My SOS recap

Recuperating is probably the best word. This is following an entire week of SOS. This year we had 1,000 middle and high school kids in for a week of Summer of Service. We do this every year, and every year it tends to get bigger and bigger.

There are certain ministry areas that work on this all year, and absolutely kill themselves the month prior and are literally working from the dead the week of. (You guys know who you are.) The passion that they have is totally beyond my comprehension.

Yes, I work a few 15 hour days (when will I learn that I am too old for this stuff!), but I fear my motives are selfish. I just want to do is to be a team player, hide in the background of everything. I never want recognition for myself, but I do for the team. And if I am totally honest (and this is what I pledged to be on this blog), I am not so sure I am doing it for the kids either. [insert heart pang..ouch]

Every year I go into this week thinking that these self centered kids do not have the slightest clue as to the magnitude and the sacrifice that VCC puts out for them. Then every year God shows up and melts my heart and instills new hope in this generation. I truly believe these kids leave different people then when they came. The things that happen during this week could fill a book and not nothing short of miraculous!

This year the IT and tech team (if I my boast about them for a minute) made history. We actually streamed a night’s celebration live on the web on Wednesday. (We did it again on Friday when kids were getting baptized.) And as if that wasn’t enough, God saw to it that I was directing that night. I can’t explain the feeling of the adrenaline that was flowing through me that night. Even with some people who were new on the crew, everyone was firing on all cylinders and it was the most awesome night. I was on a high for at least 24 hours after the fact.

Then God shows up again….I hear the stories about how parents from many surrounding states watched it, and were excited to be able to experience what their child was experiencing….live! We had some kids here from Ireland, and their parents were able to share what their kids were experiencing. Could it get much better than that?

My gifting is certainly not in direct personal relationship with these kids, I am no prayer warrior, not a good outreach leader or group leader, but to have a behind-the-scenes impact on their lives is a feeling that carries me through all the chaos of the week.

I thank God for allowing me to be a part of the biggest thing we do during the year, and yanking my heart back on track. He still has a lot of work to do on me, but here is to next year’s yank!

Today = 11!!

It is hard to believe that I have been married 11 years today!

When I was younger (in my “BC” days – before Christ) I held on to the dream that there was the ‘perfect’ guy out there for me. I was not disillusioned that he would be perfect, I always contended that he would be ‘perfect for me.’ It was a belief I held on to through my 20’s and 30’s.

Little did I know how true that would be. Little did I know that it was really God in charge all the time. Little did I know that God already had it all already orchestrated to happen. Little did I know that He was still going to make it happen even as I entered my 40’s!

Obviously I knew (and still know) very little about all His wonders. I confess I did give up hope and ‘settled’ for less during that time. As I look back it just proved how little my faith was at that time. I had actually given up that it would happen, and even told Ed this when we were dating.
Not even knowing though, I was about to hear a different story from my Father. How did I know that I was confessing to the very man that I would be spending the rest of my life with?

I have never been happier than I have in the past 11 years. Thank you Ed, but most of all thank you God for not giving up on me and loving me enough to give me the greatest gift in the world!

Ahh…its Monday. It is 67 degrees, the sun is out, the birds are singing, I am sitting outside with a cup of coffee, my computer, and the interweb. Life is good. Is this what it is like when one is retired? If so, I can’t wait.

Fondly, I remember being off work for about 3 months (after Clinique closed the office I was working at and before I started working at VCC) and taking a walk every day with Jas. I was off from November through January and we walked no matter the weather. I remember walking while it was snowing one day, and she was accumulating snow on her back. Oh those were the days.

Ed and I got up early and did some exercises this morning. We are hoping to do this 3-4 times a week at least. And now that I have publicly said this on my blog (even though no one will really see it) I still somehow feel a commitment to do it.

Ed always was my motivator, so I expect that he will continue to be that. All he has to do is to get up in the morning. If he does, than I will. I feel he will, as he is much better about exercising that I have ever been.

All my life I have never had to worry about what I ate, or when I ate it. At the age of 18 I was a size 5, at 40 I was a size 8, and at 50 I was a size 10 (I sure could have lived with that for the rest of my life!). Even though the trend was going in the wrong direction, I was still ok. After all it was just a number, right? Of course I was a lot more active in those days. I loved to go dancing in my 20’s and 30’s, and was still snow skiing into my 40’s.

So what happened after the big 5-0? I guess I could come up with a list if I wanted to, but I also know that the real reason lies in me and only me. The first lesson is that I can no longer eat whatever, whenever. Someone needs to tell my body that though!

My question to ponder today is: will posting this blog give me incentive to do something more? I have no excuses for anything less. All the exercise equipment I could possibly need is right here in my home (thank you Wii Fit Plus). So I will close this asking for God’s help because we both know if it was left up to me it wouldn’t get done. I’ll go inside now and cook some good healthy oatmeal for breakfast. Thank you God, in advance.

She may have won a battle….

…but not the war! It’s not over yet, Gracie. Maybe it was because I have not been sleeping well (4 of us in a queen sized bed presents its problems) and it made me too exhausted and sensitive…but Gracie made me cry today. She keeps peeing in the house before I can get her outside. It is at times like this it makes me want to give up on her. I was so angry at her yesterday morning. And when I get angry I just cry.

On the other hand, logic says things like: she is out of any routine here, she has not had two days that have looked the same; she is a smart dog, she can learn; she just needs more patience.

Ed reminds me that Shelby wasn’t the “perfect dog” two years ago, that she is now. Somehow I have forgotten anything she did that was not right. She is so good now, I couldn’t ask for a better dog. Well, maybe one that doesn’t jump on people who come to visit, but other than that, she is the best dog on the planet.

So yesterday, Gracie won a battle, but she will not win the war. That will ultimately be my victory.

Gracie's first day at the ocean

I'm going out on a limb here, but I am going to bet that she has never see the ocean (especially from a cage in Indiana). She was not too sure about it either. I am sure it would have been more fun for her if she didn't have to be on her leash for the whole time (but she called that shot the other day). I thought the noise of the ocean would scare her, but she just did not like the water.

What followed was Shelby's favorite part. If you anything about our Shelby, you know she is totally obsessed with a few things, but one of them is water. Trying to rinse her off is very difficult because she thinks it is playtime! She absolutely loves the water, where Gracie is just the opposite.

Well, we are over these experiences now, and not doing super well with the housebreaking either. We have a lot of work ahead of us with this little girl, but (except for the housebreaking part) we had to work with Shelby a couple of years ago too. We have confidence in her, she is a smart girl and we know she needs us as much as we need her. God doesn't make mistakes, and this girl is not going back, she has her forever home.

As a side note Ed found the original article on this hoarding story. We think our little Gracie is in one of the pictures too! Here is the link to the original story: http://www.wlwt.com/news/22989339/detail.html

We made it to the coast!

We made the 12 hour drive to Emerald Isle with, not one this time, but two dogs. Shelby always was a great traveler, and we found out that Gracie is too. They both take up the whole backseat, but sleep most of the time.

However, there was once incident at a gas stop. Gracie is still very shy and afraid of anything new. She will lay low in the back seat even with a door open and usually needs to be coaxed out. Well something happened at a particular stop…door opened…and out jumped Gracie…before I could get her leash on. What made that scary was the fact that we were at an intersection, and she was not coming to any calls. The two of us could not round her up and time kept passing. She would let us get close and then dart away. My whole being was filled with fear that I rescued this dog exactly one week ago, and now I was going to see her get hit by a car and killed in front of me.

My heart was racing, but my head kept trying to keep cool. I knew if I projected any anger in my voice (which was definitely the most present emotion at that moment), that I would surly lose any chance of getting close to her. I was growing more angry, and more scared, by the minute. But I had to maintain that high-pitched, fun-loving voice as I kept calling her (you know the voice I am talking about). She wondered back into the gas station lot where a car coming into the station had to stop to avoid her, and by now everyone was watching us try to corral her. At this point I can include the feeling of embarrassment, although that was very low on the list of feelings racing through me.

Finally, as luck (and God) would have it, she ran past a teenager who was outside of his car and was watching these events unfold too. She trotted close enough, and he was quick enough to grab her. I was so thankful. I scolded her and put her back in the car.

My conclusion to all of this is; first, I guess God wants us to have her, second, she will not have the best introduction to the beach this trip, as she will not come off her leash all week, and third, when we get back home we need to work on the “sit” and “come” commands, where I have a fenced in yard that she cannot escape from.

On the upside of all this, we seem to have found the secret to the uncontrollable peeing in her cage when we are not home problem. And it all involved a “cave” for her. I am happy to say she was good in her cage for 9 hours on Saturday…that is a record for us!!

We sure have our work cut out for us! God please grant us patience and persistence with her.

Yep, a second dog

Friends of ours have a friend who fosters dogs. The agency is called Recycled Doggies. They don't even have a shelter, they just foster. That has to take a lot of coordination and love.

As it turns out, this person has been fostering a border collie mix that was rescued from a hoarding situation in Adams County a few months ago. Here is a link to the story if you can stand to read it: Adams County dog hoarding case. They think she is a year to year and half old. She had not had any human interaction, and lived her life in a cage and was just thrown food and even had to live in her own excrement.

As a result of malnutrition, she is small for the type of dog she is (currently about 20 pounds and she is full grown) and very shy. She has been fostered very well and was even living with a couple of other dogs. We were fortunate enough to even meet the foster mom, and it sounds like she was treating her much the same way we will.

It makes me so sad, and mad, to see animal abuse of any kind. I can't even explain what happens inside of me when I see or hear of it. (That is a topic for another blog.) All I do is cry (in fact I cry as I write this just thinking about it again).

Anyway, she now has a "forever home" now, as they like to call it when you adopt an animal. I am sure Shelby and her will become the best of buddies.

About 3 weeks ago she was named Kiki. We are not super fond of that name, and was trying to think of a new one for her. Currently the name at the top of the list is Gracie. We are very open to suggesions.

The question to ponder is: will living with two herding dogs be a challenge or fun?