Dogs, Poverty Gospel and My BFFC (chapter one)

We had to call and warn Monster's owner that they might be getting a vet bill. That was Friday morning. No return call all day long. Hmmmm....might they know why we were calling? Sure enough, early evening, we got a return call. "I knew it couldn't be good," was all the owner could say when he finally returned the call, which he admitted, took him all day to return knowing it was probably bad news. After several days of observation, it is clear the bull isn't putting any weight on his back leg. Though it still could only be a strain, we feel we have to call a vet in. Ahhhh....the Day of the Dog. Could be a new movie out some day, great title.

I don't have much to report these days about new financial breakthroughs except to say the ideas just keep coming. We've definitely decided to use our land more as we see it as a huge resource, almost like one of the "talents" God gave us. We don't want to "bury" it in the sense that we just sit here doing nothing with it, so we're going to plant a whole variety of different crops this year and see which one becomes the most profitable. Hebrews 13 talked about being content with what you have and I always want to make sure we aren't sounding discontent with what we have when I talk about being profitable. It isn't about profit for the love of money. It is making money to be good stewards with the resources and talents God has given us as well as pursuing profit for the sake of being free from financial bondage. I've heard the term "prosperity gospel" where it seems if you do "this", you'll make lots of money. We aren't trying to preach that. We are also not trying to preach the opposite, "poverty gospel", where one loves being poor and sees that as more godly. We don't think you are supposed to love being poor if God has given someone certain talents to be used. Ultimately, we realize whatever we set our hands to do, it is up to God whether or not He blesses it. It is up to do to do our part. So far He had decided to keep us in a place that is humbling. We keep doing our part. That is our place of contentment, choosing to be content even though we'd much rather be free today.

On a completely different note, I thought I might take a few days to write a story about the person I call my bffc - we made up a new term, "best friend forever cousins"! We aren't really related, except through marriage, so we are kind of cousins, but more like friends. It is her mom who is so sick with cancer, my husband's cousin. I've had my bffc on my mind a lot lately mostly because of her mom being so sick. My daughters have had the privilege of being able to watch her children a couple of times a week so she can go and take care of her mom during this difficult time, which I also must say pleases me so much. It isn't because I'm proud of my daughters, though I am, of course. It's more that the Bible calls children arrows and that blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. What is the purpose of an arrow? To be used, shot out. I'm so excited to see my girls being "arrows". This will sound funny, but I feel like I'm a "Temp Agency", you know the kind of business you call up and say, we're shorthanded this week, who do you got? Having this many children of different ages and sexes is really neat. It's starting to happen that if we see someone in need, we can pick from our quiver of arrows and send the appropriate arrow, never for money, but just to help. It is so rewarding as a parent, so powerful for the child to see God use them. I love it. Anyway, I've also had my friend/cousin on my mind because now my daughter and my daughter's friends are now in the stage of life that she once was, determining what their future careers will be. To keep things simple, I'll refer to her as Stephanie. Her story is a fascinating one and I've longed to write it out one day. It may be a diversion from the regular focus for a bit. If some amazing financial breakthrough happens in the meantime, I'll certainly stop and write about that, but for a few days, or however long it takes, I'm going to attempt to write out a portion of Stephanie's story.

Chapter One - Our Home - The Alternative Placement

Like I said, my husband's cousin is the one who is so sick with brain cancer. She is just a little older than Renaissance Man, but has two grown children, Stephanie and her brother, Michael. I, of course, only met all these people once I was married into the family. I remember the first meeting with Stephanie very clearly. She was probably around 9 years old. I had two children by then and we went to visit them at their beautiful home on the lake. Stephanie was there with two braids, smiling and friendly. Her parents were amazing hosts and laid out a spread of incredible food. At the time they owned a restaurant and they showed their abilities to make food look and taste delicious. Everytime I left their place I always had a new recipe I was inspired to try. That's about all I remember of her from that first visit. It seemed like many years passed before I saw her again, though her mom was really good about sending out regular Christmas letters to everyone with pictures of their family as the years went on. I only slightly followed Stephanie and her journey first finishing highschool and then onto university. I would read the letter with interest, but never thought I might be friends with the girl in the pictures one day.

Then, about 7 years ago, I reconnected with her at her grandparents' 50th weding anniversary. She was all grown up now, attending teacher's college. She had shaved her hair all off in a bit of a pixie cut and had bright red lip stick on. She was super effervescent and friendly and greeted me like we'd always known each other. I am a fairly social person and love to meet new people and make new friends and we immediately connected as I introduced her to my family. Somehow it came up that we homeschooled and she must have just pocketed that information away in her head as it wasn't too long after that that I received an email from her. In the email she explained that she was required as part of her teaching degree, to do a placement in an "alternative" teaching environment. That could have meant in a library setting or even a prison, or in our case, a homeschool! We were certainly alternative! It would have been for two school weeks and, of course, in our house. She was happy to drive from her parent's place in to our house everyday, but I thought, especially because homeschooling is a 24/7 type of schooling, that it made more sense for her to stay the whole week, overnight, and then perhaps go home on weekends. My husband was hestitant. We really knew nothing about her, for all he knew she was a drug dealer, but I tried to convince him to try my idea out. If she really was a drug dealer, we could at least have the drug dealer in our house, on our terms and we could stop the whole arrangement at anytime. RM is always concerned about any influences in our home that could negatively influence our children spiritually. We really didn't know where she was at in this area, but I explained to him that by being in our home (especially with his office in the basement in the house we used to live in), he could monitor what was going on and ideally we could influence her in a positive way. He seemed ok with this. So I approached her with the idea of living with us, sleeping in the basement and truly becoming part of our family for the two school weeks. She was in!

Stay tuned for chapter two tomorrow......