Day 5

Brooks and David at the helm. A few more things our team learned today, our last day here at HATS.

1. We have been declared "the best team ever to come from Texas" per Keith, and "the best team ever to come from the U.S." according to DG herself. This is indeed a high honor for such a humble group. Also, apparently, we're the only team to come from either Texas or the U.S., so come to think of it, that may not have been a compliment. We now feel kind of confused and somewhat disappointed. But Karen says we can come back next year, so I guess we're not all that bad and have not forced Karen to once say, "Oh me nerves, ye got me drove!"

The 'best' team from Texas

2. No matter how hard she tries or how many times she repeats herself, the kids still don't understand Tina's English.

Tina enjoying time with Karena & Ti Luc

3. On her 3rd trip to HATS, Julie finally discovered that the tents we stay in are supposed to remain zipped up to keep bugs out. This is why they are called mosquito net tents.

Other things of note from today.

One final day of painting. No aqua chintz, but we got some dignity purple on the porch of Kay Margo and it is beautiful. There is also a Texas flag now painted somewhere on the compound. We wonder how long it will take her to find the flag. Our guess is she won't and we'll have to point it out next year. We also put a new fresh coat of fencepost white on all the doors in Karen's house. We have all decided that we will never clean our baseboards or white doors at home ever again. All they need is a fresh coat of fencepost white and they are sparkling.

One final round of play and laughter with the kids. We were blessed to get to spend some time praying with each of them. We say it every year, but it's true. We get more blessing from spending time with them than they get from us! It's always hard to say goodbye as they become more and more part of our family and we become part of theirs. But according to Michael W. Smith, "Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them."

Jofky getting a gift from his god father, Brooks

Jonathan with his parenn David

Our happy girl, Ti Fi, posing with Brooks

Ti Luc can paint with the other children

Speaking of that song, we sang it tonight on the Brooks and the Gang Radio Creole Top 10 Music Night this evening. With DJ Dave on the iPod and the rest of us on the mikes, with a little help from Papa Luckner, Haiti's airwaves have never sounded finer (at least since we were here last year. We gave Luckner the special shirts we made for the station. We think he likes them. We also think he thinks we're crazy people. But the shirts are cool. Such a fun night.

Preparing for the big show

Jake and his beautiful wife Jennifer

Brooks at his best

We ended with our tradition of sitting on the roof under the stars with Karen, joined by our favorite Newfie pilot, Keith (of course, he's the only Newfie pilot we know). We were able to pray and talk and dream for an incredible future for the precious children of HATS. We leave tomorrow with the kids on our hearts. We'll miss them but rest well knowing they're in the best of hands.

Yes b'y.