A week full of JOY: Starring Kitson :)

For those of you that have parented teenagers you know how crazy it can be!  I think all stages of parenting have immense joy and immense struggles, but I think the joys during the teenage years are something very special!  You get to see that almost adult that you have been teaching actually act with their own conscious decision making and when it's a good decision it is so sweet.  My heart just overflowed with joy a couple of times last week so I wanted to share.  Kitson would absolutely be mortified if he knew I was sharing this with you.....but I'm only sharing because I'm so proud :)

We set out to walk up Bellevue to the school...me to work and him to pick up something.  Right at the bottom of the mountain we crossed paths with the little guy pictured below.  Kit immediately grabbed his hand and started talking and joking with him.  He was telling him that he needed to behave at school and make good grades, it was precious.  He is like a big brother to so many and I love to see him becoming a leader in this way.  Now don't get me wrong, he still talks entirely too much in his own class.....he can't help it, he's a chatterbox by nature ;)  However, I have been told more than once lately by different people how kind and respectful he is and for a 17 year old I think that's pretty great.

Then a few days later we were walking back from dinner and he told me (all in English!) that he couldn't wait for me to get to my house to see the surprise he had for me.  He made me wait at the gate while he went up on the roof to turn on Christmas lights!  I had 2 strands of solar lights that no longer worked and he fixed them and then hung them up on the house for me.  He knows how much I love lights at Christmas and just wanted to do something nice for me.  I could have cried, it was so kind.

Many of you may know that Jorgi & I will be working on getting guardianship papers for Kitson after we get married.  Kit is Jorgi's first cousin and he has been living with Jorgi for about a year since his dad moved to another town and left him in Gressier.  We are prayerfully considering fostering Kitson's younger brother too.  Please pray for us as we make this decision.

We have also been busy this month trying to get our house move-in ready and still have lots of projects to go.....like running water and solar panels.  We would be honored if you would consider us for a year end gift to help us get our house ready and to continue our ministry in Haiti.