Three posts on sunday and nothing since. How quaint.

Slugging along with the same things. I’ve been playing back-up hostess for my Sister-in-law, since nearly every night someone is coming in between the hours of 11 and 3, and leaving again between the hours of 4-6 to catch these darn flights ferrying orphans and supplies. Mostly out of Ft. Lauderdale, Vero, and Melbourne.  Kyle came home for two days to have some meetings and hammer some details with heavy equipment they’re trying to move in, and to spend a few minutes with the ones who miss him most. Poor kid picked up that stupid parasite that everybody seems to get when they go to Haiti…so he ate alot but regretted it later.

My family has been posting this interview from Kyle all day yesterday and so forth so the chances are good that you’ve already heard it, but I put it together with some pictures he gave me to make sense of what he’s talking about.  It’s a bangup job, sorry.

In an effort to take something off Cherie’s plate, I offered to pick up some water purifiers (it’s what her dad’s ministry does) that are going on a plane tonight.

I had her keys, and as I turned the key to the building, I remembered seeing an alarm keypad just inside that door the day before and realized I didn’t know the alarm code.

By the time I called her and got the code and entered it properly, the alarm had already gone off and I had a minute to get to a phone. I missed the phone call, and went downstairs to start loading the cases, I saw the policeman at the door shining his light in. I opened it, invited him in and he waited while I called the alarm company to give them the code.

To be fair, if I weren’t dressed in my church clothes and wasn’t wearing baby hair clips and tan leather dress shoes, it REALLY looked like I was doing something criminal. I was loading 6 large black cases and a red drawstring canvas bag out of a dark wearhouse onto a cart and loading it into a waiting van.

He was satisfied and went back out, I thought he left. But when I backed out the side door with the full cart, I saw the two police cars still there and the officer yelled out “what are you stealing?”

I said “water purifiers for Haiti…”

And the two officers joked about how bad it’d be for them if I really was stealing.

Then one of them grabbed the two cases that were falling off the cart and they both helped me load them into the van. The one said “I’d be in so much trouble if you really are stealing these.” and I laughed, and said “yeah, especially since these are $2000 apiece. People keep calling wanting us to donate them, and boy are they dissappinted.”

He loaded the last one, and I said “thanks so much!”

He said “have a good evening.”

He’s either a terrible cop, or I have a promising career in a life of crime.

So things aren’t great. Is anyone surprised? No.

Of the efforts we’ve been involved with, we’ve had as many fails as wins.

Win: there is clean water for the Ruuska villiage.

Fail: of all the leads we’ve had on structural engineers, none will commit. So we haven’t sent one down yet.
Update: change this to a win…an engineer is going in on Thursday.

Win: Don and Christine Ames agreed to go down and be on hand to oversee things at the orphanage since they need a steady “on site” contractor type, and an administrator type. Don and Christine fit the bill, and their hearts were open to it.

Fail: from the Ruuska orphanage, two private flights of about 7 already adopted orphans each have made it to the U.S., and have been detained and some even seized by INS and DCF. Their paperwork is correct and in order, they have visas, they are accompanied by their legal guardians, and their adoptive parents are sitting there waiting. The 7 children being held right this minute, as I write this, are detained because of lack of “official” creole translator to read their documents. Understandable, but frustrating for every person involved. Especially the children who don’t know what’s going on. And the one little girl who has been held for almost two weeks now…yeah. Retarded. That one is absolutely not understandable.

I spent yesterday helping pack 6 100lb cases of food and supplies to go down, and then repacking them because those flights fell through but a new one opened up that could take 4 50lb bags. Kelly and I packed a regular sized backpack with exactly 50…it was a work of art.

My brother decided to stay down there til he has to come back and pay bills. His wife said that on TV and random people are mailing them checks. So I guess he’ll be there longer.

There’s a lot more. Much more. Haiti.

God help them. We sure are trying.

Church at Viera, Shannon said this morning.

Shannon found the service times on their website and said “uh, the website looks cheesy.” I said “cheesy websites really aren’t a reason not to visit a church.” As much as I’d like it to be.

So we are at the 10:45 service. Got Ella checked in, their kid check-in system is rockin. Lo-fi really can be better.

Open with an interesting video in a mans deep voice saying what the church is about. Interesting. The singers step up, all 7 of them. Sing a song I don’t know and I’m not that into. Next song I know, so I’ll sing it.

Next I don’t know the next song so let me just commen on two things – greeting. Walking in the door, greeting was well done. Not just a “glad you’re here” but “wow, it’s windy today isn’t it!?” which was a nice touch. Greeting in the service, turn and greet your neighbors…wow, no one gets out of that one. I literally was greeted by every “neighbor.”

What’s with song lyrics leaving out vowels? Is it really doing anyone a favor to type “ev’rybody” than just including the E? Really?

Somebody around me smells like cheese and fruit danish.

Their announcements have this going for them: up to the minute slides, like with pictures taken from stuff on Friday. Good pics too.

Announcments include the orphange my brother is at in Haiti with pics of the water purfiers, and reports that 8 orphans got out last night. I laughed at that. Becaus.. I’ll tell you later.

Pastor steps up. I think his name is Mark. The fact that I don’t even know his name and he’s started preaching actually impresses me, and makes me wonder if this is a less pastor-centric church. I guess time will tell that.

They aren’t doing live video projection in the service, they just have one camera in the back that feeds to the lobby. Interesting choice.

He is talking about wise moves. Making wise choices. The obvious scriptures pulled out of proverbs. He says something about being righteous, and I’m not sure if it’s what he means but he makes it sound like righteousness is something we get to work for.

Anyway. He goes on at length about making wise choices and being righteous, and integrity.

A man comes up to share a testimony about a hard lesson learned about integrity in his business life. He gets choked up a few times. Shannon and I were equally impressed with the testimony part of the service.

Message ends with a song. They’re channeling “Glee” for the baby boomers. Seriously, is this worship or show choir? Ok, the song for the offering clinches it. It’s “Rachel” from Glee. Minus the arm waving and skipping around stage.

Also noted that the band is formed entirely of over-40 men. They’re good musicians but yeah. Nothing like lack of diversity to point out…the lack of it.

Today has been exceptional.

By that, I don’t mean “amazing” or “super great” I mean…it has been the exception. To pretty much all other days in my recent past.

lets work our way backwards here.

I may possibly never get invited to a “Princess House” party ever again. Or any kind of home selling party, for that matter. And if I do, I will have to wear a name tag that says “not allowed to ask questions.”

I’m just saying, if you’re trying to sell me hundreds of dollars worth of kitchen items, I am perfectly justified in asking a few detailed questions. Right? Am I the only person in the history of princess house shows who gets the contact info for the supervisor so I can ask her how long the company projects a profit from the current business model in a recession?

Yeah, I probably am.  Poor lady, doesn’t know what’s about to hit her. I have so many questions. What IS the process for making the glassware non-stick? (Google failed me.)

Before that, we had dinner at my folks, and before that I walked past my brother-in-law at walmart, (we exchanged a surprised “hi!” but in spite of the fact that we haven’t seen each other since I moved here, we both kept on walking. Hmm.)

Here comes the exceptional part.

I worked today. Like, did stuff that helped someone and perhaps others, and so forth.

Every time I answered the phone, I had to pause because the FIRST words in my mouth were “Shoreline Church” and I haven’t worked there in two YEARS!!!! So I paused and then answered some garbled form of “air mobile ministries.” And half the calls I got were “what the soup of the day was.” If that boggles your mind, yeah, mine too.

So there have been earthquakes in Haiti. Like, a lot of them. And here’s the thing…my brother Kyle is there. He flew down on a NASCAR plane (what does that mean? I don’t know. I thought NASCAR meant cars.)  a few days after the first one, and has been…doing a lot. I don’t know what exactly, I think it can be summed up in “anything and everything.” with an orphanage there. There is a lot of damage, a lot of need, a lot of hurt people, and it sickens me to say it but a LOT of dead people. A lot of everything every family and individual hopes to never have to experience or deal with.

Kyle’s wife Cherie is 6 months preganant, and if it weren’t for that and his stern “you’re not coming” she would be there too. So instead, she is here. Manning 4 seperate phone lines from early in the morning til late at night. Her priority is 1. Kyle is still alive, 2. Supplies and DOCTORS and hopefully 1 engineer are being flown on private planes into Haiti, 3. children that have visas and are in the adoption process are being flown OUT on the same private planes, 4. a million other things that are imporatant and pressings and everything all at once because DISASTER is a big word and is spelled with two S’s.

So I handled at least one of her phones today. And I emailed for her. And had others do things. And it was good to feel useful on a not-domestic level.

And I prayed for people. And people responded. And I called people. And people responded. And I got some weird calls. And some annoying calls. And some GREAT calls. And some “this isn’t going anywhere” calls. That’s what answering a phone IS, right? “Weird, annoying, great, or dead-end.”

And before that, I dropped my daughter off at my parents house for the day. And I really did miss her. I didn’t miss her, but I missed her.

I’m probably going to have to do penance or something for the princess house thing.

We are visiting the Mezzanine as a family tonight. Shannon was here last week, I was still unpacking etc. And stayed home.

I’m wary. Shannon and I met at the mezzanine about 7 years ago. I was 20. Going to a service aimed at young adults made worlds of sense to me at the time. It was good in many many ways, ways I could expound on at length. This isn’t about that though.

I’m turning 28 this year. My husband is turning 35. We have a daughter, we’ve moved away and moved back, we’ve helped plant a church, we’ve done many many things. We are different people now and I’m just not sure I fit into a young adult setting anymore. I guess that is what time will tell.

So anyway, we are here. Dropped Ella off in the nursery.

Open with a cover song. Turns out to be a song by muse, but the first few bars sounded like that britany spears song. I tried to shazam it but it never works on live music, I’ve noticed.

Coupla worship songs. Half way through the music I noticed a few things.

1. I know very little recent worship music. Should work on that.

2. Their big projector went wonky and needs repair.

3. They have the stage covered in small 24″-36″ rods with bare lightbulbs. They are on a dimmer so they’ve been adjusing the brightness along with the stage lighting. It’s nice and everything but all I can think when looking at them is Tesla. Weird association.

Wrap that up.

Some announcments, offering, they report partially correctly the status of Haiti missions. Only Kyle is there, Cherie is trying not to twiddle her thumbs at home.

Matt steps up. Starts talking about friends. Not sure if that’s the subject or if it’s a segue.

He uses a phrase “unadulterated evil.” and I’m wondering on a side note what adulturated evil looks like in comparison.

I think he’s focusing on the subject of influence. He reads proverbs 2:20-22.

Goes back to proverbs 2:12 to explain how to follow the steps of a good man.

He gives many examples, one even of Shannon getting a job last week. His main point though seems to be about being intentional in your friendships, making sure you befriend people older and wiser than you, as well as people younger that you can impart things to. And the friends who are not good influences become less “friends” and more “ministry” even if that means just praying from afar.

In summary.

We skedaddle quik cause Shannon has another engagement for the night and has to drop us off at home, so we aren’t around after to chitchat etc.

Today my daughter turned two. My thoughts have been a mixture of “she doesn’t even know or care”, “wow, she is such a little kid now, not a baby at all!” and, “two years ago at this moment I was _____ (fill in the blank with something gory and labor related.)”

Her bangs are trimmed, she has as many pairs of shoes as I do now, and she loves to play to an audience.

She had scramble eggs and grilled cheese for dinner…the two things left on her favorite foods list. Oatmeal was breakfast and peanut butter sandwich was lunch.

I made cupcakes. She (didn’t) blow out the candle. She opened presants. All the while oblivious to why so much attention was being paid her.

I guess that’s what being two is all about.

Visiting churches is something Shannon and I agreed to before we moved. We have never “looked” for a church since we’ve been married.

Sunday we went to East Coast, the church we went to while we were engaged and the first few months we were married. I knew what to expect, and many of my readers are familiar with it so for now I’ll leave it be and it can stand as church #1 that we “visited.”

Church #2 is Calvery Chapel Space Coast. My parents and my brother and his family attend here. We are here on a Wednesday night. They broadcast their weekday service on the radio, so they are live tonight. Worship is shakey, my mom is singing backup and between her and the soft plucking of the banjo it’s about all I’m hearing through the P.A. I’ve heard through the grapevine that this is an area church #2 needs work on.

The pastor’s gift is clearly in teaching. He is a great teacher. Perfect for a Wednesday night services where you can flip (or scroll) to a lot of scriptures.

It’s hard for me not to do a “top to bottom” overhaul of a church service mentally. I’m making a concerted effort not to do that over the next month or two, and tonight is no exception. Every fleeting thought of “if only… this” or “they could..that” is bannished.

Pastor Baron is talking about “abiding” and we are in John. I would be impressed immensly if he even once quotes The Dude. That’s a lot to ask, I guess.

Ok, well. He references Samantha on “bewitched.” different eras…

Wrapping up.

Friday we drove down here.

Saturday we moved all the “stuff” into storage.

We spent a few hours and a few meals at my parents.

They still had their christmas stuff up.

Also, weird when you can share toys and hats with your uncle.

Sunday we enjoyed a service at our old stomping grounds, East Coast Christian Center. Not sure that we’ll be making that our new church home, but we’re open to where God wants us to be.

Monday was a settling in day, and Shannon got a call that lead to…

Tuesday, an interview, and a job offer. Job accepted.

It is really hard for me to process the events of the past 5 weeks, so much has gone down in flames, so much has been flying high, and so much has been just slugging along trying to keep up. But my husband going to work on Monday morning for the first time in 51 weeks is leaving me amazed and thankful. I don’t know why it was so hard in Destin. And I don’t know why the things we struggled with up there are “easy” here, and vice versa, but I know that being obedient is when you have peace and certainty. And we’ve had that no matter where we’ve been, because we knew we were supposed to be there.

There is a lot more to this. A lot more on my mind.

Shoutouts to you know whos for getting us here.

If I’m not writing anything recently, it’s because….

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaughhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

That about covers it.

See you when we hit brevard.