Pictures of the Imslands in Haiti

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!! We want to thank each of you for your financial support, prayers support, and amazing encouragement we receive from you. Thank you for helping us follow God's call on our families' life. We could not do it without you!

Here is the Christmas tree that the Grace Village staff set up in our feeding center.

We had a beautifu dinner for our Grace kids and our Haitian staff. I absoltely loved being able to serve them. To be able to look into each of their eyes and show respect and gratitude for all the hard work they did this last year, what a blessing!

The Grace kids each recieved a gift. Many of the younger girls received dolls, the younger boys received legos and the older children received small personal radios. All were thrilled. I gave a short talk on how to take care of their legos and how to follow the directions to make the creation on the picture. Many of the boys came to our house later for help put their creation together. They had never had anything like those Lego kits before. Christmas morning, Austin, Landen, and I took hours to help walk the kids through the step by step directions to make their legos. This allowed them to learn the value of follwoing directions and the rewards that come when you do. So proud of my boys! 

We were able to attend the marriage of one of our friends the weekend after Christmas. It was a fun excuse to get dressed up and take pictures. A couple of the things unusual about Haitian weddings; they can start very late after the proposed start time (this one started 1hr 48 min late), the bridesmaids wear wedding dresses as well, the wedding lasts 2 hours and the reception is a time to distribute food to those that attended the wedding and then they imediately leave the reception. 

Bianca & Sierra

Hannah, Sierra, & Landen

Vanessa & Sierra

The beatiful couple!

One of our 4 year old Grace kids. Heat, 4 hours, and the necessity to sit still = nap time. 

One of our missionary family friends invited us to a beach that cators to missionaries and orphanages. We had such a wonderful time! Being a missionary family can be hard but we get to see the Caribbean daily and every once in a while we get to swim in it. Blessings. 

Daphne comes to our house 3 times a week and cleans our laundry and house. She is not just an employee, she is becoming part of our family. We just love her. During this Christmas vacation time her girls came to visit us. We had a great time talking, playing jumprope, playing soccer and sharing a little chocolate. 

We were able to visit our pastor's new baby. He is adorable as you can see. Such a sweet heart and his mom did an amazing job. The most fun thing for me is that I was able to help her with breastfeeding, doula training coming in handy. I stole this picture collage from one of the other long term missionaries. 

Austin and Landen have really fallen into the rythm of life in Haiti. One of the things they do daily is play soccer. They never played in America so they didn't bring any skills to Haiti. However with daily playing and practice outside of our house, they are getting better. Sometimes the big boys even let Austin play. 

This picture is of them sittling...waiting. 

New satellite instalation at Grace, this is Jean our fearless Hatian leader eating lunch 30 feet off the ground, sitting on the ledge,

Jonas, our Haitian maintenance man, is creating an extension cord in true Haiti fashion by connecting a plugless cord to another...

Today is New Years Day and we had friends from Shane, Bianca, and my May trip. We had a wonderful time connecting and enjoying friendships, new and old. 

2014...We can't wait to see what God will do this year!