Thursday, April 28, 2011

Painting

Both of my girls are very artistic and enjoy painting, drawing, and coloring. They especially enjoy expressing themselves through the arts. Here is an example of some expressing that happened today on Karis' birthday. Hope you enjoy!!


Monday, April 18, 2011

Conference Success!

We are so excited to announce the success of the marriage enrichment conference we had this past Saturday. We spent six hours talking about a number of different topics. We looked at the truths from Song of Solomon for marriage relationships. We discovered our personality types and discussed how our personalities can impact the way we think, feel both emotionally and physically, communicate with others, and relate with God. We saw how different personality types interact with one another which has direct impact on our marriage relationships. We discussed how each one of us speaks a certain love language and the need for spouses to fill up their significant others love bank by learning their language and speaking it often. We also divided up into small groups and discussed how all this information ties together to help you cultivate a beautiful marriage relationship.

The day went extremely smoothly. Each one of the couples were excited about what they learned and seemed to be motivated and determined to apply the information to their relationships.

I feel so blessed that the Lord gave me a husband whose passion for enriching marriages matches mine. I also am blessed to be able to do a job that is so rewarding. Thank you for your prayers. We definitely knew we were being prayed for. We look forward to the next Enriching Your Marriage conference.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

God's in the Details: Even Green Eggs and Ham

I have been praying for this day since I put it on the calendar. I was nervous for Karis. I knew that because of her personality, she warms up to new situations very slowly. In most cases, her more reserved personality is not a problem, but in this situation she would be required to warm up to her environment quickly. Going along with her reserved personality comes a wariness of strangers. She takes a little while to warm up to people and share herself with them.

I also knew how much was riding on this day. We want her to get a good education in a neighborhood school that is rated high in education, high in arts, high in languages, gives her sports opportunities, and that is community oriented. The only way for Karis to be accepted into a school with these opportunities for free at the age of 4 is for her to be assessed as gifted.

This gifted assessment was another issue. We could get the assessment for free at the Recovery School District Child Advocacy Services in the same way that our neighbors would have to do. The likelihood of her being assessed as gifted in this place is VERY low. They screen to keep children out not to allow children in. Our other option was to pay several hundred dollars to a psychologist and have her tested. The environment would be better. The psychologist would take the time to allow her to warm up to her before assessing her. The likelihood of her being assessed gifted is higher and then we would have more school options. However, our neighbors are not given this option. They do not have the money to have a private assessment. How could I begin to minister to them and understand the struggles they go through in everyday life (like putting their children into schools) without going through the same hoops they go through. They do not have the money to see a private psychologist. No, if I wanted to experience life with my neighbors I needed to choose to jump through the hoops and trust that God would take care of my daughters education.

So, I made the appointment for the pre-screening way back in January and I started praying. Yesterday was finally the day and I woke up as nervous as I got taking qualifying exams for my PhD. I began praying early that morning. One of the lessons the Lord has been teaching me of late in my prayer life is to be open to His voice while I am praying. Basically, He wants me to be quiet and listen. Normally that is not a problem for me, but when I am nervous I tend to keep talking. On this day I practiced just being still. He immediately reminded me of 3 truths:

1) He loves my daughter more than I do and wants the best for her. He also has plans to prosper her.

2) I needed to trust Him and lean not on my own understanding.

3) I needed to Be Still and Know that He is God.

As I was getting ready for the morning, a peace that I had not known before swept through me.

Karis woke up in a very extraverted mood for her. She was talkative and excited. She rarely has these moods, but this was the mood I had been praying she would have all these months.

We left the house early because I had not been to the building before, at least that is what I thought. I had read through the directions several times the night before so that I wouldn't get lost. I sent the directions to my phone just in case. When I got in the car I started in the direction that I knew we were supposed to go. I began to pull the directions up on the phone, but for some reason it wasn't working. Anxiety begin to creep in. I looked at the clock and saw that I had about 20 minutes and it was only supposed to take 5 to get there. I calmed down a little, but the phone was still not working for me. I started praying my rapid fire prayer when I was gently reminded to BE STILL. I took a deep breath and began to drive. The directions came clearly to my head from the night before and I finally made it to the office. Low and behold it was the same office of the school we really want Karis to go to. We had been there the week before to put in an application. Karis immediately recognized the school and was so excited that we were back. (Prayer request # 1 answered....it was not a new place it all. She would not require much warm up time.)

We got to the office, checked in, and then went to the waiting room to wait to be called. We sat down in a very kid friendly area. They had books for us to read and toys for her to play with. The area was freshly painted and very inviting. These aspects are very unusual for New Orleans, especially after Katrina. Most of the time the school district works with what they have, which is not much. I was pleasantly surprised. Karis immediately went to the bookshelf and grabbed a few books. She stopped as she began pulling books off and exclaimed, "Mom! They have Green Eggs and Ham!" This book is her favorite right now. As soon as she saw it, all the reservation I saw in her about being in a new place went away. She was at home because they had her favorite book. I stopped myself from crying at that point because I knew God had placed that book on that shelf for her. (Prayer request #2 answered....she was completely at ease about being in this place and talking to new people. They had her favorite book so these people can be trusted.)

We went through a hearing test and the audiologist was extremely friendly, allowing Karis to mash the buttons on the machine and giving her a sticker. We had a little moment with the nurse who wanted to test her eyes, but it worked out ok. We were taken to the social worker for the assessment and as I met her my fears were completely put to rest. She was very loving to Karis and Karis was immediately at home in her office. She explained to me that Karis would have to score in the 99th percentile for her to be considered gifted in the school district. She explained that very few 3 to 4 year olds score this high because they have to score on a 3rd grade level. At this point I was praising the Lord for all the prayer requests He had answered and I knew if she did not score that high everything would be okay. He had taken care of her up to this point (even down to Green Eggs and Ham). Why wouldn't he take care of everything else. I left Karis in her office knowing she would probably not score in the gifted range, but completely at peace.

I immediately sent out a prayer request text to a few people and within seconds got messages back saying they were "On it!" What a blessing to have friends and family members who were immediately praying for me at the drop of a text.

Karis came out of the social workers office about 10 minutes later and ran to me telling me how much fun she had had. (Answered prayer #3.....she had done her best!) Again, I stood in amazement at how the Lord had worked in the details. I walked with her back to the office to wait on the social worker to score her assessment. Karis and I talked for a few minutes and then I noticed that the social worker had stopped writing. I looked up and she said, "Well.....she did it! I am so excited for her. I rarely see children score this high and I am always so excited when they do. Karis scored in the 99th percentile on the pre-screening and she will go on for the actual screening in a few weeks."

I sat back in amazement. Not only had God worked this entire day out for Karis, but He had given her the abilities to score high enough to move on to the next "hoop". I then realized that she said Karis had scored on a 3rd grade level and realized I was in for some trouble later on when Karis realized she could use her "smarts" against me and her dad. We will cross that bridge when we come to it though. :-)

I was so proud of Karis and I was overjoyed at the way the Lord had blessed me on this day. I could not wait to share this experience with Page and with you as my friends and family. God has been teaching me to pray in faith. We have been trusting the Lord that the ministry He has led us to in Mid-city would be His. We have prayed that He would allow us to live life with our neighbors and friends, trusting Him in the process to take care of our family. I was assured once again:

We are right where the Lord wants us.

He is going to take care of our family.

We are going to see the Lord work in mighty ways in Mid-city.

God will bring racial reconciliation in this city.

More than that, God will draw many souls to Him.

Our job is to be faithful.......even in the details.