Saturday, March 26, 2011- Day 46
I am sorry that I have not posted in a week or so. We were in Chicago ( I will share more in a minute) and then this week has been "operation projects" for me. I have 4 weeks of class left and I have several projects that are due. They have been hanging over my head so this week my goal is to get ALL of them done so I can enjoy these last few weeks of school with my 2nd graders. It has been easier than I thought getting back in the swing of things. This week actually just flew by! It is exciting thinking about how close Summer time will be here even though it still feels pretty much like winter. We had some great 70-80 degree weather days last week and then it dropped back down to the 30-40's.
Well, as I mentioned we were in Chicago last Friday and Saturday. We left Thursday and headed to my parent's house which is about an hour south of Chicago. My nephews had been there all week so I got to visit with them for a few hours before they headed back to Nashville. We stayed the night there and then Jeremy and I headed to Chicago Friday morning. The kids and Lucy stayed with Grandma. Grandma was a real sport about it since she was also keeping my brother's dog and my dad was gone to the Illinois State Meeting. So she was alone with three kids, two hyper dogs, and her own two cats! Jeremy and I headed to Chicago and drove around several neighborhoods that we thought might be where God wanted to minister. We drove around and took pictures. For lunch we met with a local pastor and his wife. We had never met them before but they were gracious to meet with us and give us any advice they could about city ministry. They also paid for our lunch so that was a bonus:) After lunch we went back to several neighborhoods parked our vehicle and just walked the streets of the city. After we were finished we headed over to the house we would be staying for the night. There is a FWB church called Northwest that was started 17 years ago. The pastor is mentoring us but he was also at the Illinois State meeting. A family in his church offered for us to stay with them. That night several people from the Northwest church came over to the house to watch the basketball games. It was a great night of fellowship and I had a chance to ask some of the ladies some questions about their adjustments to the city. They probably thought I was crazy asking some of the questions I was asking, but they just answered them for me. It was nice to make some connections with people who are already living in Chicago. On Saturday we went to an area called Albany Park and walked the neighborhood. We are pretty sure that will be the neighborhood that we will live and minister. We are really excited about our future plans but it is also a little overwhelming. We are now in the mode of trying to recruit others who will join us in Chicago and setting up services to raise support. We will also be preparing to get our house back on the market. We are praying that it will sell quickly! We are planning on downsizing into an apartment to get ready for small quarters in Chicago and we also want to start saving for our move. I dread having the house on the market so please pray it sells FAST:) I am also trying to get things together to have a yard sale so that is also crazy for me!
Well I better get going. I am trying to get caught up on the laundry and the other stuff in the house. Jeremy has been in Philly since Thursday. He is at a church planting conference with another guy in our small group. The kids and I will pick him up from the airport this afternoon. Oh, a funny story from this week! Samuel lost a tooth last Sunday while we were still in Illinois. We got back to TN that night Sam put his tooth under his pillow and we had every intention of getting up and putting some change under his pillow. Monday morning Jeremy and Sam comes into the room and Jeremy says "Uh, mom we have a problem". Sam holds up his bag with the tooth still in it. He is upset that the tooth fairy did not come (now he kinda knows that it is us). So I tell him maybe she will come today. We are getting ready to leave so while Sam is distracted I dig in my purse grab some coins and sneak into his and replace the tooth with 5 or 6 coins. We get home that afternoon and I ask him if he checked under his pillow. Behold, there are coins under his pillow! He is confused because he knew that daddy was already gone this morning. He is laying out his coins on the table and then he is confused because he does not recognize some of the coins. I had accidentally grabbed some leftover coins from Guatemala!! We got so tickled but I think we just confused Sam even more!
[caption id="attachment_2481" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Future Cubs Fan! That's my girl!"]
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[caption id="attachment_2485" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="Hanging out on a Saturday morning"]
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Well, as I mentioned we were in Chicago last Friday and Saturday. We left Thursday and headed to my parent's house which is about an hour south of Chicago. My nephews had been there all week so I got to visit with them for a few hours before they headed back to Nashville. We stayed the night there and then Jeremy and I headed to Chicago Friday morning. The kids and Lucy stayed with Grandma. Grandma was a real sport about it since she was also keeping my brother's dog and my dad was gone to the Illinois State Meeting. So she was alone with three kids, two hyper dogs, and her own two cats! Jeremy and I headed to Chicago and drove around several neighborhoods that we thought might be where God wanted to minister. We drove around and took pictures. For lunch we met with a local pastor and his wife. We had never met them before but they were gracious to meet with us and give us any advice they could about city ministry. They also paid for our lunch so that was a bonus:) After lunch we went back to several neighborhoods parked our vehicle and just walked the streets of the city. After we were finished we headed over to the house we would be staying for the night. There is a FWB church called Northwest that was started 17 years ago. The pastor is mentoring us but he was also at the Illinois State meeting. A family in his church offered for us to stay with them. That night several people from the Northwest church came over to the house to watch the basketball games. It was a great night of fellowship and I had a chance to ask some of the ladies some questions about their adjustments to the city. They probably thought I was crazy asking some of the questions I was asking, but they just answered them for me. It was nice to make some connections with people who are already living in Chicago. On Saturday we went to an area called Albany Park and walked the neighborhood. We are pretty sure that will be the neighborhood that we will live and minister. We are really excited about our future plans but it is also a little overwhelming. We are now in the mode of trying to recruit others who will join us in Chicago and setting up services to raise support. We will also be preparing to get our house back on the market. We are praying that it will sell quickly! We are planning on downsizing into an apartment to get ready for small quarters in Chicago and we also want to start saving for our move. I dread having the house on the market so please pray it sells FAST:) I am also trying to get things together to have a yard sale so that is also crazy for me!
Well I better get going. I am trying to get caught up on the laundry and the other stuff in the house. Jeremy has been in Philly since Thursday. He is at a church planting conference with another guy in our small group. The kids and I will pick him up from the airport this afternoon. Oh, a funny story from this week! Samuel lost a tooth last Sunday while we were still in Illinois. We got back to TN that night Sam put his tooth under his pillow and we had every intention of getting up and putting some change under his pillow. Monday morning Jeremy and Sam comes into the room and Jeremy says "Uh, mom we have a problem". Sam holds up his bag with the tooth still in it. He is upset that the tooth fairy did not come (now he kinda knows that it is us). So I tell him maybe she will come today. We are getting ready to leave so while Sam is distracted I dig in my purse grab some coins and sneak into his and replace the tooth with 5 or 6 coins. We get home that afternoon and I ask him if he checked under his pillow. Behold, there are coins under his pillow! He is confused because he knew that daddy was already gone this morning. He is laying out his coins on the table and then he is confused because he does not recognize some of the coins. I had accidentally grabbed some leftover coins from Guatemala!! We got so tickled but I think we just confused Sam even more!
[caption id="attachment_2481" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Future Cubs Fan! That's my girl!"]
[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_2485" align="alignnone" width="819" caption="Hanging out on a Saturday morning"]
[/caption]
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