One Proud Momma

The past couple of weeks have been a blur with busyness!  It started on Thursday, May 19, when we attended the graduation and awards celebration for Anne and her friends. They had a delicious BBQ dinner, followed by the beautiful ceremony.  They also had on display some artwork that the girls had done. In the pictures below Anne is seen with a lot of the friends she has been making.

Anne receiving her certificate from her teacher.

Anne showing Papa and Grandma how to take a picture with the cell phone.

The lady bug was one of Anne's pieces of artwork on display.

All of the girls who were "celebrated" on this special evening.

Following the ceremony, we were able to take Anne home with us.

The next day, on Friday, May 20, we went to the school to see Adia and Jonathan receive their awards in their special awards chapel.

Both Adia and Jonathan received a certificate for receiving good grades.

While we were in the chapel, Anne was walking around catching up with some of her teachers and friends.

Immediately following the chapel, we headed out to our already packed car and headed to Branson, MO, to attend a dear friend's wedding which would be the next day.  Besides our ears popping and Jaydon saying that he was going to fall while we were driving on the steep hills, the trip overall went very smoothly!  The hotel that we stayed in had an indoor pool, which allowed the kids to enjoy several opportunities to go swimming.

 

Our dear friend Ruth, made a beautiful bride!

Not to be outdone in achievements, this handsome, cool young man is making great strides in the exciting adventure of potty training!  Hopefully, by the end of the summer, we will have finished that journey (at least for during the day).

We now officially have a sophomore in high school and two third graders!

Because we have had so much going on, I will do a separate post on how Anne is doing.  Thanks for continuing to pray!

Mother's Day with Anne and Skeeter's New Job

I wasn't sure if Anne was going to get to come home for Mother's Day since she had just been home, but I was pleased that they were going to go ahead and let her come!  It meant so much to me to be able to have all my kids with me for that day.  The day started by my budding romantic Jonathan bringing me some fruit salad in bed. 

This was followed by Adia making me an omelet.  Anne gave me some beautiful roses, some candy and a very special card.

And Jaydon...well we snuggled!

 I am so blessed to have these four amazing children!

I just got Anne's next home pass approved, which happens to start next week!  I am excited that she will get to stay for a whole week this next time!  We are planning to take a trip as a family to an out of state wedding of a dear friend and we look forward to having some alone time with the family.  Please be in prayer for Anne as when she comes home on this pass, she will be saying good bye to her best friend as she and her family prepare to go overseas to be missionaries.  This will be pretty tough on her!

Skeeter is on his second day of his new job!  It takes quite a bit of training to learn his job and how to get "dressed" for his task of cleaning.  You have to get covered with "garb" a certain way and if you mess up, you have to start all over.  Everything must be completely sanitized!!  He said it could take an hour to get everything on that would need to be worn.  I'm sure once he gets the hang of it, it won't take that long, but it is a tedious process!  Thanks for continuing to pray for him as he adjusts and learns his new role.

In closing, not too long after Anne left, I found a poem she had left behind.  I thought Mother's Day weekend would be a great time to share it with you!

Moms

Moms are God's special gift to the world.
They are the light that help guide their family.
Moms are the chemical bond that hold the crazy compound called Life together.
They are a map to our world and without them we would flounder around in the desert.
Without moms, we would be subtracting and dividing happiness from life rather than adding and  
        multiplying.
They are the pixie dust that encourages us to soar far and wide.

Five more days until we reach 100 days!!

Operation Encourage Anne Day ~ May 15, 2016

This past weekend, we were able to enjoy a visit with Anne.  It was so fun to hear Anne read to Adia.

It is so encouraging to hear how God continues to grow, strengthen and stretch her.  She shared how she is already "dreaming" about how God might use her to help encourage other girls who are struggling.  It will be pretty neat to see how God continues to write this story for Anne and how He will use this for His glory!  She continues to struggle in her relationship with her roommate, but I think this will probably be the norm for the duration of her stay.  It is however, good for her as life is not easy, and there will always be someone in life that will be more difficult for her to get along with.  Her roommate has started to do a little bit more teasing of Anne in her reading of the Bible and praying and her just being a Christian.  That has been something new for her to experience, but also something that is good for her in her life's training.  Anne feels like she is learning how to better handle the stress and teasing from her room mate and is doing better in how she responds.

While Anne was here, several people asked how she is doing and when we think she might be able to come home for good. Last week, we received an email from one of the staff members and they mentioned how well Anne was progressing and that she was coming out of her shell and becoming more outgoing!  More importantly, this email included a first time indication that they are starting to think about when Anne might be able to come back home!  Because they are looking at transitioning back towards coming home, she is going to get to come home and visit more often!  Right now it is not looking like she will be there for the average stay of 12-18 months.  As long as she continues to progress well, it will be more in the 8-12 months range!

How can you encourage Anne to continue making progress?  Most importantly, continue in your prayers!  For those of you who are on the approved mailing list, I have a bigger challenge for you! May 15, is a HUGE milestone for Anne!!  On that day, I am so excited to share that she will celebrate 100 days of being free from self injury!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wouldn't it be kinda cool to flood her with cards and words of encouragement to help her celebrate?!  I realize that the 15th is a Sunday, but around that date it would be kind of fun to help keep her encouraged to allow Jesus to help her remain strong in her journey to victory over self harm! 

Most of you have already heard, but for those who haven't, Skeeter found out last week, that his current job was asking for voluntary lay offs.  That same day, we found out that Skeeter had been offered the job he had interviewed for in McPherson.  It was so amazing to see how God worked out all the details and provided Skeeter with a new job opportunity before we even knew we needed it! We are hearing a lot more rumors that it won't be terribly much longer and the plant may be shutting down entirely.  He is so excited to be able to start his new job next week!

It was also kind of neat that at work, Skeeter had entered his name in a drawing.  He won!  We are having fun experimenting with making shakes and other yummy treats!

Jaydon continues to want to do want his older siblings do.  Today, he thought it would be pretty neat to pack a lunch and put it in a back pack.  He was all ready for school....even though he was still in his pajamas.  However, Adia did manage to somehow get shoes put on over those footies.

Adia and Jonathan continue to go to play therapy.  Right now it is averaging about 2 times a month.  I'm not sure if this will change over the summer or not, but both of them are enjoying it.  I am learning as much as they are about better ways to communicate with others!

Lastly, if you happen to remember, one of the house parents (the daughter in law of Anne's host parents) is pregnant and due any day.  She has been in labor over the past couple of days and is miserable and she isn't getting much rest.  As soon as they start to make plans that maybe this is it, the contractions stop.  Please pray that she will go into active labor soon and that she will have a smooth delivery.  We also pray for a healthy mommy and baby!

Thanks for standing with us in prayer!