two based on our friends experiences a couple weeks before.

Where To Stay:

This is one thing that is subjective. Some people like the idea of saving money and going the hostel route, and others are more comfortable doing the hotel thing. We knew that we were going to spend all of our time in Santo Domingo, and that we wanted to be in the Zona Colonial – the Colonial Zone. From there we could walk to all of the major sites, and catch taxis to the other things we wanted to see.

To save money Elsie and I decided to go the hostel route. We stayed at Condominum Parque, a little hostel that ended up being a block and a half from El Conde, the main walking street in the Zona Colonial. It wasn’t the Hilton, but it was clean, safe and we had a light breakfast buffet included. We paid $22.50/person per night. With breakfast included in that, you can’t really beat it. The staff were really helpful to when we had questions about getting around.

I would recommend checking out the variety of hostels in Santo Domingo if you want to go that route. There are some good sites, like hostelworld.com that have a good listing and that give you the option of booking online, which we did. Expedia was another good source.

The biggest thing is to know what you want to do, and then find a place in that area. We literally walked everywhere, unless we were doing something outside of the zone. It was nice that everything was so accessible by foot.

Getting Around:

As I said, we did A LOT of walking. But, there were times that walking wasn’t an option, so we had to find other means of transportation.

From the bus station we took a cab. I’ll be right up front, you’ll probably end up paying about $10 US for your cab ride from there because they totally take advantage of the fact that you’ve just arrived and you’re tired and want to get where you’re going. After that though, the normal price to pay for a taxi ride anywhere in the city is about 200 Pesos. If a taxi driver asks for more than 250 you’re getting ripped off and should go find a driver that will do it for the average price.

When taking a taxi you always negotiate the price ahead of time. The thing I really appreciated was that when we got to our destination there was no more discussion about the price. We just handed the money over, exchanged our “gracias” and went on our way. After living in Haiti I was concerned that every ride would end in more negotiations, but it was never the case.

The other options for getting around Santo Domingo are city bus (the big green ones) that run on routes, the metro train/subway or guayguays (gwa gwa). Guayguays are 12-15 passenger vans that drive routes within the city. There will be a guy standing in the door shouting out the destination and you just flag them down. If they only have a limited number of seats available he’ll hold up that many fingers so you know whether it’s worth the effort. Once you get on it’s 25 Pesos to wherever you get off. Much less expensive than a taxi, but a lot more work to figure out which ones to get on and off. We did the guayguay thing once, mostly to say that we’d done it. I would recommend it if you speak Spanish like Elsie did, and are adventurous. Because Elsie and I are used to the tap tap system in Haiti it wasn’t much of a stretch for us, but it would be for someone not used to third world living.

What To Eat:

There are a ton of restaurants in Santo Domingo. Everything from fine dining to hole in the wall snack shops. We did a little of everything. Along El Conde there are even fast food restaurants like KFC and Pizza Hut. Elsie had a craving for Pizza Hut one night, so we did that. Ate at a Chinese fast food place another night. Had meals at other little mom & pop type restaurants with good Dominican food. On our last night we decided to treat ourselves to an evening out at a nicer place in the Plaza de Espana where there are several restaurants that have sidewalk style outdoor eating. It was a fabulous meal, and beautiful because we got to sit and look across the plaza at ancient buildings.

Typical Dominican food has some sort of rice, or mashed potatoes, with a meat either grilled (like chicken) or in a sauce. The meat choices are usually beef, pork or chicken. I was surprised at how easy it was to get white chicken meat and that it was the same price as regular chicken – something we don’t find in Haiti. The sauces the meat was in were always tasty. Also sides of veggies which was nice. Plates were substantial and in most cases it was difficult to finish them, even when we were really hungry.

Prices for food are all over the place, depending on what it is. For example, a personal sized pizza at Pizza Hut was anywhere from 250 – 700 Pesos (at a rate of about 38:1 US dollar). If you ate at a little local restaurant, or in many cases ordered the “plate of the day” you would pay less than 200 Pesos, and the food was always good. For us, because we live in Haiti, it was nice to eat a combination of Dominican food and more North American food like pizza. We found that most restaurants had a good mix unless it was a Dominican hole in the wall.

Note: There is 16% sales tax on everything you buy in a store or restaurant. In many cases, the tax has been added into the total price marked on merchandise and will be separated out on the receipt, but what you see is what you pay. When dining out there is also a 10% service tax, essentially a tip, on top of that. 26% is a lot. Some of the guide books we read said that it was expected that you added another 10% on top of that but we never did because 26% is already a lot of tax to be paying. It’s just something to be aware of when eating out. Check the menu when ordering because in several cases it said that all taxes were included in the price.

What To Drink:

First off, expect to buy all your water. The tap water is not drinkable so you’ll want to find a store during the day to stock up on bottled water. This wasn’t hard to do at all. Also, when you eat out you’ll have to pay for water, it isn’t automatically served or included with your meal.

A variety of sodas are always available, and most nicer restaurants will serve a variety of cocktails and wines. If you like those, several places will have 2 for 1 Happy Hour that is worth checking out.

If you like coffee, I would definitely recommend taking some time to have a cup of cafe con leche or something else similar. Cafe con leche is coffee with milk, by the way :) It’s strong and creamy and oh so delish!

Where To Change Money:

You can change money at some restaurants, and there will be guys on the street changing it as well. These options will always give you a slightly lower rate than when you do it at a business type changer. These will advertise that they change money, and their rate will be the bank rate given on any day. If you can, find these places to change money. They’ll give you a receipt so you know you haven’t been taken. One thing someone warned us about with changing money on the street is to really pay attention to how they count it out because certain bills are the same color and it’s easy for them to do it quickly and you miss it. I changed money in all of the available places and didn’t have any problems.

Okay, that’s the logistical stuff. What to see and do needs to be it’s own post entirely.

Back On the Map

Oh, the blog has been a quiet, quiet place in the last couple weeks. There will, however, be no apologies.

The week before last we had a Vision Tripper here, and I probably would have written while she was here, but the day after she arrived a friend who was over visiting asked if I had ever wanted to go to the Dominican Republic. I did want to go, and because Chris had already been twice, we hadn’t made plans to go. So, in about twenty minutes we went from a question being posed to having plans to leave in 6 days so Chris could drop us off at the bus station the same day he took our Vision Tripper to the airport. That meant the rest of the week was filled with trying to host our guest, and make sure I had everything taken care of for the week I was away, which would have included getting class materials ready for a class we have starting tomorrow.

Elsie and I got on the bus on Saturday morning and arrived back in Port au Prince late Thursday evening. We spent the week in Santo Domingo, and had a ton of fun. I won’t lie, I think I came home almost more tired that when I left. We saw and did a bunch of stuff, and it’s got my brain swimming about so many things. Mostly that the Dominican Republic and Haiti share the same island, and they are in completely different places developmentally. I had heard it, but until one sees it with their own eyes it’s hard to imagine. Let me sum it up for you… I went to IKEA in Santo Domingo. A VERY large IKEA.

While Elsie and I spent days seeing the sites and touching history I kept writing blog posts in my mind. I even wrote notes so I wouldn’t forget certain things! There’s so much I want to verbally unpack, and I don’t know if I’ll get to the point where I feel I’ve done that, but I want to.

For now though, my kids are in bed and my husband and I are going to go sit on our deck and have some down time before the place fills up with students tomorrow. If you think of us please pray this week. We love teaching classes because it means more people will be getting filters, but it takes a lot of time and energy on a good day. Chris and the kids got some sort of bug while I was away, and while we all hoped I would escape it I didn’t. It sucks all your energy, something we’re all going to need this week. Pray that Chris and I will both bounce back quickly because we have a lot to juggle this week.

~Leslie

 

Rebirth

It’s spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Haiti is just on the border of that, so spring here isn’t as noticeable as in some places. I keep thinking that in Canada the snow is melting, the grass is peeking out, and new flowers will soon be making their appearance. I always looked forward to spring when I was living there. The spring rains would slowly wash away the grub from built up road sand, and things would start to turn green. The day when we could open the windows for the first time in the season and let the fresh air in was always exciting. Seeing the garden start to break out in color and the trees bud up was the sure sign that winter was over and we were moving into a new season.

Life is like that too. We go through seasons. There are times when things feel like the long drawn out winter, and then we burst forth into a sort of spring where all becomes new again.

I feel like our family is starting to be renewed. That we’re going through a rebirth of sorts.

If you’ve been reading the blog for over a year you know that we’ve gone through some challenging things. And, if you’ve been reading the blog for any length of time, you’ve probably read me saying that a very small percentage of our “real” lives makes it’s appearance on here.

In the last few years we’ve had our fair share of hard times. And, because of the nature of those experiences it wasn’t alway possible, or a good idea to write about them on here. While I still believe that there are a lot of things that aren’t appropriate to share on here, I do feel like we’re in a place where it’s okay to talk about some aspects of those things. And through that, healing takes place.

In 2009 we experienced an arson attack on a mission vehicle and were left with death threats toward our family. What followed was over a year of legal issues around the whole thing, and wow – a storm of criticism about it. It’s amazing how many experts there are around issues like this, and that none of them have ever walked in our shoes. None of them knew the fear that boiled up in us within the first 24 hours when we realized who was responsible. Our critics were so focused on pointing out what they felt we’d done wrong in the situation, rather than trying to understand how it feels to be totally exposed, wondering if I should move my kid upstairs into my room at night so no one could shoot her through her bedroom window. They didn’t want to put their advice and opinions aside and ask us what it felt like. They accused us of many things, and very rarely asked us our side in the situation. And if they did ask our side, it was often only to humor us and it was evident that their minds were already made up.

That whole situation brought on some attention from certain individuals that decided to stir things up a bit. I think in their minds they believed they were doing what was right, but it brought no end of grief for our family. In an attempt to explain our side of things we “took the opportunity” (she says sarcastically) to talk to a few journalists. What I saw come out of that is still to this day some of the worst journalism I have ever seen. Seriously terrible.

It was about that point that I started to coil up in a little ball and became very guarded on the blog. Here we were just trying to be honest, to share ourselves, share our lives, share our experiences, share our inadequacies, share our learning experiences – and people were trying to use it against us. SO. NOT. COOL.

Because of other things involved in that whole situation we also realized that we just couldn’t talk about certain things for safety reasons, so we stopped. In fact, you might remember that the blog almost went private. I seriously struggled with that decision. I was so worn out emotionally from the criticism, and the criticism that that criticism stirred up, that I didn’t know if I could keep putting myself, ourselves, out there.

Around the same time the earthquake happened, and we realized that we had some important things to say when our blog went viral a couple days after the quake. You can still find it on msnbc’s website if you search for all things Haiti. I was asked to write for Esquire because of that. That still baffles me. I wrote for ESQUIRE magazine. In turn, Esquire Russia asked if they could publish some of our stuff. Crazy. I remember holding an actual print copy of that edition. I couldn’t read it, but was able to make out certain dates in headers that I knew referenced our blog posts. It was at least a 5 page spread. Of our blog! Humbling.

So, it was affirmed that the blog was a way to speak, and people wanted to read. I knew we had to stop caring what the haters had to say about things, but I was still very guarded.

We were going through the nastiest part of our adoption too. Things became ugly, and much of it couldn’t be shared. It couldn’t be shared because it would have jeopardized whether or not Olivia ever became a Rolling. We saw corruption, and we realized that child trafficking is happening in Haiti every day from the very offices that claim to be protecting Haiti’s children. It doesn’t always look like people trying to sneak kids out of the country illegally. Sometimes, often times trafficking looks like people demanding bribes to do what they should do legally. Demanding a bribe to sign an adoption paper is trafficking. You are financially benefiting from a child. It’s extortion too. Looking back there is no doubt in my mind that our adoption only every got completed because of God’s repeated intervention. We were so blessed to connect with people who, like us, believed in fighting corruption. They were willing to put their jobs on the line for it, and to this day I’m sure our adoption was one of the least expensive ones done in Haiti in the past few years because some people chose to take a stand for what is right. At one point we sat in the office of the Minister of Social affairs explaining our situation. We learned that not long after that he was no longer in his position because he was trying to stand up against corruption. The emotional toll that all took on us was amazing. I shared some of it, asked you to pray, but there was so much that didn’t get printed here because it was too sensitive.

In the past year we’ve gone through another set of trials within the organization. I still don’t feel like it’s appropriate to discuss that in any detail here and therefore I won’t. I can say that it’s been hard. It’s challenged us to our core beliefs. We’ve hurt a lot. We’ve questioned God’s direction. We’ve had to seek a lot of wisdom. We’ve had to be willing to stand up for some things because it was the right thing to do.

What I see happening now in our family is a rebirth of sorts. I see it in small ways. After experiencing the amount of stress that we’ve been through, it’s noticeable. To experience the levels of grief that we have, it’s noticeable.

I can still vividly remember moments, standing in my kitchen, and wondering what on earth we were going to do. Of being afraid. Of weeping in a way that I don’t know I ever have. Literally keeling over in gut wrenching sobs. To the point where I felt completely spent and emptied of myself. Crying out to God. Begging for him to tell us it was time to go home. And then hearing it.

That still, small voice.

That still, small voice that said, “It’s not time. I’m not done with you here, yet.”

Then the voice got a bit louder.

And the tears stopped.

And instead of fear, peace and hope started to slowly bubble up.

And then joy in the midst of despair.

And a very deep, sure knowledge that we were being cradled in Gods arms like the children we are, deeply loved and so very cared for.

Yes, what we were experiencing in all these situations was hard, but it was not the end. It was a process of coming to the end of ourselves for that time (because I believe that it won’t be the last time), and realizing that God was peeling away a layer of ourselves. A layer of trying to figure things out on our own. Of reasoning through things on our own strength. Of wondering what we were capable of.

He used those moments to show me very clearly that he had called us here according to his good purpose.  He reminded me that the sin of man often leaves us with situations to navigate through that are ugly. That are horrible. That are full of pain and grief.

But, the thing that matters in those moments is the seeking. The needing. The realization that we are desperate for wisdom. That we can’t do anything completely on our own strength.

In all those situations we started to see what God saw. That he had chosen us, for such a time as this. To be his chosen ones for this ministry. He called us here and over the years he has affirmed that calling repeatedly in our lives. Some have questioned that, but you know what? It’s not up to them. It’s between us and God. In the end, there will only be us and him having that conversation that involves the words well done.

In the past few years I have seen us change. I have seen us deepen as people. I have seen our character get tested and develop. I have seen us develop thicker skin. I have seen us learn to put aside things that don’t matter. I have seen us realize that we are capable of more than we ever anticipated.

And now, now I see us moving into spring. Things are growing in us.

Yes, when I look at my husbands face I see more lines there, but they are the lines that have been carved from experiences. From deliberation. From pain. And some from laughter. I see his hair, my hair, and a lot more gray, but we wear it like a badge of honor. The stress came, but it didn’t defeat us.

I think back to so many sleepless nights, and now I see my ability to compartmentalize in a good way. I can better step back from a situation now and decide how much of my time and energy it merits, then let it be. And sleep peacefully.

Most of all, I’ve seen us learn some valuable lessons about integrity. The most important being that integrity isn’t what you do when everyone is watching, it’s what you do when no one is watching. It’s much easier to make things look good on the surface, but everything will eventually come to light, so it’s what you do in the private times, in the places where you think no one will see, that really matter. I am honored to say that I am married to a man who has more integrity that anyone I know. Chris will absolutely stand for what is right, no matter what. He has been criticized, he has been challenged, he has been lied to and lied about, he has faced rumors – and yet his integrity is still as strong as ever. And you know what? Those lies, those rumors, those that are responsible? We don’t worry about them, because in the end they don’t answer to us. Just like us, they will have to stand before a just God and answer to Him. And we know we can stand before him with a clear conscience. That feels good.

I have seen our marriage weather the storms and deepen. It has become stronger. We have seen each other at our worst. When the stress was overwhelming. When we said things that hurt. When post-traumatic stress was wearing away at us and causing us to react to things in ways that weren’t “normal”. I have seen us clash. And, I have seen us tread through that, sometimes feeling like we can barely keep our heads above water. But, eventually our feet touched down. And we could stand a bit. And breathe a bit. We’ve learned to communicate better. To be more gracious to each other. To remember that our marriage has to be the core, with God as the very center. Ministry may change or we may move on, but we will still be married. Our children will grow and move on into their own lives, but we will still be married. It’s amazing too how many times I’ve seen people, “well intended” people, people that call themselves Christians and friends, trying to pit us against each other. I am so grateful that God has given us wisdom to see through all of that and to stand against it.

In the past 6 months I have seen little peeks of spring in our family. I have seen laughter come when before there would have been anger or hurt. It’s good to be able to laugh at a situation that really, when you step back, is ridiculous. Not to make light of it, but to see it for what it is. That wisdom and freedom is such a blessing.

I have seen us focusing more on our family. I have seen us focusing more on our calling here. Of being able to say, “Focusing on this is NOT why we’re here. We’re here to lead the mission, and this needs to take up space in the back of our brains.” I believe that’s what God wants from us. THIS, leading the mission, being a family, being married – is our calling. Not that other stuff. We are here to lead and guide the mission, to lead our staff, to build into them. The other stuff is just stuff that requires some of our time, but not the most important part of our time.

I have seen our staff move forward. There is joy. There is laughter. There is trust. There is openness. There is encouragement. Others have tried to destroy that in the past few years, but it hasn’t worked. That, is a blessing. I feel like we’re becoming more of a family of sorts.

I see God blessing the work here. I believe that he blesses that which is set apart by him. He called people to start Clean Water for Haiti. He called us to lead it. We have tried to be faithful to that calling. We have tested it over and over and still he tells us to stay and lead. And he is blessing this. We have gone through lean times, and yet he provides in very specific ways. When we leave things in his hands and just move forward with what we know we are to do, he blesses. He has never left us wanting. For example, we shared most recently that we had cut back our work week in an effort to be responsible with the funds that we did have while we waited for God to provide what we needed to go back up to full production. We shared that we had received a large donation that was going to help towards it. A couple weeks ago we received another large donation. Large enough to put us back up to full production for the rest of the year. We were kind of excited :) Most of all, for Chris and I, it was an affirmation that we were doing what God had called us to. He was tangibly showing us that we are where he wants us, doing what he wants us to do. To those who prove faithful, much will be given. 

I’m sure you’ve heard it said, it’s not the destination, but the journey that’s important. I believe that. When I first moved to Haiti, I had no idea what the future would look like. I had no idea how long I would be here. I had no idea that I would end up married, with two kids, far from the soccer mom. I had no idea. And yet, I can see how perfect God’s plan is. He knew I would fit the needs of the mission. He knew that Chris and I would be perfect partners, complimenting each other when needed, and grinding against each other when needed. He knew exactly what he was doing when we held a sweet, little Haitian baby for the first time. He knew what he was doing when he placed a baby boy in my womb instead of the girl that Chris insisted we needed. He knew what we needed, when we needed it.

He knew.

And he knows.

He knows where we’ve come from, and where we are going. He knows that we are still tender, vulnerable. He knows the words we need to hear from the mouths of those who encourage. He sets the prayers we need in the hearts of those who lift us up. He gives us the grace we need when we screw up. He gives us the wisdom we need to lead well. He gives us the affirmation we need when we doubt. He gives us the hope we need when we feel discouraged. He provides for us when we ask.

I know that I am still going to be guarded with what gets shared on here. Some because there are things that are not for the interweb. And some because we are still recovering. We are still licking some of our wounds. We are still healing. But, we are. Healing, that is. It’s a process. But we are.

Healing.

Being reborn.

Oh, and just because we still have some sort of sense of humor, I will admit that there’s a little sign on our bulletin board that says:

“Don’t try to win over the haters – you are not the jerk whisperer.”

It’s the Little Things

I was thinking about the organizing blogs I read, and all the homemaker chat that goes on. There’s a lot of it out there. I think as wives and mothers in today’s world, there’s a lot more to balance. And, in some cases, I think our days are busier.

I would be classified as a WAHSAH mom – Work At Home, Stay At Home mom. Except that instead of doing the work part on a part-time basis while the kids are at school or something like that, I do it generally about 8 hours a day. It might start at 5:30 in the morning when I’m pulling follow-up sheets for our staff, and be intermingled with dinner, then checking and responding to emails, hanging the clothes on the line, working on a project, blogging, getting dinner ready… You get the idea. Since my “office” is my living room it can be hard to carve out specific work time and specific home time. And heck, I have a 9 month old! Chris has been a little less busy on the work front in the last few months because he’s delegated a lot of stuff to our workers, so he’s been doing a lot of childcare lately while I do a lot of mission work. I feel pulled between things right now because I feel like my kids have seen my back as I sit at my computer more than they’ve seen my face, but I know that it’s a season and as I keep hacking through the projects on my proverbial plate I know that in a couple weeks there will be less and I can start shifting gears a bit. And I’m looking forward to that.

One thing that is hard for me in seasons like this, while I’m feeling stretched, is when the house seems like we can’t quite catch up. I know I’ve shared recently on here about our FIGHT THE LAZY campaign. It’s working. I’m not gonna lie – I’m not on my game every day (like today when I turned off the alarm and got out of bed 20 minutes later) but there is a difference in things around here. And you know what? It really is the little things that add up to big things. Something as small as taking a couple minutes to grind my coffee and fill the kettle the night before can mean one less thing to think about when I’m still trying to wake up. Doing the dishes and clearing the counters the night before give me a clean slate in the morning. I’m not waking up feeling overwhelmed and am therefore in a better mood first thing.

These changes for the better got me thinking about the other little things that we do in our home that work. And by “work” I mean make life easier. I know that you’re curious about life here, which is why you read, so I thought I would share some of the “little things” I/we do.

MEAL PLAN
One of the biggest helps around our house is my meal plan. Seriously. I love to cook, when I’m in the mood. And I’m not always in the mood. With full days it’s easy for me to forget to think about dinner, so I don’t and then at 4 I wonder what we’re going to eat. Meal planning has saved me so much brain space!

My trick is that I don’t just plan for a week at a time - I do it a month ahead. 

I bought a little notepad calendar that is blank with peel off pages. I think I got it at Walmart or a dollar store. You can use it for any month, just write in the dates and there you go. That’s my “scratch pad”. I sit down with my day timer and see what we have going on in the coming weeks, and note it on the scratch pad after I’ve filled in the dates. Then I take the previous months plan which is on the white board calendar on my fridge, and see what worked, what didn’t etc and start writing in meal ideas. I also have a list stuck to the side of the fridge that has a list of all the dinner ideas that have been a hit. I have it categorized by meat type, soups and “other” for things like pasta or dishes that don’t fit into the other categories. I refer to this if I’m having a hard time thinking of ideas. I also look at cookbooks where I might have flagged a page. I think about things like what meals are inexpensive, time consuming etc and plan accordingly based on what’s going on. After I’m happy with the scratch pad version I transfer it to the white board calendar on the fridge. Then, all I have to do is look at it during one of my daily passes and can immediately pull anything out of the freezer that I need that night.

Tips & Tricks:

• Plan the meals you need to. I don’t plan breakfasts or lunches, just dinner. For breakfast we keep it simple with things like toast, eggs or granola which I make in a big batch every other week. We have a window of about 20 minutes to eat in the morning, so it has to be fast and simple.

• Leftover night. Seriously. Once a week specifically plan a leftover night where you pull everything out of the fridge and everyone picks what looks good, heats up their plate and you call it dinner. It means no cooking AND you don’t have things becoming science experiments in the back of your fridge. We do ours on Wednesday night because Thursday is market day where Yonese goes and buys all our fresh stuff. This way I know what I really need.

• Simple Suppers. I know that on weekends we are lazy and that by 5 pm I don’t want to cook much. I finally came to terms with the fact that it’s okay to put “popcorn” on the meal plan as a meal. Sometimes we’ll pop a pot and put on a movie and have family time instead of sitting at the table, and for us it works. Sandwiches are a great simple supper.

• Salad in quantity. I make up a big bowl of salad only about twice a week. I put it in a bowl with a lid so once we’re done it goes right in the fridge. Many nights our dinner might consist of something like a meat, and salad. Because the salad is already made I just focus on the main course and pull the salad out of the fridge, take the lid off and call it dinner. Also, because there’s a bowl already made up it’s easy to pull it out at lunch time too.

• Don’t cook dinner every night. Yes, you read that right. I don’t cook dinner every night. Aside from leftover night and doing simple suppers, I handed off dinner responsibilities one night a week to Chris. I recognize that our situation is unique in that he’s at home most days and around to help out. We’ve designated Friday nights as “Chris Cooks” night. And you know what he makes every week? Baked potatoes. And it’s great. I let go of the reins and let him decide what he wants to make. If it’s baked potatoes that I don’t have to cook, then great. If he wants to get more adventurous, then great. As the kids get older and they can help, they will.

GROCERY SHOPPING
Because I have a menu plan, grocery shopping is relatively easy. I just look at the plan, look at what we have, and make a list accordingly. I know what other staples we use regularly so those get added too. It’s amazing how much money you can save when you shop for the menu plan. We don’t have flyers here, so I can’t keep my eyes open for sales and plan from that. What I do is buy regular quantities of different kinds of meat, for example, and I portion them in bags then freeze. For example, because we buy all of our chicken in 30 lb boxes, I cut the legs and thighs apart and freeze 6 pieces per bag. I know this is enough for a satisfying meal for everyone in our family, and a bit for leftovers. Sometimes when I’m menu planning I’ll think about what we have on hand and work that in to the schedule, reducing the amount of shopping we need to do.

LAUNDRY

You’ve heard me say it on here before, I don’t love laundry. But, we need clean clothes, so it’s a catch 22.

Tips & Tricks:

• Designate a laundry day to each member of the family. In our home, I do the kids clothes on Monday, mine on Tuesday, Chris’ on Wednesday and linens/household laundry on Thursday. The only reason I do it 4 days a week is because we have to hang dry everything and our clothesline holds one load at a time. Separating everyone’s laundry means less sorting. I take it off the line, fold and put it where it needs to go.

• I sort as I hang. I will literally leave laundry that is dry and not sorted in the basket for days. So, I started sorting it as it went on the line. All the t-shirts together, bottoms, underwear, socks… Now I just fold it right into the basket.

• I don’t separate colors. Gah! Yes, you read that right. The truth is, we live in Haiti and it’s so easy to get dirty here that we don’t have many light colored clothes, and what we do have isn’t usually seen by the general public. So, I don’t sort. It all goes in the machine and it all gets done in the same load.

• Reduce the number of everyday clothes that you have. Seriously. It is not physically possible to wear more than a certain number of clothes each week. I ruthlessly went through my closet a few months ago and got rid of 3 garbage bags of clothes. I was wondering if I would miss them. I don’t. Yes, we have it simple in the sense that we really only need clothes for one season, but you can still simplify even if you have multiple seasons to dress for. If you are most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt during the week, then be selective about how many you have. I do this with the kids too. Less clothes means less to wash.

• Buy mix and match clothes for kids. When you have kids that can dress themselves, or even younger, buy clothes that can mix and match. Olivia has a variety of t-shirts, but her shorts are mostly basic colors that go with a variety of tops. Same with skirts. That way she can pull almost anything out of the drawer and it looks fine. Keeps it easy!

I’m going to leave it at that! It’s time to get dinner ready, but thankfully it’s Wednesday, so it’s leftover night here :)

~Leslie

Hello World!

WordPress has re-vamped their stats we can actually see where people are reading from and how often. Would you believe that in the last month we’ve had readers from 67 different countries. Now, granted, I know some of those are trolling but, still!

So, whoever you are and wherever you’re from, welcome to our little blog. We hope that you enjoy reading about our lives here.

~ The Rollings

The Labour of Creativity

I feel like I just gave birth. Not experiencing any physical pain, but I am sort of feeling empty.

I’ve been working, literally for months, on revamping all of the mission’s promo materials. I’ve been excited about it for a while as ideas have formulated and I’ve learned a new program to make those ideas become some sort of reality. Adjusting this, adding that, deleting this, changing that. I would work on it when I had time, until recently when it became more pressing. Finding an online place to print it all and deliver it wasn’t so hard. Making adjustments to the documents themselves to fit the pre-requisites was moderately frustrating, but I hacked through it and am really happy with the results. I’m crossing my fingers that it all looks as good printed as it did on my computer.

I feel like I’ve invested so much of myself in this. And the scary part for me is that this is one of the first times where my creativity in this format will be on display for who knows how many people to see. Does it look good? Does it look professional? Does it look cohesive? All questions rolling around in my head for months. I had moments of giddiness as I made progress and figured out how to manipulate text and photos to become what I wanted them to be.

Over the last week as things started getting closer to being done I realized I was kind of procrastinating. You would think I would be happy to get this over and done with.

Today as I was uploading files to the printing company website I realized I was feeling all sorts of things. I was kind of sad. I was feeling a sense of loss. I was feeling like I wasn’t quite ready to let go.

Crazy, huh?

I realized as I thought about all of it that projects like this are an emotional process for me. I pour so much of myself into them that it makes sense that I would feel deeply about them. Part of me, in a weird sort of way, is in there. I have to let it go into the big world to see if it can stand on it’s own now.

And now it’s time to move on.

And put my kids to bed.

I did have a bit of affirmation that all my hard work was worth it this afternoon. Part of the process was tying everything together so it looked cohesive and professional. I’ve been using certain elements across the board – you know, “branding” of sorts where people will look at things and associate them with Clean Water for Haiti. I didn’t realize just how effective I’d been in my efforts until Olivia walked in the room, saw my computer screen that had a picture of some kids and said, “Hey, it’s the Clean Water for Haiti kids!”

Mission accomplished.

 

The Know-It-All Observer

I was thinking about some things that bug me the other day, and then how those things came to bug me and put a couple of things together in my brain. Frequently we talk amongst ourselves, and with other friends about how opinionated outsiders (def: those who do not live here full time) seem to be about what we do every day.

Seriously, you wouldn’t believe how often we’ve been told by people that we should do x, y, or z, or all of them, differently because whoever it is seems to be an expert. An expert with no experience.

It got me thinking. I’ve spent many years working in ministry of some sort, and you know what? It’s amazing how critical people can be, even though they aren’t holding that particular ministry position. Think about it. It’s like there’s this mentality that anyone who is a Christian automatically has the right to be an expert about any kind of ministry position. How often do pastors, missionaries, evangelists etc come under scrutiny simply because we think we have the right to tell them how to do their jobs because we share the title Christian. I know the Bible talks about certain perimeters for being in those roles, but just because we read our Bibles and call ourselves by similar names, does not give us the right to offer directives.

Case in point – would I tell an engineer how to design an airplane, just because I’ve flown in  a plane at some time or seen a plane? Would I tell a teacher how to teach when I’ve only merely been a student? Would I tell a baker how to make a cake if I had very little experience and they pumped out 20 cakes a day?

Furthermore, would I offer my unsolicited advice, when it was just that - unsolicited? 

Chances are no, I wouldn’t. Because it would be stupid and rude. I don’t know enough about any of those to have any sort of educated opinion, so why would I try to tell any of those people how to do their job. Yet every day non-pastors are telling pastors how to pastor. Non-missionaries are telling missionaries how to work in the mission field. Non-evangelists are telling evangelists how to evangelize. You get the idea.

What gets me even more is when people get offended, after the offered unsolicited advice is rejected. Even very politely with a statement like, “Well, it’s more complicated than that,” or “Based on my experience…” And then they get further offended if the person on the receiving end is even remotely ungracious, or is honest and says that their advice is not need, or asked for. And yet, we probably wouldn’t be offended if an engineer told us we really didn’t know what went into designing an airplane. We would probably admit that they were right, that we don’t know what we’re talking about.

In my years of working in ministry I’ve seen more criticism to those doing the hard work of ministering from those that weren’t in their shoes than I believe I ever would see working in a “secular” job. Why, people? Just because we share the same faith, doesn’t mean we become experts in every aspect of it, or working in the roles God calls us to. There’s a reason why the Bible talks about the body and each person having their role to play. It’s because we aren’t all called to the same things, we don’t have the same giftings, and we can’t possibly understand every calling out there and what it takes to carry it out. There are reasons why some are called to work in pastoral ministry, and some in hospice care. Some are called to be teachers, and others prophets. Not everyone is equipped to leave their current life behind and go live in another culture like a missionary. There are reasons for this, in the same way that not everyone is a brain when it comes to math and building things, and not everyone can do childcare without dropping from exhaustion. And within those roles, there is still more room for our unique personalities and giftings. No two pastors will pastor the same way, and no two missionaries with work in the field in the same way. Yet, for some reason, within the Church we have no end of criticism and advice for those that minister around us.

We have no right.

The Bible firstly talks about the body and how we have a role to play that is different from everyone else’s. If my role is different, how can I possibly know what someone else *should* be doing?

Secondly, the Bible warns against judgement. We are told not to. If I’m giving someone advice in an area that I know very little about, let me tell you, the line between knowing and judging becomes a very fine one indeed. We can sweeten it up under the veil of concern or good intentions, but the bottom line is the same – telling someone how they should do their ministry role better without being asked is judgement. You are saying, “I don’t think you’re doing this right, and this is what you need to do to resolve that.”

Lastly, when someone is called into ministry, the only opinion that really matters is GOD’s. Yours does not matter. When we give unsolicited advice we’re giving ourselves more importance than we actually have. It doesn’t really matter what we think – it’s what God thinks that matters, and it’s God’s job to convict his servant and to direct them in the way they should go. I do believe that there are times when we’re called to hold each other accountable, but accountability is in regards to sin, not in regards to people doing things we just don’t agree with for our own reasons. I also believe that God uses others to speak wisdom into our lives, but that wisdom is supposed to be spoken in love and in relationship.

I think we need to be very careful when we start telling others how to carry out their calling. And, we need to remember a lot of discernment needs to be used before we offer our opinions. How can our words potentially hurt or undermine? How can they grind against the things that God might be leading and directing? Are we willing to listen when someone says, “Sorry, but that’s not what God’s been telling me”? Are we willing to look at ourselves and our motivations before we share? Are we willing to admit that maybe we don’t know what we’re talking about and what’s best in a particular situation? Most of all, are we willing to be learners, actively listening to what the needs really are and the reasons behind chosen actions or directions?

It’s a lot to think about, isn’t it?

 

The Rambler

I got to spend most of the day in the work yard painting our logo on a new filter to go up by the road. We used to have two up there and it was so easy to give directions. “Go about 5 minutes past Montrouis and look for the two filters on the left side of the road, then turn down our driveway.” When they did the road construction a couple years ago they knocked down our filters. One of them is still there, just lying on it’s side, which is kind of funny. I guess it being filled with concrete makes it not so easy to move. And, I think people like sitting on it when they wait for tap taps. This past summer Bryan had the guys put another filter at the top of the driveway, but it wasn’t cemented in so it would get moved around. The best part was that a few months ago someone came along and spray painted a stencil on the side that said, “Adieu TiRoRo”. So our directions became something like, “Drive past Montrouis. About five minutes down the road you’ll go down a slight hill. A little bit further there will be a small store on your right called Daniel Business. Across the road you’ll see a filter with “Adieu TiRoRo” painted on it. Turn there.” It was all good until two weeks ago when we came back from St. Marc one day and the filter was gone. Don’t ask me where it went. It was there when we left an hour earlier, and not there when we came back.

I’m sure you can imagine how the directions went after that…

Drive past Montrouis. About 5 minutes down the road you’ll go down a small hill. Not long after that there will be a small store on the right called Daniel Business. Right after that you’ll see a break in the guard rail. That’s our driveway. Turn down there. If you get lost just ask for “Dlo Pwop Pou Ayiti”. 

Yeah.

So today I painted a filter and tomorrow it’s going to get cemented back at the top of the driveway in pre-road construction fashion.

I like spending time in the work yard because I get to hear all sorts of things and see the guys just being themselves. Today as I painted Fan Fan and Preval were given the task of going up our big Mango Fransik tree to get mangos. Halfway through, while they were already goofing around, Fan Fan informed Preval that they should speak French. The next hour consisted of Fan Fan speaking only French and Preval speaking only Creole. Just overhearing them was enough to make everyone in the work yard break out in fits of giggles. Especially when Preval would say things like, “I’m diaspora now,” or “I’m going to France.” Haitians have a funny sense of humor. Funny in the sense that we foreigners don’t always understand the joke. I’ve learned that it’s much more entertaining most times to just watch them being entertained. Creole is a language where words sort of dance. You have to know the little plays on words and phraseology to get things like san sousi or w’ap kraze’m. I like the moments where I can be more on the inner circle, part of the joke. It was fun to hear the ramblings and laughter.

Another high point of the day was meeting Charlotte, a high school senior from North Carolina who chose to do her senior project on Clean Water for Haiti. One thing that is really special to us is the support we get from school aged people, whether it’s elementary or college. Often we get contacted about projects or fundraisers that they want to do because they were studying Haiti and found us and think the filters are great. We love being able to share about what we do. Today was even more fun because rather than just writing emails and stuff like that we got to tour Charlotte around the work yard and show her first hand.

~Leslie