Leslie Rolling - Part 18

Construction Week 51

We’re literally going into the one year mark since we broke ground on the work yard depot. I can’t believe that it’s gone so fast.

This week was a better week personally, and yet yesterday brought with it a bit of a meltdown on my part. It was just a culmination of stress and feeling like I’m hardly home these days, and missing my family and desperately needing a 5 minute period of time to have an undivided, uninterrupted moment to talk to Chris. When we only get to see each other for a few hours of the day and there are so many things to be planning and thinking about every second counts, and last night there weren’t enough seconds.

I think I just needed to have a good cry and let the stress out too. Not think, know. When stuff starts building up I try to suck it up, but then throw in a poor night of sleep and at some point I’ll be crying. My feelings need to get out, and that’s how it happens. I read recently that cryers tend to be more emotionally healthy because they don’t bottle things up. We’re going to go with that.

We’re two weeks away from move in, and I keep looking around at all the things that I wanted to get done, and looking at the number of days we have left, and yesterday I had to face the reality head on that it’s not humanly possible for it all to happen in the time we have. And that’s hard for me.

In my mind, months ago, I thought I would be able to get started out there sooner than I did. That’s the hard thing about having a full time job… When I did get started things didn’t move as fast as I anticipated. In the past month I’ve had to deal with sick days, and days to catch up on admin stuff. And, with any construction project, things never go as planned. Some things come together great and go really smooth and you come out of it thinking, “Wow, that went way better than I expected it would!” The project turns out great, it comes together faster, etc.

And then there are the parts that you think would be simple, but end up being the things that turn into a time suck. Yesterday morning I hit my wall with installing three, yes three, drawer pulls. Done it before. Just wasn’t working yesterday. I was hungry. I hadn’t slept well. I walked away and left it for Monday.

I’ve spent a lot of nights awake trying to make plans in my head about what course of action to take to get certain things accomplished. And then those plans may or may not have worked out. And yet, last night as Chris and I talked through things he pointed out that we’ve gotten a crazy amount of stuff done in the past year considering there was nothing but a driveway at the beginning of December. And, we’ve gotten a crazy amount of stuff done in the house in the past month. Would I love to have more done? Yes.

But, last night as I let out all the feels, I had to come to terms with the fact that what I undertook was crazy ambitious. Building all the cabinetry through the house, the bathroom vanities, storage shelves, closet built ins, furniture, office built ins, doors… it’s. crazy. I also had to come to terms with my own expectations.

You see, I had this vision that we would get everything done, we would gradually be moving things into the storage rooms with every trip out there, and then we would spend two days doing the big stuff and then we would be there and while the guys spent the rest of that week moving the work yard I would be sorting stuff and decorating for Christmas, and at the end of the week we would have a work party and then settle down for a nice peaceful Christmas with everything done and in it’s place.

Yeah, I’m not sure what I was thinking.

Moving and building NEVER goes like that, unless you have zero pressure to be out of your current place and can move into the new place after it’s completely done. But then there’s the unpacking and settling in. And, we’re moving a week before Christmas. Because someone is moving into our place.

Last night Chris and I talked through the priorities, and even before he came into the room I just knew I had to pick the top three things that needed to get done in the next two weeks, and just do those. And the rest will have to wait until January when we go back to work. We need a break, and I need to be okay with just living in the space in a not finished state until we go back to work. And when we do go back to work, we’ll be able to do things not under the gun. I was honestly at the point where I was starting to think about doing things less than what I had originally planned and wanted, just to get them done, and that stinks. I don’t want that. I want things to be done the way I’d been dreaming and planning because I know that’s what’s going to work best for us for the next who knows how long. I don’t want to be looking at things in the house and regretting that I whipped through it just so I could say it was done. I don’t have to do that. So I won’t.

The things on the top of the priority list?

Get the drawer boxes built and installed in the kitchen so we can put things in them when we move in and use the kitchen. Drawer fronts will wait until the new year so they can be done well and right.
Get the bathroom vanity built and installed so we have a fully done bathroom upstairs. The pieces are all cut and just need to be put together. Counter top is already poured and just needs to be glued on, then Evens can install all the fixtures.
Stairs need to be done. This is going to start Monday. It needs to get done before we move in because we’re going to need to be going up and down them every day, and the plans we have require some stuff to dry for 24 hours.
Storage room shelves need to be finished and put in place so we have places to put things. The sides are all built, just need to be sanded, and the plywood for the shelves cut, then paint everything. We should be able to do these this week. Once those are done we can start moving things.

We won’t be finishing the office until January, so we may be working at the kitchen table for a few weeks. Not terrible when you consider that we just work on a table in our living room right now. The closets won’t be done until January and we may be living out of suitcases or have make shift shelves for a while. And that’s okay. We may not even have doors installed upstairs for the first couple of weeks, and we’ll just deal with it.

I honestly think that if we were moving at any other time of the year it wouldn’t have been such a hard thing for me to get to this place, but because we’re moving right at Christmas I had my own expectations of what I wanted things to be like. Christmas is my favorite time of the year. I love to decorate. I wanted things finished so I could do all that. But, it just won’t be that way this year. We’ll put our tree up, I’ll put up some decorations in the living room and kitchen, and we’ll call it good. It’s stil going to be Christmas. Heck, my parents renovated our house back when I was 16, and completely gutted it. The cabinet installer was literally putting cabinets up on Christmas Eve morning and my mom was following behind him putting dishes away and cooking dinner for 22 at the same time.

Once I get over that hurdle in my brain I’m okay. It’ll be what it is, and that’s it. I guess all this is to say that if you were expecting, or anticipating “reveal” pictures right after we moved in, they aren’t going to happen :)

So now that we’ve had that little heart to heart, do you want to know what we have been doing?

I knew you would.

Outside there’s been a hub of activity. I don’t have pictures of all of it because I’ve been working inside most of the time, and really only go outside to go to the bathroom, get water, or bolt for lunch when it’s break time so I can grab a Coke from the cooler before they’re all gone. But, the guys have been busy.

One exciting thing was that they got the water tank put in place, and Evens got all the pipes connected. We’re all piped for water, we just need to finish connecting the things that use the water, like the bathroom sink, kitchen sink and upstairs toilet. Oh, and a shower. Showers are good.

Speaking of showers, because we sold the property, and knew the funds would be there, my dear sweet husband went ahead and bought us the solar hot water tank, which has also been installed and is ready to go. He was going to hold off for a bit because funds were getting tight, and if it was summer that would have been totally fine by me. But, it’s not summer, and the weather has cooled off a lot in the past two weeks. At least 10-15 degrees at night from October. It’s the coolest it’s been this time of year in the past few years. Half the time our fans are on low now just to keep a bit of air moving, not on high so that we don’t melt. THIS is what winter in Haiti is like when there aren’t crazy weather patterns rolling through. And, a COLD shower when you live in the open air and it’s in the low 70’s doesn’t feel good at 5 am. SO thankful for that little tank of love!

The guys have got the foundation walls and roof pillars built for what will be the sand washing area, and the foundation for what will be the workshop (welding/carpentry) is half done. We weren’t expecting to even break ground on these until after the new year, so YAY!

Thony has been working on getting one of the rooms in the depot ready to start moving things. He’s built new storage shelves and is in the process of cutting the wood, which will go in the metal forms. The floor got cleaned really well after storing tools and construction materials for a year, and a coat of epoxy floor paint was put on it to protect things. Once the shelves are in place we can start moving filter lids, diffuser basins, tubes, and other things. This week all the construction plywood and stuff that we’ve accumulated from pouring the roofs on the buildings will get given to a friend who rents this stuff out. It’s in rough shape and we don’t have room to store it as that room needs to hold tools and filter construction stuff.

Evens has been hard at work getting all the solar panel wiring finalized. Our batteries have arrived in Haiti and we’re anticipating a call any day now that we can pick them up, so we want everything to be ready to install. You guys, Evens is a genius when it comes to this stuff. It’s been so fun over the years to watch him grow in his skills since he first went to school until now. We went into the office storage room/power center where all the inverters and charge controllers are, and he’s done a beautiful job of running all the wiring.

Sail (Sigh-eel) has been working on getting the upper deck surface finished so we’ll be able to install the washing machine and wash sink in the laundry room and not have to uninstall it to do it all later. So, we’ll be able to do laundry after we move, which is a good thing… lol!

They’ve been finishing painting, and just doing a general clean up around the property. We built a dog enclosure and put word out that we’d like to adopt a full grown dog for security if someone is leaving and needs a home for theirs. Chris doesn’t want to deal with a puppy.

Inside…

The floor tile is pretty much all in place. Abner was working on getting the last edge pieces in yesterday. He still has to mortar the joints, as well as do the ceramic in the bathroom and do the stair project I have for him, so he’s probably going to be working a lot of long days in the next two weeks. But, we’re getting there.

As of yesterday the bathtub support was installed. I left that project in Johnny and Evens hands, and haven’t seen the final result yet, but I’m sure it’s fine. They’re both smart and the instructions were pretty straight forward.

Like I said, Johnny has been working on building shelves, and we’ll keep plugging away at that this week.

The kitchen has seen some big changes. We got the counters poured a week ago, and like I mentioned in an earlier post, we got them sanded. My cement burns are finally almost all healed. That sucked. We had to do some levelling around the sink this week, but this time Johnny and I covered ourselves in plastic bags. I chose the wrap and tape it around your body method, and he chose the make a hole for your head and arms dress method. I wish I’d gotten a picture because we apparently looked funny enough that when Chris came out and saw us he let out a big laugh.

Anyway, the counters have been sanded, sealed and waxed. And they look amazing. The thing with concrete is that it will have variations and you have to be okay with that. It will have pit marks, and you have to be okay with that. Around the sink, because we had to grind it down more, we have exposed aggregate. While it’s not the look I wanted for right there, Chris wanted some of that, so we both win. It adds interest, and the polished exposed stones actually look pretty cool. So far we love them and I’m excited to live with them.

thumb_IMG_1193_1024

Johnny wiping off the cement water from the grinding process. You can see the part under his arms is shiny. That’s the part that was sanded.

Johnny was given the big job of doing all the finishing on the cabinets. He spent about two days measuring, cutting and nailing in all the end pieces and the toe kicks to seal everything up. I then followed by filling all the holes with putty and caulking. Until doing all this I had never used painters caulk, and I’m a convert. I love it. It’s amazing how much it changes the look of what you’re working on before you even get to the paint stage. It gives you some wiggle room for error too, which is a nice relief if you’re a bit off with things. It’s what pro painters use to get a really nice finished project on built ins and painted furniture.

On Monday all the kitchen paint touch ups will be done, and I need to start priming the cabinets, and then paint them. I want to do that before we start using the kitchen so all the surfaces are protected. It’ll mean more work with sanding and what not later on if we don’t.

And, one of the biggest changes in the kitchen is the backsplash! Tada!

thumb_IMG_1217_1024

It was a bold choice, but we love it, and knowing what we’re doing with the cabinets and the rest of the kitchen is making both of us excited because it’s going to look so good. The tile is white, black and grey, so it ties in with the counters really well. The upper cabinets are all going to be white, and the lowers are going to be a fun color. It’s becoming more fun for me because Chris is finally starting to put the pieces together and he loves it.

Johnny helped me get the bones of the entry done, then I took care of all the finishing. It’s mostly done, with the exception of one frustrating drawer front, and a cabinet door that needs to be redone. It’s my first time working with overlay hinges, so I accidentally made the cupboard door too wide and can’t just trim it down because it’s shaker style. After the new year… lol!

thumb_IMG_1213_1024

Kind of fuzzy because the space is tight and the light pours in the door. After we get power hooked up I’ll be able to use the overhead light and take pictures.

thumb_IMG_1223_1024

This picture is after one coat of paint, and without the drawers in place and before hooks and stuff were installed. You might notice that the paint is really white against the off-white walls. Not a contrast that I would normally like or go with, but I’ve worked with this paint before, and over time it actually changes color to an off-white. I think it has polyurethane in it, which will yellow over time. In our current place, anything that we painted with the white paint is now the same color as the walls. It’s hard to tell in the picture, but if you look at the upper cabinet inside, it’s slightly different in color. I sprayed that cabinet about a month ago, and only painted the face frame this week, so already in the past month it’s changed a bit. I suspect that if I took a picture six months from now you wouldn’t notice a difference.

It’s looking really good. Under the bench is a rolling drawer that’s divided so Chris and I will each have a space for our shoes, and the lower cabinet has three drawers. Top drawer will be for things like umbrellas, etc, and then the kids each have a shoe drawer. I’m so excited about having a place to hang things and to put shoes away. Most often we take shoes off just outside the door, so this will be more storage and a place to tidy things up to. And, having a place to sit when you’re putting shoes on is going to be nice. And no more back packs in all places of the house…

We got wood cut for a few things and I did some sanding yesterday. Those will get put together as there’s time. Once we get the depot cleaned up I can move my wood that’s being stored in the office out there, and we can clean up the office. Most of the cabinets are screwed in place, and I already have the shelves and drawers built. We can at least put the shelves in place and put things in the cabinets where they’ll go, even though there are no doors on them. And, we can put a piece of plywood on the tops and set up a printer so we can print things until we can do all the finishing stuff. If there’s any extra time before we move one of the things I would like to do is get the last two cabinet pieces installed. The cabinets make a wrap around work station with 4 desk spaces, and the last two cabinets are drawer towers that form the two “arms” that come out. If you can imagine, it’s like a square with a 5 foot opening on one of the long sides that opens into the center of the work area. If we can install those two “arms” before break, I can putter away at installing drawers if I have time and want something to do.

Because I’m basically writing once a week here are some fun things that have been happening in the midst of construction:

On Thursday Chris called to let me know that there was a problem with one of our two inverters, which help turn our solar or generator power into something we can use. It meant that the fans and the overhead lights weren’t working, but the wall sockets were. He wanted me to be prepared that we might not have fans for the night. When I got home, the sun was starting to go down, so I checked the lamps in the rooms that had them, and we had lights. The only rooms that didn’t have lamps were the kitchen and the bathroom. After trying to prep some things by LED candle, I remembered my twinkle lights on the kitchen shelf that Chris always mocks me for keeping up year round. Plugged them in, and voila. I decided to check the outlet in the bathroom, and it had power too, so I grabbed a set of multi-colored lights I had in a cupboard and plugged them in, then hung them over the mirror. Later Alex went to go to the bathroom and stopped dead and yelled, “Is it Christmas!?!” No kid, it’s American Thanksgiving, we plugged in the Christmas lights, and your dad is singing you Merry Christmas to the birthday song. Sorry for turning you into one of those awkward missionary kids…

On Friday at break the guys found a garter snake nest against the fence by the sand washing area, which resulted in some fun conversation. Snakes, because of voodoo and Biblical reasons, have a lot of meaning tied up in them. It was fun to be part of the conversation. The funniest point was probably when one of the guys said, “If I walked into my room and saw a snake there, I’d poop my pants!” At that one of the other guys said, “Yeah, but if you and your wife walked into the room, and she was scared of snakes too, would you protect her, or run away and leave her with the snake???” :)

We celebrated American Thanksgiving on Friday with a group of friends. It was the first year in a long time where we weren’t hosting in some way. We told everyone that because of the move we would have to step back from a few things this year just for sanity sake. It was a lovely evening with everyone, and we ate amazing food. Missionaries can bring it when it comes to potlucks. We all get so excited to do something “normal” that we do amazing food. Our friends decided to break from traditional turkey because a lot of us eat poultry regularly, and did pulled pork. It was delish. Green bean casserole, mac & cheese, sweet potato casserole, corn… SO GOOD! And I’m pretty sure there was as much dessert as there was main course. Just a fun night all around.

Olivia got her ears pierced this summer while we were on vacation. She’s been scared to try changing her earrings, even though it’s been five months – 3 months longer than they told her she needed to wait. She has a tendency to get her self all worked up about what she thinks might happen versus what really happens. Even as we tried last night she would freak out at the possibility that it would hurt, even though it didn’t actually hurt. Today we finally got her first earrings out, and I put new ones in. She was shocked that it didn’t hurt to put the new ones in, then proceeded to run around cheering. There is absolutely no drama in our household…

The lady that bought our property is visiting now. We wanted to have some time to talk through details, show her things in more detail, and introduce her to some of our friends and fellow missionaries. She made arrangements for a group of her kids to come out each night and sleep over, swim, and just have fun with her. The fun part is that they have NO idea that she’s bought the property, and she isn’t going to tell them yet. She’s just told them they were coming to spend the night with friends of hers, and with each groups she’s just casually asked, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could find a place like this to move to?” I would love to be a fly on the wall when she tells the kids that they’re moving, and that they’re moving here. So excited for them!

While I was writing this I kept stepping away to help Chris lower plants down from the roof so he could load them in the truck. Tomorrow they’ll be riding out to Camp Mary and get unloaded in their new home. It’s the first load of stuff that will be moved. Feels crazy, and now our deck is bare because all my pots are gone! We’re excited to see how this stuff does when it gets planted in good dirt. Everything grows so well out there.

This pretty much sums up our kids relationship right now…

And one last thing, because it’s pretty. This is sunrise in Camp Mary.

~Leslie

November 29, 2015 No Comments

The Post I’ve Been Waiting For – Part 2

At the end of January I wrote THIS post about the whole process of feeling called to move the mission to new facilities and how a buyer came along and everything that God did through that situation. Over the past 10 months you’ve been following along with us as we’ve been under construction, but there’s a story lingering in the background that we haven’t shared – until now!

I just re-read that post, and I’m so grateful that I wrote it. Just reading it reminded me of so many things that have happened in the past five years through this whole process that would easily be forgotten had I not taken the time to write it all down.

“The reality that we get to be in the front row watching all of this unfold is always before me and it’s so very humbling. How did we get so lucky? Yes, it’s been SO hard over the years. It’s been painful and gut wrenching on many occasions. We’ve felt lost at times. We’ve wondered why. But, here I sit and I see it before me and I can honestly say that every single thing, every part of the hard stuff, has been worth it to experience the privilege of watching God show up. I don’t believe in chance, especially in situations where things are so specifically matched. I believe in a God who allows us to experience hard things so he can show us how he cares for us, how he equips us, how he enables us to go through things and do things that we never thought possible. And I believe in a God that provides us with joy and hope even when everything seems bleak.”

So many times in the past year I’ve uttered those words. The fact that we get to be sitting front row watching God show up and do amazing things has me feeling so humble most days. It’s exciting. It’s crazy.

And, as if that whole story wasn’t enough on it’s own, what we didn’t realize when I wrote that first post is that it wasn’t in fact the end of the story, but that it would just become another chapter.

You see, one morning, in I think April, I woke up and got my day started. After a shower I wandered into the kitchen bleary eyed and trying to figure out what I needed to do next. Chris has had to learn over the years that I can’t handle big, important conversations first thing that might involve the need for interaction, so typically he checks his email and reads the news while I start making breakfast and wake up. By the time the food hits the table I’m good and we can talk.

Not this morning though. As I wandered into the kitchen and started putting things in their places he turned from his chair and said, “So, our buyer backed out of the sale.”

And record scratch.

I stood there looking at him. I’ve learned to gauge responses to big news things on how Chris responds because he usually processes info before he opens his mouth. As I looked at him I thought it was strange that for such a huge bomb of information he was very, very calm and relaxed.

“What do you mean the buyer backed out of the sale?”

“I just got an email from his lawyer to tell me that he can’t continue for health reasons and that we should look for a new buyer.”

Um, okay. Where does that leave us???!?!?

Thankfully when Chris’ dad was working all all the negotiation and contract stuff there was a clause put in that stated that if the buyer couldn’t continue on with the purchase, the deposit of half the purchase price would become an interest free loan to us until January 2016. We still had the funds to continue building, and we would need to find a new buyer.

We went to work in advertising the listing again within our networks. We had some interest right out of the gate which continued on for the next few months. We went on vacation in June and came back at the end of July. After that things kind of died off until we got contacted by a woman representing an organization.

She had tracked us down through a Facebook group for Haiti expats and missionaries, and really wanted info on the property because she thought it might be a good fit for her children’s home. She had about 25 kids that were all genuine orphans following the earthquake.

Initially Chris had no desire to sell to any kind of organization because of some of the problems we’ve had while living here. He just felt like it was very likely that they would have the same kinds of issues, and not know how to deal with them. He was sure it would be better to sell to a Haitian family because they would know how to deal with the issues here. I kept reminding him that we really didn’t get to choose, and that God would bring the right person along when it was time and we’d just have to go through the process.

He went back and forth with this woman for a while, probably 6 weeks. She sent two of her staff people to look at the place, and we liked them right away. And no, it wasn’t because they were oohing and ahhing the while time they were here. It was because they were just really nice, genuine guys, that got really excited about certain things because they knew it would be a great place for the kids to be. It’s fenced, it has all the room they’d need in the right configuration, there’s grass, and there’s even a swing in the yard :)

Eventually she was able to come for a visit. In all honesty, we anticipated that she would come and be excited and then we wouldn’t hear any more from her. When she arrived she was not at all what we expected – in a good way. We all clicked right away, and after the walk around we went up and sat in our living room for several hours talking.

During that time we got to hear her story. She’s been through hard things. Both before Haiti, and after coming to Haiti. Really hard things. The kinds of hard things where we all just kind of got each other. As she started talking Chris and I kept looking at each other. Not in a way that was because we felt sorry for her, but because we could hear our story in hers. Having to battle the legal system here, feeling threatened and unsafe, alone, and wondering if it was time to go and yet knowing it wasn’t and having people question your sanity because you choose to stay. We told her some of our story and watched her do the same thing. We all just got each other.

When it came time to talk details she asked us point blank what we needed from the sale, and Chris told her that he wanted full price because it would mean we could finish building everything and have some left over. She looked at us and said, “Then that’s what I want to give you. I don’t want this to just benefit my organization, I want Clean Water for Haiti to be looked after too. I don’t want you to sacrifice because you need to sell. I want to pay full price if that’s what you need from this.” We were a bit shocked, and very appreciative.

The only problem? The money. As in, she and her organization didn’t have any.

Normally this would be the point where you’d say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” When Chris asked about it she said, “I don’t have the money, but God does.” She then told us that her board has been preparing on their end for this move, and it had already put a lot of pieces in place. The final piece before jumping into a fundraising extravaganza was her coming to look at the property and saying yes or no. As soon as she got to the states they were going to jump in and get the ball rolling.

We decided we’d let her do her fundraising and told her that until we received the deposit we still had to show the place and accept an offer if one came along. She was okay with that.

We still had people coming to look at the place on a regular basis, but no one made a serious offer. We kept in contact with her and stayed updated on both sides with where things were at.

Around the end of October someone stopped by to look at the place. He did a walk through and told Chris he was looking at property on behalf of a friend in the US who would be returning to Haiti soon and wanted beach property. We didn’t think he was seriously interested like most of the people we’d talked to. He took pictures and went on his merry way. And then the next day he called to give us an offer.

It was much lower than we were willing to accept. I forgot to mention that we’d had an offer earlier in the summer, but it too was lower than we wanted to accept. This second offer was lower than that one, so Chris just explained he’d received that first offer, which still stood if we wanted to accept it. We thought that would be the end of it.

A few days later I was about to get to work on some stuff for the new house, and Chris and I were standing in the driveway talking about details of selling to the woman from the organization when his phone rang. From listening to his side of the conversation I started to get excited. It was the second guy calling back with a new offer. One that we could seriously consider.

In fact, when we stopped and thought about it and this whole crazy process, it was the exact price point that we had said we would feel comfortable selling at if we needed to drop the price from full asking price. The exact point. It would cover the repayment of the loan to the first buyer and still provide us with more than enough to finish the entire building and development of the new site.

Chris asked him if he could wait two weeks for an answer. We knew that the organization had all of their fundraisers coming up over the next 14 days and we wanted to give them a fair shot at doing it. We know that might not seem like the best business strategy, but in our hearts that was just something we felt we needed and wanted to do. The guy agreed.

A couple days later Chris got in contact with the first lady to let her know that we had received an offer, but we had asked for some time to make the final decision. It took a few days to finally talk to her on the phone because she was running like crazy from fundraiser to fundraiser. Their big gala, the one that they knew would be the biggest of all the fundraisers was set for the 13th of November. When Chris talked to her he explained things in more detail and assured her that we wanted to give her the time to try to raise the funds.

The next day, a week from the phone call with the offer that we knew we could take, Chris called the guy with the offer to ask if he could meet with him to explain in more depth why we needed the time to consider. They met the morning of Friday, November 6th. It was a good meeting. Chris talked to the guy that this guy was working for and explained that while he knew he was under no obligation to this woman, he wanted to give her a chance to raise the money by the 13th, and that he would have a final answer on the morning of the 14th.

We went through that day, and talked about things periodically, but for the most part it was just another Friday. Until that evening.

That night, while we were getting ready to turn in and watch a movie before bed Chris’ phone rang. It was the lady. When he answered we both had mixed emotions. Good news or bad news??? She asked if I was there with him and if so, could he put us on speaker phone. He did.

“Are you calling to tell us you got a big donation??”

“Chris, I’m calling to tell you that I got a check this morning for the ENTIRE ASKING PRICE!!! From one donor!”

I have chills just typing that.

There were a lot of tears from her and me and Chris just sat there with this goofy grin on his face.

As always, there is always more to tell than what we see on the surface. And for me, that was what I kept thinking about.

You see, almost two weeks earlier I had been in Port running errands with Richard. We were picking up the last stuff that I would need to go crazy building. Paint, wood, finishing stuff – all of it. I had let him drive because some days I just don’t feel like it. As we were on our way between stores I was just looking out the window when I got this overwhelming urge to pray about the property sale.

I started praying that God would just provide. I asked for him to do it soon because the stress of waiting and not knowing was starting to wear away at us. I thought about Chris and how it can be hard for him to trust that God still does big things, and I asked God to be the God of the impossible. To show up in a way that meant we, nor any man couldn’t take credit for what happened with the sale. In a way that meant no one could look at this entire process and say that Chris and I did it of our own desires and strength. And then I started praying for this lady. I prayed that God would show up for her, that he would be the God of the impossible for her, and that maybe this would be something that would help her move forward after so many hard things. As I kept praying my prayers shifted from what we needed to asking God to do something for her. At one point I literally prayed, “God, I don’t even care about us. I know you’ll take care of us and you have a plan. Do this for her. Please, just do it for her.”

I told Chris about it later, and again we both talked about the fact that while we shouldn’t be selling the property with our hearts, and that we needed to stay open to all options, deep down we really wanted it to be her. When she called about the check I went back to that time driving through town, and realized something that I hadn’t before – the very place where I got the urge to pray, was a place that had caused a lot of pain for her in her life here in Haiti.

You might be wondering how someone just up and writes a check for the entire purchase price of a property. Well, there’s a story there too.

While the donor wants to remain anonymous, they are known by buyer and she had a chance to talk to them the day she got the check, mostly to find out if what she was holding in her hand was for real.

The donor had been in church recently, and the pastors message was about how Jesus literally gave it all, even his own life, for us, and that sometimes God asks us to give it all. Even in ways that seem crazy from the outside looking in. And, our role in that is to trust him and walk in obedience, even if we don’t know why or what he has planned. This person was feeling led to make a significant contribution toward the property purchase for the organization, so they talked with their spouse about it, and together they realized that God was asking them to “give it all” – the entire asking price. So they did. They gave it all.

And you know what makes me well up with tears? That family may never, ever know the extent of what their obedience has done. This thing that God asked them to do, they’ve done with one understanding – that it would help this organization purchase land that would be so much better for them than what they have now. And yet, this gift is going to be so much more far reaching. Instead of the story ending with our buyer, it continues on. She essentially becomes an intermediary that passes along funding that will allow us to finish our new facilities on time. We don’t need to stop construction. We can pay off that loan. And, the new facilities will increase our capacity to reach so many more families in Haiti. Reaching those families with filters will very literally be saving countless lives for many years to come. We won’t ever know exactly which lives, we’ll just know that God is using all of these people, and this tool, to save moms and dads, kids and grandparents, and allowing them to live because they don’t have to drink contaminated water.

You guys, this whole thing has been mind boggling and amazing. When I think of how our stories are all woven together it amazes me. For so long we had a hard time explaining to people why we wanted and needed to move, aside from the better facilities. For so long our buyer has struggled to be where she is, wanting so much more for her kids, and yet walking in obedience to keep doing what God has called her to in a period of such great loss. God didn’t just bring us a buyer, and he didn’t just bring her a property. He joined brothers and sisters in Christ together over similar experiences, and allowed us to share our stories and connect on a heart level. We are so excited to welcome this new face into our local community, and we love knowing that she’ll just be down the road. Our missionary community has been prayer for her and for us through this whole process, and they’re excited to meet her and welcome her with open arms.

I wanted to share this with you because I think it’s easy, especially in the developed world where we can meet all of our needs 24/7, often of our own doing, to forget that God is still the God of the impossible. He loves to do the impossible because it’s those times where we can’t point to any other thing or person and give them credit. We have to let him be God. There is nothing in this story of provision that we can attribute to mans doing without having to give credit to our Father leading and guiding. The people he brought into the story were being obedient, just like the rest of us, to his call on their lives.

I did a Bible study this spring on 1 & 2 Thessalonians by Beth Moore (Children Of the Day). There was one verse that just grabbed me, because it came at a time when I just needed to see the big picture. We were doing this huge thing and so much of it was following God’s leading, and so much of it was trusting that he had a plan, or plans, that we couldn’t possibly know.

“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

I couldn’t shake it, because that’s so much of what this journey for the past 6+ years has been about for us. When things were hard and everyone was asking us why we were still here, we just knew that we were supposed to stay, that God wasn’t done with us in Haiti yet. When we started talking about moving and met with a lot of opinions about it, we just knew that we needed to keep moving forward and be obedient to that calling, even if it made no sense to those on the outside. As we went through the process of buying the land, we held on loosely to let God take full lead, and what he provided for us was way more than what we even imagined the mission would have. As we’ve been building and seeing the facilities come together we’ve been so blessed because we know what it will mean to the future of how we work, and we see our staff getting excited about it. And, when we had no idea how God was going to provide a buyer and how we would make any of the decisions that needed to be made, he provided two options.

I firmly believe that he gave us two options for a reason. I think he wanted us to stand on the brink of the impossible and crazy, so he could show us what he loves to do. But I think he also brought along the second offer so we knew that he was taking care of us. It was exactly what we knew we could accept. It was there if option A didn’t work out. We knew we were going to be okay, and we knew we would have a firm answer in two weeks. We just needed to sit back and see which option was the right one. It allowed us to focus on everything else that needed our attention, and to know that we didn’t need to try and do anything to push the sale through. We weren’t desperate. We were sitting in a really great place. But, then he did more. He didn’t just do more, he did it all. He didn’t just want to give us a really good option, he wanted to give it all.

He will do it.

~Leslie

November 22, 2015 6 Comments

Weekend Catch Up

This week has been a bit frustrating and I’m feeling overwhelmed and a bit stressed, mixed with excitement. Is that the way it always is before a move? You’re excited about the move, but completely overwhelmed with all the to-do lists and things that you know will take a miracle to happen?

Last weekend when I wrote I was on a high from punching out a really productive week of work at the new house. We went from having a pile of plywood and fan boxes in the kitchen to installed lower cabinets and poured countertops. It seemed ridiculous to me that we accomplished so much in just 5 days. I was on that high through the weekend and fully anticipated another great week.

Alas, it was not so.

Monday was rough. I felt like I was just dragging all day and was exhausted for no reason I could see. I had gotten lots of much needed rest over the weekend. I had to really push myself to get through the day and frequently found myself wondering if it was quitting time.

We got a bunch of stuff done, like most of the upper cabinets in place and the form work taken off the counter tops. They turned out fabulously and came out of the framework with very little effort. I had been stressing about that all weekend. When we showed up Monday morning they were already pulling free themselves, so I was happy.

It was a good work day, but hard physically. All I wanted to do was go to bed when I got home, but we had a board meeting that evening that I needed to be available for. By the time the call rolled around I felt pretty bad. Headache, body aches and I was wearing a hoodie because I was chilled. I realized I had the same bug that had kept Alex home that day. I decided to stay home Tuesday and rest. Chris went to Port and got a bunch of things done, but I couldn’t help thinking about all that needed to get done at the house.

Wednesday I was feeling better and knew it was the day we were going to sand the counters, so I was excited. The sanding part went great. Really messy because there’s a lot of water involved, mixed with the cement powder you’re grinding off. Sadly, I also learned why they recommend you wear a plastic apron (don’t have anywhere to get one here). Around 9 am I could feel my belly was warm where the water and cement powder were sticking to my clothes. By 1 pm when Chris came to get me I full on cement burns on my skin. So, let this be a public service announcement – wear the right gear, or wait the recommended 7 days (we didn’t have that because these needed to get done) before you sand cement counters.

Thankfully things are starting to heal up, but I’ve been swaddled in gauze and burn cream for the past two days. I’ve gone out to the house and basically had Johnny do all the work while I give directions and hold things. It’s been really frustrating, and yet I’m trying to take care of myself because I know if I don’t then I’m going to be down longer. I’m thankful for a weekend where I can rest, but at the same time I’m thinking about all the things that need to get done and trying to make plans for how to attack things on Monday so that we have a really productive week again.

I know I said this last week, but I’m so thankful for Johnny. I left him with some wood to cut on Thursday so I could go home and rest. This was a letting go experiment for me because it meant giving him a 5 minute tutorial on how to use the new miter saw, and then leaving him with a pile of wood. I came out on Friday morning to find that he’d not only cut everything down like I’d asked, but he’d bundled each set of cuts with tape and marked them, and the saw was just fine. Anyone who’s had any experience in Haiti will understand what a huge thing this was. He’s just so capable and such a blessing. We were able to get a bunch of stuff done yesterday, but I’m still stressing.

The stress is being in the midst of a building site where there are piles of everything everywhere, and desperately needing everyone around you to see that time is ticking and we only have a certain number of days to get everything done is wearing on me. I look at projects and think, “That should take x amount of time…” and it never does. The backsplash started going up in the kitchen on Thursday, and I thought that it was a one day job. Nope. We’ve done two days and there’s still more to do. I’m trying to think of how to best motivate people because we’re working in a culture where time is a variable. We see the calendar days going by and there’s sometimes a lack of immediacy that we really need right now.

So, please be praying for me and us. So many things to do, and I’d like to come through next week feeling like we were getting closer to reaching our goal. I really want to have most of the things on my list finished before we move in so we can enjoy a good couple of weeks over Christmas settling in to our new home as a family. I want to have a fully functioning kitchen, an office that’s ready to start work in the new year, and things like closets done so we can just move in and enjoy it. That might be asking a lot, but maybe not?

You can also pray that our batteries arrive and clear customs in the next two weeks so we can get them all hooked up and actually have power running through the building. That’s a big one…

I’m very thankful for Chris. He’s been a home trooper for the past few weeks. Most nights during the week he’s cooking dinner, and he’s actually starting to have fun with it by trying out new things. Maybe he’ll come out of this with more interest in cooking??? :) He’s the one that’s been doing all the school pick up and drop off and hanging out with our kids as I’m working. On the weekends I try to spend time with them and give extra snuggles, and am looking forward to moving day when we’ll finally all be in the same place again. The kids finish school the day after we move, which I’m thankful for. It’ll give us a few days to get moved, and then they’ll be off and we can settle into our new surroundings. It also means two days during a busy week where we don’t have to worry about driving for school and can just focus on work stuff.

I have some more big news to share, but will do that in the next post :)

Thanks for the prayers and support!

Leslie

November 21, 2015 2 Comments

I’m Leslie. I started my blog back in 2005 when I was fresh off the plane in Haiti. I lived in Haiti for over 17 years as a missionary, wife, and eventually mom. My husband and I ran Clean Water for Haiti together, day in and day out. We carved out a life we loved doing something important to us. Sadly, in the fall of 2022 we had to make the difficult decision to leave Haiti because of the insecurity. We’re now settling into life in the US. I’m thankful that I get to continue my work with CWH as the Executive Director for Canada and the US.

Construction Week 51

The Post I’ve Been Waiting For – Part 2

Weekend Catch Up

Search

See What You’ve Missed

Subscribe to the Blog

Construction Week 51

Share with a friend!

The Post I’ve Been Waiting For – Part 2

Share with a friend!

Weekend Catch Up

Share with a friend!

Search

See What You’ve Missed

Subscribe to the Blog