2020

Dear friends, It has been a while since we have published an update on the house, the adoption, and life in general. As I write we (the world) are all under quarantine, a shelter-in-place order, due to the pandemic known as COVID-19 or the coronavirus. I'm attempting to work multiple jobs from home, while Randy continues to go to school during the week to provide lunches for the students in our community. But we've discovered that there is a lot that home remodeling, adoption, and life in general can teach us about how to quarentine. For example, today is the final day that our drywall crew will be at the house. Which is what they have been saying for the past three weeks. Just one more day... Home remodeling always takes longer than you think it will. And so does a quarentine. Every day the news is the same: we need more time. But you know what. The extra time in the home remodeling has been worth it. Because we've taken the time to do things right t...

On Saturday, September 14, my husband Randy and dad Tom were finishing putting soffits under the eaves of the second story of our house. Dad was on his way down the ladder and Randy was up above him on a walkboard. The ladder where Dad was standing buckled, folding beneath him. He said it felt like the ladder was ripped right out from under him. That is the last thing he remembers. Randy also remembers feeling like the floor was pulled out from under him. He fell 20+ feet, landing squarely on top of my dad. This perfect landing saved Randy's life and spared him from major injuries. Dad, taking the brunt of both their falls, sustained 8 broken ribs and a punctured lung. We spent the next 15 hours at one hospital and then another. Dad had a chest tube for three days, draining the fluid from his lungs. He has been home since the 18th, but returns to Miami Valley Hospital today to see if his lungs and ribs are showing signs of healing. Please join us in praying that he...

This month I completed a writing/editing project I have been working on about how to triumph when you are going through life's inevitable trials. Apparently saying "yes" to this project was akin to praying for patience: I was given plenty of opportunities to "practice". (If you've never prayed for patience before, do so carefully!) During this period of writing about how to triumph over trials, my ex-husband died. My mom got E.Coli ... twice. My husband took a staple-gun to the face. My step-daughter was in a car accident. My niece broke her wrist (on my watch, no less). My brother-in-law had a heart attack, followed by a stroke. My aunt injured her back. Another family member went into temporary foster care. Both our dogs have been sick. I ended up in the clinic after an encounter with a rusty nail. And those are just the trials in my immediate family that I know about! Sheesh! Would someone please pray that my next project is on prosperity?! Chan...

On March 1, while I was driving home from a church meeting, a black cat crossed my path. I wouldn't call myself superstituous, but I noticed the cat. I noted the color. And I wondered if, on some plane, it could be a bad omen. An hour later my dog got run over by a car. While driving to the veterinary hospital I told Randy: "I'm not saying it means anything, but a black cat ran in front of me while I was driving home earlier." Later I told a woman about the cat. "It's only bad luck if he is running from the right to the left." "He was," I said. "Oh," she replied, suddenly serious. We made more trips to the hospital -- both to the veterinary hospital and the human hospital -- in March of 2019 than we have in the entirety of our 5 years together. Cinnamon spent a week in the hospital, undergoing hernia surgery because her insides had more or less been torn in two. The week after she was released we were back at the h...

This month I had the opportunity to share a Sunday morning message with Dover Friends Church in Wilmington, Ohio. Actually they had invited me to share in January, but lucky for all of us we were snowed in that weekend and church was cancelled. I say *lucky* not because we got to stay home but because my message wasn't ready yet. It needed to--as my chef husband would say--simmer and season a bit more before it was truly ready to be consumed. The topic of my message was "rejection". Randy and I were blindsided by rejection during the last week of December, so it was very fresh on my heart in January. Too fresh. Too painful. If church hadn't been cancelled that Sunday I would have spoken specifically about the hurts we had experienced. The lies. The betrayals. And I would have shared this advice from Jesus: "Whatever village or town you enter, search for a godly man who will let you into his home until you leave for the next town. Once you enter a house, ...

Way back in February -- Valentine's Day and the first day of Lent, to be exact, I took on the challenge of giving $40 to 40 different organizations over the course of the 40 days of Lent. 40-40-40 . Shortly after starting that challenge, my grandmother died unexpectedly, knocking me off course for a few weeks. Committed to seeing the challenge through, however, I decided to keep my eyes and ears and heart open while undertaking the Great American Road Trip with my husband as we transition from Mexico to Ohio. What I discovered on that journey was a great big world that is both beautiful and in need, and it is full of beautiful people who want to help. The problem is, sometimes our helping hurts . While getting to know my high school friend Jim's wife over dinner one night in Sherwood, Oregon, Mel shared with me about an organization called "Days for Girls." Days for Girls was started when a woman named Celeste inquired about what girls in India do when they ar...

Lufkin, Texas, to Corbin, Kentucky. This was our "touristy" leg of the journey. Every good road trip needs one. While driving north on 59 from Houston toward Arkansas, we noticed a billboard advertising the "Home of the Chick-o-Stick" in Lufkin, Texas. Randy loves this candy, so we immediately decided we needed to stop. The GPS took us 20 minutes out of the way but eventually we landed outside the warehouse we were looking for. At one end of the building a door was labeled "Candy Kitchen." We entered and were met with a tiny area filled with candy. We tried to buy souveniers -- t-shirts, bumper stickers, whatever -- but there were none to be had. We were there during lunch break so we couldn't get a factory tour either. But we loaded up on candy and were satisfied. Most tourist stops are like this aren't they -- meant to make you feel good for a moment but not really dramatic or life changing. And yet you leave with a good story and a me...

We're nearing the end of Lent and while I'm sad that I've gotten too busy to devote more energy to learning about and sharing these organizations with you, I remember that God called me to GIVE and as long as I am doing that I am being faithful. So here's another digest for you, days 31, 32, and 33. I'm so close to getting my 40 donations of $40 to 40 organizations in before Easter Sunday! If you have last minute suggestions for my final 7 donations, PLEASE send them my way! 40-40-40 ... Day 31: Sugartree Ministries Sugartree Ministries is located in Wilmington, Ohio. Their vision is to reach the poor, broken, lonely & addicted. Their ministries include "Your Father's Kitchen", a soup kitchen and food bank, and "Joe's Java", a coffee shop that brings in live music to raise funds and generate a sense of community. You might remember when Rachel Ray visited Sugartree Ministries in 2009. DHL had just shut down in Wilmington, ...

Thus far all of my donations have been to ongoing needs, but this one came to my attention yesterday as an immediate need. Just last week 2 children's homes were closed down in Baja due to not being able to meet a compliance that was created on the spot during a surprise inspection, so I have great compassion for the immediacy of this need in Rwanda. Please help if you are able! From Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC):      Friends in Rwanda have an urgent need to raise funds following a decree by the government that they must install lightning rods on all their buildings before the end of March. This comes after several fatal lightning strikes affecting churches, schools and other buildings. Lightning storms are very common in Rwanda.      To meet the requirements, Rwanda Yearly Meeting needs to buy and install 35 lightning rods at a cost of around £400 each (about $565 U.S.). Without financial support from Friends in other countries...

In 2008, just 6 months after having her first child, Katherine Wolf suffered from a nearly life-taking stroke due to a congenital defect she didn't know she had. The next 10 years have been a series of hurdles that Katherine and her husband Jay have had to overcome. But their faith has led them to say: "Maybe healing just looks different than we think it does." Katherine's facial features were permanently impacted and she has to use a wheelchair to get around. But what at the time was the worst hard time of their lives, they can now say has led to the role they were meant to play -- an inspiration to others with disabilities, both those which can be seen and those which cannot.  After speaking at a camp for people with disabilities, Katherine and Jay were inspired to start a camp of their own: Hope Heals Camp. Katherine writes: At first, I didn't want to be the "miracle girl in the wheelchair", but after years of ministering with all kinds of h...

When I put out a call to my friends on Facebook for missions/organizations to support during this 40-40-40 adventure, Trezò (Haitian/Creole for "treasure") was the first to be suggested. The recommendation came from my friends Ryan and Sonja. Ryan and I went to high school together and -- no offense Ryan -- he didn't come to mind when I thought of all the people who I expected to respond to my inquiry. (That being said, there were a lot of people I did expect to respond who didn't. Is it because they aren't givers? Or they didn't see the post? They didn't find it relevant? Or simply didn't take the time?) But perhaps it was because Ryan's response was so unexpected that I felt so drawn to include this organization in my Lenten adventure. If Ryan and his family felt so passionately about this organization that they would sponsor a child -- sending money every month for a kid who they've never even met -- there certainly must be merit in it. Af...