Departing Boise two years ago to move to Haiti.

In two days, I will leave home to go home. Confused yet? Me too.

It will be with an array of emotions that we will pile our bags and our children on a Boeing 737 and head for the skies, supposedly homebound.

We will be relieved—the plane will have air conditioning and the stewardesses will speak English; in the midst of the sweltering summer here in Haiti where we bounce back and forth between three languages like a ball in a pinball machine, these will both feel like sweet relief!

We will be fabulously excited—to see family and friends, eat great Mexican food, and reconnect with those of you who are a part of our ministry team in the U.S.

Arriving in Port-au-Prince for the first time.

We will also be grieving—leaving our teammates and friends, our house, our routines, our pets. We have gone through many transitions over the past few years: leaving our home, jobs, family, friends, country, culture, language, comfort zones… and then doing it all again when we left Quebec after language school and moved to Haiti. And now, after two years of working hard to carve out a life for ourselves here, we are leaving yet again. Even if this is temporary (we anticipate returning in January), it’s still not easy to uproot ourselves.

But perhaps most of all, we will be grateful—to have had the privilege of being tools in His hands, to do His work here. While the past two years have been incredibly stretching and challenging (culture shock and tropical storms and diseases, we bargained for; street riots and acquaintances being shot or stabbed or kidnapped, we did not), we still firmly feel that this is where God wants us and si Dye vle (if God wills), in a few months we will leave that home to return to this home, refreshed and ready to continue serving.

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