2020

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...

Let me start by apologizing for leaving you hanging last year. Last I wrote we were being cast as characters in a Truman Capote novel, witnesses to the crime of the century in Kansas. That was "Leg 21." There were other legs. We went on to tour museums in Missouri and stay at an epic campground in Illinois and sleep in the Friends United Meeting parking lot in Indiana and eventually made it to Ohio, where we slept in the RV in a short-term parking lot at the Columbus airport waiting for Randy's daughter, Danielle, to arrive to retrieve Van. Once Van and Danielle were safely back in California, Randy and I hit the road again. We went to Toledo for hot dogs, slept in a Home Depot parking lot in Michigan, climbed sand dunes in Indiana and swam in Lake Michigan with my brother and his kids, played baseball on the Field of Dreams and attended my grandmother's memorial service in my second childhood home of Hubbard, Iowa. We broke into the home where my grandmot...

You may have noticed that I was a little grumpy during our last 2 legs. I certainly did. And Rand seemed a little grumpy too. When I approached him about it he said, "I'm thinking about what we are going to do when we land... where we'll live, what I'll do for work..." We hadn't been having nearly as much fun as we'd had in the beginning, and the biggest reason for that was because we were so much in our heads. Randy was thinking about how he was going to take care of us once we got to Ohio. And I was thinking about the kids we'd left behind in Mexico. We received an email in May letting us know that Mari, one of the dorm moms in Mexico and the daughter of the administrators who we worked closely with, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. She'd lost her vision and was preparing to start chemotherapy. Our hearts broke, and mine was still broken a month later. I felt so helpless, unable to do anything for my friends, unable to ...

While in Corpus Christi, Texas, last week (was that seriously just last week???), my sister-in-law introduced us to her friend Kristen. As we were all getting ready to go to the beach together, I shared briefly with Kristen that Randy and I had been working in Mexico at an orphanage for the past 18 months. She said it sounded a little like "Bokenkamp" where she had volunteered. Obviously intrigued, I asked her to tell me more. She said Bokenkamp was right there in Corpus Christi, and was providing shelter and meeting the needs of unaccompanied immigrant children from south and central america. She said she struggled there because she doesn't speak Spanish. Oh how I wish we hadn't learned about this the day before leaving Corpus Christi! How I would have loved to have gone and spent the day with a dozen beautiful little Spanish-speaking children like those who hold my heart in San Felipe. Time wasn't on our side on this leg of the journey, but now that I know ...

During my 40-40-40 Lenten challenge, one of the organizations I donated to was Friendly Water for the World. Water is a universal need, even if the need varies from city to city, country to country, village to village. While in Mexico, we had purified water trucked in every week for our drinking water. Last week we stayed in El Centro, California, which is below sea level. Tap water there is too brackish (salty) to drink. So they use purifiers, or buy bottled water. Driving through the White Mountains of Arizona, we met a family whose car overheated. We had several liters of water in case this happened to us, and we gave them all of it. We've had to keep water on us at all times, not just for us but also for our dog. While water may not be something that you think about daily because of its ready availability to you, it is something that a whole ton of people think about constantly because of their lack of it. Friendly Water for the World board chairman David Albert share...

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, ...

Any time we have anything "extra" (clothes and food, for example) or expired (food, meds, etc.) which we can't legally keep at the children's home, we take them to an organization here in San Felipe called "Volunteers Without Limits." Volunteers Without Limits was formed when two existing organizations joined together: the San Felipe Food Bank and an organization that supported families with children and adults with disabilities. Since some of the work was being duplicated -- providing food for families with special needs, for example -- it only made sense for the two to combine. The organization now provides food (both prepared food for the elderly and sick, and bags of food for families to prepare themselves), wheelchairs/walkers/canes/crutches, etc., hearing aids, oxygen tanks, medication, daily wellness checks for the elderly, blankets and clothes and air conditioners to local families, diapers, prosthetic limbs, etc. It is supported through do...

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...

One of the things I love about this 40-40-40 project is learning about local organizations that my friends support. There are many well-known organizations that do great work around the globe, but the more well-known an organization is, the more likely they are to have large sources of funding. It's great when an organization can impact a ton of people, but it can at times overshadow those organizations that are grass roots, right here in our communities, doing just as good (or even better because they are able to focus their services) as those big names.  I learned about one of those organizations when I asked my friends Shane and Buffy Rider about Wounded Warrior Project. Shane and I went to high school together, and he later met his wife while serving in the military. Shane served in the army from 1998-2004, and Buffy from 1999-2007. They were stationed in Ft. Polk, Louisiana. Buffy was also stationed in Hawaii (where my aunt was stationed years ago!). Shane spent t...

I took another day off of blogging/donating yesterday. Why this time? I decided to change my Sabbath. Normally Sundays (or Saturdays, depending on your church) are considered the Sabbath, the day of rest, the day you go to church, and the "cheat day" for Lent. But Wednesday is my ONE day off of work each week. It's the one day I don't have to come in to the office (which is just a few steps across the hall from our apartment, but still...). It's the one day I don't have to find crayons or pencils or folders or shoes or snacks for 20 little voices crying "I need, I need, I need..." It's the one day I don't eat beans and corn tortillas. It's my one day to not "have to" do anything. And so it just seems logical that Wednesday would be my one day a week to not "have to" participate in Lent. Christians (I speak for myself here) can get really legalistic about unimportant things. Like the "right way" to ...

(Normally Sundays are a "rest day" from Lent, but today is serving as a makeup day for missing Thursday .) This week I gave money to my kindergarten kids who were raising money for the Red Cross . They brought home these adorable "purses" and offered to trade me a sticker for a donation. I gave 10 pesos (a little over 50 cents) and their little eyes lit up with joy. (Of course they then wanted to take a trip to the local market, but luckily it isn't so easy to get the money out once you put it in!) I figured since I had already donated a little, I might as well donate a few dollars more! Clara Barton founded the Red Cross in 1881 in the United States, but the Red Cross now exists in nearly 200 countries. In our little town in Mexico, volunteers from the Red Cross visit all of the area schools and provide free vaccinations for the children. While researching the Red Cross, I discovered that they are among the first relief responders to natural disaste...

I'm reading a book called " Fierce Convictions ." It's the story of Hannah More (1745-1833), a poet and abolitionist during the 18th and 19th centuries who worked with William Wilberforce , among other reformers of the time. Hannah was a devout member of the Church of England, yet many of her fiercest convictions (to abolish slavery or at least improve conditions for slaves, and to educate women and the poor, for example) went against their teachings. While many people whose views were in line with Hannah's were dissenting from the Church of England (including the Quakers), Hannah held firm. She insisted she could be both a member of the Church of England and a reformer. She repeatedly received criticism and public defamation of her character, causing her deep distress, both physically and emotionally. I thought of Hannah when an online friend of mine told me about The Reformation Project . The Mission of The Reformation Project is: The Reformation Proje...

Time for another guest blog! This one comes from my friend Jeff Laycock, who I went to high school with. When my nieces were born and spent time in the NICU, Jeff reached out to me to assure me that even though it was scary to see them so tiny, with IVs in their heads and tubes up their noses keeping them alive, it was also the safest, best place for them to be. He knew, because he had just been through it with his son, Hayden. Who has to be the cutest spokesperson for Nationwide Children's Hospital, BuckeyeThon, and ending Pediatric Cancer that I have ever seen. Here's their story: BUCKEYETHON Our story starts when my pregnant wife, Bri, and I went to her 20-week appointment to find out the sex of our baby. The excitement of the day soon turned to confusion, fear, and sadness as the doctor explained that the heartbeat of our unborn child, a boy, had dropped into the 50s from the typical 180s since the last time Bri had visited. He told us he suspected congenital he...