Sweet Life in the City

I could not get the all the pictures posted on my last post, so I am posting them here. Emma had a "Beach Day" today in K4. They got to wear their sunglasses and sleep on their beach towels. I was able to get some pictures this morning in her classroom. It was super cute! Check out Emma's pose in the class picture.The other pictures are of the girls this week. They are getting soo big!

Wow! This week has just flown by! I have been meaning to blog every day but the days just keep getting away from me. We have had a pretty good week. We are all dealing with the lovely allergies that we get for living in Middle TN and the lovely tobacco barn smoke that fills the air from this time until November (insert sarcastic smile). We all have headaches and sinus issues this time of year. Poor Chloe woke up this morning with dried blood all over her face from a nose bleed she had during the night. I have been trying to enjoy my last week of freedom from my own classes. I have 5 classes I need to complete before we move to Chicago to get my TN discount. So I am taking 4 of those classes starting this Saturday (online class) until December. If you think of me please say a prayer for me concerning these classes. I have three education classes that I know I will enjoy and two Math classes (SIGH) that I know I will struggle every minute I am doing the work for those classes. The truth ...

Thank you all so much for your prayers and sweet comments. I am still processing everything and my heart is still so heavy. I was able to talk to a few friends yesterday who were on the Guatemala team. It was good to grieve with others who knew and loved Karlita. I would ask that you continue to pray that God will show me the next steps I need to make. Many of you remember me talking about my trip to Guatemala weeks before I went. I had such a strong urging that I needed to go. I just knew that my experience would change my life in a drastic way and that God was telling me to do _________ (fill in the blank). I thought I would come back home and God's plan would be so clear. I knew He was going to use this trip to show me something and I thought for sure I would know what was going to go in that blank. When I returned home from Guatemla I was different. My eyes were open to so many different things, but I did not feel the big "WOW" moment I thought I would feel. After Fri...

Five days, that is all it took. Five short days in a lifetime of days to fall completely in love with a beautiful Guatemalan girl named Karlita. With her big, beautiful eyes and her snaggeltooth grin she melted my heart and my life would never be the same again. For five days I held this baby girl. I took walks with her around their home. I rocked her to sleep. I fed her lunch and then wiped off her dirty face. I loved to tickle her in the neck and watch her throw her head back and laugh the sweetest laugh. I loved to see her eyes light up when she saw me and would reach for me to pick her up. I was sad when it was time to go and she would cry for me when I would have to put her down. I wished with all my heart there was some way I could have this little girl as my very own. I wished the system did not make it impossible to make this little girl my daughter. I left that little girl in Guatemala knowing that she was in good hands. The nuns loved her and doted on her and I knew she would...

"We planted years of tears We can't believe the joy You have been good to us" I know you will find this hard to believe, but youth group workers always have a favorite. We do not mean to favor one youth over the others, but there is always that one or two students who you are drawn to. There is something about that student that you see so much potential in and you want more than anything to see them succeed. Do not get me wrong, I loved and still love every young person that we had the honor to invest our lives into, but there is one young man that I was the closest to. So, now begins my first of a long line of goodbyes. Kollin came into our youth group in 6 grade. Jeremy had taken over the Jr. High class at church. The moment I met him I knew that he was going to be one of my "favorites". He was a leader and full of life despite circumstances in his own life that would make most kids bitter and angry at the world. We would do mission trips and outings and we wo...

We are still without Internet at home, but I am going to attempt to blog again. I will try to add pictures once a week. We had a great summer but it went way too fast. We did have some sadness when my Granny Douglas passed away in July. The kids and I went to Missouri over the 4th of July. My parents and my sister were also there to visit. My Granny had not been doing well for a while so we all made the trip to see her. It had been 5 years since I had seen the Douglas clan. It was wonderful to see them all and it made me sad to think how much time had gone by since I had seen most of them. We always have a big family picnic on the 4th and after the picnic we had planned to have a Celebration of Life party for Granny. My cousin went to get her ready and it was evident that she had taken a turn for the worse. We knew her time on this earth was coming to an end. We were all thankful that so many of us had a chance to see her and say goodbye. By Tuesday she was bad and the doctors gave her...