Whew! Been awhile since I wrote! Catching you up:
Thanksgiving was at our house and it was a lovely and relaxing time. I kept the dinner simple on purpose just to keep the stress low. Mom and Dave came the night before as did Leah and David! On Thanksgiving we were joined by Alexis, Jeff and Jake, and Jon and his friend. We feasted and played games, of course.
Joel has come home for awhile to recoup til he gets a job in his field or money starts coming in from games. He drove straight through to get home and it was awesome to be awakened at 6am on a Sunday morning with a tap then a hug.
Work is good. Crazy stuff happens on a regular basis. I like having Scott there so we can support one another. He doesn't love his job but knows he's doing good here and there where he can.
TRU is going well. New families and good attendance on a regular basis.
Some good news and sad news with Homestead. A few weeks ago, we received word that one of our previous gals died of a heroin overdose. Her name was Shannon. She loved Jesus but just couldn't break out of the prostitution and drug addiction. I loved her. I had kept up with her on Facebook. She had recently been reaching out, wanting to come back to Homestead. There aren't a lot of options out there for these gals. There needs to be more Christian drug treatment centers and rescue facilities. Even then the statistics aren't good. Similar to domestic violence as best we can tell. Ours is the next step, transition into society.
But the good news for Homestead is that we have two more graduates! One of the gals from Detroit who had been working the streets, addicted to drugs, was rescued by an FBI agent and sent to us. She loves Jesus with all her heart and He has healed her. She is moving back home and gets her precious children back. The other gal is a young gal who was pretty much taken hostage by a much older man in Kansas City and was addicted to meth and being groomed for trafficking. A friend recognized the danger and sent her to us. She, too, has been healed by Christ. Both these girls completed apprenticeships and are ready to be out on their own. Both are such precious people and I feel honored to have gotten to know them and walk alongside them on their journeys.
Adelle turned 19 last weekend. We had a little birthday lunch for her at Pizza Hut. She now has a case manager at Big Lakes. Not sure what that means exactly other than we now have additional help in getting Adelle ready to move out of her parents home and either pursue an education or work. She is still at high school and through school, she sacks groceries in a grocery store in town. It's been a big adjustment for her but she doing ok.
Adelle also likes going with us to TRU. Here she is getting her worship on:
Diego is holding at 35 pounds. He is calming down and responding to training so the craziness has lessened. I still have hope he can be a therapy dog at out school but he has some quirks that are going to have to go away. He doesn't like detain sounds and when he encounters them, he goes berserk!
I'm still working out at the gym about 4 nights per week. I put on a couple pounds over Thanksgiving that I can knock off. Oh well.
That's pretty much it!
