Next week I will take my first stab at being a newspaper columnist. I am very excited to get the chance to connect with people in our community who don't blog or Facebook. I feel sad that they are missing out on all the fun but I'm grateful for a chance to tell my stories to people outside the loop. I think I'm going to get to keep my "Greetings From The Circus" title on the column. It will be a lot like what I do on here. I'll probably start using this blog for more personal thoughts and day to day "stuff". I want to learn how to make my blog more interesting by posting pictures and music. If you are a blog literate person who would like to give me some pointers feel free!!! Thanks for reading.
Angie

Baby Shower and Friends

My dear friends Kelly and LeAnn and Micah's friend from 8th grade Meghan held a baby shower in honor of the soon to be born Anderson Brooks today. It was so nice seeing Micah's friends and my friends and the great-grandmothers all together. We ooohhh-ed and aaahhh-ed over all the cute little boy clothes, blankets, burp cloths, and all the other great gifts he got. Micah's friend from birth, Lauren was there with her two sisters. I did the wedding flowers for her wedding a couple of years ago, now the younger sister is engaged and I'll be working on her September wedding this year. It's so exciting seeing these girls grow up and establish families of their own. It's special having these people in my life and in Micah's life. There will surely be many more babies in the next few years.
While we were talking around the food table my cousin whispered to me the reason her mother, "Granny K" wasn't herself today was because on Thursday her best friend died. They had been friends over fifty years. They talked every day like clockwork....seven p.m. they'd call each other and talk about life. I looked at my friend Terri, we've been friends since we were eleven. That's almost forty years...her granddaughter was born on my granddaughter's first birthday. We will be bonded for life. I imagine us old, talking on the phone. I can only feel sad for my aunt. I told her I was so sorry about the loss of her good friend. She just shook her head, still not able to talk about it. My aunt is in her late eighties, her friend was ninety-three. They didn't even meet until they were young mothers in the same neighborhood. They were the June Cleaver moms. I picture my aunt in her grass hopper Keds and smock she wore for gardening. She grew day lilies, kept a spotless house, insisted my cousin be involved in swim team and girl scouts. She and her friends ruled the world with smart straw hats and wooden spoons. I have two of her dresses from back then. I borrowed them for a sixties day and forgot to return them, I doubt she's given them much thought. I'm not sure why she even kept them. I didn't have the heart to tell her I wouldn't wear them because they weren't what all my friends were wearing to "Sixties Day"...poodle skirts and white blouses. I'm sure what my aunt loaned me was much more authentic. I picture her in the white cotton dress with green embroidery, smiling at the camera, her friend beside her leaning on a '66 Chevrolet Impala. I'm sure she would say those were the glory days, like Terri and I will say these days were for us. Fifty is not so bad when you think, Lord willing, we will be able to say we've been friends seventy years when we reach their age. Thankfully, we'll live on to be friends on the other side of this life too.

Another Shutterbug is Born

When I was five I got my first camera. Really, five. I took it to kindergarten at First Baptist Church. I took pictures of my friends on the playground and while I was at it I convinced "Miss Sue" Blackmon and her assistant teacher to climb on the seesaw, skirts and all to pose for a picture. Somewhere there is proof. I haven't seen the pictures for a while but I know they used to be at Mama's house. Maybe someday I'll uncover them again.
I didn't think the photography bug was going to bite any of my children, although they have always taken great pictures and Lord knows they've all had experience being my models. Much to my surprise Matthan has come down with the fever. I can't express how thankful I am he's breezed past the "film snob" stage and has fallen in love with digital. It is so much less expensive than film and the immediate results are hard to beat. If the picture is lousy, you delete! Not so easy with film. He has taken some beautiful shots, some interesting shots, some shots a mother has to ask..."She really did have clothes on under that STOP SIGN....RIGHT?" So far I am impressed. I love his eye, which I have always heard is the key. I can't tell you much about my camera but I can tell a good photograph when I see one. I find myself sounding like a proud mama when I look at his art, oooing and aahing over everything on the computer screen.
I don't know if photography is "That Thing" he'll do to make his mark on the world but I know it is a very good thing. Micah has already challenged him to document her baby's first minutes and hours in the "outside" world. She said she knew I'd miss the pictures if I tried to do it...she's probably right.
I gladly pass the camera to him.

My Kitchen Redo

For almost two weeks I have been working on my kitchen. It's about time, not much has been done since the house was built twenty years ago. I wallpapered it during the original process. I stripped the wallpaper about ten years later and painted it what I affectionately called "Hello Yello". It was BRIGHT, you didn't have to have a cup of coffee to wake up in my kitchen. I enjoyed about all of that I could and decided to paint it a much more tranquil green. I painted the cabinets a pale yellow (I say I but Michael did help, while I was away last weekend he painted a whole section). Once I got all that done I found that the old white trim looked really dirty and just bad....so I had no choice but to paint all the trim again. I finally finished this afternoon and it looks lovely.
The final phase of the project is going to be counter tops...I'm not sure when that will happen. I'm still bargain shopping for tile. It has to be bottom dollar and the cheapest I've found was about $6 a square foot. Considering I don't have a job right now I have no extra to just chunk at tile...so I will keep looking. I don't mind waiting it out. It should be worth it.

I'll never forget the call I received from my daughter Micah, I was grocery shopping when my cell phone rang. Her cheery voice greeted me with the news that she knew who her "people group" was. She had told me about a retreat she had attended with a group of college friends where they were challenged to pray for God's direction as to who they should serve. This is in itself somewhat unusual for today's college student, being told it's not about the job you land, the bank account you build, or the status you achieve. These students were told it isn't about YOU at all...it's about what you will give away, and the people you will serve.
Micah told me her people group was foster children. She was about to watch God map out a plan that would forever change the lives of many children in the system.
She had witnessed what being in abusive and neglectful situations does to children. We had five foster children in our home at the time. Although Micah was married and living in another town she came home every chance she got to help with them. She saw what a struggle it was for us to go from having a quiet life with two teenage boys to the chaos that ensued when seven children all needed something at the same time. We were exhausted, sleep deprived and overwhelmed. We couldn't do it alone. Thankfully, we didn't have to. God supplied friends who did everything from organizing the children's clothes, to babysitting, to being an arm for our teen boys to lean on. It took that village we've heard about to help us survive.
In the midst of it all Micah was called to start a ministry. Big House Foundation was born. She named the organization after a song by Audio Adrenaline, a Christian band. The first Wednesday night we had our foster children we were on our way to church, I asked the kids to listen to the song. Some of the words are: "Come and go with me to my Father's house, it's a big big house with lots and lots of rooms, a big big table with lots and lots of food, a big big yard where we can play football, a big big house...it's my Father's house". The kids screamed to hear it again. We listened to it three times there and three times back. They were hooked. The song refers to Heaven but to foster children who may not be used to having enough food or room or a place to play it sounds like something they want right now!
The mission of Big House is serving the foster family. There is a clothes closet stocked with nice clothing free of charge to foster families, a swimsuit and beach towel drive each year so that foster children have a new swimsuit and a towel with their name embroidered on it. This past Christmas Big House hosted the foster family Christmas Party. Each child received gifts, books, hat's and gloves, and got the opportunity to eat breakfast with Santa and some of his helpers. Basically, the desire of Big House is to give every child a chance to do the things most children in traditional families do, including music, dance, art, sports, scouting etc.
Foster care is not a perfect solution, but it is all we have to do what we can for children in situations where they have no voice. As foster parents in Lee County we are thankful for friends, churches and organizations like Big House who are here to help.

Another Year of Blessings

I know it sounds cliche but I am so blessed. I don't take the time to acknowledge the source of my blessing NEAR enough. I have a sign in my kitchen that says "Count Your Blessings" but how often do I forget to read that on my way out to climb in my old car (also a blessing) to pick up two or three of them. Blessings, they are everywhere. I have plenty of stuff I could live without and I'm making an attempt at getting rid of some of it. Some of the stuff I've acquired just stresses me out. I don't need too much in this ADD brain to get me off track of what's important,and I really do want to focus on what is important in this life.
As I've watched the news the past two weeks some of my blessings have become more profound. Can you imagine having no water? We go to the sink and expect to have water, how often I have taken for granted the fact I have safe drinking water. In Haiti water is a luxury. It is the same for the people on Indian Reservations in South Dakota. I heard last night that people are dying there because they have no electricity and are trying to heat their homes with kerosene because it is below 0 degrees. These are the same people our great great grandfathers escorted off their land so we could live in this nice southern climate. These people are so poor and depressed that they have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. I can imagine...if I had to watch my children freeze and go without adequate food and heat I'd be depressed too....the point is I don't have to do without anything I really need. So my car is old, my house has "issues". I have everything I could possibly dream of and more.
I think the one event that changed me more than anything in the last two weeks was the woman in Haiti who was laying on the ground with her head in the lap of one of her sister-friends who was trying to console her. She had lost four children in the initial earthquake and then her fifth at the makeshift hospital. I cannot get this woman's face out of my mind. These people are so poor, they don't care about houses or cars. They've never had much so "stuff" means nothing to them...but, to lose all her babies...they were her hope. They were her future. I'm sure she had dreams of them becoming self sufficient and getting out of poverty, maybe one was a musician and maybe one or two were artists, or fishermen or dancers maybe one of her daughters had learned to sew and was helping the family with clothes. In a matter of moments all her dreams died. I wonder if she knows God. I wonder if she knows he is holding her in his hand. I wonder if there is anyone who can reach her in her grief. I am praying for her today. I am remembering that there is no "thing" I need in this world that can take the place of my Father's love for me.
And I am counting my blessings
Hannah, Micah, Matthan, Seth, Ariel, Cheyenne, Felicity, Aidie, Anderson and all who are to come. Thank you Lord....how could I ask for more.