A letter from God

Tuesday after my pastoral care and counseling class I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed. 

We had just went over the details of conducting our first sessions......how to film the session, how to play the session back in order to critique it, and most importantly how to go about establishing a client to helper relationship when a client first walks in.  

Our professor gave us an example by sitting in the middle of the class with one of the students and conducting an intake interview while we observed and one student filmed.  

It was a bit strange listening to someone's actually intake. 

A part of me was intrigued by how smoothly our professor was with pulling out inner emotions from the client/student. 

Another part of me was surprised at how open the client/student was about sharing personal issues.  

And yet another part of me was fearful that I would never be able to do such a thing. That I would never be able to conduct a session. That I would just clam up with anxiety.

Then I was asked to be the client, the professor the helper, and I was to give a family history. 

Asking a client the family history is a way in which to establish a relationship and find some specific issues the client might be dealing with.

Oh boy.

A lot of stuff came out. 

I was suprised yet again at how smoothly my professor was at getting me to talk about touchy issues in a large group of people.

Major Anxiety. 

After class, during the drive home, I kept the radio off and prayed the typical prayer "why me? Oh Lord why me? Why have you called me this ministry of counseling? Lord, I have too much social anxiety issues to actually be able to help anyone? I can't do this? I want to but I just can't."

I turned the radio on after my rant.

This is the song that was playing. 

It was a letter straight from God.

****tears*****

Straight from Morocco

This weekend Roger and our whole church Family at Living Faith Baptist Fellowship, got the opportunity to meet and greet with several college students from Morocco. 

They have been traveling around for several days blessing America with their lovely voices, happy spirits and bongos.

Our church hosted the students over night, fed them a wonderful picnic lunch on Labor Day and got to enjoy a wonderful private concert.

I unfortunatly was unable to attend. I had a horrible cold that forced me to stay home with the kids

Here are some pictures from the day that Madge took.

Our church gave the students a hand carved nativity, made in kentucky, as a gift to remember us by.

The students gave our church a hand made bowl from Fes depicting the front gates of the city.

What a lovely day spent in fellowship!  

Meeting and greeting people from around the world!

I thought I would share this with you all. What an incredible story! 

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update...another one

yet another house update:

The open house yesterday went GREAT! 

3 groups came through and one couple seemed VERY interested. Our Realtor is going to touch base with them this coming week.

Maybe we will actually sell this house!

 

Another quick update:

I have started my 4th semester at seminary and Roger has started his last year!

Our Seminary, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, has moved to the Georgetown College campus!  We both graduated there so it is super nice to be back on campus again.

I LOVE IT!  It feels like home.

I am taking my first Pastoral Care and Counseling class.

For those of you who have no clue. I am in the process of pursuing my Master of Divinity with a concentration in Pastoral Care and Counseling.  It is a 90hr master program so I will be there for a very long time. :/ 

I am so excited about the class I am taking this semester!  

We are learning how to conduct a session!  

I'm a bit intimated by the lab work. We will be having labs in which we are being filmed while we see clients. The clients are students in the class ho play the part.  We all take turns being the helper and the client. Then that video is going to be shown to the class and the class and professor will critique it. 

That is going to cause me a massive amount of anxiety.  However, I am so excited to be able to actually learn how to conduct a session (intakes, explorations, insights and actions)  YAY

The reading material is great as well. 

The main office of the seminary is in the Georgetown College library. Go check it out. It is in the room with the fire place. Walk in and go to the right. Keep going back. You'll see it.  I think it is stunning!

Open House #2

Today is the BIG DAY!  

There is a massive town festival going on in the park beside our house.

There are yard sales EVERYWHERE!

People are EVERYWHERE!

We are having an OPEN HOUSE!

Once again we have managed to make the house look as if no one lives here. 

It has been a major chore. 

We are all REALLY REALLY sick with some bug that has been going around. My head feels like someone is smashing it, my body aches, my throat hurts and my ears are ringing. Roger feels the same. Anna has screamed ALL MORNING LONG after being up screaming ALL NIGHT LONG. Paul is spacing out on the couch and screams anytime someone attempts to help him.

Roger and I have sorted through the house and cleaned all morning like zombies. There were times that I totally forgot what I was doing and found my self, broom in hand, staring at the wall only to be brought back to reality by Anna grabbing my arm screaming "HOLD ME. HOLD ME. WAAAAAAAAA"

I write this to ask for prayers. 

Please keep us in your prayers. We really need to sell this house. It is a horrible time to try to sell. No one is really buying in this town. It seems like everyone is trying to get out of here.

Our other house, in the town we will be moving to, is nearing the completion mark. We have paint on the walls, tile in the kitchen and we just picked out the carpet. I think the appliances will be coming in a couple of weeks. Then we will move. (THANK THE LORD)

Oh man. Thinking about packing with two small children is making me sick to my stomach.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Highlights

Some Highlights from life:

When I got home from class Tueday night Roger looked exhausted. I asked what happened and he informed me of the night. While he was in the restroom he heard Paul scream "anna bit me aaahhh"  Then he heard Anna scream "I'm going to bit you one...two...three.....TIMES  HA HA HA"  When he walked out he found Anna chasing Paul through the house trying to bite him while poor paul cried and screamed out "no Anna it is not nice to bite people. AAAAAHHHH no Anna no.  you hug and kiss people.  AAAAAHHHHH no no no that is not nice AAAAAAAH"   Paul has a big bite mark that has turned into a nasty bruise on his arm.  Later that night as Roger was trying to get them ready for bed anna kept running away from him saying "no you brush my teeth NO NO NO"  While Paul kept jumping into the towel closet "look I am playing hide-n-seek!!"   I just responded to the stories with "yep, that is why I am the professional momma and you are not!"

Roger and I were in Anna's room cleaning for the open house. We had to declutter while Anna was somewhere else in the house.  She doesn't like people in her room.  We had her radio on. we heard a knock on the door.  It was Anna.  "what you doing my room?"  I thought quick "we are having a DANCE PARTY!!! YAY"  we started to dance. She joined in!  Then we heard Paul yell up the stairs "ummmmmm MOMMY?  DADDY?"   I ran down the stairs to find him at the bottom, pointing to the door "someone rang our door bell and he just will not go away."  I looked outside and found one of our minister friends sitting on our porch swing, eating his lunch.  I guess he rang the bell, heard the music and decided to wait until we were finished.  I thought it was pretty funny!

The kids were super hyper and we were exhausted. I tried to think of fun little things for them to do but they didn't want to do any of them. So, I looked at Roger and declared "then we shall play hide-n-go-seek.  Boys verses Girls!"  Lights off, counting starts, girls hide.  It ended up being super fun!  Roger however took the game way too serious. There were several times I had to give up because I couldn't find him. "YA see this is what you look for in a good hiding place. you typically need......." Playing the game has helped teach Anna how to count to 10 and how to be quite.  Now I know that if I am out somewhere and she is super loud all I have to say is  "hide Anna!" and she will cover her eyes and mouth.  YAY 

.......more to come

Jessica's no good very bad day

By 10 pm yesterday (tuesday) I had cleaned the whole house, bathed two children, fixed and cleaned up breakfast and lunch, walked the kids to the park to play, read them 3 books, placed them down for a nap, got them up from a nap with a snack ready, ate dinner and went to my 4th semester class at seminary.  WUW

That is after having the most horrid day of my life on Monday.

We had dropped the kids off with the grandparents on Thursday (aug 26) to try our best to enjoy some peace before the storm (class started monday aug 30)

We went to the woods.

We got covered in seed ticks and chiggers.

GREAT! My legs look and feel HORRIBLE.

After spending all day Saturday at seminary orientation and all day Sunday at church, on Monday morning I headed down to pick up the kids. My plan was to get them, feed them lunch, drive them home and finish the house chores that I didn't get done over the weekend.

That plan didn't work out.

As I was loading the kids' car seats in the car from the grandparents car I happened to look at my right back tire.  IT WAS COMPLETELY FLAT.

I walked back in the house and declared "I need a moment before I deal with this"  Then I walked in the kitchen and got a cupcake.

A guy they new came over and bumped my tire up so that I could drive it to his shop to get the hole plugged. Once I got to the shop they informed me that the hole was too big to be plugged and that I needed to go to Big-O-Tires to get them to look at it.

I drove to Big-O-Tires, sat for an hour while they looked at the tire and checked the air in the others. They then declared "mam, the tire looks as if it has been plugged already and it isn't leaking"  I responded "Really? well, they said that they put a plug in it but that it wouldn't hold because the hole was too big. are you sure?"

I made them look at it again because I didn't think that they understood that there was a plug placed into the hole but that it was still leaking and therefor either needed to be patched or a tube placed.

An hour later "mam, it looks good. they must of fixed it."

I got in the car and drove away perplexed.

Half way down the road the bell went off in my brain "I told them to look at the WRONG tire." I had been telling them to check the front passenger tire when in fact the flat was the back passenger tire. I AM AN IDIOT.

So, I drove it to wal-mart "listen I don't want to look like an idiot and go back to Big-O-Tires so, do you all do tubes?"  The answer was no.

I drove back to Big-O-Tires.

They had shut the garage doors and the main man was about to lock the front doors.

It was 5:15pm

I ran up to the door like a complete idiot. "hey hey hey listen hey hey hey. I figured out the problem. I had been telling you the wrong tire. The front passenger tire was just patched about 2 weeks ago but the back passenger tire is the one that had the massive nail in it today. It is the one with the hole that needs fixed."

The guy looked at me and just yelled out "wait a second guys. We have one more."

Everyone looked confused.

The men in the garage started to grumble.

Then they see my car pull in "hey, is that the car we have already looked at twice?"

From 2pm to 5:30pm all of this took place.

I drove back to the grandparents house, walked in and was attacked by my children "mommy mommy mommmy. I need........."

I fed them a quick pb&j, loaded up the car and headed home.

The whole trip home consisted of Anna screaming about something followed by Paul screaming about something.

At one point Anna screamed out "I NEED TO PEEEEEEEEEE"   "honey we are almost home. Hold that pee in there. please hold it for mommy. don't pee on yourself. don't you want to wait and pee at your home in your little potty? your little potty misses you. hold that pee baby girl. HOLD IT."

When we got home around 8:30pm everyone wanted to eat AGAIN. So, I fixed something and tried my best to get them to bed. Paul went. Anna refused.

 I waited for Roger to get home from class at 10pm to help me get the stereotypical two year old to bed.

So, recap.

Monday= crazy tire day and Roger's first day of classes

Tueday= catch up on chores day and Jessica's first day of classes


Wednesday= Roger is gone all day and late in the afternoon to work in etown

I am a bit tired but doing alright.