The Turks and Caicos islands are just so beautiful. We've been having a lot of fun exploring the island of Providenciales. I'd be in VERY good shape if this was what our life looked like as it feels like we are constantly in the water swimming. The island is fairly small and you can make your way from the west side of the island to the east in about 30 minutes, and from North to South, it'd probably take 5 to 10 minutes by car, so it's long and skinny. I've found myself wondering how the people here survived a hundred years ago before there were tourists, or even prior to Christopher Columbus landed. Practically speaking, there are no trees, except around resorts where they've obviously been planted - there's just scrub brush. The ground everywhere is very sandy, so it's hard to imagine much of anything growing well. There are no rivers or streams, so the water is taken from the ocean and
desalinized. I suppose they just lived off of the fish they could catch. It's crazy the difference between these islands and  beautiful, lush Haiti where essentially every tree you look at has some exotic fruit growing. And yet they don't deal with the poverty here and from what I've read, they never really have, which speaks to the importance of a well-run government. It does have a history in slave trade and it's first post-Columbus inhabitants tried to make it with salt industry with some success and by growing cotton, which never really worked well. The highest elevation is about 150 feet.

The Condo resort that we are at is nestled quite a bit out of the way from the main resorts, up at an end of the island near a wildlife refuge.  It makes it really quiet and there aren't many people in this area - especially since this is the off season.  I would guess that the resort is about 20% full.  We've probably ran into at most 8 different parties (couples or small families) that have been here over our week!  Our unit is perfect for us - 2 bedroom, two bath, with a kitchen and living room.  Also a small patio outside where we have eaten most of our meals.  You can just see the ocean from our patio, but by no means an ocean view.

Our first day here found us exploring the area just around our condo. We spent some time in the condo with Dan resting (he had a few days of stomach issues), me making breakfast, getting things ready, playing at the pool, etc. We did eventually wander down to the beach.

Beach out in front of our resort (Northwest Point Resort)

Dan still wasn't feeling great, so to start out it was just me and the kids swimming and playing in the sand. After Dan joined us, we got our snorkel gear and wandered down the beach a ways and were just trying to get our gear on and into the water, when Gabe started crying and saying "ow, ow, ow, ow". After getting him out of the water and settled down a little bit, we noticed some raised spots right around both knees and realized he got stung by a jelly fish. Poor kid. So we made our way back to the condo where we scraped the area with a credit card, rubbed it with lime, and gave him a hot bath (thank you Google for your advice!). 

Since our first day, we've tried to explore new snorkeling spots/beaches each day. It's a weird life, I tell you. You'd think we'd be completely relaxed, but oddly enough, we just don't do well without a mission to accomplish. The downtime we've had at our condo usually finds the kids building cushion forts, w
hich in short order ends up with a dialogue of "Mom!!! He's got more cushions than I have! His is bigger than mine! Calvin kicked mine and now it fell doooooooooowwwwnnn!!!" For some reason they love this game and gravitate toward house building every day, but boy it's an exercise in patience for me and whining, discouragement, and frustration for the boys. So for sanity
sake, we stay on the move, either at the pool or at a beach somewhere.  It's been lovely and such a nice break from our busy lives, but we also look forward to getting home to a more purpose-filled life. :) 

For the kids' the best part has been the pool. I think they could play there all day every day. And it is a very cool pool. They really do have such fun and get along so well when out there. It's fun to watch.

For Dan and I the best part has been the snorkeling. Oh the beauty of God's ocean creation is just so amazing. I love the thought that God's most beautiful, creative work is in places where (for the most part) people don't ever get to see - it's for God's glory alone. We've seen so many different fish, all of them so beautiful. Our favorite sightings have been turtles, sting rays, lobsters hiding away, and a dragon fish. And no kidding, the guy at the scuba shop told Dan the water is 84 degrees. It's wonderful and I have no idea how we'll get into our mid 50's (or whatever) ocean at home next weekend. We may freeze our rear-ends off, but we do look forward to body boarding with friends!

While we figured any snorkeling adventures would be a tag-team event, we've managed to figure out a way to go on our excursions all together by blowing up an inner-tube that has a netted bottom, which Gabe and Calvin happily ride in, and Wedly snorkels beside it. We have a bungee rope tied to the inner-tube that either Dan or I put around our wrist and it actually works fairly well. Gabe has snorkeling gear on and sometimes swims with us, sometimes just peers over the side of the "boat" to see lots of fish. 

Our floatilla for snorkeling.

One funny moment happened day before yesterday when we were working to get ready to head out and find a new beach, Gabe exclaimed in distress "Why do we ALmore time at the beach. Sometimes I worry about this coming year when he's going to have to cope with the routine of going to school every day. But I think the real complaint was that he was wanting to go to the pool.

WAYS have to go to the beach every day!!!!" Dan and I just started laughing. I guess it's time to get back to real life when your kids start complaining about

Our second and third days found us at the most popular reefs on the island - Smith's reef and Bight reef. These had snorkel trails that were very nice and easy to access for the kids. Our 4th day we tried a secret snorkel spot that our condo owner recommended. We arrived at the spot and there wasn't a soul in sight except for the multi-million dollar yacht and a few other boats way out. While the beach here wasn't great (rocks with shells and possibly a few sea urchins, leading us to not really want to play in the shallow water) we got our gear on and carefully made our way out to deeper waters.

We had to swim quite a ways out to get to good snorkeling, but once we did it was amazing!! Dan is guessing that visibility was at around 200 feet. It felt like you could see forever. And somehow it just felt more natural. Like the difference between taking a walk in Central Park vs hiking the Loowit. It was really great for Dan and I, and the kids enjoyed it as well, but I think they also missed the time playing in the sand on the beach.

"Hidden Snorkel Spot"

Then after naps on our 4th day, we headed to Sapodilla beach, which is a very kid friendly beach where the sand is very soft and silty and is very shallow. The kids enjoyed playing in the water and sand. We also made our way out to a ship wreck to snorkel around. While we saw some big schools of fish and lobsters hanging out, visibility was poor and it was a lot of work for not quite the snorkeling pay-off. After packing up, since we were close in town, we grabbed Pizza for dinner in town, which we all enjoyed. 

Just in general with both our ocean playing and pool time, the kid's confidence in the water has really improved. By our last day, Wedly has pretty much abandoned his life jacket altogether and is wanting to test his skills by jumping in and swimming across the deepest part of the pool. Gabe still needs help in the water over his head, but is swimming pretty well otherwise. Even little Calvin has made great progress. Dan told the kids at the beginning of the week that if they each met a swim challenge, he'd give them $5.00. Wedly needed to swim from one end of the pool to the other (the long way - about 90 feet) without touching. Gabe's challenge was to swim across the shallow end (close to 30 feet) without touching. And Calvin's challenge was to swim alone with his life jacket on (before he'd freak out unless he was able to have a death grip on you). Each kid earned his $5.00 on our last full day. They were all so excited! And lucky for them, it was their dad that challenged him. I'd have told them a dollar! :)

Calvin definitely fits right into the slow, easy-going nature of the island. Everywhere he goes, he trails behind us by at least 50 feet, content to take his small steps and smell each rose and examine every shell we walk by. I can't seem to change my constant in-a-hurry mode and feel I am always badgering him to for-the-love please HURRY! even though we have no where we really need to be. Maybe it's cause I'm usually carrying an armload of gear that I want to set down, but more likely it's just our lifestyle back home is full of coming and going and things to do. I guess it'll take more than 3 weeks of Caribbean life to change that. :) We've had a good chuckle a number of time at the island nature around here. There are nice aspects. Yesterday there was a guy renting gear out at the 2nd beach we went to and as he passed by us he drawled out "wanna chair?" "No thanks," we said. What a difference to the barrage of people wanting to sell every good and service imaginable in Haiti. We've seen many people selling gear at the beaches, but this was the first time anyone's actually asked us if we needed anything and it felt more of an afterthought to ask if we wanted something. 

The last three nights, we've had all the kids nap mid-day so that Wedly and Gabe can stay up late to swim in the lit-up pool after dark. They've loved this so much - really a special treat since the pool is lit up and there are Christmas lights around some of the palm trees.

To my son

Dear Anderlin,

We said goodbye to you a few of days ago, but while we aren’t physically with you, we’ve thought of you pretty much constantly. As we hang out an island over in Turks and Caicos, we think through what life will be like when you are with us. I think that life will contain more challenges, but so much more joy when you are by our side. As your dad and I have grown together, lived our lives together for 14 years now, we’ve seen God do some amazing things. The path he’s taken us on hasn’t been predictable, but we see his handiwork in and around us and you are a big part of that work. There have been ups and downs, times of surety, times of doubt, but we know that when God crafted you in your first mother’s womb, he did so with perfection and with a plan. We find ourselves thankful that we get to be a part of that plan. You are beautiful and we count it a true blessing to call you ours.

Each time that I put Calvin down to sleep, both at bedtime and for naps, I sing of God’s faithfulness while he settles in for sleep. While I sing the words of the song to your 2 year old brother, most often my mind drifts to you, 3 thousand miles away. I sing about how our heavenly father never changes and his compassions never fail. I sing of a peace that endures despite circumstances and how his presence guides us and cheers us through all kinds of situations. How he provides strength for whatever today may bring and also provides hope for an unknown tomorrow. Then I sing of the cosmos – how he brings each season in their time, how he created the sun, moon and stars. These things are so important for us to remember, especially as we all face an unknown, sometimes scary future. God made all things and is in all things and while it may be difficult to understand why he’s crafted each of our lives, we know he does all things well. We know and trust that He writes the best story and that his plan for our lives is for each of our good and, best of all, for His glory. He is faithful, Anderlin. We’ll each of us get some things right, but we also will fail. We’ll find out together, that while we may fail, God’s faithfulness to us will not. His mercies will be new each morning.  All we ever have or ever will need, he will provide for. For that I am grateful.  

Anderlin, that is our greatest prayer for your life, for our lives together – that we would experience his faithfulness in ways we can’t even begin to imagine. That together we might bring him the glory he deserves. No doubt things won’t always be easy for you. There will be times that people will judge you based on external appearances. There will be times when you’ll feel your strength is insufficient. Bur our God is big, powerful, perfect, sovereign, and best of all, he loves you with a perfect love. Depend on that, sweet son. No matter what may come, remember his love for you. Love that took Him to the cross.

I have a verse for you that is also my prayer for your life. It is found in Psalm 73 verse 26. It says “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Son, this is such good news for all of us. Each of us will fail in our bodies. Each of us will fail in our hearts. We cannot, nor ever will have the strength we need to live this life well. Our strength must come from the Lord. Your strength and my strength. And despite what the world may tell us, nothing here on earth will ever truly satisfy. No, God alone is our great reward, our portion forever. His presence our comfort, joy and peace. And while there may be obstacles in your way to doing some things, nothing can get in the way of your relationship with Him. It’s yours forever. Hold tight to that, sweetie. You can know that we will be a team. Always and forever. We’ll cheer for you, fight for you, pray for you and love you with all that we are.

We are anxiously awaiting your home coming,

Your Forever Mom

Day 15 (Wed) - Goodbyes and flight to Turks and Caicos

Dan has been sick today, so I’m going to wrap up our journal for our time in Haiti.

We began our day by starting to pack up our things, which went fairly quickly. We had a breakfast of pancakes and just kept at packing until our usual 9:30 appointment to head to Hope House. As we wandered over, it was strange to think about this likely being our last time until we come for pick up. I love Haiti and COTP. I’m grateful for the role they’ve played in our family’s lives, providing safety and love to 2 of our children, standing in the gap for them until we take over.

At Hope House, the kids were playing with some form of gear blocks that they were using to build airplanes and other things. We also brought out the mega blocks to build with. We chatted, Dan tossed Gabe and Anderlin around, Calvin and Fanelson played motos outside, and we just had a very pleasant morning.

Because of our plane schedule, we knew we needed to leave campus at 11:30, so at 10:45, we said goodbye to the Hope House kiddos and headed back to our place to eat a small lunch. Then at 11:20, Roni and Stephanie brought Anderlin over so we could say our goodbyes under the mango tree. We had brought a bear and book for Anderlin and were going to give it to Roni to give to Anderlin, but he told us we should go ahead and give it to him. When he rode up on his Moto, we handed it to him, told him we were going to miss him and gave him hugs. He kept asking if the bear and book were for him to keep. “These are mine?” he kept asking. Then we took a few last minute pictures, waved good bye and did the difficult thing of hopping into the truck to leave. I’m so glad we were able to have those last few moments to say goodbye just to Anderlin.

Waving goodbye

The ride to the airport was uneventful except for being exceptionally muddy due to last night’s big rain storm. We made it in plenty of time and when we jumped out of the car, 5 or 6 Haitian men started grabbing our bags to bring into the airport. We didn’t need their help, but before we could even say anything, they had them all out and were heading in. They asked to be paid, but deemed what Dan gave them ($1.00/bag) as not enough. Dan told them “we didn’t even ask you to help us, feel free to take this or leave it.” It’s one thing I don’t like about this culture. I don’t like feeling like a cheap-sake, but also don’t feel like we should be coerced into paying for services that aren’t in the least bit useful. Oh well.

We made our flight just fine – flying Inter-Caribbean to Turks and Caicos Islands. The kids did fine, though were a little loud/busy while waiting for the plane. We boarded and found our seats, Dan and Wedly sitting together and Calvin and I sitting together with Gabe right across the aisle. The kids were SUPER excited, so keeping them quiet was not easy. Gabe chattered the flight away and I kept having to remind him that although the plane was very small, he probably shouldn’t yell various things to his dad who was several rows in front of us. Still, it was fun to see the kids enjoy themselves so much on the flight, which was somewhere around 45 minutes long.

After arriving in Providenciales (aka Provo), we went through customs, grabbed our bags and found our rental car, which was directly across the street from the airport. This took a little bit of time, but I had told the kids prior to our flight that if they were able to make it through all the transitions with good behavior and no fits, I’d have a couple of Oreos for them. They really did pretty well, so while Dan worked on getting our car, the kids happily munched on their Oreos and Ritz crackers. To save money, we rented a standard sudan. We were worried about whether it would fit the 5 of us and our 4 enormous bags, but we made it – just barely. Boy did it hurt the brain to have to drive on the left side of the road. Me, being the passenger, but sitting on what would be our drivers side, I kept trying to look in the rear-view mirror to see the cars behind us, even though it wasn’t driving and this is never something I try to do when in the passenger seat back home. And Dan over and over tried to use his blinker only to have the windshield wipers go off (also “backwards” in the car). Despite some trepidation, we managed to make it to our place just fine. It’s definitely off the beaten path and is close to the far northwest point of the island, but I think we are going to like it!

After dropping off our stuff and checking out the pool and beach, we decided we’d best get our groceries for the week, so we headed back into town (probably a 20 minute drive) and hit the local IGA store. We spent around $186.00, which should just about cover us for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for the week, with plans to eat out maybe 2 meals. If I figured correctly, I think that’s about $2.40/meal/person. Not great, but groceries are EXPENSIVE here and it’s a lot better than what it’d cost eating out, so that makes us happy. With having to buy a new car this year, plus the costs of this trip and our adoption in general, not to mention the day we left for Haiti our washing machine gave up the ghost, we feel the need to cut costs wherever we can.

After getting our groceries, we headed back to our place and the kids and Dan enjoyed the pool for a bit while I made dinner – frozen pizza and salad. We finished that up, and got all ourselves to bed. While there were some challenges in 

Day 14 (Tuesday) - Anderlin's School

As I sit here, ready to blog about yesterday, I’m having a hard time recalling any of the details, so this just might be a quick one!

After waking up and starting to get ready for the day, Gabe started complaining that he had a stomachache. He didn’t want to eat breakfast and wound up laying on the couch. We let him play on the tablet for awhile, while we waited to hear from Roni and Stephanie. Time seemed to slowly creep by and soon Gabe fell asleep. He felt a little hot, so I ran down to grab a thermometer from the Haitian nurse. It was up a bit, but not too high – about 100 degrees.

At 11 we were scheduled for our second IBESR (Haitian Social Work Department) meeting, so we set the kids up with The Little Rascals and headed down for our meeting. The meeting went well, with the man from IBESR asking us questions about how Anderlin seemed to react from first meeting us and how we reacted to our first meeting him. You know, I’m really grateful for these 2 weeks we’ve had with Anderlin. Back when we came for our socialization trip with Wedly, we had 24 hours to be with him before heading out. To be honest, our first 24 hours with Anderlin I was terrified and part of me wanted to turn back the hands of time so we could change our mind. It was overwhelming and scary! Two weeks later I’ve really grown to love the little boy that’ll be ours and I look forward to bringing him home someday! Needless to say, I didn’t share these feelings with IBESR, but told him that we knew right away that Anderlin was a very sweet little boy. J While our first visit from IBESR entailed him watching us from probably 25 feet away for a minute or two while we played with Anderlin on the playground, this time he seemed engaged and even thanked us for our commitment to take in a child that needs a family. That helping even one orphan find a good home helps their country become a better place for everyone.

After our meeting, we headed back upstairs from lunch and naps. Not long after Calvin went down, Dan heard from Nick who had managed to set up a time for us to visit Anderlin’s school. He showed up a half hour later with his two boys in tow and we away we went.

Anderlin's ramp. :)

His Classroom, not yet setup for the year. 

Anderlin’s school is probably only about 5 or 6 miles from COTP, but the drive is rough to say the least. I honestly was surprised that they were making the commitment to take the time to take the kids all that way 5 days a week. It took a long time over nasty roads, but finally we made it. It’s located just outside of Cap and is one of the best English speaking schools in the area. We picked up Melissa (a staff member just promoted to principal) who lives just a half mile or so from the school and then made our way to the school. We entered the building by walking up a ramp that was made just for Anderlin, who is their first special needs kiddo there. J Anderlin attends school with his nanny Rosemane and the school is hoping to be able to utilize her more this coming year in ways that’ll really benefit Anderlin and the rest of the students in the class. They found this year that they had to strike a balance between pushing Anderlin enough for him to grow (and he is very capable of learning many new things), but not push him so much that he’s completely overwhelmed. Anyway, we are so grateful that we were able to visit his school (thanks Nick and Nikki for setting this up!). I’m thankful we will be able to picture what Anderlin will experience while at school.

She took us directly into the room that he’ll spend most of his time in. This year he’ll be repeating the same grade (essentially pre-school) because they felt he could benefit from going over the same material again. Melissa also said that Anderlin really did quite well socially at the school and was very well liked by all the kids. Everyone wanted to be the one to help carry his lunch and there was always someone wanting to push him around on his walker.

We made it back to COTP just before four and ran up to our room and texted Roni to see if we could head over to visit.  The kids and I quickly made our way over, while Dan worked on a couple of adoption paperwork things prior to joining us. Our time at Hope House was fairly simple – just hanging out, playing a tiny bit with the kids, chatting with Roni and Stephanie. Most of the kids received immunizations that afternoon, so almost all of them were out of sorts. They were all watching some sort of farming video for toddlers. We knew Anderlin wasn’t feeling well when we walked in and he just sat there, acknowledging us, but not really wanting to play or interact. He eventually scooted over to Dan to sit on his lap. Anderlin really, really likes Dan. He enjoys me, for sure, but definitely prefers Dan who wrestles with him, tickles him a ton, and tosses him around. It’s very, very sweet how much he likes him. This night, he just wanted to sit and that was okay with Dan. ;) We chuckled when, after the very kid-friendly farming show, Roni turned on Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. Seriously some scary images, but the kids didn’t really seem to notice. Certainly wouldn’t be something I’d let my kids watch, but whatever. ;)

Family Picture

After a bit, we made our exit so that they could get their sickly kids to bed and we ourselves could wind down. However, after getting back to our place, a major rain storm hit - as in possibly the hardest we've ever seen it rain. Dan decided that he wanted to get out in the rain, so he got his swim shorts on and Gabe, who was feeling better by this evening, got his on, as well. As they were heading down the stairs, Wedly decided to join them and then Calvin insisted on joining in. They ran around, jumped in puddles and had a good ol' time! I played photographer. ;) It was another good day! 

Jumping Jacks

Day 13 (Mon) - COTP & Cap Haitien Dinner

2nd to last full day here in Haiti.  In some ways we've been here for a long time and in some ways we just got here.  Today is Eclipse day which we will try to get in on as well, though not like we would have if we had not made this trip.  A little bit disappointing, but was a good trade though.  :-)

Morning breakfast was Crepes which we had peanut butter, strawberry jelly, and syrup with.  Drew and his wife Michelle joined us for it as well.  They will be leaving Tuesday, taking home their new 3 year old Abigail.  In chatting with them - their socialization trip was about a year ago and they had come just as a couple (they have 3 bio kids) and noted that they had shared the volunteer house with 14 volunteers.  Would have been a whole different experience for us vs the way we've had the whole place to ourselves.  Would have  been interesting to meet lots of people from different places but would have been a different level of stress on things I think.

I was assigned a tech problem to work on for the nurse, Coutney.  With her Macbook, she was having trouble saving reports as a PDF without it crashing her database program.  One problem though is that not at all adept at Mac usage.  I spent an hour searching the internet and trying possible solutions  but unfortunately didn't have any success.  :-(

I then joined the rest of the family who were already playing at the Hope house.  They shuffled the groups a little differently so that we were playing with Michael, Anderlin, and Juju this time.

 Anderlin again had it on the top of his list to sit on our laps or have us hold him.  We complied, but also tried to spend time with the other kids as well and Anderlin played the toys with the boys also.  They played with the castle blocks mostly.

Sarah worked hard to break into Juju's shell with dolls etc.  Juju complied a bit but was still very reserved. We got a few smiles, but she is definitely reserved with those she doesn't know.  This is a good thing really for her - it means that she isn't searching for affection and is a good sign for attachment.

I mentioned to Roni whether we could  seeAnderlin with his School walker so he grabbed it.  Anderlin

worked it in circles around the room, maneuvering it pretty well and showing us the compartment under the seat - which the boys then all filled with the big lego blocks.  The boys also took turns getting wheeled around by Anderlin (at his request) and then they gave him a ride or 2 I think also.

Next we asked the kids to show us their room.  There are 2 rooms for the kids with small beds for each of the kids.  There was a Christmas tree in one room which Steph indicated could probably just stay there since we are now closer to next Christmas than last.  Michael and Anderlin proceeded to "make" some of the beds with blankets and pillows (they were stripped) and then ended up both sitting in one bed with 5 or so pillows behind them.

Back to the volunteer house for lunch of some kind of fried ground meat strips (chicken maybe, they were good) and rice and beans.

Calvin went to nap with the promise of playing with Eventz and Josiah afterwards.  They were coming over to share in viewing the Eclipse with everyone.  After nap we headed over to Manna with our swim gear to take a dip and see the Eclipse.  I made a cereal box eclipse viewer with foil from the Hope house, a Corn Flakes box from our pantry, and tape from the finance office.

As the eclipse just started we jumped in the pool with Eventz and Josiah.  Nick had a welding mask which we used to view the eclipse, especially as it reached the maximum blockage time.  For us in Haiti it started at 1:56 or so, peaked at 3:23pm, and I think was over about 4pm or so.  It was fun seeing the weird pinhole shadows and it definitely got cooler as the sun was much less intense.  I can imagine that totality was something pretty amazing, but we still got to experience it some.

As it was completing we piled into Nick's truck with their family to head to Cap Haitien to have dinner together.  We couldn't comfortably all fit into the truck (10 1/2 of us) so the kids of course wanted to ride in the back - so I sacrificed to ride in back as well!  :-)  I really, really enjoyed riding there in the back - the truck is nice and high and has a big rack on it so it works very well to just stand in the back, have a good view of everything we were driving by, and also take in all the smells.  And it must be a bit of a spectacle (since there are only a few big trucks like Nick's in Cap) and very few with a 6'5" white guy standing in the back and a bunch of kids sitting in the bed.  It seemed like just about every Haitian that I would look at was making eye contact with me - so that was interesting.  Some would be a little more extroverted and yell something.  No idea if they were saying Hi, asking for something, or taunting.  It seemed pretty playful usually.

The drive to Cap was much quicker than normal because many Haitians were staying home and indoors because there were radio rumors supposedly of bad things that were going to happen to people who were out in it.  Apparently it was problematic getting anything done on the building project (school building) that Joel has been working on.  Workers all went home?

The roads close to COTP and Nick and Nikki's are absolutely horrible in places.  Much faster to drive with a motorcycle because you can weave around the potholes better.  Tough in a vehicle where some can't be avoided.


The drive was full of all kinds of sights, sounds, and smells.  Very difficult to even start describing. I did try to take a bunch of video, we'll see if any of it turns out.  I tried to not be too obvious and touristy. Some of the main smells include burning trash and cow manure.  Lots of different business along the road on the way end.  A few that I recall are:  guy making cement blocks for building wall; guys working on seating a big truck tire on a rim; lots of stands selling various drinks, household items, or food (baskets of produce like avocados, genips, oranges etc).  People just standing, or walking, or sitting around.  Lots of people sitting around - you see that everywhere.  Nothing else to do often I think.  In the more down town area there were lots more people, but traffic was still pretty good.  For the part of the road that goes right along the ocean the air got very salty.

In town we cross a bridge over a river or slough, I can't tell which.  I had forgotten how disgusting it is there.  It is very sad - so much garbage.

Eventz had the best stare

We arrived at the restaurant - Cap Deli.  Nick and Nikki know the owner and Nick is working to sell them chicken.  They had a a couple TVs in there and switched one to cartoons.  The kids (minus
Calvin) were then hilariously glued to it.  We had a good laugh.  We ordered some fries with lots of toppings for an appetizer (ketchup, pepperoni, peppers, onions, mayo maybe?).  They were good.  Then we had burgers, a few sub type sandwiches, and a small pizza.  It was good.  My burger was the Citadel burger and had beef, chicken strips, ham, and Pepperoni.

After dinner, we drove 1/2 mile way to a place on the bay that sold ice cream.  Everyone got ice cream which was great - though we were totally stuffed after this on top of our dinner.

The drive back was nearly as enjoyable though I had to police Calvin more to keep him sitting down.  Nick stopped and grabbed some water bags and genips which the kids munched on on the way home.

Back home at 7:40 or so we high tailed it over to the Hope house to squeeze out a few minutes.  They were watching a movie.  We hung out for a few and then worked to get some pictures.  We mostly wanted ones with Anderlin, but cycled through most of the kids both because we wanted those as well, but also to not make it quite as obvious.

Then it was time for bed - we had just finished our first pass through the Action Bible and so we started another round.  Considering leaving it behind if they think they would be into using it, we'll see.

It was a good day.  We are so blessed.