La Belle Maison (The Beautiful Cement House)
We are living in a beautiful cement house in Pignon, Haiti at Haiti Home of Hope orphanage for two months. We are grateful to the Campbell family for opening up their home and studio cottage for our family. The cement keeps everything cool during the day and night. We have 5 huge windows that wrap around the house with charming, natural shutters (not the fake kind we used to have at our home) and a big porch that looks out over the mountains in the back yard. We have an outside bathroom with American toilets and showers (cold water only!) and two sinks. It reminds us of our favorite campground, except the landscape is lush, tropical, exotic, and rural. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around that we are in a 3rd world country, tucked safely inside the orphanage walls (cactus trees cut like a privacy fence) We wake up every morning, early to the sounds of 40 beautiful children getting ready for school or playing hard on the weekend. It’s never quiet here.
Yesterday, Hannah and I were in the bathroom and she laughed in hysterics when I realized I was sharing the toilet with a big frog who was swimming in the porcelain. I screamed and the frog jumped out to safety. We have a new saying …. This is Haiti. (TIH)
We do lots of chores that are the same in America, but look very different. We can wash our clothes in a washing machine, but no dryer, so we hang the clothes on lines. I always remember my Aunti Marianne telling me the smell of clean clothes drying in the 
wind is her favorite smell. She was right. I love the fresh smell of our sheets, and towels, and clothes. It takes a long time to hang clothes to dry, but I’m getting it down with helpful tips from the staff. I think I made them giggle at my first attempt, but now I have it down. It takes about fifteen minuets for me to sweep and mop the floors and make the bunks. I love power cleaning in Haiti.
We started decorating our home for Christmas and the bunkbeds make perfect furniture for our trees, tinsel, lights, and stockings. I was so excited to hang icicle lights for the kids. It was important for me to make Christmas special for our family. I think I’m the 1st one to bring icicles to Haiti … I love that!
Our typical day starts off with home school lessons for the girls. I’m finally in the groove and love helping the girls tackle their lessons. Thankfully, Roger helps with Hannah’s algebra and I enjoy the grammar, literature, and her extra curricular “class without walls” helping on clinic day and taking care of baby Lavi. Hannah is doing wonderful and enjoying her out of the box classes. The best part, the girls are done with school before lunch. We eat a simple breakfast of eggs or oatmeal, a large lunch usually with chicken, goat, or beef, and a light dinner of sandwiches. The biggest temptation is all the homemade baking that goes on here. We have some amazing cooks in the house and they love making desserts and cakes and to-die-for meals!
During the week, we work on projects for Haiti Home of Hope and the community. Today, the windows are going up in the “house 
that love built” and we dedicate their home to the family on Wednesday. I can’t wait to celebrate with the new homeowners!! We will start sharing the gospel with Pastor Clebert Monday through Wednesdays in the evening in Pignon. He’s a wonderful friend, and translator. We started our new Man Up Haiti bible study for the teen boys (10 total) and I’m going to start disciplining the teen girls with Gold theme (they are the queens of Haiti!!) we developed in Uganda and Ethiopia to empower girls to guard their hearts and value their bodies like royalty! Our son joins us in Haiti for Christmas on Dec. 17th .. we can’t wait for him to get here! One of my favorite things about serving at HHH is the fellowship with the missionaries, Bill and Jennifer Campbell … who are celebrating their 10 year anniversary living in Haiti. I pray we can continue to be the best “happy helpers” and energize our friends with fun and friendship!
If you have any questions you want me to answer during our time in Haiti, please leave me a comment and I’ll share. Thank you for supporting, cheering, praying, and loving our family through our 12 month mission-adventure! We are all in this together!
Click here to donate for Simply Love Ministry and invest in our mission adventure this year. Keep praying big!!
I love this post that tells what you are doing. So enjoy the vicarious experience of “being there with you”.