Hello friends,

Okay, yeah it's been way too long and I just haven't gotten back into writing a weekly journal entry...I'll have to try harder and get back into the habit of doing it on Sunday, so you can catch up with what we are doing.

Seems like it's been so long, I'm not sure where I even left off.

Guess I could catch you up with just living things first. Bouki had a successful neutering surgery (that was an awkward sentence!). We found a Haitian veterinarian that had his training in Cuba (6 years). He and his friend, who is also a vet, came to our house and fixed Bouki. What an experience. NO, I won't include any disgusting pictures, however, it was quite a recovery ordeal. We ended up putting a cone on him so that he wouldn't tear out his stitches or bite things...he had to wear it for over a week before he was healed enough to leave it alone. He is much better now and totally recovered. However, he has this horrible skin problem that we are working on getting rid of. Our friend, Brian Zurita has a cousin, Joe, he is a veterinarian and is the one that has helped us get shots and medicine for Bouki!!!! He is also a great consult when we have problems. Bouki is now on an antibiotic and also a fungal medicine (oral and on his skin) so hopefully this will go away. We will be gone for 6 weeks at the end of the month and I'm concerned that it won't be better before we leave. I worry about my baby when I'm gone. Bouki and our cat, Touton, have become best buddies. They curl up together and sleep and clean each other's faces...plus play like crazy. They are really fun to watch!

Steve and I are fine. Steve is still fighting a bad knee and then of course a bad back to go with the bad knee, but it is pretty good right now. He broke his little toe (trying to move Bouki) and it is about healed, although it is twice the size it was and still red, we aren't sure if it will ever be back to normal. I'm fine, just tired, but that is the way I've been for a while! We are both looking forward to going back to the states on May 26th, for a 6 week visit! Since we missed our Jan/Feb visit home, we are excited about seeing family, friends, going to our home church and eating US food! ha! We will get to see some of our kids and Steve's mom and sister while we are home, which will be very nice, plus, Robin (my daughter) is graduating with her Master's Degree in Social work in June and we will be going to Seattle for graduation! We are very proud of her.

On the Haiti front.....we are still seeing progress with houses being repaired. Most of the ones that are going to get done are finished. We gave away over 400 bags of cement for over 100 homes...quite an effort. It was a huge success, not only helping people with something they could not afford, but showing the entire community that we were willing to help. Sometimes, organizations only help the churches that they are working with or the group they are working with, but this help was for the entire community. It didn't matter what church you went to, or if you went to church. If your house walls had fallen down during the earthquake and you talked to Pastor and had pictures taken, you got cement. It really impressed people that it was help for the community, not just 1 special group of people! Thank you again to everyone that donated to the earthquake fund......it was a big project that touched so many, many people. The people of this community will not forget this! Thank you for caring about them.

We just had a team of 4 here from Illinois to take pictures for the Child Sponsorship program. Last year NLH started a child sponsorship program at the Marfranc Baptist school. We took pictures of 94 children (from other churches as well) and have about 65 of those children sponsored. The team took pictures of all 94 children again as an update and also added 23 more children to be sponsored that will be entering the 1st grade this year. What a bunch of cuties!!! It was fun talking to the kids before they had their pictures taken and the new little ones are adorable. We even have a little guy that has Downs Syndrome. No one said anything to us about him being different, but it was obvious the minute you saw him! He is so cute and so shy and SOOOOO stubborn! He will be available for sponsorship, of course his will be special and I know that someone special will be interested in him! If you are interested in sponsoring any of the kids.....you can go to the NLH website: newlifeforhaiti.org and click on the link to see the kids that are available. If you are interested in one of the new first graders, you may have to wait a little bit as the team just left 2 days ago and their pictures have to be set up yet! Keep checking though, if you are interested and I know you'll find the perfect match.

Had a great time with the team...Pastor Fran, his wife, Linda, Erin Inman and Sally Cook! Great group, lots of fun and we got the pictures taken and vitamins given out.....and fun with the kids. It's nice to have people visit!

Prayer request for Steve to be able to fix the truck. We are so fortunate that Steve is a man of all trades. Seriously, the truck got a hole in one of the brake lines before the team came and Steve was able to get it out, get it welded and back in so that we could get the team, and then Fran brought the new part. On the way home from taking the group to the airport in Jeremie, the brakes went out again and Steve was able to get back without an accident. He used the emergency brake to stop it in front of the shop in the yard. He thought it was the same place and put the new part in, when I pumped the brakes to help him bleed them....he got squirted with brake fluid. The major line that goes from the front of the truck to the back had a new hole in it......he had to drop the gas tank down to get it out...12 ft. long. Vilex took it to Jeremie on his motorcycle to get it fixed today. Steve will be putting it in tomorrow....pray that he has no problems and that it holds! We have another team coming in 10 days. Also pray that his back and knee hold out...and don't get too sore! We have been having a lot of mechanical problems and Steve has been working every day on either the truck or one of the generators. Can't wait to get the solar system in July and get it up and running!

Okay, enough for 1 time, I know there is more. I want to thank you for all of your prayers and support, you are all awesome! Our God is so great....and your prayers are so important! We love you all.....God Bless you!

Ke Bon Dieu beni ou.

Joline