My dear Addy, today as we celebrate you and everything you bring to our family on your birthday. You have a great sense of humor which keeps us all laughing. Even on some of the toughest days, your sense of humor can shine through and bring a smile to our faces. You especially know how to make your brother laugh, it brings me so much joy to hear you both enjoying each other.
Creativity is so natural for you. From the day you first picked up a crayon, you have been one that creates. Whether it is a picture, a card, or a sculpture, our house is full of your "touch" of creativity. I enjoy seeing the world from your point of view through your creativity, it opens up my mind and my world.
You have a positive outlook on life. Many days, the smile that is on your face when you wake up is still so apparent at night when you go to bed. You live life to the fullest, enjoying what each day brings, and finding the best that can be found in each day. You don't let much get you down, often reminding me how to find the fun in each day.
From the moment that you were placed in my arms, I knew God had given our family a gift. He gave us a wonderful life to complete our family, someone who bring us so much joy and love. I enjoy the relationship that we have and look forward to many years of friendship as you continue to become the wonderful young lady that God has intended you to be.
Today we celebrate you and what you bring to our family. You have a tender heart always ready to love, to forgive, to accept. Your laughter is infectious, often bringing the rest of us to laugh with you, reminding us what it is to laugh often, deeply, and freely. You bring so much joy to our family.
Your passion for life and for learning is never ending. Inquisitive and curious, you are not afriad to dig in and learn something new. You keep me guessing as to what your next new endeavor will be and I love that about you. Your creativity and originality knows no limits. I hope you never loose that.
It has been a long time since I have posted here on a regular basis, and I am missing that. This past weekend was eventful, yes, but at the same time, very relaxing.
Friday, my brother-in-law got married. The wedding was beautiful, Mark and the kids were part of the wedding party. Addy could not wait to be a part of the wedding and wear a fancy dress. It is the first wedding she remembers being part of. We took her to get her hair done, she looked elegant and all grown up.
Saturday I spent the day relaxing with friends and family in the backyard. The weather was perfect, the conversation wonderful, sometimes those kind of days cannot be planned.
Today we celebrated Mother's Day with my parents and my sister and her family. It was another day of conversations, this time on the screened in porch.
The days of sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather brought the calm that my mind has been so desperately craving. I was able to set aside all of the event of the past month and just be. What a refreshing break from the rush of life that has been.
Tonight I am not anxious to leave that calm, but a new adventure is just around the corner, and while I am somewhat nervous, at the same time, I am very excited as well!
A week after the concert, and I am still so pleased with the results of the evening. During the week, Mark and I have had a chance to talk with different people, and it seems, we are not the only ones impressed with the evening.
When I think back to the evening and the success that it was, the rewards of it definitely out weigh the time and energy put into it. While we were preparing for the concert, I found myself wondering what the response would be, would people attend or would Shaun be performing for a handful of people. Nothing could have prepared me for the response that we received.
Our journey to the concert date looks as follows:
Early November an email was sent asking if Shaun would be interested in coming to our area for a concert. With a quick response from Micah, and an approval from our pastoral staff, a date was set.
6 WEEKS PRIOR:
Our worship pastor and I sat down in his office and went through the helpful list of suggestions of ways to promote the concert that was included with the contract and rider.
Using graphics and ready made posters from Shaun's marketing material, 100 of these posters were created for distribution:
The posters were set out in our Welcome (Information) Center for people to take to help spread the word.
With our seating capacity at 300, we printed 350 tickets knowing that on the night of the concert, not everyone who picked up a ticket would end up coming to the concert.
4 WEEKS PRIOR:
Concert, information was displayed in the pre and post service message slides as well as printed in the weekly program, all of which continued to the day of the concert.
This video created by our worship pastor was played as part of the announcements:
On our church website, we promoted the concert using the video above on
the homepage as well as a page with more information about with concert
information and Shaun's bio. See page here.
3 WEEKS PRIOR:
Mark and I loaded the kids in the car with the above poster in hand, we drove around town to coffee shops, local restaurants, and any other place featuring a "Community Events" board. We also left four posters at the local Christian Book Store which was displayed in their events/information section.
After a quick Google search of churches in the surrounding area, we gathered a list of 140 email addresses. I emailed this above poster out to churches asking them to inform their congregations of the upcoming concert and to please let me know if they had any questions. Two churches responded asking if I could send them a printed poster, easy enough.
A press release was sent to the local paper, which unfortunately was not published, and local radio stations were contacted about the concert, asking them to promote the concert.
Concert information was also placed on my blog, the church facebook account, personal facebook accounts of any who chose to share the information, and twitter.
1 WEEK PRIOR:
The information was again put out on the facebook accounts and twitter.
The night of the concert, we had four tickets left as the doors opened. We had done everything we could at that point, it was just time to wait and see.
Much to our delight, the auditorium was full. 265 people had come to spend an evening with us listening to Shaun's music.
The advertising cost was simply printing of the posters and tickets, and a couple of extra hours material distribution. Considering the response to the evening and the 24 children that found sponsors that night, it was well worth the little effort and energy that it took to get the word of Shaun's coming out.
Monday morning after a very busy weekend. Physically I feel it. My brain is slow to get into gear, my eyes are tired and a little red. My heart..... it is soaring. The busyness of the weekend has lifted me up spiritually and emotionally.
We had a great response to our Compassion weekend, and the stories I have are not only from new sponsors, but also from the people who began sponsoring a year ago. They came back to our table and gave me an update on how their children are doing! I absolutely loved it!
Saturday night our pastor presented the Compassion table, holding up the packet of a birthday girl, her birthday was Saturday. What a great birthday gift to a child don't you think, to receive a sponsor? As soon as the service was done, a church member (almost running) came to the table, "I want the birthday girl, has she been sponsored yet?" The birthday girl has a sponsor on her birthday.
Sunday morning a little girl born on February 29, 2004 was sponsored because a grand baby had just been born a couple of weeks ago on February 29th.
A young man (high school age), after looking at the table for a long time, waited impatiently for his mother to come to the table because he had found "the one" he wanted to sponsor. He kept apologizing for how long his mother was taking, merely minutes it probably felt like hours to him. After the paperwork was filled out and the packet was in his hand, his mother asked him if he was ready for pizza. "No, I am not that hungry, I can wait." She quit packing up her belongings and looked at me and commented about how she never receives that answer from him. Her son continued to look through the books of letters that we had brought as samples of correspondence commenting about how excited he was to write to his new friend.
My heart is rejoicing.
A few hours later, I have the wonderful opportunity to meet Shaun Groves and Micah his booking agent. These two men are great people, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have met them.
The concert was amazing. The music that has filled my car for many months was now filling our auditorium. The stories shared from the stage are still being repeated by my children this morning, even though I was at the concert and they have told me them on the way home last night.
I don't think I can even begin to put into words the evening. I am still processing it all! Luckily, I don't have to put it all into words. A friend's son caught some moments of the evening that I would love to share with you.
This couple walked into the doors of the church and sponsored the first child of the night. The joy on their faces when the found a little girl born the year they were married (possibly the same month, I can't remember) was incredible. Before the concert began they are learning about their new little girl and praying for her and her family.
These friends and fellow sponsors helped with the evening. I am so grateful for their help and their hearts. Both ladies added to their Compassion family last night as well!!
This couple raised their hands during the packet pass. Coming to the table to fill out the information, they saw a child who had been waiting for longer than 11 months and instead chose him to end his wait for a sponsor.
After her choice and her paperwork was filled out, she stopped by the Compassion table one last time before leaving the concert, with packet in hand and joy shining from her face, she mentioned how she has wanted to do this for a long time.
These three young girls are looking over packets considering which peer to help. Their choices made, it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Photo above by Karyn Hintermeister
Photo by Merv Miller
At the end of the night, my cheeks are sore from smiling, I am excited about the 24 children who were sponsored this weekend. I am so grateful that Shaun came and shared his gift of music, speaking, and experience with us.
Again, I am humbled and amazed to see God move and speak. I am in awe
at the open hearts and the joyful giving of our new sponsors. The
stories of sponsors continue to inspire me and show me that God is in
control.
I have people ask me, "How can you choose just one?"
The answer is, I can't. I have three that I sponsor and four more I correspond with. I wish I could do more. However, I can connect other people with children to sponsor. I can continue to support and pray for the children that I have. I can show the importance of giving to others to E and Addy. And all of that combined, is making a difference.
I thank Nate Dietzman for helping me tell the story of my weekend. All photos in this post, unless other wise noted, are to his credit. Thank you Nate for your time and talents last night.
I didn't think the weekend could get any better than it was. In a conversation with my mom this morning, I was recapping the night and telling her how excited I was about it. She had been praying for this weekend for me as well.
Just before we ended our conversation, she quietly says, "I have two children too." I am quiet. She is quiet. My cup of joy has just begun to over flow. "I have two children too." She says again. My mom and dad have joined the Compassion Sponsor family as well! And there is a story behind this one as well, but the surprise is for me.
A month ago, I mentioned to my mom about a little boy that was being promoted on an advocate's blog. He was tugging at my heart, and I had been praying for him all day. My mom asked for the link, which surprised me, but I sent it to her. She considered it, but didn't know that he was the one. For a month, she has been pondering and praying about being involved with Compassion. Yesterday before I left for the concert, I received a phone call from her saying she had found two little children, but she didn't know if they were the ones, or which one she should pick.
The surprise for me is that she didn't pick which one, she picked them both. After a month of prayer, we have two new Compassion children to love in our family as well!
Welcome to the family Ruben from Mexico and Sarunrat from Thailand!!
And the count is now 26 sponsored children this weekend! 26 children who have someone in their lives to love them and support them.
Shaun Groves, is coming! I can hardly believe it! When the plans first were being made, it seemed like it would be forever before I would be able to share the new, but here we are, just weeks away, and now I can tell you, Shaun is coming!
The plans were made last fall when I wrote this post about faith. After talking with our pastors about asking Shaun to come and talk on behalf of Compassion, I wondered if it would, if it could, really happen. The joy that filled my heart when the date was reserved for Shaun cannot be explained!
We have done Compassion Sundays at our church for a couple of years now, and the people of the church have stepped up in a big way in sponsoring children. When it came to thinking about Compassion Sunday this year, I wanted people to hear about Compassion from someone who has been with the children that Compassion works with. Someone who has traveled to these countries and seen first hand what the impact of a sponsor does. While I am still waiting for my opportunity to do this, I thought of Shaun and the information and experience he could share.
Now, in just three weeks, Shaun is coming to our church to share about Compassion and we will have another opportunity for people to sponsor children. I would love to see you there if you are in the area, either call the phone number on the image or leave me a comment and I will get tickets to you.
If you are unable to make the concert but would like to see some of Shaun's travels, check out his site. There you can easily find blog posts about his visits to different countries where Compassion works.
Last night we had the opportunity to work our first Compassion event of this year. The venue was at a local church and the evening filled with music from five bands:
Kiros
Nine Lashes
Manifest
Thousand Foot Krutch
Red
This was opening night of the tour, so the energy levels from the bands was high. It was fun to see them all interacting with the attendees of the concert.
When we first arrived to the Compassion table, everything was set up and we were greeted by the Compassion rep, Russ, a really great guy whom we enjoyed visiting with throughout the night. The doors were already open for the VIP tickets that were sold to the concert. As I watched the crowds, I noticed the age demographic of the majority of the attendees, and I wondered what the night would hold.
Attended by mostly middle school and high school students, which made traffic really slow at the Compassion table. We did have a couple of youth pastors stop by the table asking questions about their youth group signing up to sponsor a child, but for obvious reasons they wanted to talk to their youth groups before making the final decision. We had a couple of parents stop by who were already sponsors which was fun to chat with them about their children.
Unfortunately, there was only one child sponsored last night, but as I have mentioned before, it is the story behind the sponsorships that I love so much.
A young girl came up to our table just after the door opened for general admission. She was with a friend, and they looked at the table for a long time. About halfway into the night, on a break between bands, she came back to the table. She looked longingly at the packets displayed on the table, and looked at her friend, "What do you think?" she asked. Her friend just shrugged her shoulders and stepped over to the band's merchandise table that was next to us.
The young girl continued to look at the pictures, and all of a sudden, tapped her friend on the should, "I need to borrow your phone."
"Why?"
"I need to call my mom and dad to make sure I can do this, that I won't get into trouble."
She steps aside, and calls her mom. Upon handing the phone to her friend, her eyes are lit up as she tells her friend that she can sponsor a child.
Hesitantly she steps back up to the table, and explains that she really wants to sponsor a child, but does not have the money on her at the moment. Explaining that it is OK, she can mail a check, she again looks at the table. Looking at us again, she asks, "Now what do I do?"
"You get to pick any child here that you want." I explain as her friend steps to her elbow and asks her to hurry the next band is coming up.
She quickly grabs a packet, "This one," she says, "because she is as old as I am." Their birthdays are just months apart.
This young girl continues to be in my prayers today. I pray that her life will be as blessed and impacted as the young girls life she has chosen to sponsor.
While the number of sponsorships isn't a record number, the story, as important as all of the others, is one that leaves my heart soaring and happy.
Because he knows I love to plan events, he let me plan his party. I would ask his opinion or what he wanted, and in all reality, he didn't have a lot of requests. Just a few.
1. No black. (We will save that for a couple of years!)
2. His age was not to be on the cake. (OK, we are doing cupcakes anyway!)
3. Don't go overboard on decorations. (Um, OK, define overboard)
By the time the event came, I think we were both feeling good about the decorations. We did end up having balloons because Addy insisted that for a party, balloons were a MUST.
There is one thing, though, that even thought I tried to sneak it in, I think it was bordered on "too much" much decorations.....
Confetti.
I like the festive flair the confetti adds to the tables. His concern, cleaning it up for the entire week after the event.
I did my best to keep it all confined and keep it on tables, carefully wrapping up the tablecloths at the end of the night.
However, today, as I was sitting down to put my shoes on for the day, I noticed something shining on the carpet. I knew instantly what it was, and it brought a smile to my day. It took me back to the night that our home was full of family, full of friends, full of laughter and conversation. A night that even though we were celebrating him, I was able to sit around a table with some very dear friends enjoying an evening together.
Like the confetti, a spot shining in the middle of my family room, these ladies have brought so much into my life and in their own ways, have each brought something special into my week, just because of who they are.
We travel through life and sometimes, we are fortunate enough to bump into someone who wants to journey with us. Because of these women, I am learning, growing, and truthfully, having a great time in life right now.
Before wacky hair day was over last year, they both had plans to make
this year bigger and better. With a lot of time planning for the
day, they wake up early in the morning ready to get wacky. The more
the hair is gelled, colored, or sticking up, the better.
E gels his hair and contemplates color, after much consideration, he has
thought through no color, one color, two colors, three colors, and settles on two colors. Quickly spraying his hair (and hoping I don't
color the bathroom at the same time,) he is happy with the results. He
decides to forgo the hat this morning as he rushes out the door for his
before school meeting.
While working on Addy's hair, she looks in the mirror and wonders
if she will have the most wacky hair in the class. When she thinks no
one is around to listen, she is singing about how wacky and cool her
hair is. She is riding high on the ability to be outside the box of
getting ready for school. I love this and hope that she is able to
remain carefree for many more years.
I enjoy their excitement about wacky hair day. Growing up, I never wanted to be wacky or
stand out, it is not who I am. My equivalent of wacky would be to wear
socks that don't match, which were in my shoes all day so no one could
see them, something my children do on a daily basis because they enjoy mixing things up. That for me was wacky. I was afraid to be different, to stand out, to do something that others may laugh at.
Today I am celebrating wacky-ness of my children because I was never able to let go and be wacky as a child.
It has been very quiet at our house on the Compassion front. We received only one letter during the month of January, here is hoping they will come flooding into my mailbox in February!! Although today did not bring any letters, we did receive some fun mail today.
We ordered Compassion t-shirts for everyone in our family because we have been on the Compassion Advocacy site and have been fortunate to find some events happening practically in our backyard! I had expanded our search to 100 miles because for a long time, there was nothing nearby. Now we have three events on the calendar with a possibility of a fourth! I am so very excited and will definitely write about each one as they happen.
The kids are so excited about their new shirts, they want to wear them to school tomorrow, how can I say no?!?!
The weekend was a good one despite being busy. Saturday was a day spent at home cleaning in which I was able to get some things done that I have been wanting to do get done for a long time. It feels really good. Sunday, after visiting friends and family, we began a project that E received for Christmas.
Homemade Root Beer
Sanitizing Bottles and Equipment
Waiting for the equipment to be sanitized
I love E's smile in this picture (his daddy has a way of making him laugh)
Adding the Root Beer ingredients
Pouring Root Beer into the bottles
And now we wait!
The kids had a great time making root beer, and we only had one spill, so over all it was a success!
While tucking in the kids on Sunday night, I asked them what was the best part of their weekend, and after hearing their responses, I had to agree, visiting the new puppy was definitely the highlight.
Creativity is so natural for you. From the day you first picked up a crayon, you have been one that creates. Whether it is a picture, a card, or a sculpture, our house is full of your "touch" of creativity. I enjoy seeing the world from your point of view through your creativity, it opens up my mind and my world. 
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