Good Morning.....

I am on my last full day here in Haiti - and know that tonight is not going to be an easy one! Even this morning was one full of sadness as Ronel & I both knew it was the last time for a while we would be getting ready and going off to work together.

I leave Borel tomorrow morning at about 5am and should be in Port au Prince before 8:30am which should give me plenty of time to check in for my noon flight. I should arrive in Ft Lauderdale at about 2pm and Eileen is coming to pick me up around 3:30pm so that I can get through customs with out her having to wait long. I will then pass the evening with Eileen & her roommate Pia and Saturday morning I will head for the airport at about 6:30am to be there by 7am for my 8:45am flight to Seattle. I am scheduled to arrive in Seattle at 3:20pm and Jason and Shealyn are picking me up and then we are heading up to the church's Christmas Dinner where I look forward to seeing everyone!

I have such mixed feelings as I want to get home and show everyone my photos and everything but I also want to be with my husband! I know that the day will come where he will be with me in Canada but today that day seems so far away!

Please pray that everything will go smoothly tomorrow on the way to Port. Pray for Ronel as he is not able to come to Port with me tomorrow but will have to come to work knowing for the first time in a month that I won't be waiting for him when he is finished. Pray that today and this evening will not be one totally filled with sadness but that we are also able to have fun together and remember all the fun we had during the past month.

Oh - also, pray for Ronel's mom - Roselene (rose - lean) as she is quite sick and has been for a number of days. We are hoping she is going to the hospital today to see a doctor but she needs to be well in order to be able to provide for her family. She is the sole provider for her family other than the small help Ronel is able to give them financially from his salary. While you are praying for healings, Ronel has been having pain in his chest on the left side for quite a while now and they have not found what is wrong. During the last week it has been giving him alot of pain and it is also hard to breathe. Whatever it is - I want it gone!! (and I am sure so does he)

So little time.....

So today is Wednesday - I leave Haiti Friday morning - very early! That means that I have less than 48 hours with my husband! There were many tears shed last night be the both of us as we realized that in such a short time we would be separated for such a unknown length of time. I know that God has His hand on us and He has a plan for our life and our marriage but preparing to leave my husband's side after not even 3 weeks of marriage is not easy! Because this is Haiti I am not even able to come home with our marriage certificate in hand - apparently it doesn't happen that fast in Haiti! Now I lived here for a long time and now that things don't happen quickly but just this once I wanted to believe it would happen! So I will have to wait for Ronel to mail it to me and pray that it doesn't get lost in the mail! I have to also go home and start filling in all the many pages of required paperwork to start the sponsorship process. Ronel will have to get a medical and a police report done after I am gone and send those to me as well along with all the pages he needs to fill out. I have to send him those in French so that he can understand and respond in French as well.

There was a small scare a week or so ago as I was reading through the paperwork for like the 10th time. There is a page that asks about your financial standing and somehow I misread it and thought that I needed to fill out a different form called a financial evaluation which gives a set amount of money you must make in a 12 month period in order to be able to sponsor someone and the amount increases for each person you are wanting to sponsor. Well the amount for 2 people - myself and one sponsored person is more than double what I currently make and so I thought that I was going to have to go home, find a job that pays me double what I currently make and then wait for a year before I could file the paperwork to sponsor Ronel. Well - when I got home that night from helping Jessica and told Ronel what I had learned - I burst into tears! Cause the 6-18 month wait was already bad enough but having to wait until I make enough money! Oy!!! So a couple of nights ago Ronel & I were going over all the pages he was going to have to fill in later and all the documents he needs and I reread the original sponsorship evaluation and PRAISE THE LORD! I had misread it! I only had to use the other form if I am sponsoring my spouse who has dependent children who have dependent children!! And neither Ronel or I have kids so I get to use the original form!! This form asks for work info and they also want to know how much I make but NOWHERE does it say that I have to make a set amount before I can apply! I cried tears of joy when I realized that it had all been a mistake and we weren't going to have to wait like 3 years before applying!

Ronel said to me last night as I was crying over the fact that I was leaving him in 2 short days that we survived being separated for over 8 months while we were engaged and he knows that while this separation is going to be hard, that we will survive it and that we will be all that much stronger because of it. Now - in my head I know this is true - but in my heart I don't want to AGAIN be separated from the man I love, the man who is now my husband, my family. But, because I know that God has placed us together and He has a plan for me, one that is good and not harmful and that He has hope and a future for us, I will step onto that plane on Friday knowing that one day Ronel will step off a plane in Canada and we will be together, living out God's plan for US!

Ok - enough of this babbling on... I am going to go and help Jessica with the financial report for the last time!
Man, time has flown by!! It seems like just yesterday I was meeting Jessica and now I am getting ready to say goodbye a month later!

Wedding details

Today is day 13 of my life as a married woman and so far so good!

The wedding was wonderful - it was set to start at 3pm and amazingly all of us women were ready - myself, Jose (my maid of honour) and all 11 other females in the bridal party as well as Moyiz who got ready with us. Jessica and Barb were both there to help me get ready and they were both a great help. Jessica helped me do my hair from start to finish and though she was quite nervous, she did wonderful. For most of the morning Jessica (who had spent the night) and I just hung out - she put my curlers in for me and we relaxed. It was wonderful not to be rushed. Then it was crunch time - getting my hair done, into my dress, make-up done and then oops - forgot to brush my teeth - SO in my wedding dress with a towel down my front, I brushed my teeth from a cup!! Life is never dull in Haiti!!

We then crammed 15 of us into a minivan and headed off to the church or so I thought that was where we were going. Instead of turning right and going to the church we turned left - Well, I spoke up and said - "The church is that way" and everyone just smiled. We then drove towards Benson's house where all the men were getting ready and the entire car was cheering the whole way there - honking and yellling THERESA - CLAP CLAP CLAP - RONEL - CLAP CLAP CLAP over and over again. It was quite the interesting feeling being the very obvious center of attention. We then got to Benson's to find out that the guys were not quite ready! So I sat in the very hot car (as everyone else was allowed out but me!) jThen out of the corner of my eye I see the guys getting into the jeep and my heart skipped a beat - I wanted to see Ronel so badly but also didn't want him to see me yet. They then passed us so that they would arrive at the church first and I got a glimpse of my groom and tears came to my eyes. I was so unbelieveably happy that this day had finally arrived! I had to try my hardest not to cry as culturally the Haitians would not understand me crying with joy on my wedding day - they would think that I didn't want to get married - which was far from the truth so I kept telling myself over and over - remember walk slowly and don't cry - to the point that I had a very serious face and Karen decided that she needed to come and make me smile before I walked down the aisle. It worked but I still have a very serious look in all the photos. One of my favourite photos is me waiting to walk down the aisle and you can see out the church doors at the crowd of people watching. As the caption aptly says - I felt like a monkey in a zoo. It is an expression that Karen and I used alot when I lived here but I don't know if I ever felt it more than that moment. I am extremely thankful to both Barb and Jessica who took photos and videoed for me. It is not something either of them profess to be good at but it was a real blessing to me.

In our bridal party there was 4 flower girls, a "princess" (for the best of my ability I have NO idea what her role actually is but she is called the princess and she is the first to go down the aisle) 6 girls and 6 guys who are called the men and ladies of honour but are better known as "kituse" (spelling ?? - pronounced KITuse) who DANCE down the aisle in what I like to refer to as syncronized dancing. Then came Pharlie & Moyiz - our ring bearer couple, Moyiz was supposed to walk with me but they didn't think Pharlie would walk by herself (she's only 3 1/2) so they walked together and I walked right behind them with Jose behind me keeping track of my train. As we got almost to the end of the pews, Ronel and Benson started walking towards us, then as we passed them they turned around and then Ronel and I walked separately to our chairs where we sat facing each other with Jose and Benson beside us and Pharlie and Moyiz on a bench at the front of us between Ronel and I. This is where the wedding got fun. We then got to listen as just about everyone who has a singing group came and sang for us. It was beautiful but oh so long! There was alteast 8 different songs, a poem ready by someone, and some scripture and then it was time for us to get married!! It was a little different than the last Haitian wedding I attended because of the fact that I was a foreigner. Pastor Samuel first had us stand and basically give our name, age and name of our parents and whether they were alive or deceased. Then he asked Ronel's mom and dad to come to the front and because my parents weren't there he asked Jessica and Barb to come to the front to be my witnesses (this was unknown to any of us before hand so it was a bit of shock I think to the two ladies)

I had asked that we include lighting of the unity candle in the ceremony - having brought the necessary items with me as I knew they didn't normally do this but was a way to include my Canadian culture into the wedding. The pastor was very good about it and also good about explaining to congregation what was taking place and why. We had the two candles lit prior to our entry as we didn't know who to have light them during the ceremony as both of our mothers were not there. But due to the length of the ceremony, one was almost burnt right out and so as a sudden addition to the wedding we had to light two new taper candles and so Pastor Samuel lit my candle with a match and he had Ronel light his off of mine. Though it hadn't been planned it was a very nice part and also allowed Pastor Samuel to explain what it all meant.

During the exchanging of the rings I was quite nervous that I would mispronounce something and end up saying something completely different but it went very well and after the rings were exchanged we were supposed to kneel for the benediction but Moyiz had fallen asleep between us and so we couldn't so we sat on the bench together which was much easier and made for nice photos. We then stood together and Pastor Samuel was talking and I was so caught up in the moment that I missed hearing him say that Ronel could kiss his bride and Ronel had to look at me and whisper - He said we could kiss as Pastor Samuel repeated himself and as a result the kiss was quite quick and I don't know if anyone managed to capture it on film! (Much to their dismay!) (Somewhere in all this there was also two more songs and the signing of the marriage certificate) Then after he pronounced us husband and wife - Mr & Mrs Clédomin, at which point the entire church (which was PACKED to the roof - I have never seen so many people in that church!) came forward to greet us and kiss us both on the cheek - it was like getting mobbed by nice people! Many of the faces that I recognized I was so happy to see had come and it meant so much to me to have friends there. We then managed to get out of the church - stopping every row to greet more people and more kisses exchanged!

We then got into Benson's jeep and headed across to the compound where the reception was to be held.

When we got there we were greeted by the sign of no electricity which meant everything was black! (As it was now close to 5:30pm and it is dark at that hour in Haiti) So, we had family and the group of students who had come from Montrouis from Canaan where I taught and lived my first year in Haiti come back to our house- It was so wonderful to see many of my old students and see how they've grown and they were all so happy to be there at my wedding. They wanted to take a photo with me. We got to the house and it was packed! We had all the bridal party, the 22 people from Canaan and then family. Plus as the evening went on, more stragglers arrived - much to our dismay as many of them were not friends or family and when everyone had left we found out that the majority of our dinner which had been waiting for us in the kitchen had been stolen along with a bottle of champagne that Benson had brought that was in the living room with all of us, and also part of the ribbon from my bouquet (still can't figure that one out!) Thankfully someone was able to bring us some soup so we didn't have to go hungry on our wedding night! We still aren't exactly sure what happened out at the reception but we do know that somehow they all managed to get food and drink and everyone went home fairly happy!

Once Ronel and I were alone in the house, it was overwhelming. All day long we had been surrounded by so many people and finally it was just the two of us! Sunday morning we didn't attend church but once church was over, we got visitors and they continued all week long. Each time someone new came, out came the wedding cake and this special Haiitan drink (which I tried and it is disgusting!!) And as people came to visit, gifts also arrived. Some of them are very "Haitian" and I say that very lovingly. Others were very practical and some were lovely Haitian handicraft which I love. Some of the gifts which came from large groups (like the rest of the teachers at Ronel's school and the various singing groups from the church) also included cash gifts along with the gift which was also much appreciated.

Ronel went back to school the Wednesday following the wedding and I enjoyed having those three days with him but have gotten used to him being gone for the morning. It means that I awake when he leaves at 6:30am to say goodbye, go back to bed to get some sleep with the fan on (electricity comes on at 7am) wake up around 9am, do some work around the house and Ronel is usually home about noon. He then does his prep work for the next day but atleast he is in the house.

I want to thank all of you who were and still are praying for Ronel & I - It means alot to both of us to know that so many of you care about us

Mr & Mrs.

Well, the wedding was beautiful and I will try and post photos as soon as possible but I have been a married woman for 6 whole days now!!!

only 2 more sleeps!

and I will be Mrs. Cledomin!
I arrived safely in Port au Prince on Saturday and was met by the most wonderful sight as I walked towards the door to go outside - Ronel's smiling face! I honestly don't know who was happier to see whom! But I do know that we were both estatic to be together again! We then had to wait about 45 mins for Benson to return to pick us up as he had had to make a quick drop off to his sister's. We then got on the road to Borel and the journey was quite smooth and quick! I was so tired from little sleep the night before and being up early in order to make my flight so I just sat there taking it all in! We arrived in Borel and they drove me to the house where I am staying and there was 6 or 7 people there waiting to see me! The house where I am staying in on the Project Help compound in Borel. It is a nice house - with electricity from 7am - 10pm each day, running water, a tiled shower, a toilet that flushes, a ceiling fan in my bedroom, a lovely living room area with a couch and two chairs. I am pretty happy with it. Ronel's "goddaughter" has been staying with me at the house this week as I didn't want to stay in the house by myself and she is a doll. She is 16 and is in the equivilant of Grade 10 with only 2 more years to go.
Friday night, Jessica (who is now working at HATS) will be staying with me and then will be there Saturday to help me get ready and take photos. I am looking forward to it - we just met but I really enjoy her and we get along really well. I have been up helping her figure out all the financial stuff I used to do as well as the website stuff she needs to know in order to add the updates.

Ronel and I went to St Marc yesterday on taptap to get our needed blood tests done so that we can get our marriage license. It is about an hour's drive each way and it was just after noon when we left so it was a lot of sun and I was exhausted when we got home but we now have the paperwork needed so it was all worth it!!

The wedding will be at 3pm ET Saturday (which makes it noon on the west coast!) I am excited that I don't have to be up too early on Saturday but think that the morning will seem very long!!

I will try and see if I can post photos after the wedding!