Come on in 2011....

We stayed up late like big girls and boys and welcomed in the New Year.

Family, friends, and apple cider can make any night a big hit.

 Check us out with our Apparent Project necklaces.  

Amazing what Haitians can do with a cereal box, right?

My sister-in-law and my Kirby will both be having babies while I'm back in Haiti.  Be ready for lots of emotional posts as they deliver and I'm far away.  I'll take it out on my blog.  Consider yourself warned.

I'm a little uncomfortable with how many pictures of me there are in this post.  Apparently when you live in another country and only come home for a couple weeks at a time, you get in a  lot of photos.  Make sure to fix your hair.

My childhood friend (and her family) rang in the New Year with us.  She's that friend that knows my entire past.  She lived it with me.  Those friends are priceless.  It's a sweet thing to look into each other's eyes and know what made you, you and what made me, me.  No explaining.  We saw the days that shaped one another.  What a rare gift.  We also lived through the 80's with one another...the perms...the big bangs.  Once you've been through the 80's together your friendship is cemented for life.

Jessica's small group bought two dopplers for Heartline.  I'll be taking them back in our luggage.  We're so grateful!  Jessica's hubby is a doctor and also a childhood friend.  I spent time picking his brain about third world medicine and how that relates to breastfeeding issues we face in Haiti.  What a great visit! 

The kids set things on fire with their friends.

Aaron may or may not have made some bombs.  My dad showed up with dry ice, so that immediately translates into bomb making for my  husband.  I remind him pretty regularly that he should use his nerdy brain for good instead of evil.   Sometimes he ignores me.

can't get enough of my girls

hayride

We are a sleepover kind of bunch.  Even when we lived in the same town as one another, it was pretty normal for our group of friends to declare a sleepover.  Each couple calls dibs on a room.  We fill the house with pack-n-plays, the floors with pallets for the bigger kids, put babies to bed, and stay up way later than responsible people should playing games and being big fat dummies who laugh so hard we pee our pants.  A sleepover was declared before we ever left Haiti.

Does everyone know what a pallet is?  When we moved to Haiti I realized that we Texans use words that no one else uses in the United States.  Pallet is obviously one of those words.  In case you do not speak Texan, a pallet is a bunch of blankets on the floor.  It's where you put kids to sleep when grown ups need a bed.

Only true friends are comfortable eating apple fritters in a group setting with their hair looking like this.

All these girls hate my guts right now.  Did they want this picture taken of their pj'd bodies and make-up less faces?  No.  But I totally pulled the Haiti card on this one and declared that sleepovers and seeing my sleepy friend's faces and shaggy haired, bed-headed babies in the morning is one of the sweetest things about my life.  I want it documented.  They growled and reluctantly agreed to look happy in this picture. 

2011...consider yourself officially welcomed in.