Hi Friends!

I don't know about your week, but mine went really fast. I'm not sure why it did either, it wasn't like mine was totally packed with stuff. I think sometimes its because I had so many people in the house and doing things, it just seems really busy. The construction crew worked inside of the house for part of the week and got everything done, so they are taking a big break. We still have a few things left to build....but Steve thought that since we were going to be gone, it was a good time to give them a vacation. I'm sure they didn't like it as well, however, but they will be back to work when we get back at the end of January. They finished all of the outside of the house, except for the rock face walls. Those still need to have cement around them and need to be cleaned up, but other than that....the house is pretty much finished, at least with the construction crew's part. We still need a small kitchen depot behind the house, a rock wall to hold the hill from falling into the yard and some retaining walls and ditches to keep the hill from making a river in the yard, but that can all wait until we get back. The night before the crew's last day, I told them to come over in the evening and we could look at pictures that I took during the last year. So, we put up the big screen and got the projector out and showed pictures, it was so much fun. I made brownies and popcorn and Kool-Aid and it was great. The best part was showing them a video clip that Brian Zurita did while he was here. It was of the roofing crew pouring cement on the roof...most of them were in it and it was great...they kept saying....show it again....we must have showed it 5 times. I'll include a picture of the guys in front of the house! They were wonderful guys and worked hard and did a wonderful job!

I thought it might be fun for you to see what it looks like inside the house now. It is all grey unfinished cement, so it still needs to be painted inside and out. There is still stuff sitting around and Steve is using the front porch for a work area, so his stuff is everywhere too. We still need screens and doors and the dorm room bathrooms aren't done yet and there is still electrical to hook up, so the finish work isn't done by a long shot...however, it looks like a home and we love it. I'll enclose several pictures so you can at least get an idea of where we live!

Also, this is very exciting, Steve almost has my kitchen sink done!!!! Yes! He built the frame for the cabinet more than a week ago and last week did the tile on it. He still needs to sand and varnish the bottom of it and add a shelf...then we can put it in the kitchen! I just wanted you to see what it looks like.....I am so excited and Steve did a great job on it, it is beautiful.

I'm still not over whatever I have...sounds funny huh to not know what you've got when you are sick. Since we don’t have a doctor to go to here, sometimes we aren't sure what we technically have. All week long I had a low grade temp...Tylenol would make it go away, so I wasn't too worried about it. Today, I went to church, but by the time church was over (over 2 hours) I was so sleepy I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open and didn't feel good at all. Got home and Steve said I was hot, so changed clothes and took a nap. We decided that I would take Chlorquin for Malaria just in case that is what this is. I have no clue, I just want to to go away! Thanks for your prayers for my health to improve...keep them coming!

Well friends, I know this isn't very long, but I'm going to go to bed! I pray you will have a great week.....I'm sure you are all very busy getting ready for Christmas. I'm excited about being in Idaho and Seattle for Christmas time. Since no one in the rural areas does any decorating for Christmas, there aren't any lights up anywhere or decorations or trees, no Christmas carols playing in all of the stores!!!! You wouldn't even know it was Christmas here, if you didn't look at the calendar! Interesting huh? So, I'm excited about being with family and friends for the holidays.....and for a moment I'm even looking forward to Christmas shopping ( I know I won't once I see the crowds!!!).

Much love to you all.....

Ke Bon Dieu beni Ou,

Joline

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Okay, so I'm a little early, but don't think you can ever have enough Christmas greetings! I'm partly doing it because I just don't feel like Christmas at all yet, and I figure if I keep greeting people, it will eventually sink in! This time of year is not any different at all than any other day of the year. There are no Christmas lights, no Christmas music, no shopping frenzy...no advertising for the latest toys, perfumes, diamonds or appliances! In other words...is it really Christmas? I'm getting more forwards with Christmas titles...so I'm guessing it must be the season. What we actually love about being in Haiti for Christmas is that all of the above is missing and the true meaning of Christmas is so much easier to find and remember. We have come to actually like being here when it's quiet and we can remember Christ's birth and celebrate it. We miss our families and being together with them during the holidays, that part is always hard, but the rest is nice to not have to deal with!

We will be leaving Jeremie on Thursday (the 18th) and flying to Port to spend the night before heading out to Seattle, Washington on Friday at noon. We don't arrive in Seattle until 11:00 PM.. (Pacific time), so it's a really long day, but it will be nice to be there. We will be spending time with my daughter Robin and her husband, Rhodel until the day after Christmas, then driving to Lewiston to be there for a little over 2 weeks before heading back towards Seattle (via Oregon to visit Steve's mom) and back to Haiti. We are both excited about being with the kids for Christmas and are looking forward to some shopping and baking before the 25th! It will probably only take 1 shopping trip to make us wonder why we thought we missed all of it, ha!

We will only be gone a month and I know it will go by so very, very quickly. It will be good to be back to see family again and also to spend time with our friends and church family in Lewiston. I think it will be fun to be "cold" at least for awhile. The weather in Lewiston has been snowy and cold...so we will get to have some winter, at least for a few weeks. I'm ready for a little cold weather.

We have both been busy getting ready to be gone for a month! I have two really, really exciting things to tell you. Okay, maybe they won't be so exciting for you...but trust me, they are exciting for me! First....is that I finally have a sink in my kitchen!!! yes!!! It has beautiful tile on it and is hooked up to running water....and everything! ha! Okay, now I know how funny that sounds, but trust me, I have been doing dishes in the back yard for almost the last 2 years....kind of like permanently camping...and it is great to have a sink in the kitchen. I actually did dishes tonight after dinner, amazing! Okay, so I still don’t have any hot water, but I'm not holding my breath for that one! I love my sink....thank you to a wonderful woman in Indiana, who goes to Pastor Eddie's church (Crossroads) and heard Eddie talk about me doing dishes in the backyard and went home and brought back to church a brand new double stainless steel sink for Eddie to bring to Haiti for me. And he did!!!!! So thank you to everyone that was involved in getting me a kitchen sink...especially my husband who built the unit that it sits in and installed it for me!!!!

Okay, next exciting thing...are you ready? We have a front gate!!! I haven't taken the time to tell you all of our no gate stories, but trust me when I say, it is wonderful to have a front gate. The kids and everyone else that happens to wander by, seem to think that if you don't have a gate, they can just wander in and stand in the yard and stare at the house and watch everything that you do! Yes, amazing isn't it? It is rude and it happens everywhere in Haiti, but it has been really bad at our front gate. We knew that before we went on vacation we would need to have the yard secure, so that people didn't come in and also so that Sejan didn't get out. Steve got it installed on Monday, and it's great. We went with a very simple, wooden gate, mostly because the fence in our yard isn't very strong, so why bother with a super-duper, strong, metal gate? The wood Steve bought is hand-cut, Breadfruit wood. It is very pretty and heavy. It actually is a very pretty gate and works well with the rest of the yard.

My sewing machine decided to break last week. Of course this is because I was trying to do just 1 more Christmas present and finish up my Christmas ornaments for this year. The pedal decided to stick and then not work at all. Steve says a problem with the rheostat (???) and he tried to fix it, but no luck. So now we are looking for a part to bring back. We laughed because on the internet he could find a new or used pedal, but it cost almost as much as a used machine (on E-bay). We are probably going to just get a single, simple pedal and he'll hotwire it! ha! Anyway, it kind of blew my plans for getting a couple more things done to take with me. I have a ton of curtains to sew when I get back, so we'll have to think of something to fix it.

We are looking forward to our vacation, but we are also looking forward to coming back and working and having teams come and visit! I hope that sometime those of you that read the journal will consider coming to visit and doing some work here. You'll find that you'll fall in love with the people that you meet...they are wonderful and the reason that we stay and work here.

God has blessed us so much this last year, we are very thankful during this Christ-filled season for all that we have.

May God bless you and your families and keep you safe.....May He put his loving hand on you and may you remember the reason we celebrate this time of year...Christ's birth!

Merry Christmas to you all......it's fun talking to you......

Love,

Joline

Praying you all have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

We left sunny Haiti, whose low temperature is about 68, and that's at night when its been raining a lot and cloudy, and arrived on Friday night at 11:30 PM to Seattle, Washington to 22 degree weather with snow on the ground. Seattle isn't a city that is used to having accumulated snow on the ground, so the last 4 days of snow has pretty much stopped everything from working! The gravel trucks aren't coming up the road in front of Robin's house, so we have about 6 inches of snow...on a hill...and can't get the cars down the hill. We adventured out yesterday afternoon when it had warmed up to 30, but it started to snow and things got slick. We couldn't get the car up the hill so we walked, which was fine. Robin and Rhodel had a spontaneous snow ball fight...Rhodel won and Robin ended up full of snow!

It's nice to be here with family and it is actually great to see snow and walk in it!

We wish you all a Christ filled Christmas...and a happy New Year 2009. May you spend time loving your family and friends and enjoy each other. We are happy to be home and will definitely enjoy being around family and friends!

We send you love......

Joline