I don't think that there is an emotion that we haven't felt this year.
The good, the bad, the ugly... if you really must know.
It has been wonderful and really, really hard all at the same time.
Better than I thought in many ways and harder than I thought in others.
Over this past year I have held on to the words of Emmi. You will need to know that you know...and you know. It isn't something you choose - it chooses you.
I cried that day. I needed to hear those words. I was feeling numb. It wasn't connecting that I really lived here and I wasn't going home in two weeks. Emmi was here with the Salvation Army. She came from Switzerland of all places. She was in Haiti for thirty-five years and she left this morning. As she sat with me the numb feeling melted away and I could feel myself again as we talked. She told me about reading an article in the "War Cry" Salvation Army newspaper about Haiti. She said it was like she heard a voice say to her, "you will go there once". And she did. For thirty-five years she was a nurse-midwife here in Haiti. When she left that day I told Beth it was like I had spent the day with Corrie ten Boom.
So yesterday when she came back into port on her last day it was bitter sweet to see her. I loved that she came to see what we have done in one year but it was like closing a very important chapter in the history of what is good about Haiti.
Beth sent me an email this morning that said I hope when we are old we are like Emmi. Me too!
Today as we prayed before we did our prenatal class I thanked the Lord for Emmi and the example she is to me.
A strong woman who lived her passion in a place she loved and called home.
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