Day 44

Crooks & Kids

I woke up this morning to booming thunder and pouring rain. I absolutely love listening to storms coming through. They're exciting to me and I feel kind of sad when they finally blow away. I remember one storm in Cartersville, where we stood in the driveway and the lighting and thunder seemed so close it almost took my breath away. So awesome. We were also in Cartersville when Hurricane Opal (1995) came visiting and took down some of our pines, but kept the house intact. Again, in 2008, Hurricane Ike came all the way up here to this house in Ohio. We sat outside on the porch and watched the trees swaying and creaking in the strong wind. I was in awe of how powerful this storm was. It probably was not a smart thing to do, but we did it anyway. We lost trees (as did just about everyone here) and we were without power for over a week. Power being EVERYTHING - water, electric, bathrooms!! I filled jugs of water at work and brought them home every night just for flushing the toilets. The first thing I did when we finally got our power back was take a long, hot shower. 

This morning I wrote an email to my favorite cousin, Tomi Sue - she is just 7 months older than I am and this month is her birthday. We didn't really grow up together, but became friends again during our teen years and we still keep in touch. I keep trying to convince her to get a Facebook account, but she hasn't yet.

My next action this morning was to go do some work at Hannah House. And I thought I would share a picture here:

This is the crack house that is across the street. This is my view when I am sitting at my desk. This picture was actually taken through the slats of blinds - so no one actually saw me take the picture - [relax! everybody]. Nothing was happening over there today, but some days it's very busy. I hardly ever go out in the front of the house. Our entrance is in the back.  When I finished all the bill paying, bank reconciliations, and check writing, I took off.

Snyder Park school was holding their annual volunteer apprecia- tion luncheon. They have it catered by Lone Star Restaurant and the teachers bring in the most delicious desserts. I mentor Amanda at this school and will be completing my 2nd year with her through Kids Hope USA. Each of the 40-something mentors from our church received these picture frames with a picture of their child inside. It is a very nice gift, and I truly appreciate it and the wonderful lunch I had today.

I went home and had two hours of down time before I needed to go to my next event. On Tuesdays, the elementary school that Jared goes to has Sonshine Club after school. It is run by a group of local churches. Today we handed out t-shirts that I'm assuming were donated. 

I am counting 57 kids in this picture and that sounds about right. I had to take numerous shots because it's kinda hard to get 57 kids to be still enough to take a picture!! But this a good shot. The kids are from Kindergarten age up though 4th grade. It's a frantic, hectic time but it only lasts an hour so I just hang on for the ride and try to have fun while I'm there too. It reminds me of a saying I've heard before: "You may be the only Bible or example of Christ that some people ever see in their lives". My goal is to make an impression on one or more children to impact their lives at some future date. And I don't expect to see it myself, I trust that God is working in their hearts too.

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As usual, Wade is making his presence known in the land of Iraq. He is wowing them with his engineering and managerial skills and is taking on more and more projects. I had no doubt that they would be very happy with his work ethic and willingness to take on just about any job. I am glad that he is keeping busy. At the beginning of the week he hadn't started his weekly update and was concerned whether he would have anything to say. 

But I believe that he's got things worked out in his mind and will be ready to share on Friday. Now he's busy all day, eats dinner and then may be awake for a little while before he goes to bed and starts all over again in the morning. He's a real worker bee!!