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Saturday, November 28, 2015

Thanksgiving

So grateful to have the kids home for Thanksgiving! It was a short visit that ended abruptly because of the bad weather but oh, so great to have them here. Joel arrived home on Sunday after his flight into kci was cancelled Saturday night. Scott went to pick him up in Wichita on Sunday and surprised Leah with stopping by to see her in Newton. Hannah and Kent got here Tuesday night. Wednesday during the day we hiked Rocky Ford. It was quite enjoyable.

Leah and David got here Wednesday evening. The visit went as most holidays do with some games played and lots of food and laughter.

Hannah and Kent brought Kent's huskie, Sierra, and that was somewhat stressful as they jockied for top dog.

Once Rex conceded that position it was fine, until we added Moose into the mix. Leah and David brought Moose and Professor.

So yep, that made 5 kids and 5 dogs. The big dogs loved to rough house both outside and inside. But eventually they all settled in.

Thanksgiving day we were joined by Alexis, Jeff, and Jake, but they, too, could only stay a short while due to weather. We ate early and I kept it simple so that I could relax and enjoy the rest of the day. thanksgiving also involves lots of eating, all day, and this year, drinking cider beer too. I enjoyed the day.

Last night we all went out to eat at Coco Bolos.

This morning Leah and I got up and chatted. Then the weather started turning bad and we all had a hugging, tearful goodbye. We won't get to see Hannah at Christmas this year. Joel stays until Tuesday. It was all over way too quickly but it was so good to have them here.

Family photo:

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Summer

This has been an interesting summer, unlike any other.

Like most summers, I got tanner and thinner. I got closer to God. I got to go see the kids. I taught water class. I got to hang out with Scotty. This summer I had a really great friend move out of town, Alexis. :(. This is also not unusual.

But this summer, I had the amazing privilege of coming alongside a brother and sister in Christ. It was a mission, one in which I had to stay continually filled with the Holy Spirit. I was tested and tried all along the way. I experienced so many personal break throughs because of it. And received so many blessings it is unreal.

The first blessing, is simply seeing the fruit of His Spirit come alive in my friends, Christana and Bryce. Bryce has truly undergone a transformation while in prison. I have seen him fully surrender his life to God and to fully live out and apply the Word in his life. He is released on August 27. I get to go with Chris to pick him up and I am so excited to see him witness his new faith to others on the outside!

The second blessing is that Scott and I are closer than we have ever been before if that's even possible! We've had such fun! And because of my personal break throughs, I feel like I've been able to give parts of myself to him that I didn't know I'd been holding back!

The third blessing is that God has heard my prayers and continued some friendships, restored some friendships, and He has given me new friends this summer! I love new friends! It's been a while since I met people that I truly hit it off with on a spiritual level and just KNEW we were going to be great friends! I looove it!

The gal on the left is Jandi.

This is Bailey.

A fourth blessing is that one of my "adopted" kids, Jesi, had a baby! That makes me an unofficial grandparent!

I'm sad this summer has come to an end but excited to see what God has in store for this school year. I have taken on a new clinical supervisee this year, Heather, and I will have another graduate intern, Crystal!