Vamos a El Salvador

I mentioned earlier that my daughter, Gaubri, and I plan to go on a mission trip in March with a group from Faith Community Church so I wanted to share more details.

The trip  will be 10 days and 9 nights in Chalchuapa, El Salvador, March 8-17th. We plan to have a vacation Bible school, do door-to-door evangelism, build a home for a church family that lost their home in a typhoon, and spend some time in a music ministry as we serve a church in Chalchuapa.

This is the timeline we were given in December:

TIMETABLE – This is a best estimate of the next 13 weeks:

• Immediate – Passport secured DONE!
• 12/19/11 or before – Prayer / financial support letters out 1/2 DONE
• 01/11/12 – Team meeting after Wednesday service / El Salvador pics / Q & A  LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS, MATT GRECO IS IN EL SALVADOR THIS WEEK SO HE WILL HAVE MORE INFO TO SHARE WITH US DURING THIS MEETING.
• 01/15/12 – $400 EACH deposit due – We’ll buy tickets after we have this deposit!
• 01/29/12 – Team meeting / covered dish dinner – Time and place TBA
• 02/12/12 – $500  EACH payment due
• 02/29/12 – Team meeting after Wednesday service
• 03/04/12 – $600  EACH (balance) payment due
• 03/07/12 – Wednesday Night dedication of El Salvador team
• 03/08/12 – Leave for El Salvador!

I am super excited for the opportunity to go and serve in El Salvador and be a part of this team.  I am also so grateful for the chance to take Gaubri to experience another culture and expand her view of the world, I think she will come back with a much better appreciation of how very blessed she is.

Please pray for all of us as we prepare and if you feel led to contribute to the trip you can make donations through Faith Community Church.

Gaubri in Uniform

Gaubri plays with the Faith Christian Academy Knights. They had a nail biter game in Grandview last night. A spectator behind me said “that’s a good team.” A lot of hard work from players and coaches has reaped reward!

New Year Update 2012

Outside in Kansas City~Sunny and 37 degrees.  We have been enjoying record highs lately and the forecast predicts 60 degree weather again this week!

I am thinking~that I would like to blog on a regular basis this year. I am also hoping to start training for a 5k and am entering into a new discipleship relationship.  Excited about new things in 2012.

I am thankful for~family time over the holidays.  It was such a blessing to have all our children and grandchildren with us on Christmas.  I know there will be years that this can’t happen so I truly appreciate it.

In my kitchen~I am planning to eat from the current fridge, freezer and pantry offerings this week.  It will help to clear things out before they go bad and save some money after the Christmas spending. After that I am planning to try out Once a Month Mom’s real food challenge and the Whole Food’s Menu.

I am wearing~My new fleece pullover from Land’s End, Jeans, Nike’s.

Last creative endeavor~is to regularly entertain, distract, and care for a nine month old

Sleeping Sweetie!

I am going~to travel to El Salvador with a group from Faith Community Church for 10 days in March.  My daughter, Gaubri, will be going too. We are very excited about going to serve others and share the love of Christ.

Gaubri

Can’t wait for~tomorrow, every day is a new adventure. Longer term I am looking forward to a trip to Europe in spring 2013, Lord willing.

Family News~We are down to five people at our house right now.  Our foster son who has been with us since last January transitioned to his new home the day before Thanksgiving. He is being adopted by a family member who really loves him so this is a great ending for our placement with him.  We really need prayer about future placements, if, who, when, we take in more children.  Initially we were just focused on having a “break” and even though we have gotten several calls about placements we have told everyone that is what we are doing.  We still have our foster daughter, and she is spending three nights a week with her birth mom so we are in a very doable place right now. Unfortunately (or fortunately) that internal nudging that there is such a need and the constant reminder from the calls and the postings looking for placements on the foster care email loop keep me pondering what our next step should be.

Current Read~I am starting Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History by Diana Lynn Severance.

I am hearing~The hum of the computer, Brent took Gaubri and Shakur to basketball practice and baby D is taking a nap.

I am hoping~to keep the household organized with a new app I purchased for my Iphone called Motivated Moms 2012. It also comes in printable versions and breaks household tasks down into daily lists, similar to the old card system that the Sidetracked Executives used or Flylady without the deluge of emails.

Around the house~the dead Christmas tree has been taken to the woods and the living room is back to normal. The house seems very empty and quiet after the holiday invasion…

Simple pleasure~quiet time to blog and meal plan.

July 2011 Update

Outside in Kansas City~ It is already hot and muggy at 7:20am this Saturday morning. According to Weather.com:  The common weather themes this holiday weekend are what you would expect them to be during the first week of July: heat and thunderstorms.

I am thinking~a lot about Biblical Counseling, biblical change; especially how it needs to affect my life, and about anger specifically.

I am thankful for~God’s grace and mercy and the insight and dedication of his people. On another note I am grateful that I got a full night’s sleep last night for the first time in months, both babies had a super good night, no dog barking, no husband snoring, and no older son coming in late. Bliss!

In my kitchen~there is a happy, well-rested three-month-old playing happily in her bouncy seat and a 13-year-old boy munching his way through a big bowl of cereal.

I am wearing~Gray capri sweat pants and my Faith Christian Academy Walkathon t-shirt.

Last creative endeavor~was to start writing my first biblical counseling certification paper.  It may be a very challenging and painful endeavor because I have not written a paper in years. My book choices are Why Christian’s Can’t Trust Psychology which I read months ago and really loved and Competent to Counsel which I am currently reading.

I am going~to attend the IABC National Bible Conference in Colorado the first week of August (Lord willing). Julie Ganschow will be one of the conference speakers.

Can’t wait for~school to start…I know weird.  I will miss the some things but I really prefer for the kids to have the structure of school.  In our neighborhood there are not a lot of good options and it is hard to provide recreational opportunities that work for 3 months to 16 years.

Family News~My son, Nicholas and, his wife, Staci, graduated from Dordt College this spring and moved to Holland, Michigan where he is working for Gentex and she is working in a shop that sells wine from a nearby vineyard.

Current Read~Getting a Grip: The Heart of Anger Handbook for Teens by Lou Priolo. This book was recommended to me recently and I am so glad to have it. It is written in a really practical way.  Lou Priolo is a newly discovered and appreciated author for me.  The church I attend, Faith Community Church, recently had men’s book studies utilizing his book The Complete Husband and his writing and heart for Biblical counseling is refreshing.

I am hearing~our little foster son babble from his stander.

I am hoping~to get lots accomplished over this holiday weekend.  I may use the 15 minute approach because I have such a variety of things that need to be done.  We will see how that works-15 minutes of decluttering my bedroom where every stray piece of  paper and clothing seems to congregate, painting on the ongoing woodwork project as we move from brown trim to white, etc…

Around the house~still working on the trim throughout the interior of the house and I love the change to warm white so much.  It’s amazing how there are constant repairs to do to any house you own.  We have a list right now that includes replacing the garage doors (unfortunately a necessity), mudjacking the driveway, rebuilding a crumbling brick area in the front of the house (caused by the need for mudjacking the driveway) among other less pressing things like finishing the exterior painting started last summer and repainting/staining the deck which was just done last year but because I chose the wrong stain has to be done again already.

Simple pleasure~Iced Coffee

Snapshot of a Saturday in the Life of One Foster Family

7:17 Wake-up and rejoice that both babies slept through the night, woo hoo.  Check baby J, he still has a few minutes to finish his nighttime tube feeding.  Load up his syringes with meds and his next feeding bag with his morning water. Load up the coffee maker with coffee and water for Mom and Dad.  Make up a bottle of formula for baby D who will be very hungry after a nice long sleep.  Run to the bathroom before anyone is calling for me.

7:30 Give J his meds, change his diaper, start his morning water and tuck him back in for a little more sleep. Make a cup of coffee and wake up baby D for the day.  She is happy, well-rested, sweet and warm, she takes a few minutes to realize how very hungry she is then slurp. Mom sneaks a look at The Voice semifinals on Hulu while baby D drinks her bottle.

9:00 D is playing happily in her bouncy seat; J is starting to wake-up and talk in his room.  Breakfast casserole is in the oven and dad is working out in the garage while the older kids (18.16,13) sleep on.  I will take pity on them this stormy morning and let them sleep in. D gets changed into her clothes for the day, or at least for the next 15 minutes  J.

10:50 J spent 30 minutes in his stander and is finishing up his morning tube feeding.  D had a short nap and is working on her second bottle of the morning. All kids are up; Dad is back from a trip to Tires Plus with Mom’s Taxi.  All enjoyed the French Toast Casserole for breakfast.

11:00 Mom left to take her Dad to lunch. Daddy B left in charge of all the kids.  He’s a trooper and, yes, he does change dirty diapers.

1:15 Mom goes to five garage sales and comes home with an exersaucer, pack n play, baby girl-shoes, headbands, dress, and toys.

2:00 Mom gives baby D a bottle and works to clean all garage sale items.

3:00 Dad takes two of the older kids with him to a wedding. While he is gone baby D takes a nap and Mom works with Baby J on his physical therapy.

4:30 Mom starts broccoli and cheese soup for dinner.

6:30 Everyone has been fed and the older kids clean the kitchen. Dad leaves to go have a Spurgeon Night with some men from church.

7:00 Baby J gets his meds then back in his stander, Baby D had a bath and bottle, then fell asleep in her bouncy seat. One child playing Wii, one playing outside, older son on laptop and his girlfriend here painting a picture.

8:00 Baby J gets dose of water followed by the start of his overnight tube feeding. Changed and tucked in for bed.

9:00 All kids (under 18) in bed and Mom soon to follow.

10:30 Dad at the grocery store picking up formula for the babies on his way home…

Living Room Update

Just a couple of months ago I asked for help redecorating my living room. Friends and relatives were generous with their time and inspiration and we have gotten a very satisfying amount of changes in place. Take a look!

Corner in progress, need a lamp here. This was wasted space when we had the old television.

Fireplace! Still need to work on the mantle decor but loving the paint.

Orange pillows with great texture.

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Fireplace Updates

I love how the fireplace is looking. Painting the mantle and the screen was a great choice.

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Our Foster Care Journey…long overdue part 2

We just celebrated our two year anniversary as licensed foster parents and the time has flown.  I started our story quite a while ago in a post here and will continue today.  We had a home visit which we were told really just ruled out obvious problems in a potential foster home like a totally unsuitable household such as a major lack of cleanliness, safety, etc… We were then invited to attend the PRIDE training classes at the MBCH location in Lee’s Summit, MO.  During this process we were working on a home study which included several home visits and lots of paperwork.  For every two years licensing we are required to do background checks, fingerprinting, physicals, and required training.  While we were traveling each week for the original ten weeks it seemed like so much to do but looking back it really feels like it went quickly.  We decided that we wanted to be available to adopt into our home any children that were placed with us, were not reunified with the birth families and seemed to be a good fit with our family.  In order to be ready to do that we went ahead and took the Spaulding adoption classes for 12 hours and added the adoption portion to our home study from the very beginning. Little did we know that our first foster care placement would exactly fit those parameters. It is amazing to look back and see how the Lord orchestrated the timing of our training, our placement and the addition of two new children to our family.

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows — this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families. Psalms 68:5-6

Paint Prospects

Lori Chally came by this morning with Benjamin Moore paint decks and we talked color.  We decided the first thing to do would be to decide on carpet so I will be going to get carpet samples soon to view in the living room.  We are thinking something like this textured Shaw Carpet in Jamocha.  For the woodwork possibly Meadow Mist and the walls Fernwood Green. Just a starting point but you have to start somewhere…what are your thoughts?

Dreaming About Decorating

So I am looking online for things that catch my eye and there are so many cute items of furniture and decor out there.  One of my problems is just ending up with something that feels complete and cohesive, my tastes are all over the place.  Target has so many examples of fairly inexpensive, tasteful, fun things to choose from so most of these are from there.  My room will need:  task/ambiance lighting, end tables, a tray for the ottoman to turn it into the functioning coffee table, wall candy, carpet, paint, drapes, blinds, and a flat screen television. Hopefully all for $2,000 or less…or incremental decorating.

I love the website Young House Love you should check it out because I would really like to channel some of their style.

These are some of the things catching my eye online today:

Sunburst Mirror

Brown Round Accent Table

Green Lamp Base

Red Lamp Base

Target Fanciful Collection

A shot of COLOR, what do you think?

Too traditional? Great small grandma chair~cause grandma's rock!