Parenting 202

So this week I had an opportunity to be a mom...to my siblings.

I approach my parents leaving for 5days to celebrate their 25th anniversary on a cruise to the Caribbeans as a chance to practice being a mom and homemaker (I like this word better than "stay at home mom" because that phrase implies that moms are not suppose to stay at home or something.)

Now a random list of my thoughts during the whole experience:
- getting children actively involved in their schoolwork and studies is so meaningful, but takes a lot of effort, patience and love.
- Cooking for a well-balanced meal takes intentional mental planning that goes in to shopping, picking out the recipe you want to use, substituting where applicable
- cooking/baking a dish that you consider a success is a real blessing, being able to share that dish or a meal with people you love is even a bigger blessing
- i still love to wash the dishes no matter how many times i have to do it in a day

- you can choose to simply just hear a child when they are speaking to you or be conscious that you are interacting with a completely individual heartbeat and choose to actively listen to worries, problems, joys, confusion, misunderstandings
- i know i will make it my mission to help my siblings not to fall in the pits i have fallen in to, teach them to be cautious not to trip on the rocks i tripped on. I made the mistakes and now I can help them not make those same ones in their life.
- being a kids is so much fun, and since every adult has been a kid, you just have to release the inner kid in you!!!
- stuffed animals are good for snuggling with, building towers with, bowling in to fellow stuffed animals, using as a pillow, giving kisses to others with, an instrument to use as a mediator when you have a argument (Eeyore is really good)
- it is easy to get a "mom-brain," when your mind is consistently buzzing with: "drop of Jessica by 7pm for swimming--make sure she has a snack b/c it's a 2 hour practice this week--, then I have to make sure I pick up Timmy before this time, so that we can go shopping for dinner ingredients--did Timmy finish his Chinese HW completely? need to ask him that--, make sure you leave a time cushion because it's raining today--why are my tires not gripping as well to the road? should get that checked out--, unless Jessica doesn't want to go to this event that she was invited to.....etc etc etc."
- it takes determined focus and wild multi-tasking skills!
- kids want to know they are contributing to something awesome, therefore, teach them that what they are doing is contributing even though it may seem small, without them it would be impossible to get done, they are so valued and significant :)
- many many more things....


*but the most important principle that I have learned is to love, forgive and move on so you can love some more.
...So there is no time wasted in unforgiveness and emotional/relational separation.
...So there is more time to focus on why we are family.
...So there is stressed importance on reviving and enjoying the relationship.
...So there is conversation about deeper feelings of the heart and soul, which in turn develops your relationship more.
...So there is openness and honesty encouraged at all aspects of arguments and disciplines.
...So there is understanding between two separate heartbeats so that they may learn how to beat as one heart serving the same purpose in live--to love. :)

June 10th

Gee I can play with time on blogs….::sneaky laugh::

June 8th(to come) and June 10th
I hope these blogs are interesting and holds your attention. Blogs are only good if they are read, but then again I grow from writing them because I am able to process the day. So if you are reading, it’s a win-win (win!).

June 10th
We cleaned. I cleaned 30 sinks. It was a grand accomplishment.

So story time:
After dinner, Sara wanted to bake some brownies, I jumped at the opportunity to help her (the combination of spending some one-on-one time with stackett and getting the chance to eat the left over brownie batter was a match made in heaven, ^_^) We had a great conversation, as the usual, then popped the brownies in the oven. I checked on the brownies a couple times because we used a different sized pan than instructed on the directions. Meanwhile Sam and Johnny were washing the dishes and listening to Hannah Montana (Sam’s favorite). Second time I checked the oven…my eyes pleasantly seeing the toothpick came out clean…my mind wishing I could somehow can the smell of fresh baked brownies and make it in to a perfume…my oven-mitted hands carefully taking the brownies out to cool on top of the stove. 5 minutes pass. I come back to the kitchen to find a pair of scissors. To my awe, shock and surprise, I find Johnny and Sam nervously giggling looking at me and then the pan of brownies, or what used to be!!! I walked slowly to the pan to see that they were only three pieces and some crumbs left!!! I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it! Johnny and Sam started to apologize profusely saying “we just kept on eating, we didn’t realize we had so much!” and “oh no, that was for Sara? How could we? Do you think we can make some more before she finds out, let’s do that, yeah!” Sam and Johnny then start to gather up ingredients to start making brownies. I was still in shock; I had a thought that this situation was just unbelievable.

Later I found out that the brownies were neatly cut and placed on a plate, HIDDEN IN THE MICROWAVE! Johnny and Sam, those tricksters!!

June 9th

Waking up in a very reflective and introspective mood this morning, I got ready for the day slowly and thoughtfully. It was a pleasant surprise to see Lauren at the bus stop (it cheered me up to be waiting for the bus with someone I knew!); we quietly waited for the bus, Lauren with headphones in ear and me with my bible, reading a devotional on the serenity prayer. Good prayer. Only a few minutes later we were both greeted by a lady, around 35 years old; she acted like we were her long lost friends saying “I’m gonna drop allllll charges, yep.” She was talking about her husband. After getting on the bus, she continued to tell each person on the bus about how she is going to court and planning to drop “allllll charges” on her husband. Maybe it was because of my mood at the time but I just got sad and starting questioning in my journal, “Why do people do what they do? How does our mind make choices? What is going through her mind, what’s happening in her life? Would it be beneficial to drop charges?” I felt a deep concern for her, maybe I can help her make a good decision…but I felt helpless. It was then that I realized I felt helpless because I was too weak to reach out to everyone who needed someone to care for them, someone to care about their well-being, someone to love them. Then I felt God turning my thoughts to Him and how He works for the good of everyone who loves Him.

I arrived at The City Mission with thought of longing for heaven, “this world is so confusing, filled with ‘not-happy-stuff.’” I was reminded of reflection from the night previous, we shared our fears…this morning solidified a fear of mine, “I am afraid that I will not be useful, I am afraid that I will not make a positive difference with this life.”

Today is the day I lead devotional for the second time,” Lord please prepare me, speak though me and use me.” I entered the room to start to rearrange the seats from row order to a circle; conducive to discussion and not focused on the speaker (makes me kind of nervous). My mind was still buzzing with, what it seemed, millions of thoughts, and then thoughts upon my thoughts, analyzing whether or not my thoughts were beneficial to me. Music was playing, gospel. There was one gentleman in the room, we introduced ourselves. Clifton, volunteer at The City Mission, “I really love this song, do you mind if I stay to listen to it?” “Oh please do, stay.” It was a good song, Clifton has good taste. “God is always with us” something like that, I don’t remember the lyrics but it certainly encouraged my spirit.

The ladies started to flood in, first 5 or 6 then 2 more, 4 more. I asked them to sit in the circle after they got a coffee. One gal sat, to my surprise, right next to me (how encouraging, someone wants to sit next to the “teacher” ::smiles::) She had big sunglasses on, holding her coffee cup to her lips, “man! It is freezing in here!” this was followed by a few other women who agreed that the air was turned on. I looked over at her taking a sip of her steaming coffee and said, “Isn’t it amazing that you can be bundled up and still be cold, but if you drink something warm, it makes all the difference? Changes are more effective from the inside out.” Woah, that’s a cool thought, thanks God. ^_^

We talked about Abigail for our devotional. “If there is a relationship in your life that is destructive, do not become hopeless. There is hope in the Lord, in His ultimate wisdom and comfort. Abigail saved her family from King David’s plan to murder because of her husband’s foolish decisions. God can help.” I then opened up the time for the ladies to share; one woman shared of her life: she was in many abusive relationships, her mom has just died one month ago, and the domestic shelters will not help her; she was bitter and trying to be independent. I encouraged her to see one of the case managers who can listen to her story in detail and help her anyway they can.

Then came the time to open the Quiet Waters Clothing room to the ladies; all of them were very excited. While registering the ladies and bagging their clothes I found out the gal who sat next to me is going through rehab for alcohol abuse, 93 days sober. She was praising God for it! How encouraging, thank you Lord for your good works! You are always working!

Mary is one of the oldest volunteers at The City Mission (TCM), she is 80 some years young and always has something wonderful to say, filled with wisdom and love. I got to make her laugh when I started dancing around with another volunteer, Scarlet. Scarlet is great, she inspires me to learn sign language so that I can communicate with her, she loves it when I make funny faces at her. What a blessed time together as we all worked to reorganize the clothing room.

I was already late for our staff meeting; Janet (my supervisor) was leading it. She taught us about how to chew on God’s word…just like a cow eats, chews and rechews (I guess that’s not a word) grass for nutrients. She encouraged us to really read, chew on, allow God to bring to our minds His word/what He wants to teach us. How cool and refreshing! We read Acts 4:8-14

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is
'the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone.’
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.”

What I learned:-the importance of relying on the Holy Spirit to say the right things and not to say the wrong things-how cool is it to be able to “see/notice” when someone has been spending time with Jesus-one of the employees said in reference to Romans 12:1-2 “your hear ‘praise God!’ all the time…shut your mouth and live it!” -Sometimes we complicate the gospel-remember the assurance of heaven, we have hope, we know exactly where we are going

This is what I do at work! Yes!

Off to lunch! (I finally gave Claire the 52 weeks list)

Once a month TCM has a staff luncheon, yum! I had strawberry pie for the very first time. Found out Hosea Anderson is working with the kids at the Pathways ministry! How sweet! Bless his heart for those kids!

(I’m going running soon and really want to finish at least one day of blogness)…here’s my favorite way of writing…LISTS!
- All staff meeting: we sang 3 hymns, talked an hour about benefits and life insurance
- Went back to work on the “Volunteer Case Manager’s Guide to career training and planning” or something like that
- Waited for the bus, when I entered in I heard a young girl crying. Her mother, who did not look any order than me, kept on yelling at her to stop with such a loaded angry voice. Her daughter didn’t stop crying. A minute passed. I turned to the little girl, seated two rows behind me, and I started making funny faces at her and playing peek-a-boo. It only took a few funky faces for her stop crying. She gave me a tiny tiny smile. ^_^ I think I want to work with kids.
- I caught the 51X bus today! YES! I am a professional RTA rider!
- Met a grandma who has many foster grandchildren.
- Helped Lauren prepare dinner…Latkes…Lexi’s recipe!
- Julie Bishop came over for dinner.
- Now…running with Sam!
Thanks for reading! :^_^

The City Mission

June 1st was at the City Mission, here's a good over view to start you off:

The City Mission mission statement: “Providing Help and Hope to All People through the Transforming Power of God’s Love.”

They offer:
• Last year, Laura’s Home provided safe shelter to 657 women and 389 children, some staying briefly and others were in our long-term program. About 60% of the population is in the long-term program. Find out more about how The City Mission is helping to change the lives of women and children in Cleveland.

• Like Laura's Home, our Crossroads men's program ran near capacity. Each man learned about integrity, responsibility and commitment.

• Our Neighborhood Ministry fed and clothed thousands last year. But more importantly, they helped over 3000 people grow in their relationship with their Creator.

• Many inmates attended the services of our Jail and Prison Ministries last year.

• Helping our youth make the right choices in life is the focus of our Pathways Youth Ministry.

• Grand Valley Christian Retreat Center hosted over 4000 adults and youths last year. To see how God’s creation can impact lives read more.

I will be working in the Neighborhood Ministry as a case worker under Janet Boddie; she is a mother, a grandmother, been married for 14 years and does so many things I lost count.

g2g catch the bus...oh do i have many stories for you! ^_^

Settling In-Orientation weekend

Good morning! Guess what? I am moved in!

Everything has been fast-paced since move in on Friday because we have had so much to do: decisions to be made about house chores and house expectations; decisions on social outings and planning weekly reflection times; getting to know the area of Old Brooklyn, Ohio City and more of the surrounding areas, orientating ourselves with each other and with the community; lots of food preparation and clean up (eating together is a joy in itself); getting used to this computer (and how the mouse moves on its own, eventually to the top left corner, if you were wondering).

Move in day was really exciting, when I wasn’t busying myself and I had a chance to take in what was going on- it was unreal. It was like a dream, maybe because I have been dreaming about doing Project Affinity (PA) since I was a sophomore. EEE! ^_^

Later in the day, we munched on some delicious muffins Sara (student director) had made for us and before we knew it, we were on our way to a tour of the house. The house is spacious; it’s a great size for eight people, cozy and comfortable, and if you want to find a secret place to be alone you can (the attic is sorta magical). I got to know my new roomie (“roomie" is not a word according to Microsoft?), Julie, who just got back from her semester study aboard. The girls sleep on the 2nd floor and the guys are downstairs. I am sure the guys will fight off any creepers if they choose to mess with us. I have to say to you…what a wonderful bunch! Everyone is so kind-hearted, willing to be open and respectful and real. I can see great potential for lots of good to be done this summer through these fokes. I am looking forward to the community that is already being built as I type to you.

So…I am going in such detail this may be the longest blog ever, so fast forwarding the rest of the first day:

1 hour van tour around Cleveland and surrounding areas
-we have the 2nd oldest bowling ally in the US!
-Steelyard is pretty cool
-there is a Diana's electronics, i didn't get the memo
-the bridge currently under construction by the zoo is going to be beautiful
-the zoo sells zoo poo as fertilizer, you can probably figure that one out
-the owners of "Ugly Broad bar" are really nice
-the nicest houses I have ever seen
-Cleveland is cooler and sweeter than I previously thought, and i had high hopes!

Get to know you time
-learned a new game (finish the sentence “I will never….” And “I will always…”), if you choose to make comments, please consider telling me what you would write.
-Here are mine:
I will always be a listening ear whenever anyone needs it. I will never give up hope on Cleveland. I will always floss everyday. I will never let a friend down if I can help it. I will always flush. ^_^

Decision making galore and house business. I found out that Johnny and Jared also love to wash the dishes! (we have already started to fight over the dishes...weird uh?)

First dinner together: home made pizzas! (I want to show you pictures!) (and of course I have been taking loads of pictures…surprised?) Do you think i can be a photo jounralist?

Guests to talk about street smarts and safety
- i may get some pepper spray even though we are in a pretty safe place while it's daytime

Hang out time
We talked about America’s next top model, tv shows we liked
And later we talked about faith and spirituality
… haha ^_^ "I know, right" (tehee Jakeb) we talked about spirituality and organized religion for about two hours or so. It was a really open and peaceful conversation, but don't get me wrong, the conversation did have it's times of heatedness. I was incredibly blessed by it; I absolutely love learning about others point of view, just LOVE IT! We each have very many different views, some strong and most very inclusive views (Brian would have lots of appropriate terms here to be more detailed). I had lots on my mind before bed, so I felt led to journal about them…WOW! I totally felt God strengthening my faith and groundedness (not a word, it should be: Diana Dictionary!) in Him. What a blessings, as I open my heart and mind to accept and love the people around me I learn so much about the God I serve. How sweet is that?

May 30th,2009

So many things from this day, here are some highlights because my time on the computer is short:

We talked about Person First Language:
We read an article about the correct kind of language when addressing or talking about a person who is disabled…errk “who has a disability.” See? By stating the former I have labeled this person disabled, "how would you feel if someone labeled you by the wart on your bum?". Disability is normal; it is a normal part of living on this earth. I believe there needs to be a change of heart and attitude about this (mind included) not just a PC way of talking (this can often times be more hurtful). If you ever want to talk to me about this, I am totally open to share more. Diana's personal attitude needed to be changed (DPANC)--i'll think of something better, maybe--: I want to see individuals as individuals. I want to embrace our similarities and embrace our differences, but at the end of the day I want the core of a person’s individuality (for lack of better word, their personality and values, their soul?) to be what I value the most!

The bus system…ohhh the bus system:
We paired up to find our work sites (so each pair had to locate and find 4 sites and our mystery dinner place in 2 hours using $9 to buy 2 all-day RTA passes) Julie and I used the handy-and-not-so-dandy trip planner to plan out our most efficient route. We ended up not making to any of our sites, but still taking the bus to 9th and Superior, we took some fun pictures and made it on time for dinner at….(drum roll please) …Johnny Mango! Yum!

Dinner, to be or not to be….
Julie, Sam, Lexi and I got to the restaurant and found out that the other two teams would not get there until much later so we went to the library by St Patrick’s church and the playground. It was there that I met Vicki and Alexander (who already knew Sam from one of her previous volunteer times and they all remembered each other!). Vicki told me her story, I am not sure what is appropriate to disclose here on the internet, but I can tell you her story broke my heart. We spoke for a while and I listened as intently as possible as I tried to piece together her story, I don’t think she meant to deliberately share her story of the past year but she was so emotionally filled with pain, regret, struggle, betrayal and disappointment that she had to tell someone. There was a reason, there was a reason we were waiting for everyone to come for dinner, there was a reason we were at the playground, there was a reason we met Vicki.

I was filled with empathy for Vicki and I offered words of encouragement, she is a strong, she’s made it this far, never give up hope, Alexander is a wonderful child, he is so happy…I started to feel her burden and it was deep and heavy, so I did the only thing I knew what to do in a situation when I am burden by heartbreak, I asked Vicki if I could pray for her and she timidly yet enthusiastically said “yes.” God reminded me of how David was being chased and hunted down and how David expressed his pain and longings to God in the book of Psalm. God hears. That gave me hope and I think it gave Vicki hope too.

So please pray for Vicki if she comes to your mind, pray for Alexander, he’s only 5.

If you think others would benefit from reading this blog, I wouldn’t mind the recommendation. Sharing my experience is what I want to do. Changing your heart one story at a time is what I want God to do. God bless you :0D

Gal 5:13 Purpose

The best way to start a blog...is to state it's purpose. Which I will do so here :)

It is my hope that this blog will be used to share my thoughts, emotions, experiences, good days, tough days, inspirational moments, heartbreaking stories and everything in between regarding my time at Archwood House (and beyond) while participating in Project Affinity through BWC's Office of Community Outreach. Project runs May 29, 2009-July 24th, 2009.

Inspiration verse to keep me going: Galatians 5:13

"For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love." (NLT)

To whomever reads this: I pray your time of viewing my words will not be wasted but that these moments will be encouraging, positive, truth-provoking, inspiring and even heart-changing. It is my prayer that fear will decrease and the truth in love will win out. Through the many experiences life gives us, we have the opportunity to learn and choose to change for the better--this is the documentation of such an experience. Enjoy!