A little side Job

I often  forget to talk about this side of my life. I have a friend and when I talk about my plate full she always reminds me, "Don't forget, you have your job too."

How do I forget this?

Maybe it starts with not really looking at it as a job. I talk to Moms and Dads. The kind that love their kids and sacrifice. The kind that know how to "Do Hard Things" and then take it that next step to push their offspring to follow suit. These parents inspire and encourage me. Often I find myself at my desk researching more, reading one more article, understanding one more detail about critical thinking, CLEP tests and  how to make it all work because I want to better serve these amazing, inspiring parents.

I've been doing this little side job since 2008.  It's such a pleasure working with CollegePlus! and CollegePrep!. I play several roles in the community and I'm currently training for two new positions. It's crazy in the most fun, energizing and creative way.

I wrote an ebook here recently. It explains the details of Dual Credit. It's a hazy world this high school/college stuff and when you throw in the homeschool dynamic, well, it can make your head swim and palms sweat. My goal with this little book, put hearts & minds at ease. I want to thank all those who've read. I pray you have been encouraged and maybe some of mystery of academia has been lifted.

If you'd like to read please download a copy here.

If you have read I'd love to hear your comments. Like I said I'm always digging to know more and hearing what I've left unsaid or what inspired you is HUGE to my always learning brain.

Bubbling Joy

The Lord, has provided, not just my physical needs but emotionally.  I decided to wait on him and found at ever step, he has provided every little bit I need. Every physical and emotional need to get me through this task, at this moment, on this given day. It has restored rapture to my heart and we dine again with glee.

Somehow.

No, Christ-is-How.

We have been thrust into hard stuff and we have found delight in our moment by moment journey.

Lord, You are God.

In my life I have made things happen and done the things I said I was going to do. But, it was forced and it was of me. Lifeless. Only the giver of life can bubble joy in the midst of chaos. He spoke order into chaos, but how dense am I that I miss this little tidbit. I declare myself a demi-god and believe with enough work, enough effort, a can-do attitude I can "get 'er done". A lot of times I do but the skies turn gray because I'm no god. When I step into my place, be the girl creation. Bask in my creator's presence. In those moments, he puts the stars in order, aligns the planets and produces a little yellow house for us to call home.

All the while my heart is placed in his hands. I have to slap my own each time I reach to take it back. At this moment it's resting so securely that it begins to rest. I take deeper calming breaths and they bubble up as belly laughter. Soothing to those around me and my very presence becomes one of peace. My heart screams, "Folks, it's not me, just a side affect of a loving creator!".

He loves you too.  Put your heart in his hands and find peace today.


Counting today:

Peace amongst the cardboard and vacant spaces

Friends who'll help me sell my possessions at a Flea Market

Children with eyes changed and they part with their possessions as well

Learning to be me and only care what my God thinks of  her

Phone calls from Minnesota and a silly box brought her joy

Folks who get what we're up to and encourage us to press on

51 and Up

We've organzied events. We've hosted parties. There wasn't a mom present that didn't have experience adjusting resources for unexpected guests. We all felt frustrated that we didn't have a present count on our supplies. Continually we were asked how many? How many children could we host for this little VBS?
I think we all felt confused.
What do you mean 'how many'?
We will host all who come.

She had to look us in the eyes and explain, not once but several times over the course of the week, explain that no matter how much we had there wouldn't be enough. I shook my head in disbelief. I've never, ever not had enough. I've never cleaned up from a party and not had to pull out the ever ready and waiting tupperware to fill the frig with leftovers. I've never had to turn a guest away because of limited supplies.

She asked the 'how many' question again and again over the course of the week. The VBS we were hosting, being one of the last activities on our little missionary venture, kept getting pushed aside for more immediate activities. But the night before we realized we had to pull it all together and that meant getting a count of supplies. We had enough for 50. That's a lot and I believed we should be able to cover most who arrived.

She sat down and making purposeful eye contact to explain, once again, that there would be many children from the village they would bar from our VBS. "No matter how many supplies you bring, more will show. There is no way you could have brought enough for all to participate".

It really sank in the next morning.

We were ushered into the little church. We worshiped there Sunday morning. A cheery little place in the midst of poverty, exactly what a church should be. The windows and doors covered in wrought iron bars, I saw them as decoration even though I knew they served a good purpose, they kept out maurauders. This day they would prohibit entrance to numbers 51 and up.

As soon as we arrived children emerged. They swarmed the stairs of the church. We prepared and practiced as we waited for the church pastor. He would decide who gained entrance to this event. He granted golden tickets to the 50. He knows the people of this village and he lovingly makes these decisions. My heart relieved that the decision wasn't on my shoulders.

The event proved successful. The 50 watched our children sing, heard the salvation story and made salvation bracelets. They fought to sit near us, stroke our hair and have their picture taken. But, standing at the door, pressing in close to hear the stories and songs, barred numbers 51 and up. Their hands gripped tight the iron bars struggling to maintain their place. They stood on tiptoes to peek in the windows.

A painful and heart wrenching way to grasp more fully the beauty of God's salvation plan. No one is barred. There are no golden tickets for a select few. How loving my Creator. His heart broke with mine as his precious 51 and up stood on the outside, no entrance, no partaking of the fun brought by those desiring to be his hands and feet. I am humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude for such a loving God. He sent his child, his son and he swung that door wide so all my enter.

Make it Stick

When you shelve your life, rip yourself from it to experience something  new, it is inevitable that some of the new will stick. When you effect drastic change and shelve your life midway through the change to come  home and execute the completion and you are changed and already in process is the life change that mirrors the effects your journey had, well that's the God effect.

So many experiences and so  many epiphanies and being home only two days, two days where I had to sleep to catch up. Two days where the air conditioning feels too cold and the lack of breezes from the ocean make the outdoors too hot and memories of the trip swim in my mind and I can't pin down one thought without all the others crowding  in and my emotional roller coaster does little more than create a crying, stuttering, incohesive mess of words.

In short we are changed. I scroll through hundreds of photographs to pin down one snapshot of the change but it is all so raw and real and  in process and even the children nestle up to me at different moments and I hear the effects of their 'in process' as they are wrapped back up in the reality of their life with memories of the children they frolicked and loved on. It is hard  to hear the verbal 'in process' as they realize the future of their friends on a little island versus their own.

Twenty-one of us traveled together. Twenty-one became a little cohesive family unit, the family of God there in the D.R. I miss my little missionary family. Together we did hard stuff, in front of our children we tackled tough emotions, and all us adults loved on and supported each other as we processed through it. What an amazing group of people. I long to return to that exact dynamic. I learned much from the families we traveled with and feel so blessed to have journeyed this at their side.

Grateful Today For:

996.
Ocean Breakfast Views.

997.
Kids that help themselves to Banana Mamas.

998.
Nightly devotions and a storm swirls around us but we are huddled together and safe.

999.
Super loud air conditioning unit that drowns out all the noise and lets sleep come.

1000.
Kids that work hared with no complaints, no whining, no tears.