the wisk in my head

Quiet. All I can hear is the hum of the dryer. Wish all the laundry - all 10 loads of it - was folded. Not tonight.

Wish I had words to describe what God is doing in my heart and mind. Too tired tonight. But lets just say that today I felt like there was a wisk (is this the way you spell this word?!) in my head. Scrambled brain. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? (if you do, I'm quite sure you're a woman - no man can fully comprehend how this happens). I felt like I couldn't put two thoughts together. Tomorrow promises to be worse if God doesn't show up and take the wisk away!

Saturday - my hubby and I had one of the worse days we've had together in a long time - a little trouble readjusting to life together upon his return from Haiti.

Sunday p.m. - had life group here - around 30 people including our family

Monday pm. - helped RB lead a Bible study down at the apartments - awkward and beautiful

Tuesday p.m. - a few neighborhood girls had dinner with us (unexpectedly, of course)

Wednesday p.m. - 5 Mighty Men and one Mighty Mentor came and inhaled our leftovers from the past 3 days; they arrive after I send six other neighborhood kids home for the night

Tomorrow - we will celebrate Luke's b'day because I won't be in town this weekend and

Moriah will go to her first soccer practice; I'll have to send the neighborhood kids home because I don't think I can do 12 or 13 kids while trying to get Luke's bday dinner ready...

Friday a.m. - I leave to go to a mommy conference with Sally Clarkson until Sunday a.m. Can I just say that I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!! Think maybe I need a little break.

I have no idea why I'm writing all this down. I think maybe I needed to see that there is a reason my brain is feeling spacey! I just read this great blog post about this single girl who lives in Africa and has adopted 11-12 orphans. She was commenting about the fact that someone kept saying to her that they would love to do what she does and would do it in a heartbeat if they could. She got angry because she didn't believe the woman really would because she hadn't counted the cost. She loves what she's doing and wouldn't trade it for the world, but it is not glamorous. When I write about the events of my week, it would be easy to "glamorize" it and I could make it sound adventurous. Truth is that I've been clinging to Jesus in desperation this week. It has felt like transition in labor when you want to quit with everything in you, but that's really just not an option. Sigh. I'm thankful for these times in which I realize again how much I need Him - not to just come and give me something or "fix" some situation...I need HIM. I need HIM to come and LIVE HIS life through me, not just help me out. There has, and will continue to be, much grace for this adventure He has invited us to.

Can hear hubby snoring in my bedroom. Dryer has stopped. Time for this mama to go to bed. Will start again tomorrow with the new mercies that are mine at each day's dawn....Maybe a little snack first - I don't have to share at this time of night. :)

This is what my scrambled head knows: He. Is. Good. Infinitely good.

Here are a couple of pics:

MK took this one of Isaac and flower - like it!

Narnia like view from our front door a couple of weeks ago - beautiful

Nana, we really like our bench cushion and pillows - it's a favorite reading hangout for all the kids! :)

Back from Haiti

Boy with a broken arm. No that is not a backwards elbow.
This is the AMI team I went with. They were incredible. Prayerful. Hard working. Really fun people to be with. It was amazing how God put just the right people on our team to do what needed to be done. Several of the team members had been to Sri Lanka after the tsunami. Lexia (in the black hat) went on a 2 week trip and ended up staying there for 4 1/2 years to build a community with 80 homes, and help plant a church.
One of the many buildings that had been destroyed. The destruction was so wide, that there is no way to do justice with pictures. Haiti was broken before the earthquake. There is no hope for making things right except Jesus, and his people.

Back from Haiti

Alan was running the non-medical part of the Wesleyan camp. He had been there for about 2 weeks and got sick. This is him getting some IV fluids under the tree. He ended up going home the next day. It was amazing to see how God provided new people to fill in the gaps just when they were needed.
This is the middle of the clinic where whe did wound care. Almost everything was done outside because we didn't have much room, and because people were still afraid to be inside. This is one of the Haitian nurses who was volunteering to help.
The shed you see was built by the marines after the earthquake. It was our ICU where we kept really sick patients. The flag is marking the Spanish area. The Spanish Armada set up a clinic every day on our compound. They were great. They brought in an ultrasound some days, and when we had really sick patients who needed surgery, they were able to get some of them onto their floating hospital ship to operate on them. I enjoyed getting to use my rudimentary Spanish skills to communicate with them.

Back from Haiti

This is the delivery table where moms had their babies. We sometimes even covered it with a paper gown to make it more comfortable. Outside that window was the outdoor clinic where hundreds of people were sitting outside listening to the women as they labored.
This is Dr. Liza and her dad Bob. Bob is a retired neurosurgeon and Liza is a wonderful ER doctor from St. Louis. She basically ran the medical part of things. She was amazing.
This group of firefighters from Portland was a great help. They started IVs, treated wounds, carried people on stretchers, and did anything else we needed them to do.

Back from Haiti

This is Fred, who served, along with 2 of his brothers, as our translators. He is my new hero. He is a young Haitian man who lost several friends in the earthquake. He was sitting with 3 friends when the earthquake hit. He and one friend ran one direction and survived. The other 2 ran another direction and were killed. The night of the earthquake he heard a man crying for help. The man was distraught because his wife was in labor with nobody to help. It was her 5th delivery, and all 4 of the others had died in childbirth. Fred stayed with them for 4 hours and delivered the baby all by himself. He had never even seen a childbirth before. No gloves, no instruments, nobody there to ask questions of; just the love of Jesus in his heart--and the baby was born healthy and strong.
Moriah sent a sack of beanie babies for me to give away in Haiti, so each newborn baby went home with a little gift.
This is Michael Johnson, my new doctor friend. He is a surgeon from Philadelphia, who has been a missionary to Kenya for the past 20 years. He was in the US to speak at a Christian doctors conference, and his wife called him from Nairobe and encouraged him to spend a few days in Haiti. He ended up on the truck with us coming home from the airport and got adopted onto our team. He stayed behind after our team left Petit Guave and served as the director of our little "hospital" until the next doctor arrives from St. Louis.

Going to Haiti

Today around noon a friend of mine called me. He is the youth pastor at a church in Waco that has been working in Haiti since 5 days after the earthquake struck. They are sending their 4th consecutive team next Tuesday, and one of the doctors had to cancel. My friend asked if I would be willing to go. I had already talked about going later in the month with the team he will be leading, but the dates didn't work out. It just so happens that the dates for this 4th team's trip are about the only dates in February that I could go.

So I said yes.

We are planning to fly out of Dallas next Tuesday around 7 am and return the following Tuesday.

Please pray for me. I will need God's wisdom to know how to help people medically. I will need God's supernatural power to heal people that only He can heal. I need God to fill my heart with His love so I will be able to care about people and not grow selfish or weary.

Please pray for Anda, who will be staying home with 7 kids. No great adventure. Very little praise. Just faithfully serving in our home. She is wonderful. Pray for God to give her joy and strength. Her job as a mom right now is very physically difficult, especially with a baby.

I'm serious about asking you to pray. I wanted people to know I'm going to Haiti, but mostly I blogged this so that people would pray. Thank you.

Randy