Tim returned: On November 17, Tim returned to the US after a couple long return flights back from Haiti. He traveled back with a short-term team who had been on the Mission Haiti property the week before. The girls and I anticipated Tim's return for a long time and it was great to have him back. When the girls saw him for the first time there was a lot of bear hugs and happy tears! It took us all a little bit to find our rhythm as a family again, but since then we have enjoyed a lot of quality time together.
Tim has spent some of his time while back in the US a part of a number of meetings having to do with Mission Haiti which were important to take place while he was present. We are thankful for this time that allows us some flexibility to take care of things that need to be prepared on this end, in order to keep many things moving in Haiti when we return.
Mom's Prognosis: On December 17, my mom had a surgery to remove any remaining cancer tumors left after her 3 rounds of chemotherapy. We are completely humbled and grateful to report that after we were told by her Dr. that "no cancer can be visibly seen." It is so hard to put into words what this news means to our family. She will take the next 5 weeks to recover from the surgery, and then go through another 3 rounds of chemo to completely wipe out any microscopic cells that might be left in her body. She has handled this all very well, with very few significant side effects. We are very opptomistic that in a few months she will be cancer free and be able to put this behind her (this is something we didn't know if we would have ever been able to say, and praise God we are able to now.) We have so many of you, who are reading this, to thank for how well you have cared for our mom and family during this time. It is such a clear reflection of the body of Christ in so many ways.
Time in US: Our family returned to the US on September 30, after learning of our Mom's diagnosis. During this time we have had a lot of great opportunities, as well as moments of being stretched because of our current set of curcumstances. The girls have handled this time well, we are proud them for this, and are again grateful to God for His provision in their lives. We spent a lot of time doing schoolwork, visiting friends, but most of the time we went about the day-to-day while helping out at our parent's house as much as we could. I think one of the best things that happened while we were here was the fact the girls were allowed to fill up our parent's house with a lot of energy, smiles, laughter and silliness to keep all our minds off of a cancer diagnosis.
(October birthdays, 9, 6 & 4!)
MH update: Many things are happening within the ministry. The new Christian academy is currently looking for Christian, American teachers who have a French speaking background or the desire to learn! The block plant is making great progress and has been blessed with a construction crew who has been working hard and does quality work. There are a number of other new ideas and possibilities on the horizon that have been in the works for a while, and it is our hope some of these become a reality in 2015.
(Block plant wall construction project)
Return trip: It will be 3 months, almost to the day, that the girls and I have spent in the US after spending 7 weeks in Haiti. As I have written, we have done a lot of things and taken time to learn in ways we hadn't originally planned. But as I have stated before in this blog, we can do our best to make plans but ultimately we have very little control over what God puts in our path. As our family approaches our return to Haiti on December 30, we are again faced with similar feeling as we had the first time we had to say goodbye to so much that is familiar, and so many whom we love. Although the goodbyes are still going to be tough, and we are currently doing our best to spend quality time with family during this Advent season, all while still accomplishing things needing to be done on our to-do lists.... we are grateful the transition and culture shock will be somewhat less than it was in August. We are also extremely grateful that our girls are looking forward to returning to Haiti and re-establishing friendships they began months ago. This was a concern of ours for a long time. I feared that we would be pulling them back when they were not wanting to. This would be very hard on our hearts as parents. So once again we are thankful that God has been working in their hearts to be ready for yet another period of change. A good friend reminded me a while back that I had written in a blog post almost 9 months ago, how the Mulder family was not real great with transitions.... well, we are learning : )
So we would like to ask you to continue to pray for us. In the next week, there will be a lot of emotions for us and our families as we have to say goodbye for a while again. We are not exactly sure of our timeline moving forward. For now we have to get back to Haiti as a family of 5 and continue in the relationships and life of Mission Haiti. There is a lot of exciting things ahead that have great potential within the ministry, please pray for these few things if you will.
* Hearts to be protected through transition
* My Mom's treatment and recovery to continue to be blessed.
* Safety during travel
* Mission Haiti and its ministry within SW part of Haiti
* Unity to continue within the Mission Haiti staff
* Short-term teams scheduled to visit (it is going to be a busy 6 months on the property)
* Health
* That our family may be a blessing in any way possible to the people in Haiti.
(I hope to update the blog again after our first week back in Haiti. We have a short-term team traveling with us, along with our other American team-mates, and so there will be a lot going on, but we will be anxious to report how the transition went!)
Ephesions 3:20-21Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
