Wow! It has been quite a long time since my last blog post. Things have been happening at the Love Home and I wanted to take a few minutes to update you on all God has been doing!
First of all, in case you didn't see it on my personal facebook post, GOD GAVE US A VAN!!! This has been a prayer request for quite some time! We are so thankful to Landers Dodge in Southaven for donating it to us! What wonderful leadership they have! They didn't want any of the attention coming to them. They only wanted us to praise God for the answered prayer! It has been amazing!
Secondly, we have begun a special ministry relationship with a new church in town called Engage Church. It was such a God-thing how we met the pastors and the Holy Spirit has just moved in their hearts and they have come alongside us in ministry in VERY practical ways! They had a whole team of adults and children come over on a very rainy Saturday to do work at the home! Many ladies did organizing upstairs and then there were several projects going on outside! It was so neat to see the body of Christ in action just serving! It was such a great testimony to our girls here also to see people just come to serve! We are excited about this ongoing relationship and praise God for sending them our way!
Thirdly, we are looking forward to another Bellevue Loves Memphis and the Warriors Center combo project at the home! They are going to be doing some much needed repair work to the exterior and we cannot wait to see the finished product! We are so thankful for both of these ministries and their heart to serve!
Finally, we have some great updates on our girls. You know our ministry is a 24/7 support system to the girls when they come to live at the Love Home. While here, they really become a part of our family. When it is time for them to leave, we want to remain a constant in their lives. Some of them allow us to do that and some pull away. We are grateful when the relationship continues and we so enjoy keeping up with the girls and babies. I am going to give you a little update on the 10 girls that we have been blessed to serve.
Tiffany and Cayla are doing good. Cayla is 15 months old and cute as she can be! Tiffany has gotten her own apartment and she texted just today and said they are enjoying the apartment. I am so proud of her for getting her own place. Many of the reasons she came to live at the Love Home was because she was not in a good and safe place. Unfortunately she went back there. It has been neat to hear her tell us how she now sees and understands all the things that we were telling her when she was here! We are thankful for the seeds planted and that we are seeing some fruit from them!
Tiandra and Jacob have fallen off the radar. I spoke with her last summer when they were going to come swimming but they never came. Rumor has it that she isn't doing so well. It is hard to hear that because we love these two dearly and want the best for them. We know God has great plans for them and just hope that she bears the fruit He desires for her life and for Jacob's life.
Brittany graduated from high school and has moved to St. Louis. I keep in touch with her some and hope to see her when she comes in town! She and Martin are doing well and are expecting a baby girl in the fall! Nathan will be one shortly after this little girl is due!!! Crazy!!! They are both working opposite schedules to be able to take care of him. I am so proud of her!
Jakira and Micah are doing great! She has just finished up the year at Rust College. I am so proud of her! She juggled school and being a mom and when I asked her how she did in her classes, she said, "I got all Cs." I told her, "Cs get degrees!!!!" I know she is going to hang in there and get her college degree and it isn't easy! She is a strong girl and has a great group of friends who help her and support her! She texted Monday and told me that she finally has a job interview! We have been praying for her a job! Anyway, her interview was yesterday and she said it went well and she will find out tomorrow if she got it! I told her to keep school the priority so that she isn't working at McDonald's forever. There's nothing wrong with that, but she wants to do more to provide for her and Micah. She is an amazing girl and SO MUCH FUN!!!
JP is doing well. She is still working at Chick-fil-A and going to school. Her precious baby was placed for adoption and is happily living in Colorado with her amazing adoptive parents! JP enjoys seeing the pictures and videos they send to me. She said she thinks about that baby all the time but knows she did the best thing for her. JP is an amazing testimony of the drastic life change that we long to see in the girls who live in the home! She has made so many huge changes and we absolutely love her and are so proud of her! We are thankful to see her several days a week too!!!
Ayanna and Cayleb are doing well. She is a hard worker and a great mother. She wrote the sweetest letter to us sharing what her time at the Love Home meant to her and it was precious to us. She has gotten her own place and is still in need of some furniture and home goods. If you have anything you could donate to help her, I know she would be so grateful!!
Kristie fell off the radar for quite a while after she delivered a stillborn. She popped back up here and there throughout the winter months. She will text for a few days and then disappear. She texted me the beginning of May to tell me that she is pregnant again. She said she has a stable living environment and I hope that is true!! She (and the baby) definitely could use our prayers!!!
Shanika had her baby yesterday!!!! Although she didn't live at the Love Home throughout her entire pregnancy, we have had some contact with her along the way. She has had some difficulties, but Jameal (not sure of the spelling!) was born a big, healthy boy! I hope to go see them tomorrow!!
Our next girl remained anonymous the entire five months she lived with us. She came to us because of some tough financial difficulties. Her baby was healed in the womb of a cyst on her brain. That baby girl lived with us for 4 months and, oh my goodness, what a cutie pie! She was so healthy and perfect. The two of them moved out last week and went into another ministry called Love Works. She needed just a few more months of assistance to get her feet good and steady under herself. They are doing well and we are proud of her hard work!!
Our current resident is also anonymous but she is doing GREAT! She is working at Chick-fil-A with us and she keeps us laughing and on our toes! You absolutely never know what is going to come out of that girl's mouth!!! She is placing her baby for adoption and has a wonderful family picked out. We found out two weeks ago that he has a little hole in his stomach and his intestines have come out. This will require some special monitoring while in the womb and surgery and quite a little stay in the LeBonheur NICU after delivery. The ultrasound this week showed that the other organs are all in their correct spot so that was great news. I said, "his stomach" but we are not 100% sure it is a boy. "He" must be modest because he will not show anyone for sure what "he" is!!! It is quite funny! She is getting very extensive ultrasounds by top technicians and they are even surprised when they can't tell for sure! Anyway, please pray for this baby and his birth mom and the adoptive family! There is a sweet little relationship beginning between them and we are thankful for that. Also pray for Monday when the birth father will be presented the papers to surrender his rights or at least say that he is willing to surrender them (I am still new at all this!). We really want to get past this hurdle and have him agree to place this baby for adoption. The other day, this birth mom was riding in the car with JP and they were talking a little about adoption and all. This mom said, "There will not be a day that goes by that I don't think about him but I know this is the best thing to do." What bravery! What selflessness! She loves this baby and I know her decision isn't an easy one! Please pray for this whole situation!!
As you know if you have followed our blog, we are always a phone call away from getting another girl!! We know that God brings to us exactly who He desires. We are just so thankful that He has chosen us to serve in this way. We love these girls and these babies. Believe me, they get more than their share of kisses when they visit me!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment