Tailgate Thoughts

Some weeks there are so many words. So much to say. So much good news to report. Sometimes, like tonight for instance, there aren't quite as many words, but still that same content, optimistic feeling. 

I had some good reflecting time this morning. Our only real Saturday task was to pick up a truck load of supplies and deliver them to the land. We had travelled about a 1/3 of the way when it seemed that the rebar trailing from the truck bed was growing longer and longer with every bounce. Jenn was driving so I volunteered my 120 lb self to sit atop the cement bags thinking somewhat naively, that it would make a difference. I possibly just made things worse. Every once in awhile I'd have to wrangle a cement bag that was slipping dangerously close to the tailgate and it's a wonder I could hear my own thoughts with all the rebar rattling wildly in the dust. Aside from the rattling and sliding, thinking conditions were perfect. 

It's not everyday I get to see the countryside perched atop a pile of materials in the bed of the truck.

I thought about how green everything looks from outside the vehicle. For my day job I spend anywhere from one to 5 hours of the day riding inside an air conditioned monster of a vehicle, literally the navy blue equivalent of a UN trooper (which I realize seems like a perfect analogy in my head but maybe you don't see a whole lot of those where you live...). Just to clarify, I don't work for the UN and I do get out of the car eventually to do important things. But wow, the colors...

I also thought about how ridiculous I get when I read fiction, which I do almost never, although at present I am working my way through the Hunger Games series. Fiction causes me to chew on the moments of my day and the thoughts that accompany them over and over until I can spit them back out in the form of a story. Something novel worthy. This all happens in my head of course. Unless I write. Which also got me to thinking that it's about time I'm honest with myself and admit it. I like to write. 

So even though there aren't a ton of words (yet). I've decided to write anyway, for the pleasure of it. 

Things right now are moving forward. Predictable wouldn't be my first choice of words, but steady. There's a bit of rhythm. And a solid display of teamwork between the team here on the ground, the supporters and encouragers back "home," and God, whose skillfully coordinating what's going on in both places. 

Life is just rolling and we are learning so much in the process...

Not all of this week's lessons have been especially spiritual. Kelinise the 17 year old that spent last weekend with us has a particular knack for cooking. Among other things I learned how to make bean sauce, a staple in these parts. Apparently, you know you're on the right track when you've beaten the black out of the black beans, you've added a generous portion of every spice and seasoning available, and  have topped off the mix with something unhealthy. Butter and oil are both acceptable options, Kelinise added both. 

She also let us in on a little secret. The price of meat at the market. We've been avoiding the meat section for awhile...the goat skulls, the intestines, the pig hooves, and the chicken feet can be a little too much at times. But now that we're armed with an accurate price ($1.25/lb) we've been enjoying the luxury of beef with our rice at some meals.   

Thanks to the much, much appreciated donations we received this week and last, work resumed this last Monday. Several thousand more blocks were made, buildings traced, trenches dug...People paid.  

Our first phase is to finish a small clinic on the property that will serve the community for years. So, in addition to our paid workers we once again enlisted the help of some willing volunteers. Jenn and Dadou held another "under the tree" meeting where they rallied the troops to participate in a project that would benefit themselves and their children for many years. 

I spent all day Thursday at one of the local hospitals. Partly for my work with the Caris Foundation and partly because Kelinise had an appointment at the diabetic clinic. Jenn called to tell me that the volunteer meeting was a success, that sign-ups were happening, that people were willing to build this clinic. It was for them after all... That's when I started to panic. I worried that I wouldn't be able to make it worth it for them. That they would demand too many clinic hours...that too many people would beg to be seen each day....that they'd be upset if we didn't have certain medicine available...that they would regret that they ever offered their labor. 

I allowed these thoughts to take up space in my head for all of 1 second and then they were gone.

I was filled instead with perfect peace. It was startling! I didn't know I had it in me. It's something new that God's been stirring inside me...this new tendency to look straight to Him in moments of fear. 

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, with prayer and thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. And the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:12)

In that second of anxiety he reminded me that I don't have to be in charge of those things. God's plan for the clinic is something we can't yet know. But He is more then capable to establish a place that will bring Him glory. And because of this I'm sure that the clinic will be open when it needs to be, full of medicine the people need most, and supported by doctors and teachers that want to give back. 

When we arrived at the land today. There they were, hard at work, and almost ready for lunch, on us. :) 

The clinic space 

Stephanie and Love Merline, twins, 16 years old, and the 2nd oldest of 11 children!

Jenn's crew after the "under the tree" meeting

Please join us in praying for this space and for these sweet people. 

the day I cried

For right now the work has stopped until we get more funding.

But, that’s ok because God wanted us busy with something else.

Let’s see how do I summarize everything….

Last weekend I headed to Port au Prince so that Tania could have one last surgery. LEAP was closing up her palette. This was the third time I have traveled to Port au Prince by truck in the last three months. The distance between Port au Prince and Cap Haitien is only 80 miles, but it takes a good 5 ½ hours to get to Port au Prince. Port au Prince is difficult to city to navigate because of all the "blokus." “Blokus” means traffic jam. I find this appropriate. I was beyond frustrated because after we arrived in the city it took us another 2 hours just to reach the hospital. We were in such a standstill that we decided to send Tania and Tania ahead on a moto just so they wouldn’t miss seeing Dr. Hobar for an evaluation. It was good to finally reach the hospital. I love the LEAP staff they are always so friendly and it is always good to see old and new faces. They blessed me by scheduling her surgery for 8 AM the following morning. They knew we had traveled so far, and it would have been difficult to wait two days. The next day there was a lot of waiting but I was perfectly okay with that.  I had just been given the first of the Hunger Games series. I was occupied the entire time. She ended surgery around 2:30 and they had gave us permission to go home. Most patients need to stay a day, but they must think I'm getting pretty experienced with these surgeries....or maybe it's because I kept answering the "do you understand the discharge instructions?" question with "Yes....I mean my roommate is a nurse." That might of allowed us a little slack. We made that backseat into a bed, and baby Tania slept the entire time, only waking up to drink water. It was a little nervous because we drove 2 hours in the dark and pouring rain and someone was driving pretty fast... And um did I mention that most of the drive consists of driving up and down and around curvy mountain passes?? I'm lucky I don't know the conversion of km/h to mph. It was a little scarier this time. Amy must have texted me every 15 mins to make sure we were okay. But, we got home and Tania is recovering very nicely.

                    

So now I’m sitting here writing this blog post a week later because Amy is making me and because there is a 17 year old girl sitting at our kitchen reading bible verses. Oh, why do we have a 17 yr sitting in our kitchen? Ah, yes… well last week while I was in Port au Prince I got a call from a medical doctor that was volunteering a few weeks of his time at our local hospital. The doctor was worried about a girl who had no where to go, no one to provide her with food, which was becoming especially dangerous in light of her diabetes. I told him that I needed to call Amy but that we would pray about this situation a little bit. A couple weeks ago we were also contacted by a family from the States that also knew of  a girl that had diabetes around our area and they were seeking us out to see if we can give her assistance as well. We thought this was very interesting, and maybe a coincidence. But, we all know that with God in the picture there are no coincidences. On Tuesday we drove to the hospital and decided we would meet Kelinise.

Meeting Kelinise...

We spent some time talking to our favorite Irish Sister before we were introduced to Kelinise. She looks after the least of these in the town that surrounds the hospital and so many of the patients look to her for hope and assistance. She lives at the hospital and is always walking around. We chatted with her for about an hour, and it was a good chance to talk to her about our project. Which by the way she thinks is great! She had done something similar while she was in Africa. She was so enthusiastic. It was nice to hear her positive feedback. Then she turned the conversation to Kelinise. 

She confirmed that Kelinise had no where to go, but that she has a brother and friends that visit her. We thought it was interesting that she had all these people visiting her yet no place to call home. But it makes perfect sense we you meet her. Kelinise is 17 yrs old, but she looks like she's only 14 and everyone says that. This is her seventh hospitalization. The nurses, doctors, cleaning staff, security gaurds, families of other patients all know her. I’m also sure they all love her too, the way they all stop and talk to her when they see her. We knew she was special the first couple minutes we were in the room she shared with six other patients. Even without saying anything, she lit up the place. We asked her some questions and got bits and pieces of her story. 

Over time we've learned that her mom is now paralyzed after a recent stroke.  An an older half sister came to Haiti to take her mom back to the Dominican Republic to care for her. Kelinise wasn't invited. We are not sure where her Dad is but he has a total of 15 children, which in Kelinise words is too much, since other people have had to step in as parents for many of these kids. Only 4 of them share the same mother and father. Of the 4, a younger sister was taken in by a women in Port-au-Prince several years ago and again Kelinise wasn't invited. Her other older sister recently moved to Port au Prince with her newborn baby. Kelinise was left behind. Her brother is in a government funded school in town. She recently was living in house with a family. They had given her a place to sleep, but then they to decided to leave town. They left Ketlanise behind. Why? Why have all these people seemingly abandoned her? It’s not because she isn’t wonderful. It’s because she has type 1 diabetes. 

Her disease is expensive and has cost her to be hospitalized seven times because she can’t afford insulin. And even when the hospital has the grace to give her insulin at a discounted rate she can't afford food to take with it. It is for this, that everyone has given up trying to help. 

After meeting her we knew she will now be a part of our lives for a long time. But, we just needed to figure out exactly what that would look like. We thought about an orphanage we know and trust. It has both a church and a school attached. Amy knows the pastor very well and he was happy to meet with us on a moments notice. We explained the situation, asking mainly for advise. How do we know what is absolutely best for her? At this point we didn't quite have all the family details worked out. 

H listened intently and we couldn't have been more delighted with his response. The first thing he said was "did you know that I have diabetes?" No we did not know that. And the second thing. 

Why don't you let me take her for you. She can stay here and we will try her in school as well?

We were so excited to hear all of this. First of all, orphanages generally seem to be always full all the time. How unexpected it was to hear him offer us a bed. Secondly, the third trimester of school started two weeks ago. Kelinise has completed 5 years of school and would need to take the 6th year test in order to qualify for high school. It is unheard of for a school director to allow her to enter the 6th year at this late date. But we took a chance asking about these highly unlikely options and were met with a an excellent option for Kelinise. 

Later that night we picked her up from the hospital and brought her to her new home. She seemed okay with this and Amy and I were suprised. She seemed happy to just to have a “temporarily place.” We discussed with the pastor all the special treatment she would need, and that we are going to need to bring her food and insulin. The problem with diabetes you need to be careful with the food you intake, and a bigger problem is that Haitians eat all the wrongs food. They don’t mean to it's just custom. The problem with insulin is that it’s hard to find, and it’s expensive. So we said goodnight to Kelinise and I spent the next day looking for some healthy food options and...insulin. 

  

I went to 13 different pharmacies. I found only one pharmacy that had insulin, and it was his last bottle. In the bottle it was 1000 units of the drug, but Kelinise needs 1800 units each month. The bottle cost $25. So in order to survive she needs to have $50 a month to spend on just insulin alone.  Most Haitians don’t have the money to travel to 13 different pharmacies to find the one bottle of insulin, and after that most Haitians don’t have $25 to spend on medicine for just one family member, even something as important as insulin. 

I also went to several markets looking for snack foods and different foods she can replace with all the rice and spaghetti Haitians eat. This little shopping spree ended up being very expensive. When Amy got home she found me in my bed. I couldn’t stop crying. I don’t usually cry, but suddenly I was crying for all the people that have diabetes in Haiti. I was frustrated, and felt helpless. I started reading everything I could on diabetes since most of what I understood about having diabetes came from the time I had a roommate with the disease. We found ourselves measuring the appropriateness of certain meal options by saying...no Maria never ate that, and oh yeah, yeah, that's what Maria used to do.

I came across this website on the Crudem Foundation website.. It made me even more sad. 

“In a poor country such as Haiti, early disease identification and management is essential. Haitians have no access to unemployment or disability financial support. There is no rehabilitation or long term care facilities in Haiti. Home health care is non-existent. There are no public measures in place to accommodate disability. Thus, at a certain burden of disease, survival in Haiti becomes impossible. The most effective medical intervention strategy in Haiti is to intervene early in the course of disease to assure the patient a high level of function and a minimal need for costly, frequent and potentially unavailable medical care.”

“Diabetes is defined as persistently elevated blood sugars. This results from either an absolute or relative insulin deficiency. In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas undergoes an autoimmune attack which renders it incapable of insulin production (absolute insulin deficiency.) This typically occurs in younger people. They have a life-long need for insulin administration. In type 2 diabetes, insulin production is relatively inadequate compared to blood sugar levels. This usually occurs in adults, has a genetic component and correlates with obesity. Type 2 diabetics can often be controlled with diet and oral medications. At times, these patients may require insulin as well.” 

“Type 1 diabetics are not commonly seen in Milot. This is most likely the result of premature death. Type 1 diabetics require insulin at all times. Without insulin, they rapidly develop a condition known as DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis.) This condition is characterized by elevated blood sugars, acid-base disturbance, electrolyte deficiencies and dehydration.” (to read on)

Kelinise has Type 1.

After Amy got home we went to the orphanage to bring her all of the food and insulin I had purchased. She checked her blood sugar level with the meter we brought her and it was too high. Way too high. Since we couldn't get ahold of her doctor by phone we decided to head back to the hospital to ease our minds. And make sure there wasn't anything additional she could do to regulate her sugar. It was the food she'd eaten that did it. Here she was given two nutritious meals, but they were too heavy, to high in carbohydrates and that put her over the edge. She was told to proceed with her normal dose of insulin that evening and that by morning her levels should be within in range again. 

By this time Amy and I had decided she was going home with us, and she had no choice. We needed to monitor her and we felt like that could only happen at our house. We wouldn't be able to sleep if she was anywhere else! So here she is with us. And we enjoy her, alot. We are taking the weekend to watch how her blood sugar responds to certain meals and snack choices. We are still praying about the next step...what to do when the weekend is over. Maybe we'll be to figure out how to adjust what she'd be eating at the orphanage and she'll get to live and attend school with the other kids. 

Whatever happens, Kelinise is not too worried about it. Amy asked her to show her her favorite Bible verse. She started reading Matthew 6 "...and do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow nor reap nor gather and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."

We ask you to pray for Kelinise and all the people that have diabetes in Haiti. 

Fact: The World is Full of Good People

Oh how important it is to have ‘em.

People that believe in you that is.

Today I had a friend buy me lunch. I know how much this man makes in a month. Surely he has better things to spend his hard earned cash on then me. At first I insisted that I wasn’t going to let him pay but then he asked, “Why not, am I not your friend?” He got me there. Of course. I have opportunities to buy lunch for people all the time, why wouldn’t he, with money in his pocket want to do the same for me.

We are constantly encouraged. By you from afar…yes!...but I’m talking about the encouragement which comes from the people that surround us here in Haiti.

A Haitian woman, turned Floridian, returned to Haiti six years ago to put her business degree to the test and fulfill her childhood dream: to build a supermarket and to run a business. Her children are grown and have left the nest. Now she’s back in Haiti making it happen. Her smile is contagious and her voice powerful and warm. And she seems to always be at her store, whose 5 short aisles make it the third largest supermarket in Cap Haitian. She says “hello” with a smile as she waits for you to say the first words. You see, while her English is flawless, if you choose to speak to her in Hatian Creole she is much obliged to cultivate the learner in you, never feeling the need to show off her own masterful acquisition of a foreign tongue. What a humble and gracious act! God’s like that isn’t he. Me on the other hand, I can think of numerous accounts where I’ve crushed the spirit of a Creole speaker fighting his way through complicated English grammar and thrilled for the chance to practice this language when, with impatience, I bring the conversation back to his native tongue, implying that I’m too good to speak English with someone that doesn’t know English. I disgust myself. But not her. She is what you could call a Developer. She sees people for their potential and doesn’t pass up the chance to invest in people with promise.

That’s probably why she shared so much of her story one day. She spoke for what seemed like forever. I was actually running late and in an effort not to be rude continued to nod and smile while giving myself silent pep talks about patience, listening, and being present in conversation. The more I listened the more I was inspired. The longer I stood there the more I knew that God was speaking to me through this interaction. She has no idea what we’re up to, but when it was time for us to leave the store this was her parting message: “Don’t let anybody get in the way of doing in Haiti what you came to do.” She added, “…while your young.” Coming from a woman who set off to bring hope and progress to Haiti while in her 50s, I don’t think the “young” part matters all that much.

She sees her mission as two fold. Not only is she dipping her toes in the Haitian economic pool she’s also bringing others along for a swim. The people she employed while building her store from the ground up have become successful entrepreneurs themselves. She can be seen carefully checking the math of the young woman she’s molding into a cash register clerk, likely someone who never had the opportunity to go to school. She even mentioned something about teaching business principles to poor people in rural areas.

I latched on to that one.

“Jenn,” I mentioned later, “I think I might know someone that could teach business classes to our women...” You never know.

That’s the thing about living day by day, you never know if God has a hidden message for you in the words or actions of someone else here on earth for the same purpose… Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.

 He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. 

Micah 6:8

He loves like a Hurricane

Please excuse us for the time lapse since the last blog post.  We’ve been busy with birthdays, building, and visits from friends. Not having enough time to blog isn’t necessarily a bad thing!

April 1^st was Jenn’s birthday. The big 2 - 4. When asked how she wanted to spend her day, she answered “a trip to the Dominican Republic, please.”  How can you say ‘no’ to this face?!

The border is an easy 1.5 hours away from Cap Haitien. We've both been across the border and into the DR several times. However we’d only ever travelled to the cities of Santiago and Santo Domingo. And only due to personal medical emergencies or to meet up with the International Children’s Heart Foundation, an awesome organization whose surgical team performs heart surgery for sick kids. What we'd never done was explore a beach town.

Let's just say it’s not a bad way to spend the weekend…Thanks Jenn for having a birthday!

From Dajabon, the Dominican border town, it took us one $5 bus, one $3 bus, and one $2 taxi to get to the town of Sosua. 

Arguably the most entertaining part of travelling in the DR is the sites and sounds one might be able to enjoy from the back of a bus. This gets my vote anyway. Small puppies sit on laps with their rear ends in plastic bags and men discover that their chickens are actually roosters as they set off on a extended chorus of cockle-doodle-doos, while the youngin next to me struggles to avoid death by an oversized popcorn bag, just to name a few. We always get a glimpse into this island nation’s favorite pop singles whenever 7 year olds, 70 year olds, and the bus driver all start singing and grooving to the same radio tunes. We love it.

He's young, traveling alone, and vulnerable to less then optimal seating conditions. 

I'm happy to report that the popcorn did not overtake him. Our little seat buddy survived the trip. 

Monday morning we picked up some friends from the airport! As we’ve mentioned before, we don’t have a mailing address here in Haiti which means we can’t receive packages that come in from the States or Canada. While almost everything we need can be purchased right here in Haiti there are a few things, like certain medical supplies, that must be hand delivered if they are to reach us. Monday night we were showered an amazing array of medical supplies and other gifts (thanks to our Moms and some exceptional friends).

Thanks Katie G. and your team for packing and sending the supplies to us.

We can’t decide what to be more excited about: the great Ziploc bags or all the life-saving medical supplies! Joke ;)

Seriously, thank you.

Warrick and Dana left on Friday to go back to Seattle. I think they enjoyed their stay. They got to see what our life is like here and why we feel so compelled to launch this ministry. The country itself is gorgeous and so are it’s people. The photos they took of the land and our neighbors capture this beauty to a T.

We were blessed to have them spend some time with us. Dana and Warrick, Thanks!

I do feel the need apologize to them for the ridiculous number of times we had to stop normal activity just so I could turn our apartment upside down and inside out. It’s not exactly the most hospitable thing to do but I had lost something of a certain significance.

The story ends well and is yet another example of how God provides.

I haven't yet written much of anything about my "job" on the blog. Shortly after Jenn and I returned to Haiti I had the opportunity to pick up some paid work through the Caris Foundation. We knew that the first few months would be mostly focused on managing projects and employees and those aren't exactly my strengths. We knew that Jenn would be handling that side of things and that I would have some extra time on my hands. I figured I would spend some of my time helping at local hospitals or something along those lines.


But, God provided something even better! Actually it was Jenn's idea that I contact the couple in charge of the Caris Foundation in Haiti. The previous year they offered me this same job but as I was still the nurse at the infant care center at the time I knew it just wasn't possible to do both Caris and look out for 40 - 50 babies. They returned my email almost immediately with a phone call. Not only did they have an opening but they had plans to be in Cap Haitien the following day. We could chat about the possibilities in person. 


We all decided that in the early stages of our ministry it would be possible us to juggle both organizations, especially with how well Jenn does managing the land and the work that is taking place. Neither of us were planning on "working" but this has turned out to be an incredible blessing. 
Essentially monday through friday I visit different hospitals in the North coordinating a program which gives hospitals the resources needed to test newborns exposed to HIV (babies born to HIV+ mothers). This test lets doctors know right away if a baby is HIV+ so that medication can be started before its too late. I feel very privileged to help out with this effort! The job has helped me to develop a better understanding of how hospitals in Haiti operate and I've made a lot of great connections with Haitian health staff. It's a win-win situation. Plus there's a pay check. 

Initially we figured I could send the money back to the States to continue student loan payments. That was the idea anyway. Instead, the last two months we ended up using a majority of the money to pay Second Mile Haiti’s workers and employees.

Tuesday I encountered a stressed Jenn! I knew that we were getting low on money but wasn’t too worried since we had a nice little nest egg in the form of a March paycheck. But Jenn’s Tuesday disposition let me know that we must be in a really tight spot. We were going to have to stop construction since we’d be unable to pay our workers.

It was just a really bad time to stop.

 

The trenches were already dug and the blocks were ready and waiting. We needed to build with the materials ASAP in case of rain. I knew that the work could continue just as soon as I could cash that check. The only problem,  I couldn't find it anywhere!

We joke that it was in God's plan for me to lose that check because something really cool happened as a result. 

On Tuesday evening Jenn and Dadou discussed how to approach the next day. Jenn shared with Dadou about how when working at the orphanage anytime she needed help with something the all she had to do was be present and willing to work as well. Multiple nights a week, when she wanted to clean the floors in the baby house she would simply grab a mop and begin to fill buckets with water. As soon as the nannies saw her at work they would grab their own mops and hurry to join. She asked Dadou whether he thought the community would respond in a similar way.  He was almost certain they would pitch in and help as well. They did! 


It was the perfect time to have visitors. We asked Warrick, Dana, and Adam, another friend that was visiting from PAP if they wanted to help. We wouldn't normally be wanting to replace the roles of the Haitien workers with that of foreign volunteers but Wednesday's circumstances were just a little different. 


When Jenn and our visitors first arrived at the land on Wednesday everyone (neighbors, workers, kids, etc) gathered under the tree. Dadou had Jenn give a speech about how we were temporarily out of money and couldn't pay any workers today. Our American friends were here to help for this reason. Dadou added that while no one was being asked to work today, we did still need help especially to pray for additional funds to finish the project. He challenged the group saying that if there were individuals willing to work that this would encourage people lot bo (Canada, America, etc) to donate once they were able to see that the community is behind Second Mile Ministiries.

About 40 people stayed to help and worked from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon. 

 

   

Women, children, and men, young and old all hung around to do what they could. 

If I'd been able to cash that check we wouldn’t have gotten to experience this.

The group accomplished three days of work in just one. Dadou, our project manager, awarded Jenn the hardest worker award. He told me that I should pay her for him. In light of the money situation I offered to treat her to a 25 cent Papaya smoothie instead. He accepted the compromise.  

The check stayed hidden the rest of the week which meant we were a bit low on just regular cash for living expenses. Once again God provided for us in awesome and unusual ways. We were down to just a couple of dollars when 1000 gouds ($25 usd) turned up in the pocket of a pair of jeans. This occurred just before running out of gas. Then the next day I was randomly flipping through one of the books our friend sent down with W & D. She had concealed $20 in the pages of that book hoping that we’d discover it at just the right time.

It’s fun, and sometimes funny, what you find lying on the other side of trusting your Maker.

In our weakness, or more specifically in our lack of money, his strength is revealed.
He used others to provide for our needs and allowed us to experience the generosity of our friends and graciousness of our neighbors. Everyday he's shaping us with His grace and love. He's helping us to grow in faith and become more in tune with his out-of-this-world ways. It's awesome. Sometimes his love rocks us and leaves us speechless. Other times we just have to blog about it.

Thanks for being a part of this process.