URM Video from Catholic Charties

Hopeful Possibility

My heart has been stirred for the poor and the needy for as long as I can remember. It might have started early when I would visit my mom schools on days off. I can remember sitting with one of her kindergartner boys (don't remember the kid's name) who was sick in the nurse's office and was going to home early. This was all going on right before Christmas. He was not feeling well, obviously, and I was sitting with him trying to comfort him before his mother got there. Trying to make small talk with the kid, I asked the kid what he wanted for Christmas. I can remember him saying all I want is some new socks without holes in them. My heart was crushed. I always believed growing up that I was a "poor" person. I was not afforded luxuries of name brands and the latest and greatest gadgets and"toys" as I felt many of the people around me were, but I never was in need or clothing, food, or most of all love. I have not really known hardships like many in our world have. My job as a teacher in Dallas and now in a more needy part of Lewisville has kept my heart stirring towards kids who need more that I could ever have imagined as a child.

My first year in Lewisville I my first two refugees. One from Burma and one from Nigeria. Now every since I have had a least one refugee from Burma. I do have a great connection with many in the Chin community at Lakeland. ( Chin is the people group from Burma that have settled in Lewisville.)

Last year I got a job offer to tutor some Chin Unaccompanied Refugee Minors (URM). URMs are refugees that have come to the United States with out their parents or other adult to take care of them. They have for whatever reason been separated from their family weather it is from death, or flight. To make a kinda long story short, I applied for the job, got offered the job, and then because of some summer opportunities that I had, I choose to decline the job. I remember thinking how interesting that would be for me to do one day.

Last Sunday when it snowed, I showed up to church early because of the weather and listened to a girl that is single and very close to my each. She had said she just finished her training to be a foster parent and had been given her first off--a 17 with a 2 year old daughter--she declined, not feeling like she was prepared for that her first time (I WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING) But anyways I got home, snow and all not really able to do anything else and my brain started turning reflecting on the earlier conversation. Why couldn't I do that? The childish well is she can than why can't I? I truly believe God had that conversation happen for me to hear, and pulled that memory from last year back to my head. I spent hours looking for information on fostering URMs. I honestly really could find a way to contact some one for it here in the state of Texas. I was really frustrated, and then I thought I should email the lady that I had interviewed with and she could pass the information along to someone. I told people the next day at school my heart was stirring and I needed to find the information and set people out to pray about it. I sent emails to my brother and another friend who is a foster/adopt mom seeing if the have information. They did not, but I heard back from the lady I had emailed and that was not her program with Catholic Charities. Here is one of the funny/coincidences (sure it is) that if I had waited a week to send the email, I could not have started the process yet. But I did email and went to my first class last Saturday and and returning this week..

Pray with me through this please. I am excited and will give more details. This may help me to stay blogging for a bit.

Back in the Game???

Ok so I went the other day to blog on a friends post to post a comment and it took me forever to remember my password for the blog. I had no idea. I tried everything I could think of finally I got it. I know I think it says I have not posted anything since October or 2009 or sometime before or after that. I do think about this blog ofter, but have issues with significance and belief that things going on in my life are important. (I think it is called fear of man, in face I am sure that it is) I have spent some painful time trying to dig through my issues (and boy do I have them) and am relying on the verses

Luke 12:22-29

²²And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. ²³For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. ²⁴Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! ²⁵And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁶If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ²⁸But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! ²⁹And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.

I am thankful for the process of self reflection/evaluation. I am thankful for the pricking of my heart and pleading the Lord to keep peeling away layers of being anxious/fearfulness/self-righteousness/ect...(what I can ISSUES)

I feel like I may share more about some of my "issues," but then again I may not. I think I will continue to write it this a little more regularly than once a year, but then again I may not.

My Kroger Trip

I did make it to Kroger on Saturday.  I got there about 9:00 in the morning.  It was not too crowded when I got there, but most of those who were there had coupon binders--(I just can not bring myself to carry a binder around with me, I have one at home to see an organize them, but I take a little accordion file that a got a yard sale for a quarter  to the actual store) There were even a couple of men there with wads of coupon who did not appear to be trailing a lady.  How did I do?  I know I did not do as well as some, but I am happy with it.  It's not how much you spend right?? It's how much you save! If you ever look at a receipt it gives you totals at the bottom that say manufacturers coupons--my equaled $29.15 and then bonus which is the the doubled which was $29.15, so the total in coupons that handed was $58.30.  Then it tells you Kroger plus saving--using the card-- which was 24.78.  The last thing is the total savings, coupons, doubling, using the card--for a total savings of $83.08.  My total out of pocket was $56.58 AND plus I am getting a ten dollar rebate for some things that I got for a total out of pocket of 46.58 or 68%.  I really get a kick out of seeing a total and watching it go down, down, down!!! Just because some of you asked, there it is!!!

I'll Be at Kroger Saturday!!

So I think few people know this, but I am a couponer. (LAME, but what can I say, I've gotten kinda addicted!!) I have been clipping them for while and have a couple of websites that I go to that help with matching them up with sales and getting the best deals and I even get some things for free. This idea had been in my head for a while because one of my coworkers would talk about couponing nonstop to a honestly obnoxious, almost annoying way daily!! I know she was trying to be helpful and inform, but I would think really is that all you have to talk about??? Then I started it around Thanksgiving after seeing a news story about how this lady had brought Thanksgiving meal for under $10. I started slowly by reading her website and then finding another website that I heard on Oprah. Then it just rolled. I love going to the grocery store and the cashier ringing everything up and then handing the cashier my card and watching the price go down and then the coupons and then I get to see it go down even more. Last week when I went to Kroger my savings at the bottom was 66%!!! There are lots of ladies around who are tons better than me, but I do what I can. That all said, I am going to be at Kroger this Saturday with every other couponer in the North Texas area---and those poor people who have no idea what is going in a line a mile long--- because Kroger is doubling coupons up to $1.00 that day only. They usually triple up to 39 and double only up to 50!!! Can't wait!!! Maybe one day I will show my binder, but then you would really think I'm nutso!!!!

3804 Cliffside Dr.

Well I have done it, am doing it, and I'm reminding myself that is not a done deal. I signed papers last Sunday to build a house and payed my earnest. Not kidding!!! I looked at many homes that we already built. I had my mind set on one in Corinth and my realtor and I were driving along and saw a sign for new homes in Denton. I will admit, I decided to go over there less than thrilled and almost pouted walking through and listening to the guy. I was upset because I thought my time and this guys time was being wasted because in the end, I was not going to be able to build a home unless it was like 1200 sq feet and I really liked that house in Corinth and I ticked because I knew if we didn't jump on the house, I would lose because homes in my price range that are decent are not staying on the market. After looking at numbers and discussing the options with (ok maybe complaining or whining about the options) I decided to go with the new home build and think I have gotten past the feeling of dread, what the heck am I doing, to being really excited about. Thrilled about the upgrade I choose to do---fighting my very opinionated but great realtor with what he thought was best---can't wait to see the process start and finish. I'm prepared to give more of my money for this new adventure of home ownership. It is on the books to be ready end of October/early November. Picture of dirt coming soon!!!

My design in a little different, but this is basically it!!

On the Road to Mexico Again

That's right. Tomorrow morning we leave for another trip to San Miguel, the little village in Mexico that I have grown to love. I go to refresh myself, to give me a chance to slow down and enjoy simple things, to show people God's love, and most importantly for myself to grown closer to Him. We go with several purposes---finish the playground and plaza that we started in March by adding a 20 by 20 shelter and 4 picnic tables, we are delivering school supplies, having a VBS for the kids, facilitating a women's bible study, supporting the local pastors, and just loving on the people in this tiny village underneath the most beautiful night sky with millions of stars.

OUR TEAM: Steven, Sherry, Alanna, and Ethan Keithly, Jay, Kathy, Sydney, and Jason Robertson, Jenn and Seth Rochelle, and Me.

God- I pray that you would be glorified in the trip. I pray that is done would show your love to other people. I pray that we would be a blessing to other because you have blessed us. God help this trip to be totally led by you. God would you please go before us a lead the way. I pray for safe travels, direction for what to do and how to do things to bring your glory, I pray that we would all have good attitudes and that we would be flexible. Thank you for San Miguel.

Verses for San Miguel---

I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly asking the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you spiritual wisdom and insight that you might grow in the knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called--his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

ESPHESIANS 1:16-18

Pictures for last trip during spring break.