It’s Sunday, July 3rd, and the first full day for the full family in Haiti.\u00a0 I am somewhat limited by our internet connection here.\u00a0 It’s dial-up, so no pictures to post for now … and it’s killing me because I have so many great pictures.\u00a0 Bummer.\u00a0 They’ll just have to wait until we get back to the States in two weeks. Melissa went to Haiti in June of 2010 and I went in October.\u00a0 We’ve been talking about and planning for a move to Haiti in August of 2012 since my trip.\u00a0 This two week family trip was also in my mind since the tail end of my trip.\u00a0 Melissa and I both felt like it would be crucial to give the kids a Haitian experience – a chance for them to see for themselves the realities of life in Haiti.\u00a0 It seems surreal now to have it become reality. I have been reminded often over the last few days (by the Holy Spirit?) of all the people we have to thank for aiding us in this process.\u00a0 Our neighbor Ben replaced our van’s windshield for next to nothing (a shout out to Auto Glass Depot!).\u00a0 Jeff and Sheila Forshee housed our family in Pensacola for several days.\u00a0 Twila and Gonzo Gonzales put us up for the night in Miami and then got us to the airport by 5:20 AM yesterday.\u00a0 Amber E. is watching the house for us.\u00a0 My mother-in-law Trudy\u00a0donated pillows.\u00a0 Others donated additional supplies.\u00a0\u00a0Bill E.\u00a0at Men for Mission arranged the flights.\u00a0 Lucretia S. has helped coordinate our finances through the church.\u00a0 Many have prayed for us and many have given money.\u00a0 I know I am forgetting someone at the moment, but you’ve been in my thoughts throughout the last few days.\u00a0 You are all a big part of this trip. The kids have been absolutely fantastic.\u00a0 What troopers they are!\u00a0 They\u00a0have been\u00a0willing to sleep anywhere, spend 24 hours total in the van, eat anything, meet and interact with “strangers”… This morning they sat through a warm, two hour church service –\u00a0all in Creole.\u00a0 And those pews set a new standard for discomfort!\u00a0 But along with all the demands that this trip has placed on them, they have also enjoyed some great times, too.\u00a0 They loved their time in Pensacola – getting to know the Forshees (and their dogs!), spending time on the beach, exploring Fort Pickens.\u00a0 Now that they are here, they’ve enjoyed playing soccer with some local Haitian kids, eaten lunch at a beautiful hotel, and gone for a swim.\u00a0 They are also enjoying exploring the compound and chasing lizards. I have so much more I could write, but it’s gotten late and tomorrow we have an early breakfast and then we’re off to help with a VBS program at a local church.\u00a0 We’d appreciate your continued prayers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s Sunday, July 3rd, and the first full day for the full family in Haiti.\u00a0 I am somewhat limited by our internet connection here.\u00a0 It’s dial-up, so no pictures to post for now … and it’s killing me because I have so many great pictures.\u00a0 Bummer.\u00a0 They’ll just have to wait until we get back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4996,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4995\/revisions\/4996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}