oh.my.goodness.
we saw the two most amazing pictures we have ever seen yesterday on our computer screen. we called the kids and excitedly showed them the pictures. they couldn't believe it: a boy AND a girl! What a dream come true!
and then, as if that wasn't sweet enough, we have been given the opportunity to travel with *this* travel group...which flies out of the country THIS Saturday!
in 5 days!
we have so much to do.
thank You, God. Only You could do this!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
REFERRAL!!!
oh, how I have longed to say that word.
it is so sweet.
at 10:35am Eastern Standard Time, our lives changed forever.
we saw two of the most beautiful children you have ever seen on that computer screen, with a letter informing us that these two precious ones had been "attributed" to our family.
thank You, God.
only You could have done this.
only You make things this good.
and we are so grateful.
(I wish I wish I wish I could show you their pictures, but I can give no identifying details about them...yet! We have to pass court first!)
it is so sweet.
at 10:35am Eastern Standard Time, our lives changed forever.
we saw two of the most beautiful children you have ever seen on that computer screen, with a letter informing us that these two precious ones had been "attributed" to our family.
thank You, God.
only You could have done this.
only You make things this good.
and we are so grateful.
(I wish I wish I wish I could show you their pictures, but I can give no identifying details about them...yet! We have to pass court first!)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Christmas Read Aloud Favorites
Today was the marathon trip to the library my blessings have been begging for! We checked out gobs of books, a beloved tradition, and snuggled tonight while Joel went all out on the Christmas tree lights this year (because he loves his wife).
Some of our very favorites:
Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
She is the most amazing author in my book. You just about can't go wrong with anything she has written, but this is a treasure.
Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, always a favorite
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
What a fool I was to scoff at this book until two years ago. I laughed so hard I cried. The kids LOVE it! A complete treat and MUST read!
Lastly, the very best pick of the season:
Christmas in the Country by Cynthia Rylant
If you haven't read this one yet, go get it this instant! It is a delight. We read it again and again and again and we never get tired of it!
Some of our very favorites:
Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
She is the most amazing author in my book. You just about can't go wrong with anything she has written, but this is a treasure.
Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett, always a favorite
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
What a fool I was to scoff at this book until two years ago. I laughed so hard I cried. The kids LOVE it! A complete treat and MUST read!
Lastly, the very best pick of the season:
Christmas in the Country by Cynthia Rylant
If you haven't read this one yet, go get it this instant! It is a delight. We read it again and again and again and we never get tired of it!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
the rich family in church, part 2
i talked to my mom tonight on the phone and she wanted to know if the story in last night's post is true...yes!!! here is a little more of the story:
*******************************************************
This slice of Eddie’s childhood, set in 1946, has become known as “The Rich Family in Church.” Written in a letter to missionaries in 1990, it took on a life of its own and still circulates in magazines, books (Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul), and Web sites (Google.com pulls up 100 links to her story—including translations in German and Indonesian). Other than some versions mistaking Eddie for a boy (her name is pronounced like the male name, “Eddy”), the story has remained intact.
Eddie (Smith) Ogan, the sixth of seven children, who found out at age 14 that she was “poor” is now 72. She and her husband, Phil, live on Social Security. They clean the grounds and bathrooms at the Northeast Washington Fair; the Colville, Washington, Father’s Day Rodeo; and Town and Country Days at the next town over.
Are you thinking that poor girl became even more poor? Then you don’t know the end of that Easter story, and you don’t know Eddie Ogan.
Whatever Happened to the Rich Little Poor Girl?
Catching up with Eddie Ogan, author of "The Rich Family in Church"
by Kimberly Claassen
“All my life, I’ve been able to find something funny in anything that happened.” So says Eddie Ogan.
And most things were. But her story of a childhood Easter was a slight miscalculation. The story she wrote to make people laugh, made them cry. As she copied the letter with that story in it, folded and stamped it, sending it around the world to missionaries who could use a laugh in their day, she never guessed its bittersweetness would give pause to millions of readers worldwide for years to come.
We all want to see ourselves in Eddie’s story, the story of a widow and three young daughters eating potatoes for a month, keeping the radio off to save on their electricity bill, taking odd jobs, and making cotton loop pot holders to sell—three for a dollar. All to scrape together money for the “sacrificial gift” the pastor would collect Easter morning for the poor family in church.
We want to walk with them to church that rainy Sunday morning when they were singing all the way despite the puddles disintegrating the cardboard patches in our shoes. We want to proudly deposit the crisp bills in the offering plate—sitting straight in our old dresses, giving away the most money we’ve ever had at one time.
Our eyes widen and a knot forms in our throat when the pastor shows up on the doorstep that afternoon, envelope in hand, when Eddie’s younger sister’s exuberance about this surprise spills that same crisp money out of the envelope and they watch it flutter to the floor. The knots in our throats inevitably disintegrate just like the cardboard shoe patches, spilling out in salty sympathy.
We want to be this family who “went from feeling like millionaires to feeling like white trash.” We want to be them because we want a piece of something they had—something that went far beyond what the pastor could see.
*******************************************************
This slice of Eddie’s childhood, set in 1946, has become known as “The Rich Family in Church.” Written in a letter to missionaries in 1990, it took on a life of its own and still circulates in magazines, books (Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul), and Web sites (Google.com pulls up 100 links to her story—including translations in German and Indonesian). Other than some versions mistaking Eddie for a boy (her name is pronounced like the male name, “Eddy”), the story has remained intact.
Eddie (Smith) Ogan, the sixth of seven children, who found out at age 14 that she was “poor” is now 72. She and her husband, Phil, live on Social Security. They clean the grounds and bathrooms at the Northeast Washington Fair; the Colville, Washington, Father’s Day Rodeo; and Town and Country Days at the next town over.
Are you thinking that poor girl became even more poor? Then you don’t know the end of that Easter story, and you don’t know Eddie Ogan.
Whatever Happened to the Rich Little Poor Girl?
Catching up with Eddie Ogan, author of "The Rich Family in Church"
by Kimberly Claassen
“All my life, I’ve been able to find something funny in anything that happened.” So says Eddie Ogan.
And most things were. But her story of a childhood Easter was a slight miscalculation. The story she wrote to make people laugh, made them cry. As she copied the letter with that story in it, folded and stamped it, sending it around the world to missionaries who could use a laugh in their day, she never guessed its bittersweetness would give pause to millions of readers worldwide for years to come.
We all want to see ourselves in Eddie’s story, the story of a widow and three young daughters eating potatoes for a month, keeping the radio off to save on their electricity bill, taking odd jobs, and making cotton loop pot holders to sell—three for a dollar. All to scrape together money for the “sacrificial gift” the pastor would collect Easter morning for the poor family in church.
We want to walk with them to church that rainy Sunday morning when they were singing all the way despite the puddles disintegrating the cardboard patches in our shoes. We want to proudly deposit the crisp bills in the offering plate—sitting straight in our old dresses, giving away the most money we’ve ever had at one time.
Our eyes widen and a knot forms in our throat when the pastor shows up on the doorstep that afternoon, envelope in hand, when Eddie’s younger sister’s exuberance about this surprise spills that same crisp money out of the envelope and they watch it flutter to the floor. The knots in our throats inevitably disintegrate just like the cardboard shoe patches, spilling out in salty sympathy.
We want to be this family who “went from feeling like millionaires to feeling like white trash.” We want to be them because we want a piece of something they had—something that went far beyond what the pastor could see.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
the rich family in church
By Eddie Ogan
I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.
By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.
When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.
We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.
Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change.
We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.
That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.
We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.
But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.
As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.
Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.
We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor.
That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed—I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!
I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor. We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way.
Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.
Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.
When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."
Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100."
We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!
I'll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving Mom with seven school kids to raise and no money.
By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially.
When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. When we thought that if we kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn't listen to the radio, we'd save money on that month's electric bill. Darlene got as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.
We made $20 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.
Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we'd sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change.
We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before.
That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn't care that we wouldn't have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for the sacrificial offering.
We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn't own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile from our home, but it didn't seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet.
But we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20.
As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes! Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn't say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills.
Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn't talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn't have our Mom and Dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night.
We had two knifes that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn't have a lot of things that other people had, but I'd never thought we were poor.
That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn't like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed—I didn't even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor!
I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade. That was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark, and we went to bed. All that week, we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn't know. We'd never known we were poor. We didn't want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn't talk on the way.
Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100 would put a roof on a church. The minister said, "Can't we all sacrifice to help these poor people?" We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week.
Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene. Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.
When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100. The missionary was excited. He hadn't expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, "You must have some rich people in this church."
Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87 of that "little over $100."
We were the rich family in the church! Hadn't the missionary said so? From that day on I've never been poor again. I've always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
You are God
You're closer than our troubles
More present than any danger
More grand than gold and silver
You are God, You are God
You're the joy of man's desire
You are Father, Satisfier
We are stunned with wide eyed wonder
You are God, You are God
You fill our hearts with love and faith
You fight for us, You make us brave
You are God, You are God
You walk with us, You lead us on
Faith, hope and love wakes up with dawn
You are God, You are God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
You fill our hearts
You fill our hearts with love and faith
You fight for us, You make us brave
You are God, You are God
You walk with us, You lead us on
Faith, hope and love wakes up with dawn
You are God, You are God
***************************************************
God, the prayer of my heart this morning is that You would fight for us. Lead us on, dearest Father. We can do nothing in our own strength. We can do nothing without You on our side.
More present than any danger
More grand than gold and silver
You are God, You are God
You're the joy of man's desire
You are Father, Satisfier
We are stunned with wide eyed wonder
You are God, You are God
You fill our hearts with love and faith
You fight for us, You make us brave
You are God, You are God
You walk with us, You lead us on
Faith, hope and love wakes up with dawn
You are God, You are God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
And life flows from God, it flows from God
You fill our hearts
You fill our hearts with love and faith
You fight for us, You make us brave
You are God, You are God
You walk with us, You lead us on
Faith, hope and love wakes up with dawn
You are God, You are God
***************************************************
God, the prayer of my heart this morning is that You would fight for us. Lead us on, dearest Father. We can do nothing in our own strength. We can do nothing without You on our side.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
one of the cutest things I've ever seen!
i just love this!
my sister, Kristen, has started a new business with thirty-one. i am so proud of her! i had never heard of this company before, and just started looking through their catalog and loved it!
~~~purses, wallets, totes, rolling totes, baskets, lunch bags, aprons, organizers, accessories, gym bags, bibs, even clipboards and totally stylish stationery~~~
my favorite thing in the whole catalog is this tote, picture above, because you can customize each child so it resembles your family! you can customize gender, hair, skin color, and outfit! i can't wait to be able to order mine...but it will have to wait until after our approval and referral come!
do you have some Christmas shopping to do? i'm thinking my girls totally need the "organizing shoulder bag" to wear while we are in Rwanda to hold their sunscreen, sunglasses, and chapstick!
also, if you spend $31, you get a FREE Zipper Pouch, also a perfect accessory for our upcoming travel!
almost all the items in the catalog can be personalized for $6 each!
just in case you want to shop the catalog, go to this link, and then click my events, and then click "shop now"!
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