Whew!! Let's all catch our breath!

Well, we made it through Staff Camp, most of our visitors have gone back to their homes, and we were looking forward to a relaxing week of just catching up on things around the HOH. But instead, it has been one of those weeks, where everything seems to be happening at the same time. First of all, Monday morning we realized the main drainage canal from the HOH was totally blocked and the water was backing up into the HOH. So the boys started working on getting it unblocked. Problem is, when the new hospital was built right beside us, they built right on top of our canal, and didn't leave any access places to check it out if there were ever any problems. Well, in the middle of trying to figure out how to unblock the drainage canal we were called to the other side of our property to check out a septic tank. It was very evident that the tank was full and overflowing onto our yard. So we had to stop the drainage project, to work on emptying out the septic tank, by hand, after digging a huge hole to empty it into. Having finished that, we returned to the drainage canal, only to get the metal pole stuck, that we were attempting to stick into the canal to unplug it. The next day we got some help with the metal pole, and it finally came out, but after a third whole day of working on the drainage canal, it is still just as plugged as ever. Thus we came to the conclusion that we must build a new one. We knew this was going to have to be done at sometime, we were definitely hoping for a later time, but it can't wait at this point. So today the boys are at it again, working hard to dig a new ditch to put the drainage canal in. This time it won't be under the hospital!

In the midst of all of this, the maintenance men of the hospital came to tell us that we needed to cut down the dead palm tree that stands right beside the HOH. It has become more and more of a danger whenever we have high winds, and they were sure that yesterday was the day for the tree to come down. It was unbelievably nerve wracking, as we watched them work on cutting it down. It was so close to the house, just a tiny mistake and it could have been a mess. We prayed the whole time they were cutting...and it came down perfectly in the best possible place. Praise God! Here's a picture of Bòs Dieunousa cutting it down. And then here's one of it on the ground.So you can see these past few days since camp have been a bit hectic. Thanks for your prayers for us, and please continue to pray as we work on getting the drainage canal finished before any major rains, or we'll be in a lot of trouble.

We just got back the wonderful news that both Benitha, and Jean Daniel passed their grade 9 government exams this year! They are so excited. And even more exciting is that Jean Daniel was the Valedictorian for his school! Praise God together with us for this great news.

We are still awaiting the news for Ciliana's tests. I know some of you think I've forgotten to let you know, but that isn't the case. The clinic that performed the tests sent word that the first set of tests came back inconclusive, so they did a second one, it too came back inconclusive. So I will be taking her to Port-au-Prince once again this month to be tested. This is really good news, as we feel that if she was going to be positive, it wouldn't keep coming back inconclusive. Perhaps that's wishful thinking on our part...but please keep this in your prayers. As you can see from the picture she is doing extremely well, and has started to get a tooth!

We appreciate your prayers for us so much, and ask that you thank God with us for his provisions for all of our needs, and ask Him as well to continue to provide, especially as all these new expenses are popping up to fix things.