A Beautiful Mosaic

This last week was our monthly "Super" Shift which just consists of a regular week-long shift matched with a weekend shift that is normally worked by our Alternate Family Teacher.  Since Michael's birthday is today, we decided to celebrate it and the end of our super shift this weekend by escaping to Monroe, LA.  We ate good seafood, lounged around, went shopping, and did some exploring (and of course, picked up a few things for the girls and house that you can only get in a town larger than Monticello).  Here are some HIGHlights and LOWlights from our Super Shift as well as some PRAYERpleas(e) for this upcoming week! Some Highlights : -It was fair week in Monticello this week!  Vera Lloyd entered the Fair Parade for the first time ever with a wonderful float, which Michael actually volunteered a lot of his time this week putting together and working on with the other male family teachers on campus. I put a picture of the float minus all the kiddos on my Facebook page

It was late, and I was in the middle of my preparing for bed routine and jabbering away as is common at those times.  This particular night, I was excited because I was really encouraged in my relationship with one of the girls.  I remember saying, "I feel like I am finally getting somewhere, like we are really building trust, I am really excited!"  I was excited.  I can't even remember all that had gone on that day, but I know I had felt like breakthroughs had happened and I'd moved one step further to building the kind of trust with our oldest girl that is needed to make any valuable progress.  Michael told me later he'd been looking for some wood the whole time to knock on as I spoke.  Because pride cometh before a fall.  Because though there is nothing wrong with getting excited about good things and staying positive in all of our relationships, somehow my focus had turned to "me" and "her" instead of what God was doing despite me.  Any

Update : Our BIG news is we have a contract on our house in Salina and God willing, as of October 7, it will be a closed-deal: SOLD !  We thank the Lord that despite the economy and housing market in Salina, He chose to bless us in this way.  It will be a relief for us not to worry about maintenance and upkeep, as well as put that burden on all the people who have been so helpful since we've been gone, especially our families - THANK YOU!  The picture below is us this weekend at a celebratory dinner at a local place called "The River." In other news, we did welcome a new 12-year-old this week to Barton!  Please pray she adjusts well and feels at home quickly.  We went to our first Monticello Billies (short for Billy Goat, although 20 years ago it was short for Hillbillies) Football Game Friday night where our oldest girl is the team mascot.  It was a lot of fun and exciting to watch her be involved in such a positve way with her peers.  Three cheers for the Billies and

I suppose we all look for comfort and familiarity...even outside our comfort zone or the Land of the Familiar.  No matter how many times we "pop" our comfort zone bubble, it will only be a matter of time before it needs to be popped once again. Michael and I still refer to ourselves as the new houseparents at Barton; we still say (and feel) very new to Arkansas.  In the grand scheme of things, this is not yet the Land of the Familiar for us and I didn't even think I had a comfort zone here yet.  Until I realized that I do.  Even amidst the ongoing transition and the fact that we are still newbies, I realized just today that I have already created a comfort zone.  Just recently, our house was stripped down of half of our long-term girls and all of our short-term placements (by no related events, just coincidental timing).  This involved sad good-byes and a tiny bit of stress as we transitioned those girls out and begin to wonder who we would be welcoming in.  It was whe

These words describe well the last week of our lives at Barton!  The Barton Home : We began our week last week with 5 girls and will be down to 2 on Tuesday if we do not have any intakes by then.  Our long-term 12-year-old was able to leave the system to live with a family member in another state this week.  As happy as we were for her, her absence has created a huge void in the home.  This was definitely my most difficult good-bye so far (she was our fifth).  She had been with us since our first day (actually, she had been here a total of 6 months) and I didn't realize how attached I had let myself grow to the girls I knew were long term compared to the girls I knew would most likely be leaving in a month or two...until one left.  Though she was rarely the easiest resident we had, she brought a ton of life and energy and joy into the home, and everyone misses her.  What a sweet blessing, though, that she has been able to call us already a few times just to say "hi!"