Miah

Today as the boys left for school, Miah was crying and crying... I tried to comfort her. She kept saying, "Jalen" "I want Jalen". I held her and told her they had to go to school. She cried and said, "But Jalen is my bestest brother and he gives the bestest hugs, I want Jalen"


2 day ago, a similar thing happened. The boys spent the night at Pops and Grandma's. After we dropped them off, Miah cried in the van. "I want the boys!" "I miss the boys", we talked her through it, but hours later at bedtime, she cried again saying, "I miss the boys, I want them home..."

I knew she loved her brothers, but I can see the bond is stronger than I thought. I love it! These three get to be siblings and friends for the rest of their lives. So glad they have each other and so glad I get the privilege of being their mom

Christmas List's for 2009

I think this is the first year the kids have put together Christmas lists (maybe the 2nd year, I can't remember). We don't make a big deal about it, but after Cameron made his list, Jalen and Miah thought it would be fun. These lists give a good view at their individual personalities.
(Cameron wrote his own, and I will spell things just as he did. Jalen and Miah said their lists to me and I wrote it down word for word.)

Cameron
1. labtop
2. spiderman toy
3. rmot cintrol car
4. for weler
5. batman lego set
6. gernul
7. nerf gun
8. nitvishin set
9. DS
10. colren book
11. scrach book
12. wii
13. telscop
14. giftcard
15. ulectric scooder
16. tekdeks
17. spiderman shert
18. winter cot
19. webkin
20. penculsherpinre
21. pgamus
22. glovsa
23. baskitball
24. batman casul
25. waoch
26. under waer
27. markers
28. book
29. noremal spiderman toy
30. bathen soot
31. tool boks
32. dril
33. blankit
34. stuft animal
35. bible
36. big spiderman colerenbook
37. toy truk
38. belt
39. stikerbook
40. drums
41. clok
42. smol shelf
43. bike ramp
44. fut ball
45. noterdama cote
46. acshin figuer
47. big bownse ball
48. sled
49. boots
50. gren star wars litsaver not shoot out
51. ripstik
52. rake
53. pant
54. gogos
55. lepster
56. pogostik
57. boksen gluvs
58. tapmesher
59. digitul camru
60. poster paper
61. shoes
62. checen bord
63. saw
64. spiderman costoom
65. aerme aerplan toy
66. buck wilder book
67. utilt nifu
68. comb
69. toothpast
70. frisbe
71. spiderman notbook
72. siserc
73. mewcik
74. spiderman wocketokes
75. bioncul
76. werk gluvs
77. enything spiderman
78. colerd penculs
79. boerd game
80. enything you wantid to git me

Jalen
1. pet snake
2. Aqua-man coloring book (Justice League)
3. Transformer stuff
4. Sled
5. Batman underwear

Miah
1. Cookies
2. Christmas and Birthday presents
3. little teddy bear
4. decorate the table
5. putting stuff on the Christmas Tree
6. catch butterflies
7. make a birdhouse/feed the birds
8. flowers on the table
9. stuffed animal - cat, sheep, lion
10. glass cup that we can decorate
11. real pet lamb, mommy, daddy, cow, horse
12. real alive book
13. coloring book
14. chex mix
15. bible for mommy
16. Christmas doll
17. 5th birthday present
18. Bird food and fish food
19. Real dog & real cat & one cage (b/c dogs chase cats)
20. 2 collars
21. a meal

Cameron's "I'm Thankful for" Paper

Cameron's teacher gave out this assignment this week, and Cameron completed his last night. I will type it for you as he wrote it. You will need to sound the words out, as there are many that are not spelled correctly.

I'm thankful for my mom and dad becus they love me and git me nice stuff. And I'm thankful for all my grandma's and my grandpa's. And brother and sister becus they are fun to play with and be with. And I'm thankful for my church becus I go there a lot and I see my friends and do lots of fun and cool arts and crafts and it's a lot of fun to be ther. I'm thankful for my houws and things. I am thankful for the miltare becus of fredum and I'm thankful for anmals becus ther fun to have and play with. I am tankful for God becus he creatid the uoonvers and planits and peopl. I'm thankful for my school. And teacher. And clas mats becus I git to learn at school and play with frends and have fun and stuf like that. I am thankful that my dad haz a gob and my famly haz mune to buy food and stuff. I'm tankful for fun holdays like crismis and hallwen. I am thankful for berthdays and supris paretes becus thaer fun. And I am thankful for spoerts becus its hard and cool to be able to do. I'm thankful for moves becus its a speshul and fun wuns in a wiul thing to do. And I am tankful for my cusins becus they nice to play with and have over at my houws. And I'm tankful for my room and being abul to have a bed sow I can slep in a cumfritubul plays. I am thankful for plec becus they cep us saf and unhermnd. And I am thakful for toys becus they make you happe and joyful and ther fun to have to play with.

Okay - here's a little interpretation.
houws = house
miltare= military
uoonvers= universe
gob= job
mune= money
paretes= parties
abul= able
moves= movies
speshul= special
wuns in a wiul = once in awhile
cumfritubul = comfortable
plays= place
plec = police
sow= so
cep= keep
un hermnd= unharmed

Thankfulness

Today I am thinking of all I am thankful for. Sometimes I can get so absorbed in my small issues, problems, circumstances that I begin to forget the big picture. I have been reminded by a few special friends, recently, how much I have to be thankful for. There are people all around me going through tough circumstances. Loss of jobs, cancer, divorce, surgery, broken relationships, unemployment running out and still no job, husbands having to be away for weeks at a time to find work, etc.
It hits me right in the heart. If I were to rate my 'problems' my 'issues' compared to those, mine seem so irrelevant, so minor, so not worth talking about.
I have much to be thankful for. I have nothing to complain about. I have many to pray for and to encourage. I choose to keep my eyes on Christ, and I choose to focus on how I can help and encourage others.

Update on the past couple weeks

I am not sure where to begin. The past few weeks have been so fun, crazy and purposeful. I started helping Justin at Five Star the second week of October and I love being apart and I love feeling and knowing that I am needed and that what I am doing is truly making a difference.
We were working on this Annual Big Event that is coming up on November 14th. It is called "Change Our World". It is a service day/fundraiser/celebration rally. All our Five Star middle schoolers will be there and about 500-800 adults from local businesses that provide the funding for Five Star to be in these public schools. It starts at Penn High School and then everyone disperses to 3 different area parks for the clean up day. Every gets an event T-shirt and a free lunch from a great restaurant that sponsors the day.
So on October 14th Justin found out about the "America's Giving Challenge". He signed Five Star up for it, but the next 4 days for him were packed full of prior commitments, so he wasn't able to talk to anyone about it or even think much about it until the 19th. He told me about it on Tuesday the 20th, and I looked it up online and saw that we had 2 votes total and the other non-profits had been doing this since October 7th, and they had over 1,000 votes already. I was not very optimistic, but I cast my first vote. After we discussed it more and I heard and saw the passion he had and the determination in his heart, I said "I'm in".
The next 2 1/2 weeks we put as much time and energy into this project as possible.
The major highlight for me was the Elkhart Chambers Biz Expo. We put together a Five Star team of volunteers (about 20 total), and we rallied votes for 4 hours! It is fun to work together with a team of people for a common goal. We met so many people who have a child or grand-child or student who's been in Five Star and we've heard so many great stories. Also calling parents of Five Star students was encouraging. The parents are seeing good things and truly appreciate what Five Star is doing for their kids.
On Friday, the final day of the America's Giving Challenge, God performed a miracle. Early Friday morning Justin shared a voice-mail with me from an old friend. It is a moment that meant a lot to both of us. At that moment, we both knew in our hearts that God was at work and that we were going to see a miracle that day. At that point, Five Star was in 14th place and about 200 votes from 12th place. The other 'causes' were rallying too, so we needed to not just get 200 votes, we needed to pass the other teams. Amazingly people joined in and made phone calls all day! Seriously about 20 or more people gave their whole day to rally as many votes as possible. I watched as the votes just poured in. I calculated that Five Star received about 90 votes per hour. And they kept coming! At about 1:00pm we made it into 12th place, and I cheered so loud that Miah thought something was wrong! I couldn't stop cheering! By 1:30pm we were in 11th place, then 10th and then 9th place. (The top 12 finishers receive award money.)
It was a really cool experience to be apart of and so amazing to see Michiana care! Five Star is reaching students in the public schools and there are so many more students to reach. Without funding, Five Star can't move into more schools, so it was fun to see people care and to see them take steps to help.
We are now working hard, gearing up for the big celebration/service day on Saturday the 14th!
So, that's what's up for me.

Dear Five Star,

(Letter from a 7th grade boy)

5 Star,
Two years ago I was a problem child. In my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade year I had 4 police reports filed against me. I was suspended in 6th grade for fighting. Throughout my 3 bad years I was jumped 3 times. Not only was my school behavior bad, I was worse at home. I didn't do chores, broke stuff, and I was disrespectful. My mom had recommended military school and was ready to send me. Early in my 7th grade year Seth came to Schmuker and told us about 5 Star! To be honest, I only joined because there was free food and a way to get away from my crappy life.

The first season of 5 Star wasn't special for me. I had brought my attitude to 5 Star. I figured after a while the coaches would give up on me just like my dad, my "cool" friends, my sisters, and in my eyes (at that time) god. But for some reason they wouldn't give up. I cussed at them, I beat up kids, and I didn't care. But they wouldn't give up. Second season was hardly better.

I don't know why but season 3 changed me. I just became a 5 Star student! I was respectful and just different. At this time I'm a great kid. I even made honor role. In two years 5 Star has saved my life! Thank you all!

(Letter from a mom of a 5 Star student)

Dear Coach,
You need to know how important what you do is to at least one boy. My son, ________, at 13 years old has been let down, dropped, or abandoned by every man in his life so far. His father left, Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization told him they'd match him up and didn't, teachers in school who said he was too much of a problem to deal with because he couldn't sit still, cub scouts and boy scout leaders who continually forgot him, his step father who started out telling him he could talk to him anytime and now isn't very nice to him at all, and various others like fathers of his friends who would invite him to come along and something would come up. One of which told him he could come over to his house anytime and hang out with the boys and then moved without even telling him goodbye! All have promised to be there for him and then were not. Now, please understand I am well aware that most of these were not done maliciously or even on purpose. It did become expected for my son to assume that anytime a grown man offered help to him it wasn't going to happen.

Until 5 Star! I do not exaggerate. He has never been forgotten or left behind. When you've said your going to be there, you are. When you've said your going to call, you have. Everyone with this organization has been consistent on keeping their word and respectful of him always. He will have this example in his life (so far) a group of men kept their word to him and didn't forget him.
He has even begun to allow himself hope in new relationships with men he is associated with at church. Thank you so much for giving him this gift that may seem to you so simple, but for this boy so vital at this time in his life at this age.
Thank you,
his mom

Cameron... my list maker

I am a list maker, but mine are never this neat! So yesterday was Sunday, and with setting the clocks back we had an extra hour, and we thankfully had nothing planned for the day except church. So Justin and I took an hour in the morning to hang out and talk about the day and write down some things that we needed/wanted to take care of (rake leaves, clean out gutters, groceries, kill spiders, etc). And Cameron noticed us making our lists so he decided to make his own lists. The first is his grocery list.
1. garlic toast
2. beans
3. whip cream
4. Orange Juice
5. Lemonade
6. ice cream
7. chicken
8. honey mustard
9. turkey
10. cheese
11. oatmeal
12. cream of wheat
13. strawberries
14. potato chips
15. crackers
16. organic cookies

The second list is the daily TO DO list. (It's gonna be a busy day!!!!!)
1. play basketball
2. go on a bike ride
3. play video game
4. wrestle
5. go to play ground
6. color
7. go to shoe store
8. play bocce ball
9. do puzzle
10. sew my costume
11. go on trampoline
12. play with bat mans
13. run around the neighborhood
14. clean house
15. do writing workshop
16. nap time
17. go to Barnes and Noble
18. play in costume
19. go to the zoo

So it was quite a day. We declared it no computer day before we got out of bed, which was really nice for everyone! We did clean the gutters and rake the yard. Justin even took all three kids up on the roof with him. They loved it (I prayed hard). Justin and the boys took a bike ride, wrestled and colored. Cameron and Miah did a puzzle, I cleaned the house alittle, and we all missed the nap time. Justin and Jalen played Bocce Ball, Cameron and I went grocery shopping (with my list, although he is quite persuasive and we got a few things off his list too.) The day ended well, and all 5 of us were in bed by 8:30pm. Now that would be crazy, but hey, with daylight savings time it was like 9:30pm, and we wanted to start the week off rested and energized! Fun, Fun weekend!