At the Toby Mac concert, we didn’t just have a BLAST, but we also agreed to sponsor a child from Food for the Hungry. (Thank you, Honey!)
We are so excited to go on this journey with who we get. We hope to visit her someday!
After receiving information about our girl, we decided every Monday at dinner, we’d pray for her and learn more about her.
Her name is Sandrine, and she is 13.
Sandrine wrote us her own letter in her language and it was translated for us.
Tatum worked on a reply for a couple of days.
Here is her “sloppy copy.”
I love what she has done here. Sandrine mentioned she wanted to be a nurse, so Tatum made a “dream” drawing. This is when Sandrine will be 23; she’ll have clean water, a textbook on the digestive system from her nursing school, and she’ll have some bread too.
Now that is so thoughtful.
We are going to send it off with some of our pics.
We look forward to our correspondence with Sandrine, and hopefully getting to meet her one day.
Thank you FH for this opportunity. We’ll be praying for our girl and all the other children.
We made a follow up appointment to Dr. Cowan today. He is our life-saver when it comes to her cough and allergies.
He has gotten a bit more aggressive with her because she is not only coughing, (which is not coming from her chest but the back of her throat) but she is also constantly clearing her throat and fighting a runny nose.
Now we have a whole arsenal of tools. He had to write it all down on the bag he gave me full of samples. I am so grateful for him!
When we got home, I told her that we should be full of complete gratitude. She has a choice: Be miserable or be grateful for the wonders of medicine. That translates into NO COMPLAINING about the bevy of medicines she must take.
So, we make if F.U.N. right? I made a little chart for her bathroom, and each day she accomplishes the protocol with a smile and a heart of GRATITUDE, she gets to fill in a smiley face. After 14 smiley faces, we’ll have a prize of some sort. This ALWAYS works.
Tonight, she filled in her first smiley face.
And there is much rejoicing.
Praying for more peaceful nights and more and more smiles.
What else would you call yourselves when you have pink jerseys, hmm? I mean how perfect. Let me back up, however.
I remember her first soccer game two years ago when she was 5. We have come a long way since then. This time, we are more prepared, I think. First, Doug is out of town for our first game, so I am hoping I have a bit of a backup coach to give me pointers. The day did not disappoint.
We picked up our team’s jerseys at the Phoenix Rising tent, and they handed me a bag of PINK jerseys. All mediums, but still. They were perfect! They also instructed us to get black shorts and socks for each player.
Tatum immediately put her’s on, and luckily they had a small to get in trade. She looks so stinkin’ cute.
OK, then Coach Matt showed up at our field and got all the girls together to dribble and practice to warm up.
Finally we met our opposing team. They were in their blue jerseys and each girl had matching hair ties with their outfits. I mean, they looked put together. The coach was a master and had been doing it for years.
Let’s rally girls!
GO PINK!
Game started and Coach Matt instructed the girls to follow that ball and get around it constantly. I picked up a ton of pointers that first quarter while he was with me. First, the diamond shape is important to have the girls know their position. The girl closest to the opposing team’s goal needs to make sure she is close to that as their ball gets close. ALSO, they must all go TOWARDS the ball and get in DOWN the field.
After the first quarter, Matt left, and I took over. The second quarter was our worst. The other team scored about 6 goals and the girls got a bit flustered. BUT THEN at the half, I had a nice long chat with the girls in a circle.
We talked about staying strong and focusing as a team! We can’t let this get us down.
Third quarter, GOAL! We got one. They looked so much stronger the whole game. Our defense is strong. We have some aggressive players, TOT being one of them. They all have so much fire, and although we only had six players today, they all made up for what was missing.
At the end, although we lost, we all shook hands with the other team and did a cheer with the parents. I then found out that team has been playing since Pre-K!!! THREE YEARS. Ok, three years vs. us with one practice and just meeting each other. I feel pretty darn good about it.
We are only going to get better and stronger. I can’t wait to get to know these spunky Pink Flamingos. Stay tuned!
We are pulling a mulligan on Tatum’s soccer experience. We tried the Phoenix Rising recreational league when she was 5, and she just wasn’t quite ready. The other kids were a bit bigger, and her cough was not under control.
I think God had bigger plans.
Now, as we do it the second time, Doug and I are going to coach the team. (Well, Doug is really the master here). I couldn’t have done this before as a single person, but with my honey, it makes it all the more fun and special for Tot.
Our team started to show, and we got so excited! We have a team of seven 1st grade girls. Tatum, Kaya, Trevvy, Julie, Emma, Blair, and Mabel. After a quick name game and some encouraging words about what is a TEAM, we held some drills.
Lookin’ good girls!
Tot, you are looking great too! We are going to have a great season. First game: SATURDAY!
I arrived at school to pick up Tatum as Sra. Walker was lining up the kids from Spanish class. I happened to be standing in the hall as Sra. Walker was telling Mrs. Finnman about the class today.
She proceeded to pull Tatum out of the line and present her to Mrs. Finnman. “Tatum did something today I couldn’t believe. I’m so very proud of her! Because of her, I am getting the whole class popsicles next week.”
Now of course, I’m standing there wondering WHAT DID SHE DO!?
Then, Sra. Walker continued, “Tatum explained what I was trying to teach to the class. I could have never explained it the way she did! She did it better than I could, and guess what? The whole class got it because of Tatum. She is so smart.”
Mrs. Finnman looked at me and winked. She then said, “I wonder where she gets it.” I pointed up and said, “HIM.”
Yes, I was/ am proud of her. I made sure she explained it to the class with humility and not arrogance. That is so important; not to be a know-it-all!
I love when I get to see this side of Tatum shine because I get to see it daily.
I’m so proud of your brain and your heart, love bug…..MY HAY GIRL!
It only comes once every four years, so what else could we do to celebrate but write a book together. It all started with us planning out what we wanted to write about, and we landed on it being about a pig and a pup. Perfect! Now it was time to come up with a plot. We didn’t want to have any words in the book. Therefore we would portray our story in pictures!
A notecard would hold our ideas.
Now we are ready. We divided up the pages and got to work. Tot started with the cover of a beach.
(We added the words later).
After we each drew each page, we “bound” the book and VOILA! It’s ready for publishing.
Would you like to read the story with us? You follow along and add words with your own imagination.
Book TWO here we come!
(special thanks to Mo Willems and Charles Schulz for the inspiration behind Piggie and Snoopy).
