The Kodiak

Today, the girls and I had the privilege to take a short flight on the Kodiak airplane. Dwight called yesterday and asked if we wanted to go up and I said, "Yes! We'll be there." Unfortunately, we showed up 24 hours early. *sigh* Today...the correct day...we arrived at MMS and the hangar was abuzz with excitement. We were on the first flight. I must admit I felt a little queasy by the time we were over West Lafayette and I was grateful for the little vent above my seat that blew cool air on my face. The girls really enjoyed the flight. I've posted pictures to show them before take off. I also added a aerial picture of Coshocton, Ohio.

When we arrived at the hangar something else was going on. Josh finished the work on Edgar's floats and Edgar was there to pick them up. Edgar is the owner of the airplane that Chris worked on the last year of his life. The plane itself was completed just after Chris' passing. The floats, however, complete "the package". They will allow Edgar more flexibility in his flying. Job well done, Josh. Chris would be proud. I have linked to Josh's blog where he has pictures of his work on the floats.

Debbie

This is my friend Debbie. This past spring we were brought together in a very special way. I would like to share the story, b/c it is yet another way that the Lord continues to show His hand in His children's lives today.

Debbie and I were both part of a Sunday evening ladies Bible study at our church. Our pastor's wife, Deb (not to be confused with the Debbie picture here), led the study in Titus. One day as I worked through the study questions I was challenged by some things that Deb wrote about discipleship. The Spirit put a deep longing in me to want to disciple someone. I have never discipled anyone, but I prayed, "Lord here I am. If you want me to do this I pray that You will arrange it all." Little did I know...

The following Sunday we sat in the fellowship hall listening to Deb speak and the same longing returned only much more intense. I started praying, "Lord, I am available. I don't know how, but I trust You to work it all out. If you want me to disciple someone show me who it is." At that instant the Spirit put Debbie's name on my heart and peace flooded over me. I then prayed, "Lord that makes so much sense. I have been getting to know Debbie for a while now and she keeps saying that she wants to know more. Okay Lord, now I need you to help me. I don't want to sound arrogant. How do I approach her?" I sat back totally at peace, trusting Him to work it out.

After the study I crossed the gym and stood by Debbie while she talked to one of her friends from work. When she finished her conversation she turned around and with all seriousness she said, "Dana, I was just sitting here feeling convicted. I need to be discipled. I was trying to figure out who to ask. After the study I saw you over there and thought I want Dana to disciple me. Will you disciple me?"

I think my jaw hit the floor. I was speechless. I then poured out my story from the past week. God had worked out all of the details. Debbie is a wonderful student and I have prayed often that the Lord will teach her through me. It is a true joy to study together. I have grown to love her as my sister in Christ. I look forward to spending eternity with my friend Debbie.

On a different note...the other night I was reminded of how differently my children think since loosing their daddy. Chris used to brush Lydia's hair, she loved it!! The other night Caleb picked up a brush and started to brush Lydia's hair. At one point Lydia said, "My hand is numb and I can't get it to wake up." Caleb immediately started questioning her as he moved her hand and tried to assess the situation. I knew exactly what his mind was thinking...numbness in the left leg and arm was one of Chris' symptoms. Their lives have been changed forever.

Fix-it Mom

One advantage of having a missionary airplane mechanic around the house is that if he doesn't know how to fix it he WILL figure out a way to do it. Now that Chris is gone I have had to learn a great deal about fixing the little things. I can't just leave things anymore...I must learn to do it or find someone who can. One thing in my favor is that I used to work in the hardware department at Sears. I learned a lot about tools. I read the tool catalogues...no, I'm not joking, I really did...and I asked a whole bunch of questions. (Does that sound like Chris or what??!!) Earlier this week Caleb was opening my desk drawer and he had to catch it because the screw had come out. After a few days of it occupying the top of my desk...which was really irritating me...I crawled under to have a look. I realized that the screw they used was way too short and it had stripped out the wood. I saw another hole in the bracket and decided to use a longer screw in a new location. I got out the drill and I did it!! I slid the drawer back into it's proper place and I now have my desk top back. It feels good to accomplish the little things--that I never knew I could do. Every little step I take I can't help but think of how proud Chris would be. I can see his crooked smile of approval and hear his laugh of joy at my accomplishment.

Today we worked on science experiments. Caleb and Lydia are learning about cohesion and adhesion. In the picture they are testing out the cohesion of water by trying to get 30 drops of water (a ml) on a penny...it worked. Then they put one drop less (29 drops) and then added a drop of soapy water (which has little cohesion). The water went all over the table. I love home schooling...I think I learn as much if not more than they do.

Groundcrew Stuffing

Last night several of the MMS ladies met in the lunchroom at the hangar Our goal was to get all of the MMS Groundcrew newsletters stuffed into their envelopes. That may not seem like a big thing, but when you consider that we stuffed a total 6,441 letters it isn't so small. Each of us has our own unique style of getting the letter into the envelope, but that's okay as long as they are kept in zip code order. I'm not sure what we enjoy the most getting the job done or the chatting that happens along the way. There are many steps to getting the Groundcrew published, but we are the final step in getting the Groundcrew out the door and into your hands. You can go to the MMS Aviation web site to view back copies of the Groundcrew.

Lydia took this beautiful picture of a butterfly on the bush next to our patio.

We started school this week. I left for work on Monday and the children had already started their seat work. Caleb and Lydia are studying ancient history this year. The books Sonlight has chosen are so interesting that Caleb and Lydia kept asking me to read more so we did and now we're ahead of schedule. It is always nice to be ahead so that when scheduled (or unexpecting) things happen mom doesn't feel the pressure to get caught up with school. Our favorite part of school is the read alouds. For the most part we really enjoy the books that Sonlight chooses. Last year one of our books was Seven Sons and Seven Daughters and we ended up reading all but the first 16 pages in one day. My throat was sore and my voice hoarse, but what a fantastic story!!

We spent all day Friday and Saturday cleaning the basement. What a job. It has needed to be done and my mind has not been able to handle it. I think what really inspired me was finding the Home and Garden channel's link to watch full episodes of certain shows on line. We don't have cable and in Warsaw if you don't have cable you get no TV...so we watch alot of videos from the library and things that we can watch online. Anyway, we cleaned, sorted, straightened and threw away so much stuff that my head is still spinning. One thing I found was a box of neatly labeled, small accordian folders that held store receipts from 1998 to 2004. Chris was definately organized. He had also stapled all of the two part receipts together...staples can't go through the shredder. My dear Lydia sat and took out all of the staples while I searched for any house related receipts--we took turns shredding. Next week I'll call Goodwill, but tomorrow, I'm taking a nap!!

Today our new camera arrived. We have had fun all afternoon. It has an exchangable zoon lens...ohhh it's nice. I found some great big bumble bees on our butterfly bush and they became the subject of our zoon lens. Lydia took some beautiful pictures of flowers. I love digital cameras b/c we can delete the ones that don't turn out and not have to pay for them!!!

Tonight we also celebrated Caleb's 14th birthday--which is actually tomorrow, but he will be at a youth group event. We had the birthday boy's requested dinner...tacos. We had birthday cake and ice cream and he opened his presents. I found this book at the home school convention back in June. Caleb is always "building" these kinds of things in his mind and I thought I would give him the blueprints. In a few days I may be wondering what in the world I was thinking.

Evaluations and Bichons

In the state of Ohio home school families are required to show that their children are working at their grade level. I used to have the children tested every year, but last year I had the children evaluated b/c of the hard school year they had...with their daddy's death. Last year, they passed, but only b/c my friend, Angela, who evaluated them knew our circumstances and that we had worked hard on other areas besides the academics. At the beginning of this school year I told Angela, "We're going to work hard this year. I want to show you that we do do school and we do alot of learning." She laughed at me and told me that she knew we worked hard. Well, this week we had our evaluations for this past school year and she was very happy with what we accomplished this year. All three of the children passed--Caleb to 8th, Lydia to 6th and JoAnna to 2nd. She was particularly impressed with the things that Caleb has been able to learn up at the MMS hangar on Thursdays...thanks Dave!!!

In December we adopted (and lost our hearts to) a sweet little fur ball named Maia (My-uh). She is a Bichon Frise (Bee-shon Free-zay). In March we adopted Maia's half sister and named her Tessa. We have found that the puppies have helped us in the healing process.

One of our favorite things to do is take them to the baseball fields here in Warsaw. We close the gates and take off the leashes and let them run. What a blast to watch them race around after each other. We usually run around and have them chasing us. It's great exercise for all of us. I think I need to get the yard fenced in so that they can run whenever they want.

One day the girls took Maia and Tessa out to play and when they came in I laughed and had to have pictures. The girls claim that the puppies found the huge mud puddle in the front yard...I wonder how much help they needed to find the puddle?!?!?!?! The pictures show after the puddle and before the girls cleaned them up...it was also the time we spent laughing at how funny they looked all wet and muddy. The next picture is them getting their bath. The final picture is JoAnna holding a clean and dry Tessa.

JoAnna turns 7

What an eventful weekend and it's not even over yet!! Friday was JoAnna's 7th birthday. She wanted pancakes and raspberry syrup for breakfast. (On Wednesday JoAnna and I spent the day up in the Kidron area and one of our stops was the Smucker's store...where we bought the raspberry syrup.) She didn't want to have her birthday supper and cake until Saturday b/c Lydia would be home to share it with us. She really missed Lydia this week. Missing Lydia did not, however, change her desire to open presents on Friday afternoon.

I have to admit I missed her, too. We love to walk the puppies at night and enjoy the quiet to talk. It's a great time alone with her, she really opens up and shares so much. It's great exercise, also.

On Friday evening we went to the church for a camp out. It was a wonderful evening sharing with brothers and sisters in Christ. A guy from our church grew up in a family that sang together and they came to sing for us. They have a bluegrass, southern gospel style. I really liked the songs b/c they were filled with hope. Hope for our future as believers...what's waiting for us there. Caleb stayed at the church, but JoAnna and I came home to take care of the pups.

We left early this morning to fetch Lydia from camp. I pulled up and scanned the crowd and immediately found Lydia...she was the one bouncing up and down. That's so like Lydia.

We then went to the church for more fun. They had this plastic sheet on the hill...lots of water...lots of soap...you get the picture. Caleb had just come off the plastic and was sliding on the grass. The kids had a blast. JoAnna went down once and decided that was enough. They had a water balloon launcher and were trying to hit Pastor Cal with water balloons. Someone brought a cornhole game. The kids tried their hand at that, also. All in all it was a good morning. Caleb, Lydia and I all took naps this afternoon.

Tonight we celebrated JoAnna's birthday. She wanted the shells and cheese (made popular with the Abernethy children b/c it was one of daddy's favorites) and she helped make it. She chose a horse cake and even wanted to give the horses to Lydia...I think she really missed her sister this week.

Now all is settled down and quiet. As I reflect on the past 7 years of JoAnna's life I can't help but think of how different things could have been. If Dr. Prior had not been there my heart hurts thinking of the things Caleb and Lydia would have had to deal with. I thought about that often in those months following Chris' death...Caleb and Lydia would truly have been orphans. Then I think of God in His wonderful grace and how His hand reached down and guided the doctor to keep JoAnna and I here for His purposes. Every year I send a "Thank You for JoAnna's birthday" card to Dr. Prior, who stepped in and saved us. JoAnna means...God's gracious gift. That she truly is.