The $2k Mark!

I've officially hit the $2000 mark in my fundraising efforts! I am just over $400 short of being half way to my goal. I am so pumped and so grateful. I raised $950 THIS WEEK!

When I was thinking about doing the NYC Marathon and considering being a charity runner, I felt a huge weight on my shoulders.

Matt (my husband) works for Young Life and it is a charity. We ask for donations for a significant portion of the year for the services that ministry provides to Asheville Young Life. It is no small task for me to step away from a ministry that I believe so deeply in and spend so much of my time and energy devoted to high school students to then ask my friends and family to believe in this other organization as well.

AND I didn't want to do it. It is MUCH easier to simply run a race. Not raise money. Just get pay your money. Race. Do nothing for anyone else. I was about to enter the lottery for the NYC Marathon to do just that and hope against hope that I got in.

But then this word was given to me:
Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Proverbs 19:17 Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. 

And it was shown to me that this was an incredible opportunity--not for the families that will benefit from the money raised, but for the community around me to watch this happen. To watch money get raised. To see this process. To watch me struggle and strive for a goal that is WELL beyond my capabilities. At the same time that I am trying to raise $5,000--Asheville Young Life has a goal of raising $5,000 that will be MATCHED if people who have never donated to Asheville Young Life donate to them. 

Here is a way to donate to Asheville Young Life.

Here is where to donate to Inheritance of Hope. 

Crazy right? But here I am. Working away. Pining away to see money come in and meet my goal that is a sacrifice for you and for me to work towards. 

But then we will get to see this at the end: 

We've Made It!

Hi friends!
We are here at Crooked Creek and I am not going to lie, it is absolutely amazing.

The morning of our arrival, it snowed 4-5 inches. So I was hesitant to be excited, but once you see those Rocky Mountains, you can't help yourself. Your spirit soars!

But the weather has turned itself around, I am actually sporting a sunburn right now!

We have all arrived and campers get here tomorrow. We couldn't be more excited to see their faces when they get off those buses.

It is our tremendous pleasure to let you know that our friend from Asheville did raise enough money to get his plane ticket to join our Work Crew and he is HERE! It is crazy to see his face around camp working like a dog. It is truly a miracle. There were so many barriers to his coming and all of them have fallen away. It has been amazing to watch.

We are so grateful to all of you who contributed financially and prayerfully. It is so exciting to think about how his life will be forever changed by this experience. 

If you want to follow along with what is going on day to day here at Crooked Creek, I have started a tumblr blog for our assigned team and am adding posts all day as I prayerfully observe the workings of the Lord. Please join us as we go before the Father during this Holy Month!

www.crookedcreekranch.tumblr.com

Thanks for loving us and caring for our friends so well! 

Order a Wreath-Send a Kid to Camp!

Fish in a Barrel

Buncombe County Young Life is hosting a Shooting Clay's Fundraiser this spring at the Biltmore Estate here in Asheville on April 2nd. This is an incredible opportunity to raise money for Young Life, shoot guns, visit the Biltmore Estate in an unprecedented manner (since they have only had a handful of events on this range) and have a great time with a group of your friends!

The cost is $200 per shooter but the entry fee IS tax deductible (how bout them apples?) and you get an amazing day out of it.
That's called cheap entertainment my friends.

Go to this website to learn more and register. Help us to raise money for the area and to keep Young Life going in Asheville/Buncombe County. It is going to be a fantastic day!

Work Crew

I've been leading Work Crew training in our area for the last two weeks and it has been like a breath of fresh air for my soul.
I get to be around high school students and leaders.
I get to teach them about Jesus.
The Lord speaks to me loudly about me and then about them and how loved we are.
And how much he wants to use us in his service if we are willing.
And I get to tell them that.
It is so much fun.

And then this weekend, I was searching for videos on YouTube that could show these high school kids how Young Life camp is one of the many ways that God chooses to use people. And I found these videos.

This is a video from Saranac Village from this past summer where the work crew and summer staff created a group dance and would "perform" the dance every meal. Just for fun. 

One night, the president of Young Life happened to be there. 

In the kitchen. This is the night: 

This video is a time-lapse capture of "Western Night" at Frontier Ranch. In the same 300 square foot area; a Western Tableau, a carnival and a square dance take place in just three hours. There are other events that happen that night, but this video captures how much work is performed by volunteers and staff for this one night. I love this video so much because it captures this night in about 30 seconds.

I can't believe that we aren't going to be on an assignment this summer.
But getting to be a part of high school students going to serve is about the greatest.

I am super passionate about Work Crew and how high school students will never be the same after one month away from home and being used by God for his glory.
It could be for Young Life or in a mission organization. Any time you say "no" to your life and "yes" to what God would have for you, there is going to be greatness at hand. It so happens that I have seen firsthand for 14 years what Young Life has done in the lives of high school students.
And I love it still.
How amazing is that?

Hipster Halloween

We had YL Leadership on Sunday night and it was themed the "Hipster Halloween" which led Matt to wearing skinny jeans, a vested cardigan, golf hat and he shaved his beard into a John Water's skinny mustache. It was a beautiful thing.

Even the kids got in the act.

But Lucy was too hipster to smile.

It was hilarious!

Growing up in Young Life, our kids go to a party pretty much every day.

Quite the life.

At the Lake, Everything Is Beautiful

It's really easy to take pictures at the lake. Really easy. Everybody wants to relax. Everybody wants to have fun. Just take out the camera and start clicking. Of course some people's children ham it up more than others.

Try to guess who is related to us. (Oh wait, ALL OF THEM.)

It's too bad they don't like spending time with each other.

Out of all our time at the lake, the worst moment of the weekend came when Lucy fell out of her tube while our eyes were elsewhere. Thankfully, Matt was aware enough to ask me to take a glance at her and I saw her up to her eyes in the water. It was about the scariest moment in my life. I jumped in (Baywatch style) and lifted her up. Another 20 seconds and I don't want to think what could have been.

With that on my mind, can you pray for our friends the Broadways?

Their daughter Natalie is one of our Wyldlife leaders. She is 17 and junior at North Buncombe High School. She is beautiful, funny and loves Jesus enough to be around middle school kids.

While at the middle school yesterday she began to throw up until she passed out. She had to be transported to the hospital via ambulance where they discovered a brain hemorrhage. She had a shunt put in to hold off the bleeding and take down the swelling. She was then transported to Duke Hospital in Durham. She is being seen by the Pediatric Brain surgeons today and should have surgery over the weekend.

Her just stepped off our committee this year after nearly 20 years of loving YL in this area. They helped to bring me to Asheville and found me an apartment. They fed my YL team at North Buncombe for over 8 years. They are mentors, lovers of the Lord and faithful to their children and each other. I am so sad for them right now. Their other daughters, Audrey and Carly are reeling at the thought of their little sister being in the ICU. Please pray for this family.

Just the thought of losing Lucy bottomed me out this past weekend.

I can't imagine truly being faced with the prospect like they are right now.

Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

First Day of School

This morning, we all got up bright and early to go see our high school friends off to their first day of school.

I clearly remember the first day of school as ALWAYS being the best day of school. After that? Eh. Take it or leave it.

In my high school, we had this crazy attendance card system that the teachers had to use and we had to fill out these teeny-tiny cards in every class and they would put them in their books according to where you sat. If you were absent, they would turn the card over and LATER, mark you as absent. In theory.

None of my teachers followed the protocol and so I skipped class a few times. *cough*

Anyways. Enough about the beauty of the New York City Public School System. I mean, look how amazing I am now?

The point? We went to the high school this morning and a reporter snapped our picture.

Click here to see it

So fun! Matt is missing because he had both of our kids at the time. He's so good to me.

Think This Kid is From Asheville?

From the PostSecret Blog

Pictorial Recap of Saranac

I took well over 1000 pictures during the week at Saranac. With editing, I whittled that down to a cool 400 on my computer. I decided that only 370 NEEDED to go onto Facebook. I will try to
keep it to my top 20 or so on here.

Yes, black t-shirts are back in style. So is fluorescent lettering. Large fluorescent lettering.

I designed these shirts myself and felt like a fool wearing it the whole week. But my cabin LOVED them.
So did guys. Also...the girls wanted MEDIUMS instead of SMALLS. Gasp.

Ah young love. Does it get any cuter?

We were pretending to be on the cover of Teen Vogue. Yes, yes we were.
Thank you Hills for giving me ANY references that make sense to 15 year-olds.

Classic High School Musical Shot.
One girl from my cabin was chronically missing from EVERY picture from the week. I just couldn't find her, ever.

Well, you can guess how the ropes course went.

Doesn't it make you want to be back in high school again?
Wait, don't answer that.

So stinkin' cute...you know they get in trouble ALL THE TIME.

I cried when we left Saranac this time.
I don't know if we will go back next summer.
It was like saying goodbye to my high school self and my memories.
It has been like opening an old wound to return there and be healed.
What a gift these last three years have been to me.

About 15 girls from Asheville stood up at Say-So and proclaimed that they had given their lives to Jesus this week.
I cried buckets of tears.
I have prayed for Young Life at Asheville High since I moved to Asheville nine years ago and I was blown away by seeing how mightily God has moved there this year. After all this time. Amazing.

Yep, they are only 15 years old. I don't think they come any more beautiful than this.

Oh great, it does get prettier.
It definitely makes a mom of two kids in her 30's feel awesome about herself to hang around these girls.
Let me just tell you.

We managed to get the sunset parasail on the last night of camp. It was gorgeous! The light was amazing and the girls had a great time; except for the fact that they spent two hours straightening their hair and doing makeup to then go do this. But they forgave me. Maybe.

We brought 75 kids to Saranac-all first timers! It was a great trip and we are so excited to see what happens in the next year and the rest of these kids lives due to what happened this week.

But of course, a great reminder that kids are still hiding so much.
From themselves, from us, their parents and from God. We love them and they still hide. There is nothing that holds us back from God and each other like fear does.
Pray that walls would continue to fall even now that we are home.
We are in it for the long haul and we need endurance!

My Bag of Taters

We got home on Sunday night and traveling went well.
Asher did throw up on the bus, narrowly missing the inside of my pants inside the bathroom on the bus. (another story for another day-but let's just say 'thank God that didn't happen')

The kids did amazingly well and we very nearly cried tears of joy when we saw the Blue Ridge Mountains on the horizon at sunset on the plane ride. I didn't know that we really love living here until we had been gone for nearly a month in the coldest place on earth, that we were so happy here!

We got picked up by our friend Kristen and her boyfriend Kyle who had an American flag ready to be draped around Matt's neck, had a posterboard declaring Matt to be "an American Hero", flowers for me and a slew of balloons for the kids. Everyone thought that Matt was returning from the Middle East fighting a war. Nope, just doing Single Ladies for a bunch a 16 year olds for Jesus.

So we get home to see that our yard had in fact turned into a jungle. And these few things were also waiting to be discovered:

just in case you forgot, we have NO KITCHEN.

But we do have a fridge, full of month old produce. Awesome.

Yes, that is my coffee maker. Apparently, this is from the coffee that we made when we LEFT FOR COLORADO.

ewwwwwww.

And the obligatory sippy cup that you forget has just enough apple juice to make penicillin in a months time.

But I have found that this is no big deal.
I am really missing our community from North Asheville and I am having a hard time living in our new house in the summer. I don't even know where a POOL IS.

I don't have many close friends down here and instead since we've been home, we've been making the 30 minute trek to Windy Gap to see friends that are on assignment there and to see our friends in Weaverville because that has been more comfortable.

It's not what we have been called to and I need to learn to live down here in this part of town, but with my kitchen being a mess; I think I want to go away again.
It is really hard to find out that my bag of potatoes is really in my own heart and I just want to not be living where we are and I want my old life back again.

I miss my friends and how easy it was to be on assignment. It was fun to be around people all the time that were in the same place we were and loved to laugh and knew us. It is really hard to start over, even in your same town.

My Schizo Week of May

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.

I am going to review, not for sympathy but for posterity so that when my children look back and wonder why I have lost my mind; they can point to things like this week and say "Of course! It all makes sense now."

So last Monday night we had the Joe Nichols fundraising concert. And yes he sang, "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off" but we did get to raise some money for Young Life and awareness in the area and it was great fun.

This was after we had removed our kitchen all weekend long. We had to take a few days off you remember to work, the kids went to Jeannies etc. Well on Wednesday, I get the brilliant idea to drive to IKEA, buy the cabinets that I need and then drive to Greenville and pick up the kids. Drive back to Asheville, then Weaverville for a wedding shower. 6 hours in the car on Wednesday. Plus a full day in IKEA. I was wiped out. But I did get to help with some of the renovation stuff that night! See PROOF:

Ben's has more fun than me though.


Thursday, the kids were in school and I had meetings all day, but we had a YL ladies night that night. So I got a much needed pedicure and dinner out with friends while Matt and the other dads had the kids.

Then on Friday morning, I had a meeting at 7:30am for work, came home packed all morning. Loaded up the kids and waiting for Spooner to get off work and then we drove to my parents house in south Georgia to take them my dog, Slappy; for the month. Spooner was a GREAT road trip partner and put up with me, my kids, my dog, my parents and my hilarious family. Highlights from the weekend include her tweeting the minutes on the way home, not trusting the GPS and then LEARNING TO TRUST THE GPS, all the crazy talk about gator attacks and then being told that I worried too much about them, then the two hours of conversation centered around Dr. Bukks teef and the ensuing fambly photo shoot.



One of the things I love about my parents house is there is no shortage of things to photograph. My kids, doodads around the house, the incredible scenery there. I love this picture of Lucy. It makes me remember feeling like trees were enormous. By the way, that is actually an ENORMOUS oak tree. And yes, it was a damp and muggy as the pictures look.










We got there Friday night. Played Saturday. Took off Sunday. Matt worked the whole weekend getting the kitchen totally demolished and cleaned up.


Monday was a holiday but we spent the whole day getting ready to leave for Colorado. Because that is what we were doing on Wednesday. Leaving for Colorado for the month. But we also had a Weaverville Supper Club on Monday night, plus Amy Noll staying with us Monday and Tuesday and on Tuesday I had a HUGE meeting for work. So my stomach was feeling pretty rough and sleep was getting harder and harder to come by.

But we had a wonderful time at the Supper Club since all of our kids love each other like brothers and sisters and everyone played American Idol. Especially Lucy. I just want to squeeze her these days.

On Tuesday it was our 8 year wedding anniversary! Yay! Looks like we made it through the seven-year itch. Shoowee! That was tough.
We went to dinner kind of early because we had so much to do to get ready for Colorado on Wednesday. How early? At the table next to us was a couple celebrating their 67th wedding anniversary and the table behind us their 20th wedding anniversary. Can you say SENIOR DISCOUNT?

But we left dinner and went on a really nice walk and got all caught up and were so excited to leave today to come to Colorado.
We left our house at 6am and got to Crooked Creek at 3pm Colorado time. Long day. But our kids rocked it out. They were amazing.

It is however, 30 degrees here right now and I am having serious misgivings about EVERYTHING that I packed. See that snow on those mountains? That ain't so far away from us. Cute skirts and rainbow flip flops are not going to help me make it through the month. Fleece hats and jeans is more like it.

Get ready to see some pictures of cold high school kids at a pool party next week!