An Old Memory From Haiti
Many of us have memories tied to fun events in our lives, and a lot of us have memories tied to different holidays. Waking up on Christmas morning, the birthday cake your mom fixed you when you were little, spending time with your family on Thanksgiving and simultaneously eating far too much and having incredible amounts of leftovers for the next day.
In Haiti, we celebrated some great holidays too. Some of my personal favorites outside of the major holidays like Easter and Christmas were April Fool's Day, Flag Day, and Haitian Mother's Day.
It's funny how memories kind of sneak up on you when you are thinking about other things. We were celebrating Memorial Day along with Zeke's and Jessica's brother's birthday, and it was a lot of fun. One of those days where you just kind of sit around, we swam in the pool, and then had hamburgers and hot dogs.
It made me think of some of our days back in Haiti that, while not spectacular, they were just fun. April Fool's Day in particular was a blast. The whole day, you just tell people that someone who is not in the immediate vicinity needs to see them and when they go to look for them you shout "poisson d'avril."
Haitian Mother's Day was great because I would usually just take the kids down to like a little corner store and they would each buy Jess and the house moms a little treat.
Flag Day was great because it is such a huge event there. A local school held a basketball tournament each year that our kids would play in and there would be parades and parties every where. I remember the first year we let the older kids go to the Gressier parade alone and they thought they were huge.
Sometimes I forget about how much fun we used to have there. Not in a sad way, in a happy way. GOD clearly changes things in our lives depending on the season we are in, and for whatever reason, it was time for us to come back to America.
But those memories are still there, and sometimes I even sit back and think about the change we have been able to accomplish for our kids, our employees, and that small community in Gressier.
It also reminds me to live in the moment. To enjoy those times you have with your spouse, your kids, your parents, your friends, etc.
When we are living for Christ, we have to be ready to say "yes" to whatever He asks us to do. If that means leaving the city we are in, the job we have, or even the home we love, we have to be ready and we have to trust that GOD knows exactly what He is doing, and we have to always be listening and asking GOD to accomplish His will in our lives.
In the meantime I learned that we are where we are for a reason, and because GOD has us here for a reason, because He loves you, and because you probably will not be there for the rest of your life, enjoy it while you can.