Things are going well here in Detroit. We are settling into community life and enjoying our church. We have really started connecting with our neighbors as well. Cleo lives across the street- she's a very kind woman. I don't know much about her story yet, but I hope to get to know her more. Next door we have great neighbors. Renee is about 40 and she has 2 young children living with her- she's working on adopting them, and her youngest bio child lives there as well (she's 16). The younger two, Kenyetta and Quintez are very sweet kids who always want to come over- they have relatives over all the time as well- and those kids really enjoy it here too. This has been so encouraging! Some of the "regulars" that you can be praying for are: Robert, Aaliyah, Josh, TJ, and Naydia. All of these children have so much enthusiasm for life and respond so well when given attention. The hope of Detroit lies in the choices of our children and so I find it so important that we are praying for them to be educated (as the graduation rate here is 24% from HS). Also that they would grow to be people of compassion and love. We were really struggling to get to know our neighbors for awhile, but recently had a "break through" moment that has changed a lot.
Two other quick prayer requests on that note: 1. Renee has come to church with us and has been coming to MAMA club here on Wednesdays... so continue to pray for her growth in the Lord. Her "son" Quintez has some serious medical issues- he has to catheterize 6 times a day (he's 8 I think) and so that's a rough place to be as a child. Because he cath's he can't wear underwear and so wears pull ups- when his shirt lifts you can see the top of the pull up which looks like a diaper- and when children see this they tease him. So he is dealing with the pain of being different and also having a body that doesn't work the way it should.
On a lighter note...
Last week I locked my keys in my car and I called our friend Matt to see if he knew of a locksmith in the area- which his neighbor across the street is- so Eli came over and unlocked my car- wouldn't take any money and left saying, "That's what neighbors do." You have no idea how encouraging this was for me.
Here are some recent pics to enjoy:
We celebrated 4 1st birthdays at church on Sunday! And now 3/4 mom's are pregnant with number 2! Sarah and I are due the first week of January and Rebecca is 8 weeks pregnant!
Bentley loves cake!
David and Bentley :)
We rode our bikes with Micah to the Jazz festival.
4 comments:
not gonna lie, i have been checking your blog every day at work since your last post and FINALLY you wrote!! love to hear from you cousin. love to you. work is getting out of control busy, but we will have to try to find time soon to do lunch. i'd love to come over again, so i'll start thinking about when that can happen.
its nice to hear from you :) I check it too. I'll be praying
I read your blog to feel connected to you since we live so far from each other now, so the more you post, the better! And, thanks for the kind words you left me :)
I love to read your posts---and the pics!!!
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