Love Is Here

Love is a mom rearranging her schedule and waiting until the last minute so she can go Christmas shopping with her very busy daughter

Love is a young single woman staying in West Africa when all her teammates have returned to the States because her friends there still need to hear more about Him

Love is a mother of two teenage sons and a set of 7 year old triplets still decorating her disabled daughter's wheelchair with her favorite colors every month even while her other sons have school projects, trips, friends, parties, and the other autistic son never sits still

Love is a grown grandson informing his grandmother where he's going every time he goes out, because he knows how she loves to know what to ask him about when he gets home

Love is a classmate that bangs on her friends door at 5:45 am until she wakes up because clinical starts in 30 min, and she knows she can't afford to be late again

Love is accepting a gift of leftover fruit from a man in a nursing home, because he has nothing else to give to show his gratitude

Love is holding onto a crying child as she hits you because you can't explain to her where her mom went because of her cognitive disability

Love is holding the hand of the hurt and dying on the way to the hospital over and over again each night

Love is Him coming to a world He created, to save people He created, who didn't want Him in the first place, killed Him while He was here, and may still reject Him till the end.

Love is here

Love is Him

He is with us

My "Kids"

So, as you may or may not know, I work at a special needs school for kids with motor disabilities. I love my job. I pretty much hang out and work one on one with a child as they go through their school day. It's a great school. So, names excluded, here's a quick peek at, who I like to call "my kids". (Taken mostly at our Halloween party this year.)

Several of our kids working on a fun Halloween craft with their assistants (like me!)

Getting ready to work on walking skills, getting faster, smoother, and safer for keeping up with the other kids :-)

Bobbing for apples. It's ok to get a little wet, as long as you end up with the apple!

More craft time with pumpkins!

Hugs at the end of the day

Taking a break, chillin on the floor.

Lol, someone likes to snuggle with friends.

The kids are in classes with other children with similar cognitive skills. The day focuses on combining fine motor skills, self-care skills, social skills, communication skills, and walking skills into one cumulative learning experience for them. My kids are awesome! They are all really different, but work really hard every day, and can usually be seen with a great big smile on their face! If you get a chance, I would encourage all of you to spend some time to get to know a special needs child, because they can teach you more than you will ever know. They may have big challenges, but they have even bigger hearts. A day at work hardly ever goes by with out several smiles, lots of laughs, and at least one giant, unexpected hug.

:-)

Most of our kids have a disorder that affects their brains ability to control their muscles properly, called cerebral palsy. However, some have different genetic or chromosomal disorders, all of which interfere with physical functioning and/or cognitive ability. We have kids of all different ages, sizes, and cognitive abilities. Feel free to comment with any questions you may have.

FINALS WEEK!!!

A quick "Thriller" break while studying in Panera

(Yes, with gloves on ;-)

Practicing catheters in a cup in my nursing buddy, A's apartment

Sneezing into my sterile gloves, that took sooo long to get on without touching them/contaminating them :-(


The sad "crap, now my gloves are unsterile" face


And a quick study break on the "grassy knoll" outside of our classroom with my two good friends, A and L

And that, my friend, is a little glimpse of finals in nursing school

Christmas is sneaking up on us!

It's time to start decorating the tree!


Little Brother's baby hand, aww...

eggnog, Christmas music, Ornaments, and pretending exam week is not lurking around the corner...
and finally...the angel on top!

...and Little Brother eating a seal ;-)
The finished tree...oh, and some other people I kinda like ;-)

I Am Thankful...

FOR:

• Family around the table
• stuffing
• my awesome new friends, helping me get through this semester
• beautiful sunsets
• the opportunity to know all the diverse people and places I do
• a family that supports me as I go and meet
• juice boxes
• an awesome meeting place
  
• my school (as much grief as it causes me, I've gotta say it!)
• hand sanitizer
• my awesome, super amazing job
• all my old friends, who've stood by me even when it seems I have so little time for them
• Senegal, and all He's given me from it
• dancing
• coffee

AND

first, last, and farthest from least:

My personal, all-powerful, never failing, amazing, beyond belief, everything...HIM

He is with us!

Thanskgiving table (pre-food)

Momma teaching Grant how to "make" cranberrys (from a can ;-)

Making thanksgiving feast w/momma.

In the Kitchen

Daddy carving the turkey... Leah supervising

The whole family :-)

Love them <3>

Fall Flies!

Fall is flying by! I'm spending my time mostly with sorority activities, work, and lots and lots of nursing! I've gotten to do some neat things in clinical and am starting to actually feel like i'm headed towards being an nurse. I'm starting to get that end-of-the-semester-cramming/papers/assignments-are-due-soon! panic going on, but am taking it day by day.

Embracing and trusting Him with the fact that, regardless of how I voted or how I feel, we have a new president and new things are coming. But, in the midst of it all, being ever reminded that He is Him and I am to be seeking Him, His plan, and how I fit into it.

Also, some of the Ms I worked with in Senegal this summer are leaving the field for the time being and have just returned to the states. Please be praying for Tim and Kate as they readjust to American life and catch up on their family and friends and keep in mind how hard it is sometimes to leave the field to a very different place of work for the Him.

Here's a look at what I've been up to!

Some of the awesome new (and old) girls from my sorority. I love these girls!

One of my nursing friends, A, demonstrating how pressed for time we are sometimes as we scramble to be ready for clinical on the interstate.

Some more of my sorority sisters at our habitat for humanity service project, cleaning up the yard.

And painting trim...

and checking out our painting "battle scars" ;-)

And...meet my now extended sorority family (minus rachel, my "niece") complete with me (the "grandbig/grandaunt"), my little, her two littles, and my grand nieces. I feel so old now with these titles!

Beauty in the Body

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to Him, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

America, Brazil, Canada, Kenya, Senegal, Iraq, China, Russia... a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. With a bond, a unity, a responsibility. In the old book, the royal priesthood were members of the tribe of Levi, something you had to be born into, and something with great responsibility, great honor. They were the priests, the ones who connected their people to Him. This is the priesthood that we are born into when we are born into His family. And our responsibility? to be Him to those who don't know Him, to connect the world to HIM. Our honor? to be children of the King, the one, the creator of the universe.

This was our theme at our sorority retreat this weekend. The emphasis on our unity to each other, but I can't help but stretch, stretch to the ones all across the world, stretch to my whole family, to my fellow priests, to my holy nation.

By Your Side

"Why are you striving these days?

Why are you trying to earn grace?

Why are you crying?

Let me lift up your face

Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love?

Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough?

To where will you go child?

Tell me where will you run?

To where will you run?

And I'll be by your side

Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side

They swallowed the grave on that night

When I drank the world's sin

So I could carry you in

And give you life

I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you

I want you to know

That I, I love you

I'll never let you go

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

And please don't fight

These hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you"

He wants to carry you. He will carry you. His hands hold his child wherever, whenever, forever.

Sometimes I forget.

How could I forget?