Emma's Letter to Santa

She wrote her name and drew the picture. It's sad but her handwriting is almost as good as mine.

Love from Above,

Dana

Halloween

Ok, so Halloween lasted like four days this year. Our town does trick or treating on the Saturday night before Halloween and the town the church is in (which is three miles away) does trick or treating on Halloween. Emma had two costumes: Her choice, the princess and our back up cat since the princess wasn't very bathroom accessible for preschool. Anyway, it was interesting because we had a youth retreat going on this past weekend. I had already worked it out so that we could go trick or treating during the dinner break on Saturday during the retreat. But, I was a little sad when I found out that there was a tea party with Belle and the Beauty and the Beast characters at the art museum on Saturday afternoon. Not to worry, my good friend Julie came to my rescue and graciously offered to take Emma and her little girl Anna. A very large undertaking I might add!! And she also took my camera and so I have lots of pictures from it too. So, just to show all of my friends and family why they sometimes don't hear from me for a while, this is how the weekend went...

The retreat started on Friday evening. The planning of this event was an undertaking of one of our wonderful parent volunteers and the kids in our youth group (Thank God!!). So anyway, they invited up a couple of small groups from Virginia that don't have a full time youth minister or the facilities that we have etc. And they put on a retreat for them. So on Friday night, I went to the youth house to hang out and prepare for the other groups to arrive. Around nine, I brought Emma home so that I would have plenty of time to get her to sleep before the 23 girls from the retreat showed up at my house to spend the night. It worked.. Some how I got Emma to sleep and managed to fit 23 girls into my tiny little house. I can't say that I slept much considering the three or four girls that decided to jump on top of me and my friend Erica at three o clock in the morning because they "were hot". Did I mention that it was 26 degrees outside? They were begging me to turn on the air. They had to settle for me breaking ice trays over their sleeping bags. And I guess staying up late could have a little something to do with the fact that I myself got the chance to act like a teenager again by having one of my friends my age (ok she's a couple of years younger) there and laying awake all night chatting. It was so fun! But, it is more fun to blame it on the teenagers.. On Saturday morning, we went to the youth house, had breakfast and a devo and then headed up to OVU to play in the gym. I stayed there for a couple of hours and then came home to get Emma dressed in princess attire for the grand tea party and got to Julie's house just in time to rush back to OVU to be a driver for the scavenger hunt. We finished the scavenger hunt, took the teens back to the youth house, went to get Emma to get her ready for trick or treating and then at 6:00 our community group from church came to our house to do a little group trick or treat. So I think we had 11 kids and probably nine parents. I think the last person left our house around 10. After church on Sunday, I crashed and slept all afternoon and on Monday, I took Emma to a magic show that they were having for the four year old class at her school and to dance and in between times I tried to repair my house from the weekends events. On Tuesday, Emma had a party and a program at her preschool. And pretty much this is how our live is. So, if I haven't called you, please don't be mad at me. Rest assure that I still love you. And, by the way, I don't think being busy is a virtue. I just have a hard time managing to not do it. But, at this moment, my husband is at the youth house doing a fifth quarter with the teenagers. And I, stayed home and put my child to bed at a decent hour and now I'm writing this for you dear reader. So see, I do love you.

Ok, so when I started this, I was just planning on posting the pictures and not writing anything. But I have to say, if you are bored enough to read this whole thing, you need a second job or something. ;).

Love from Above,

Dana

Cute thing Emma said.

There really hasn't been anything real revolutionary to post lately. I just wanted to share something that Emma said last night. We were saying her bedtime prayer. We've been trying to teach her to actually talk to God and not just say a recited prayer. I think it's working.. The other day on the way out the door to preschool, she said, "God please help me stay on green all day today". But usually, when we are telling her to thank God, she's looking around her room and saying, "Thank you God for my barbies, thank you God for my polly pockets, thank you God for my jewelry box" the list goes on and on until we've named every item in her room. Well, it's hard to instill in a three year old that it's good to be thankful for our material things but there are other things to be thankful for. But we try to get her to thank God for the people in her life. So last night, I said, "You haven't thanked God for your friends at preschool" and so she said, "Thank you God for my friends at preschool." I said, "But you didn't name them". She said, "But they already have names". LOL, so Adam and I laughed and laughed and laughed some more. And I have to think that God was laughing with us. She'll get eventually. But, then it won't be so much fun.

Please pray for us. This time of year really seems to be hard as far as ministry goes.

Love from above,

Dana

My Little Ballerina

Vacation

Create Your Own!



Create Your Own!


Our trip down south was wonderful. We went to my class reunion on the 23rd and then on down to the beach where the weather was beautiful. I must say that we have such great friends and a wonderful families. It was so nice to see everyone. Now we're back in time to see the beautiful falls that we have in WV.

Emma's first dance class, The Facts of Life, and A Kingdom Assignment

Emma had her first dance class on Monday. We found a lady that does it in her basement and it's only $14 a month. She had a ball. They do a little of tap, jazz, and ballet. She's taking it with her little friend Anna "my little friend Anna" is what Emma calls her. We have a big Anna in the youth group. Anyway, she and Anna both had ballerina buns in their hair. It was fun to watch. They were hilarious. They followed the teacher more than I had expected and threw in their own little spins when it wasn't exciting enough. Emma has been practicing with her tap shoes on my kitchen floor ever since.

On Tuesday, after preschool, I got a call from Emma's teacher. So I answer the phone, and I hear, "Dana, this is Missy". Of course, my heart skipped a beat because I was thinking, "oh no, she's been in school for a week, and the teacher's already calling me to tell me we have a problem". This is what she said, "I just wanted to let you know that we pray every day and Emma is praying for a baby sister. She's not just praying it, she's praying it with all her heart. It almost made me cry". It's all Emma talks about. We will be going through a store and she'll see something in the baby section and she will say, "can we get that for my baby sister?" I'll say, "Emma you don't have a baby sister." She'll say, "not yet". I haven't figured out how to explain this to her yet but here's the situation:

In May 2002, I had surgery to remove a cyst the size of a softball from my ovary. When they were doing the surgery, the doctors discovered that I had endometreosis growing pretty much everywhere. The doctor then told me that the chances of me having children was very slim. He recommended me taking a drug called Lupron and said that if I didn't do that, the chances were next to nothing. I remember getting home and lying in bed praying (lying in bed only because I was too sore from surgery to hit my knees) "God, all I've ever wanted to do is be a mother. If it is in your will for me to adopt, I can do that. I know I can love any child but, I really long to know how it feels to carry and nurse my child. If you will only give me one, that's all I ask for". So, to make a very long story just a little bit shorter, After a lot of prayer and counsel from some Godly women, we decided not to do the Lupron. It had some harsh side effects, was very expensive, and I was very concerned about the long term effects of putting something that strong into my body. I started looking into natural ways to control the endometreosis and in October 2002 became pregnant with Emma.

So anyway, I tell her every day that I know God must love me a lot because he gave me her and her daddy. But, I don't think that she's quite old enough to understand the miracle that she really is. And, that I'm sticking to my deal. If God decides to bless us with another child, wonderful! But, I'm satisfied with my one. But, she's praying hard. And, the faith of a child.... I guess we'll see. But, I did attempt to explain a few things to her and this is how it went:

Me: Emma if God decides to give us another baby, He will also decide whether that baby is a boy or girl.
Emma: Then we can have twins and the boy can live with someone who wants a baby brother
Me: No, if we had twins, both of them would live with us.
Emma: Lots of crying with real tears.
Oh goodness, what will I do!

CHURCH:
This is going to be a really long post but I also need to share with you what's been going on at church.
On Sunday, Joe did a lesson about the parable of the talent. He was basically saying that we are responsible for the gifts, money, ect. that God gives us and it is up to us whether we use those things to further the Kingdom and to prosper more or we can hide them away and have them never become anything more. My translation of all of that: Make the most of every opportunity. If one passes you by, you may not get a second chance. Ok, so back to the sermon. Then Kevin gets up and says that he needs people who are ready to take on a "kingdom assignment". He didn't tell us what it was but he asked 100 people to come forward for an assignment. Tons of people came forward. So much that some of them had to sit back down because there were more than 100. Then, they gave each of us 1oo dollar bill. We have 90 days to do something with it and then report back to the church what became of our $100. Of course my business mind started working and I think I've come up with something really good. So check back. I'll be reporting back as this thing progresses.

Most importantly, It was awesome to see how many people were willing to step forward, not knowing the task ready to serve God. I think it's exactly what we need. Something to make us look outside of ourselves and into the world where God wants us to be. Please pray about this! Please pray that we will be focused on God's dream for the world. That we will be fishers of men and that we will show the love of Jesus to this community we're living in. How awesome would it be if the whole church could actually grasp that concept. Think about how lives will be effected!!

Love from above,

Dana

My Project

I just wanted to share a picture of the project I've been working on. I took two book cases and painted them and then put one of the shelves in the middle of them to make a vanity. I even wired the lights to a plug. I'm thinking of doing a show on HGTV. LOL. Just kidding but I am pretty proud of myself if I do say so.

Love from above,

Dana

Preschool

Ok, we did it. Today was the first day of preschool. They had it set up today where the kids only went for an hour and the parents visited in the lobby while they waited. Emma will be going on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 to 2:30. So anyway, Emma did great. She walked around all morning with her backpack on ready to go. I kissed the palm of her hand and told her that that was a kiss in case she needed it (a tip from the teacher) and reminded her that there was a picture of the two of us in her notebook if she missed me. She gently assured me that she would miss me and then took off running to her class. I took several pictures and then she went on into the class room not even looking back. I moved on quickly to keep from crying. It's not leaving my child that was the problem. It's the milestone. I had to keep telling myself that it wasn't like she's going off to college or something. Anyway, it's exciting but a little bittersweet.

We took her to get her ears pierced yesterday. She had asked periodically and I would tell her, "ok, but it's going to hurt" and she would decide to wait. Well, yesterday, she woke up and told me she wanted to do it. I gave her the routine, "ok, but it's going to hurt". She said, "I know but it'll be ok". So we did... She didn't even whimper. This morning, she woke up and said, "My ears are pierced, my ears are pierced, I just can't believe it". She's so much fun. I love being a mother.

Well, I'll leave you with something I read in a commentary I've been reading.:
No one can ever begin to save men unless he firsts believes in them. A man is a hell deserving sinner, but he has also a sleeping hero inside his soul and often a word of praise will awaken that sleeping heroism while crticism and condemnation will only produce resentment and despair.

Isn't that beautiful? Lord please help me to have a heart that will awaken heroism.

Love from above,

Dana

What does your letter say?

There are two new posts. If you haven't already, you might want to read the last post first.
St. Francis of Assisi said this, "Go into the world and preach the gospel, if necessary, use words". That has been our focus this summer. Teaching the teens to "be" the gospel to the world around them.

I'm going to be totally honest here. At the beginning of the summer, I was ready to tell Adam to quit and take a job at Walmart. Actually, I did say that. I have said something like that many times over the past eight years. I never wanted to marry a youth minister. The thought of living in a glass box and feeling responsible for other people's souls never appealed to me and as shallow as it seems, being poor never appealed to me either. First, I will say that God has taken care of us very well and that I am so glad that God knew what I needed more than I did. However, there have been many times that I have longed for a "normal" nine to five job in where my husband and my children's father would come home and we would have no where to go in the evenings and we would have him all to ourselves. Well, it so happened that a youth minister stole my heart. So anyway, even though I had it planned out in my mind that I was going to marry a doctor and live the easy life, I have always come back to this: I have always had a dream that somewhere somehow, I would see and particpate in a group of Christians that was the church that God intended us to be. In our trip to New Orleans, we did it.

I have never been more proud of a group of teenagers (and adults). We did more than just gut a couple of houses. Before we left, Adam talked about how we were a letter from Christ and how no matter what we did and said, the people that we came into contact with were going to formulate an idea of who Jesus is based on us. We also talked about how the Bible says that people will know us by our love for each other and that how we treated each other really effected how others see Him. All I can say is WOW, I have never seen any group of people so unified in their mission. I hesitate to mention any specific examples because there were so many and not one person slacked. However, their are a few things that I just can't slip by. Our bus driver Paul... Paul is a Christian, we knew Paul for a week. We love him. It reminds me of the love that the Paul in the Bible talks about. We love each other because we all love Jesus. Paul worked with us every day. Though I was already off the bus and didn't see it personally, I was so touched when I found out he cried when he left the group. And there were so many little things, like instead of having everyone pack their own lunch, a couple of the teens would pack everyones lunch for the next day. Or how Susan and Kathy washed everyone's shirts for them every night, or how someone went and found J.T. extra blankets because the building was FREEZING and he was really cold, or how instead of complaining about the outside M.A.S.H style showers everyone laughed and talked about how "fun" it was, or how we would be waiting in line somewhere and let other people go before us so they didn't have to wait behind such a large group, or how all the girls made it their mission at the trip to the mall to find a pair of capri pants for Nicole so that she would feel special on her birthday, or how when someone was asked to sweep, not only did they do it without complaining but they washed the windows too or how when someone walked up to sit with the group, the teens would make their circle wider to make sure everyone was included, or how a couple of the teens fixed us dinner one night. I could go on and on. We went to save a families home and we did! The city workers thanked us and told us that they knew it wouldn't be getting done if it wasn't for the church groups. What an awesome testimony for Christ!! Someone from FEMA came by and thanked us. But, the kingdom of God broke through in the little things. It was going the extra mile that showed the heart. No one stopped at doing just what they had to do but, did so much more.

I don't know where we'll go from here. But I do know this: you can't catch of glimpse of God's dream of how the church should be and not be changed. I would estimate that we have done 10 trips a year for 8 years. Out of approximately 80 trips, this was no doubt the best trip I've ever taken.

I am a letter from Christ. I think we all know now what our letter should look like. I think the question we should keep asking ourselves is, "What does my letter say"?

Please pray for our ministry!

PS: I will add pictures soon.

Where have we been?

I started this blog for Emma, so that she can have a record of the life we lived before she was able to remember, I want her to know that she was born into a mission. Since, we are far away from our family, I want a way for them to know her and know our ministry. I know that many of you have been praying for us. Words seem a very inadequate way to describe how grateful I am for that. I'm about to tell you where those prayers have taken us. First, I want to tell you a few things about Emma.

On July the 28th. Adam and Emma and I loaded a charter bus headed for New Orleans LA for a mission trip with 22 other teens and adults. We left at 6 o'clock in the evening and around 4 o'clock in the morning, we dropped Emma off with my parents in Trussville Alabama. I will use this as an opportunity to tell you what wonderful parents I have. It is unbelievable that even with us living so far away, they have managed to be so active in our lives and so supportive of us. Anyway, Emma made it obvious to us how eager she was to get rid of Adam and me and have her grandparents all to herself by the way she repeatedly said, "bye mom and dad, bye mom and dad". Her being so excited about her visit made it much easier for me to leave her. This was the longest I have ever been away from her and I was quite proud of myself. I did very well. Though many times, I had a feeling like I had lost or was forgetting something, I did much better than the other trips we have taken where we have actually come back early because I couldn't stand being away from her. Every day, I would call and talk to her and hear from my mom or sister depending on who she was staying with at the moment the cute things she said. Here is my favorite: She was sitting at the bar at my parents house and she was kicking the bar. My mom told her to stop kicking the bar and she said, "I'm not kicking the bar Nonna, I'm playing the drums with my feet". Oh no, could that be a politician in the making? After my mom explained to her that she would play the drums on her bottom, she decided that playing the drums with her feet might not be the way to go.

Well, to sum it all up since I still have a whole other post to do that I presume will be pretty long, I couldn't wait to get back to her on Friday. We met my mom in Trussville for lunch and Adam was able to spend a few minutes with her. We were all very happy to be together again. I felt like she had grown a foot and that her hair and gotten much longer and she of course was wearing new clothes since she had made a shopping trip with my sister. We sent Adam and the rest of the group from GC on up to WV. She has been a little more clingy than usual since we've been back together and I have to admit to you that I'm kind of enjoying it. Monday evening, we started out for a visit to Adam's parents (which is where I am now). On the way here, we stopped for a visit with Aunt Jan and then saw Grandma when we got to Enterprise. Yesterday, we spent the whole day and I mean WHOLE day shopping. Emma will start preschool in the fall and she will definetly be the best dressed kid there thanks to Nana. We are enjoying ourselves but are really missing Adam and are excited about getting back to all the people in WV. Ok, now our to the next post for New Orleans.