Groovy Shoes & Strikes to Spare

Our local adoption support group had a free evening of bowling on a night that just happened to coincide with Eli's 9th birthday.  Husband was tied up in one of his interminable meeting of the minds at Big Yellow so I loaded up two spastic squirrels and headed to the Christian Center in P-town. 

Katybird decided she wanted to a green ball and wanted to bowl all by herself.  She could barely lift the ball before managing to fling it with a loud THUD on the lane.  The ball would roll ssssssllllllllooooooooooowwly down the lane (I think I saw a snail speeding past at one point) before barely knocking over a few pins.  I tried to get her to add a little oomph to her throw but her bird arms just weren't strong enough. 

Meanwhile, Eli thought this was like throwing a softball and would launch her bowling ball well into the air.  The attendant came rushing over and pulled up our bumpers or alas, Eli would have scored an 8 on her entire game.  She was very distraught that slow little Katybird managed to get a spare but Eli kept getting splits. 

Much free pizza, pop, and ice cream later, we played outside for a while before heading home.  (Note long hair on Eli...yep, my human hair extensions.  Was up at O Dark Thirty pressing her hair and adding these in so she could feel pretty on her birthday.  Sigh....)

Just a quick shout out...selected bowling alleys across the country are offering free passes for kids to bowl all summer long.  Go to http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/ to sign up.  Kids must be 15 years of age or younger.  Adults can get a summer pass for $24.95 for two games a day.  (Thanks, KF, for the heads up). 

Katybird's New Ditty

About every 3 months, Katybird crawls in my bed at O Dark Thirty and tells me she has a headache.  The first time it happened, I gave her some Tylenol and sent her to school.  She promptly threw up in her first grade classroom so now I know to tuck her back in bed and let her sleep it off...and to let her throw up at home.  Whatever ails her usually clears up by noon and then, all caught up on sleep, she is in rare form (and sans her Magic Blue Pill AKA ADHD med). 

This last Thursday was such a day.  By the early evening, Katybird had donned her pink princess dress and made up a new song for me:



I am without words. 

(Facebook followers will need to click on "View Original Post" to see the YouTube embedded video on my regular blog site). 

92 Year Old Has First Piano Recital

Last Friday, in the fair city of T town, in a small, chestnutty place on the south end of town, piano virtuoso Cleo K made his debut appearance as the oldest piano student of teaching phenom Meg K.  Cleo, a twice widower, made most recently so by the loss of the lovely Nancy K (dubbed "Grandma Nancy" by my kids) late last year. 

Cleo, in an effort to ease boredom, began taking piano lessons early this year.  His goal?  To play the "Starlight Waltz", the last song he ever practiced when taking lessons with his daughter 50 some years ago. 

The recital hall was packed by the many parents of other students and half the T town AC church that Cleo had invited.  After a dazzling display by the younger students, Cleo took the bench with a flourish, shuffled his piano music, and wowed us all.  He even had an encore number prepared. 

(Facebook reading my streaming notes will need to click on "View original post" to see embedded video)



Cleo declined to be filmed and interviewed by the local TV station.  "Why would they want to interview me?" he asked.  "Is what I am doing so unusual?"  Ummmm...yep...and may we all be so bold should we make it to 92!

 Cleo, 92, with granddaughter Abigail, age 9. 

Making a Run for the Border

In case you haven't heard...there is some BIG NEWS for my little family of Squirrels and Nuts.  This is a copy of an email I sent:

This Sunday (May 1st), we will be announcing to our church that Darren and I are moving to McAllen, TX (right across the border from Reynosa, Mexico) to join the Isaiah 55 Deaf Ministries mission group http://www.isaiah55.org/ . We had also planned on missions as a “second career” (i.e. when we became empty nesters) but God has made it very clear that the time is NOW!


About Isaiah 55 Deaf Ministries

Isaiah 55 Deaf Ministries was started by Nolton (“NoNo”) and Kate Beale to build schools for the deaf in Mexico. Currently, Mexico has no deaf education system so the deaf are either ignored or “integrated” into regular classrooms but not taught sign language nor provided a sign language interpreter. Isaiah 55 trains teachers, finds deaf students, and integrates them into a K-12 classroom. The parents come in for sign language classes on Fridays and two national pastors also lead Bible studies for the students and families. http://vimeo.com/7948385 My sister Erin has been serving as a missionary with this group for the last 8 years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4uvrJhA0w Construction has started on a second school in Reynosa and the plan is to build additional schools as funding and time allow.

We hope to come alongside the work that the I55 team is already doing and support them in communications, construction, medical work teams, and anything else they need us to do. We will live stateside for the time being so the girls can continue to go to school and cross the border as needed to work with I55. Erin lives in the city of Reynosa with another missionary from Morton, IL named Kim Kaiser who has been there as long as Erin.

To answer some of your questions:

Uh, like is your head going to end up in a duffle bag?

Sure hope not but YES, we know of the violence in Mexico. There are two major drug cartels with infighting in the cartels as well as fighting with each other. They are mostly targeting each other and not Americans but there is a risk that innocent bystanders will be caught in the crossfire. Reynosa has been relatively peaceful as the news you hear about mass graves and such is about 90 minutes away and Juarez, the murder capital of the world, is all the way over across the border from El Paso, TX. The needs of the deaf, however, do not cease to exist in the midst of this uncertainty. And if God has called us to serve here, we trust He will protect us until His purposes are accomplished.

How soon are you leaving?

As soon as the house sells, we plan to move to McAllen, TX. We will attend Mission Training International (MTI) in Colorado for an intensive 3 week course (our kids attend training as well). We will attend an intensive language school in McAllen to learn Spanish and will attend classes at I55 to learn Mexican sign language.

The economy stinks. Are you going to hit us up for money?

I will continue to work at least part-time for the company I currently work for until the arrangement no longer works for the company or for me. My current job allows quite a bit of flexibility to work during different hours and to work from home, which I have LOVED the past five years. This will account for approximately 50% of our income. In addition, since we adopted from the US foster care system, they continue to pay a “board rate” for the girls until they reach the age of 18. This will account for 13% of our income. The remaining 37% we will need to raise. The missionaries at Isaiah 55 are not supported by any of the monies donated to I55 but keep separate accounts with a sending organization called Go Ye Fellowship. That way, there is no opportunity for the abuse of I55 donated funds being siphoned towards “administrative” costs instead of directly benefiting the students, teachers, and school construction and maintenance.

Fundraising is something I used to completely dread as I felt like I would be begging for money but here is the deal...God is able to provide for us no matter what. When Darren was laid off in 2009, we learned how much “security” we had placed in his job. God took care of us then and He will take care of us now. If you feel called to support us, either by prayer or by funding, that’s awesome but if not, we know that God has not called us to this and then left us to flounder on our own.

So you’ll be like 74 miles from South Padre Island? Can we come crash your pad and visit Isaiah 55?

For sure. Consider this a standing invitation. I’ll even learn to cook a proper enchilada in your honor. We would love to show you and your family the students and the mission that has absolutely captured our hearts and to share the story of God’s call on our lives! Most major airlines fly into McAllen (just ask all the snow birds AKA “winter Texans”) and Southwest Airlines has a hub not far away in Harlingen, TX.

And YES, we do plan to become foster licensed again.  You may find it interesting that the tagline for Isaiah 55 is "Esperanza para los sordos" which means "Hope for the Deaf".  So my blog ID of "Adventures in Fostering Hope" still applies!