Adventures of an MK: Braden

I couldn’t tell you about our trip to Astruc with The Orchard EFC and leave out Braden!  Often I am struck by the reality that all he’ll really ever know is growing up in Haiti.  He’s a TCK (Third Culture Kid) to the core.  I love thinking about his already fun life at the young age of two!  He won’t remember Mommy driving back and forth to preschool in her Honda Odyssey, he’ll only remember asking Mommy if he can come with me to pick up Drew and Tessa on the four-wheeler. 

He doesn’t yet distinguish between English and Creole. To him, it seems, it’s one big language. (We like to say the language Braden speaks is Crenglish.)  Just the other day Rob was leading him in a “repeat after me” prayer and it went like this:

Rob: Thank you for our food 

Braden: thank you pou manje 

Rob: Thank you for Mommy and Daddy 

Braden: thank you pou Mommy and Daddy

It was so fun to see him substitute the Creole words on his own. To him there is no difference.

Back to our time in Astruc with the Orchard.  Braden had so much fun playing and exploring.  He really is that “third child” who loves playing with his siblings and thinks he’s as big as they are.  He was almost always with either Drew or Tessa trying to do what they were doing.  What I think he enjoyed most was the big sand pile out in front of the church.  Any chance he got he was out there.  I think his highlight was the “slides” they created out of the sand.  Needless to say he was incredibly dirty by the end of each day!

 

 

 

 

 

Here he found some work gloves and had to wear them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s hard to capture random, casual pics of him because as soon as he sees the camera, he starts posing with a big smile.  That smile sure can melt this Momma’s heart!  He’s a little lady-killer!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having fun with some of the kids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And my very favorite picture of the whole trip.  Rob already posted it, but I wanted to comment a little on it.  Right before we left, all the people and our team formed a prayer circle.  Braden was standing right in front of me and when he saw everyone holding hands, he held this little boy’s hand:

Such a priceless picture that represents our ministry here and our hopes for our kids.  RMI is all about two different churches from 2 different cultures coming together to build up Christ’s church together.  What a beautiful picture of the body of Christ.  I want this to be at the inner core of my kids hearts: love for Christ and love for others.  What a beautiful start.

~Becky