Ephesians 6:12 -“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

I debated even sharing some of the things that happened to us last week incase there was a chance people thought I was complaining or that our house was dirty. But, as I have continued to pray and ask God why these things are happening, I have realized it is okay to share these troubles, but also share with you that God is victorious at the end of this broken life. This life is filled with trials, tribulations and dad-gum pesky bed bugs. As believers we know these things, but sometimes we fail to show transparency and act like life is always grand. Well, it is not always rainbows and sunshines. We have an enemy that prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. So why do we let ridiculous things get us down when we know we have an enemy out there wanting to devour us and kill our joy? We refuse to let these problems (that seem to continue) even affect our joy for one minute. I would be completely lying if I said they have not made us down right tired and ready for a break. But, THEY WILL NOT steal our joy. The devil does not get off that easily.

1 Peter 5:8
“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

So here we go… fair warning, this is a long post… We began the week with Sweet PE’s sound machine burning up. For any parent of a baby that relies on a noise reducer, this is a big deal. Especially when you live in a 600 square foot house on a busy road and leave all of your windows open to keep from burning up. We did not think much about it, but there was a bigger problem waiting for us. The next morning while the generator was running we heard a loud “pop.” Whelp a fan over heated and we knew something was wrong with our generator which is serious business because we rely on it to recharge our batteries to keep power on in our house.

Chase began working on it and found out that it was putting out to much power. The generator is only four months old so the next day he took it to the shop, three hours away, for it to be fixed because it was still under warranty. They agreed to get it fix it free of charge. Our team members picked it up for us the following week and it seemed to be fixed. But, after Chase tested it we realized it was still supplying to much power.

The next thing to break was our ac unit. We only can run our ac units when we have city power or when we are charging our batteries with our generator in the evenings, all other times we run off of a inverter/battery system that cannot support the ac units. Clear as mud right? 😉 We typically only get city power every other day for about 6 hours in the evening. But, let me tell you in this terribly hot-humid climate, a night with no ac is rather sleepless. 

Chase called a friend of ours and he came to help us find the problem of both the generator and the ac. They were able to find a part on eBay to fix the generator and they discovered there was a leak in the ac unit. So they loaded the unit up and went and soldered the leak shut. YAY! That evening as the ac was running for maybe 15 minutes and it all of a sudden stopped putting out cold air. It was broken again. So the next day Chase started checking it again, and he found another leak! So he took it again to our friends place and fixed the leak. Praise the Lord!

That evening we went to bed in a nice cool room! It was great! On to the next day and the next problem. Over the last few days I kept finding these small bugs. Chase assured me they were roaches because I was about to lose my mind thinking they were ticks on Sweet PE’s mosquito net. So Chase sprayed our room extremely well to get rid of said roaches. But, the next day I found two on PE. Needless to say I knew they had to be coming from somewhere, but I could not figure out where! I clean my house two days a week because I am super paranoid of things we might be bringing home with us. However, what was to come never crossed my mind!

PE has been sleeping in a pack-n-play in our room. We had been waiting for her crib to come with our truck that will be shipped in August. That evening I asked Chase to search it because I did not find anything in it, but was being paranoid (this time for the right reason). And as I rocked PE he found the source… in the bars of the pack-n-play. He kept saying, “oh my goodness, Kimmey look how many.” I started freaking out and just told him I do not want to know, just get it out of my house… like right now! So he did. 

I tried to do our normal night time routine with the plan of holding her until Chase came back in and we came up with a solution. With all the commotion though, she was wired. So I attempted to get her to sleep by laying with her… that was a terrible idea all she wanted was to play. Chase eventually came back in and showed me a picture on his phone… BED BUGS. YES! Bed bugs… disgusting. A this point we new the pack-n-play was trash and not an option for her to sleep in. Then we were faced with what do we do with her for the night?!

My attempt to put her in bed with us already failed even though I knew it was not a good option for us. Number one, I cannot sleep with her in the bed with us because I am paranoid of SIDS, like literally cannot fall asleep. Number two, she is so mobile now when she is on the bed all she wants is to crawl off and find Bella. Number three, there is to much heat in Haiti for three people in a bed. She sweats like crazy! So we pulled her play mats and put her clean pack-n-play mattress down and hoped for the best.

After she went to sleep I began racking my brain of where they came from as Chase researched how to get rid of them. And then it hit me. I knew exactly where we got them from, a resort here in Haiti. After we returned I began seeing marks on PE’s sheets. I thought it was mildew so I had a team bring her some new sheets. But, it showed back up again on the new sheets. No, it was not mildew at all! It was from the bed bugs. Yes, go ahead and hand me the mother of the year award!

PE did okay to begin with until I felt her crawling under the bed in the middle of the night and walking along the wall at one point. But, we survived with minimal sleep.

Chase began the morning looking for her a crib in town with Junior. They were able to find a white used crib for a reasonable price. The guy they bought it from was supposed to sand it and repaint it before we picked it up, but you know, Haiti, that did not happen. But, we were left with no choice, we had to have somewhere safe for PE to sleep that night. After I deep cleaned the mattress we set up PE’s new big girl room. We were planning on waiting until we were able to get ac in her room, but we were left with no choice because we did not want to risk putting her crib where her pack-n-play was and risk the remaining bed bugs taking up house in her crib. I have to admit I am loving her sweet set up! I however do not like what made us do it! haha…

That same day, while Chase was waiting for the crib to be sanded and painted, he began removing a stump that sits under our clothes line. I am so clumsy I have tripped over it several times. While he was removing it piece of stump flew off and broke our water line. What are the odds?! So then we had to cut our water off and pray there were parts to fix it at the guest house because all of the stores in town were closed for the day. Praise the Lord there was!!

We are still in operation remove the bed bugs. We check everything that they could be hiding in daily. So far they have not made it to our bed or PE’s new bed. I have only found two today hiding out on a pillow. We are almost there… If I could just go a day without seeing one dead or alive that would be great! We are waiting on some spray from the states that should make sure they do not hang around.

While the saying, “don’t let the bed bugs bite,” will haunt us for the rest of our lives, we have gotten a good laugh out of it at night while going to sleep. At some point that is all we can do is laugh and pray. We know this world is broken and will not be perfect. We know that the devil is against us. We believe spiritual warfare is real and that we are in the mist of it. We are comforted knowing He ALWAYS wins. The devil will not get us down, this is not our first rodeo. 🙂 God gets all the glory for keeping us alive, healthy and allowing us to be apart of his amazing story of bringing people to know him in Haiti.

My friends I say again, be alert, but do not let the devil steal your joy! 

I will ask for your prayers. The enemy is trying to come on strong here. Please pray for our endurance, for our health and our focus to stay on why God has us here. Also, we are in need of a gently used, bed bug free, pack-n-play and sheets for it. 😉  If you have one or have seen one for sale, please message or email me. Thank you all in advance for your prayers!

John 16:33
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

May God be glorified through these trails!