Queso Cheese!

I have noticed lately that my patience is wearing thin, my fuse is short, and my ability to become irritated quickly is heightened. This became painfully clear the other day when I was at lunch at a Mexican food restaurant.

The scene goes like this...

There were 2 ladies sitting a couple of tables over from us. One of the ladies asked the waitress for some "queso cheese." The waitress looked at her, a little puzzled, and said, "queso sauce?" The lady says, "yes." And the waitress walks away.

Now, if that was all that happened I would have continued on in my own little world. But what happened next, hit my button square on. The customer proceeds to look at her friend and in a highly irritated and almost disgusted voice says, "what else would I mean?"

Oh no, are you kidding me? I truly almost lost it. I did stay in my chair and said customer has not idea I became so irritated. But... really? The waitress is not the one that was clueless. Literally this woman said "cheese cheese" to her waitress. Can I get some "cheese cheese?" The waitress wants to know what kind... are we talking sauce here or shredded? The cheese part I have, just not sure of the consistency you are desiring!

And this literally irritated me for the rest of the day. The woman thought the waitress was stupid, like she was clueless and slow, and YET... "cheese, cheese!"

Ok... enough of that ranting and on to what this taught me.

It was a huge flag for me that I had some stuff I needed to process. I haven't quite been able to put my finger on what is bothering me. What is all going on in this tornado that I feel? There are lots of factors... grief, discontentment, questioning what I am doing with my life, am I making a difference, am I where I should be? And then (sorry guys) but is this PMS or DMS or PostMS? I mean really sometimes I can not keep up.

And so with all this irritation and frustration rising I start to talk. I ask for prayer. I journal. I process... and what conclusion have I come to????

A reminder that I need to talk out loud. That I need to be sure and get my time alone with the Lord. That left to my own flesh... I will be annoyed with all around me when they don't understand me... "cheese, cheese."

And I don't have all the answers for all the questions above... I just know that I need to take one day at a time. And to trust that God is in control! And for that, I am so very thankful and I think I feel some of the "tightness" and "pressure" loosening a little!

And just for the record... I know my reaction over the cheese was a little extreme! And confession that part of why it was so funny to me is that I remember doing that when I was in Mexico, asking for queso and receiving shredded cheese!

Man... all this is making me hungry... might need to get some queso dip at one of my meals today!

1500 To 72!

I finally did it. I narrowed down 1500 pics to 72!!

This is a picture from the place as we flew in. The water looked incredible!
This is lil'jp and I getting our mosquito nets all rigged up. They definitely came in handy!
Church was amazing! The singing (just like Africa) is so hard to explain. Full of abandon and joy! This little guy was cracking me up. Nothing was waking him up.
The little girl on the left is Sarah. She was one that grabbed my heart! Tough to leave her behind.
All the kiddos were so beautiful. So there are a lot of kiddos faces included!
The day in Port au Prince was tough. Apparently less than 5% of the rubble has been cleaned up. It was pretty unbelievable to see the devastation.

This is the catholic church that stood right in the middle of town. You can see it has lots of destruction and you can see the tents attached to the wall that people are sleeping in.


On our way back we went to a the sight of a mass grave. These are the crosses that were up on the hill. It is still surreal to think about what had to happen that day. My heart aches for those who had to bury their friends and family.
Every night the sunsets were amazing. And the contrasts of the days were hard to grasp.
It was fun to see our guys playing with the little ones.
Yes... that is a cactus clothes line. Pretty ingenious. They used cactus for fences.





A local soccer club sent us out with a ton of soccer balls. It was fun to see the kids so excited.

We found out that the Haitian National Amputee Soccer Team was staying where we were for the week.


The amazing waterfall that we got to climb and stand in.
I was taking pics and then realized I was about to miss out on a huge experience. So I handed off my camera and got in! So glad I did.


We drove into this remote village. Such beautiful kiddos and people.






We handed out little sandwiches to the kiddos. This little one grabbed 3... and no one stopped her! :)
Everywhere we went, kiddos were watching.

We got to have a creative morning as we painted this room. It was so much fun. The room is for women who are amputees and are making headbands to raise funds.
Then off to an orphanage.
That night we got to see the most amazing lightning storm ever. We stood there for over an hour just in awe!



Below is Port au Prince at night. You can see on the right the part that is blacked out. That is the center of the earthquake where there is still no electricity.

We painted a church and the kids that came in to help us were so great. They loved being a part of the process.
Then the amazing gift of getting to play soccer against the Amputee Soccer Team. Seriously cool!





This is a tent city. It was extremely organized. But... just tents, rock, and dirt. The resiliency of the people!
Growing little garden next to their homes.
A little girl who lost her leg in the earthquake.The last day we spent the afternoon on the coast. Beautiful.And these are little yellow birds that build these nests. The nests are round and upside down. They fly in underneath.Another tent city.Still so humbled by my time there. Looks like I will get to go back in February. Pray for the people of Haiti. There are still sooo many obstacles ahead!

Psalm 46:1
God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.