Thanksgiving at the Care Center

Thinking back on last year - I spent a couple hours helping out at a local homeless shelter and it felt so good to help people out on a day that I typically like to spend with my family. This year I am in Colorado and decided not to go home for Thanksgiving. In our school we have been doing weekly local outreaches. Myself and a few other of my classmates have been going to The Care Center almost every Monday night. (The Care Center is set up like a nursing home but the residents are mostly people with physical or mental handicaps.)We have seen the anticipation on the residents faces when we get there, and can see the sadness in their eyes when we have to leave. One lady that I have grown close to is Patty (in the pictures). She is very nice and just lights up when she sees us. I look forward to seeing her every week and just hanging out with her.

It felt so great to take a couple hours out of my Thanksgiving day to just hang out with some really cool people who didn't get to see their family this holiday. I think this is a Thanksgiving that I will always cherish.

The Leadership School Called PHASE 2

It's going into the 9th week of school for me, that means the leadership school only has 3 more weeks left. I am learning a lot about Principles in Leadership, Pitfalls in Leadership, God's Word (the importance of staying in the Word as a Leader), Faith in Finances, Effective Personal Ministry, and Strength Finders (learning about our top 5 strengths and how to effectively use our strengths in leadership). But I am also learning more about what God is calling me to do and what He wants me to work in my personal life. I have been really diligent with my time and disciplined in getting my homework done on time, if not early. I am surprised at how I haven't procrastinated much and I am wondering if I finally "grew up". :-) I do not have a love for reading, and so far a good portion of my homework has been reading books and doing book reports. But despite the busy lifestyle that is YWAM, I am learning a lot.

Moving onto other topics, the weather here has been beautiful. Colorado is always inconsistent and at the beginning of October the leaves were changing and then it snowed about a half inch so all of the beautiful leaves quickly turned into many shades of browns.

Then about a week later it snowed for about 24hrs and we got about 2 feet of snow. While it was snowing I listened to some Christmas music and dreamed of Christmas. Three days later the snow was almost gone with it reaching up into the 60's. It was nice though to get a little taste of winter and the feeling of Christmas. It was so nice.

I was thinking about touring with a band to the East Coast after my school ends on December 18th, but after thinking and praying about it more I have decided to go home after my school ends. I will be home for Christmas and I will be staying home for about 2 months. In March, I am going to come back to Colorado and be a full time missionary for at least a year. I am so excited about it, and I am so excited to discover more of what God has planned for my life.

Greedy and Williena Robinz

Sitting in the windowsill


Williena and Greedy resting where I sleep



Bath time!!!

Day 1: Looking for food

through this experience. It was bitter-sweet to let them go, but I knew it was best for them to be where they were intended to be - in the wild.

Motherly Instinct

So I have rescued 2 baby Robins from work and I am hand raising them until they are ready to be set back into the wild. I got them Sunday May 24th and they are more work than I thought they would be. They need to eat every 30 minutes and if needed they can go for 2-3 hours once a day. I am feeding them worms and a berry mixture (which consists of blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and 12 grain whole wheat bread crumbs). They were about 1 week old when I got them and they are growing fast.

I've nicknamed one "Greedy SOB (Son of a Bird) because it's more aggressive over the food and always seems to never stop eating. The other I just nicknamed today "One Eye Willie" because I found a drop of mud on one of it's eye/eyelid and I tried to carefully clean it off. This was probably from a piece of mud falling off a worm during feeding. It will sometimes open it's eye, but most of the time it's closed. I'm sure it's eye will be fine in a couple days.

Other than that the babies are 11 days old today and I am looking forward to their "fledgling" stage... when they will get out of the nest and begin to fly short distances and learn how to take a bath, hunt, and exercise their wings. However it will be interesting and fun for me (a human) to teach them their independence as a bird.

Since I've had "my babies" I've noticed an increase of my own motherly instincts kick in. My attention gets drawn to the slightest noise that resembles their chirp and even when I know they are safe I cannot seem to focus clearly on the thing I was previously focused on until I go check on them. And I am attached (obviously since I'm calling them "my babies"). Even when I left them with my grandma for 45 minutes just to pick up some things at Wal-Mart, I found myself getting excited to see the birds as I pulled into her driveway. Also, in between feedings I'll find myself staring at the birds and seeing how much they have grown and how little they still are, then I realize that it's time for me to feed them again. :-)

I do believe that God is preparing me for the day when I will have my own family. And I can happily say that I think I am just about ready. And by "just about" I mean that I'm just lacking the Wonderful Godly Man that I will one day call My Husband. But as every day goes by I feel closer and closer to meeting him and knowing that he is "the one".

But anyways that day will come... back to the robins.

About the mother of the baby robins I am raising: I've had to take the baby robins to work a few times because of the busy feeding schedule and I thought maybe the mom would hear her babies chirping, but I never spotted her. So I am assuming she is busy taking care of another nest of baby robins.

Stay tuned to see a couple videos of the baby robins before I let them go back into the wild. :-)


The day I got them



4 days later (today)
Greedy on the right and Willie on the left

Summer Blessing of 2008

I have been so blessed this year and so privileged to do many new and exciting things. This summer surprised me the most. I expected now that I was out of the YWAM community that my life would become dull and uneventful. But God blessed me and at the same time that He was blessing me, He allowed me to be a blessing to others.

Here's how I have been blessed this Summer:

May

• I flew to Colorado and visited my friends in YWAM Denver for a week.
  
  
  
  
• 2 of my good friends from Madison came down and spent a 3 day weekend with me.
  
  
  
  
• I went to a Rodeo with my mom and dad in a near by town.
  
  

June

• I went to my 1st Chicago Cubs Game at Wrigley Field (also my 1st MLB game) with my dad (early Father's Day gift) and we got free hats!
  
  
  
  
• I got to catch up with a childhood friend.
  
  
  
  
• Went to Kid's Church camp for the 2nd year in a row as a Cabin Leader.
  
  
  
  
• My Uncle from California came and visited for 10 days.
  
  

July

• I went to my cousins Softball Championship Tournament (she's the pitcher).
  
  
  
  
• Went to a Black and White Ball with my mom for an annual MaryKay rewards banquet.
  
  
  
  
• I went with a friend and her kids to Springfield for the day of fun, history, education, and a train ride.
  
  
• I went to Chicago with 2 my friends that I did SOW with.
  
  

August

• I went on a road trip to San Francisco for a friends wedding with a friend from Oregon. She drove and picked up me and new friend. Then we drove all the way to San Francisco and I flew back home. We stopped in Iowa, Colorado, Nevada (camped at The Valley of Fire), Long Beach, CA - where I saw my aunt and uncle, then San Francisco!
  
  
  
• I got to spend time with my Aunt and Uncle from New Mexico along with my other relatives from the Mid-West.
  
  
  
• I got a car for a $1!
  
  
  
• I went to my 1st Circus with a friend from High School.
  

WOW! I was so blessed this summer! :-)