Our MCDS Worship Team tee shirts for 2006. (Same logo as always, new color!) 

Time for shopping

I went to Lancaster after school today to pick up the MCDS Worship Team tee shirts. Destiny wanted me to call Frank to see if she could stay with him for the evening, so I did, and he said she could. So that gave me a chance to look for an outfit for myself to wear with the worship team. Their tee shirts are hot pink with black lettering, so I thought it would be neat if I could find a pink and black pant suit. I went to Boscov's and realized immediately that this is not the year to be buying pink. Everything is salmon instead of pink. But, lo and behold, in a short time I came across several pant suits that were pink and black, and there was one my size. I was thrilled. It didn't take me long at all. I also went to Savemart for some much needed stuff, then hurried home to eat a sub we had ordered from someone at church, then went to our first meeting for Vacation Bible School planning, then to meet Frank to pick up Destiny. She fell asleep on the way home. That's good and bad. It means she got to sleep on time, but it means she didn't brush her teeth after the red drink she had when I picked her up.

There's another blogger on my links at the side. Daughter Miki in Sweden started one yesterday. And for those who haven't been checking my sister Rose's, she's been writing a little bit almost every day. So enjoy.

I LOVE SPRING!!

Yes, I love spring. Every morning now I can hear the birds outside singing. Destiny and I took a walk back to the trees behind our house to check the buds. On the way to school this morning she saw daffodils and was calling them dandelions. I said how I miss the daffodils we had at the other house. She said, "Don't worry, Grandma, after while we'll have dandelions." Now that's something to look forward to!!

Jeremy is having two days in a row with no work and no classes - the first time since Christmas! (This is his one week off between quarters at school.) Today he called from Lisa's house and said he and Lisa were going to sit out by the pool. I felt a little jealous! Later I got the picture of Sophie playing outside in some water.

Little by little things are getting ready for our first MCDS Worship Team engagement on Sunday morning. Dick helped me with some work that needed to be done to our flags. He also made a C.D. that I need for the song we'll do during the offering. This evening I will do the words of our songs in Power Point for projection. Tomorrow after school I'll go to Red Rose Awards in Lancaster to pick up our HOT PINK tee shirts! On Friday the team will have our final practice at Hernley Mennonite Church (next to the school) for three hours.

We also got our tax stuff together and handed to our school book keeper, who will do them for us. So that feels good to have that off my mind.

Fun in the sun 

Touching lyrics

Last week I ordered and received the C.D. of Godfrey Birtill from England that Chris Cox had played a song from at our women's fellowship the other Saturday. Then on Sunday we used that song from the C.D. "When I Look at the Cross" during the offering, instead of a live special song. Once again, it was extremely moving. I'm going to write the lyrics below.

When I look at the blood
All I see is love, love, love.
When I stop at the cross
I can see the love of God.

But I can't see competition,
I can't see hirarchy,
I can't see pride or prejudice,
Or the abuse of authority.
I can't see lust for power,
I can't see manipulation,
I can't see rage or anger,
Or selfish ambition.

When I look at the blood
All I see is love, love, love.
When I stop at the cross
I can see the love of God.

But I can't see unforgiveness,
I can't see hate or envy,
I can't see stupid fighting,
Or bitterness or jealousy.
I can't see empire building,
I can't see self importance,
I can't see back stabbing
Or vanity or arrogance.

When I look at the blood
All I see is love, love, love,
When I stop at the cross
I can see the love of God.

I see surrender, sacrifice, salvation,
Humility, righteousness, faithfulness,
Grace, forgiveness,
Love, love, love,
Love, love, love...

When I look at the blood
All I see is love, love, love.
When I stop at the cross
I can see the love of God.



For whatever reason, there is right now just the sweetest atmosphere of love and grace and forgiveness at Grace Community Fellowship. Our bishop Don Nauman and his wife Erla came to visit on Sunday morning and said they could sense it all morning. I hope we can keep our eyes open to all the ways Satan would love to try to mess it up.

We are experiencing temperatures in the 50's and eventually the 60's all week. This morning at 5:30 the birds were singing like they are rejoicing too. I feel so much more energy and motivation. Destiny and I went for a walk around our community after school yesterday. She pushed her doll stroller. She is SO FAST (she obviously has her dad's athletic genes.) I honestly could not keep up with her! Sounds like I need to walk more. Hopefully my feet and hips will let me. I do sound like a grandma!

MCDS Staff Breakfast

This morning our staff had our annual fund-raising breakfast. We served from 6:30 until 9:30, and the majority of the time we were busy. For a while, we couldn't keep up with the line. We love when it's busy like that, probably because we have such a bad memory of the year we only had about 150 people, and we spent most of our time waiting around. We have such a good time working together. Click on the pictures below to see them larger.

Edna Seigrist (the only picture I got of her was in the distance, thus is very cropped and blurry), was our breakfast boss! 

Quilts, which were made for our annual auction in April, were on display. 

More lovely quilts. 

Danelle Michael (red sweater) was our ticket and money lady. 

Sandy Creighton was our beverage lady. 

Beth Mease was the egg supervisor - she's had years of restaurant experience. 

Pancakes in their various stages of unreadiness! (The food servers were always yelling at us for more pancakes!) 

Jean Peachey, Rachel Tann, and Jen Houser, and I were the pancake flippers. We could hardly keep up!! 

Judy Hawryluk and Kim Metzler (foreground) served up the food while Pam Groff, Frank Rittenhouse, and Beth Mease (background) kept the egg grill going. 

Ray was our first customer, arriving before 6:30 a.m. after working the night shift at Kunzler. We got so busy, we put him to work! 

Ray had his second breakfast with Dick and Destiny! 

My sister Mary Ellen joined us for breakfast. 

Seussical the Musical

This evening we went to Manheim Central's musical. They did Seussical the Musical, based on the works of Dr. Suess. It was the most incredible high school production I have ever seen. There were SOOO many people in the cast, it took seven pages of the program to list them all! We got seats right up front, which was good for Destiny. For me, the greatest enjoyment was watching seven of my former students up there, some of them in major roles. I laughed so hard, and I was so proud of them, I felt like I would just explode. I got pictures of them afterward. I do regret that I didn't see Emma Thompson afterward, or my neice Greta Fahnestock. I would have pictures of them too, if I had seen them. Brandon Kreider is so amazing. He was always so quiet in school. When he was in eighth grade, I gave him a major part in the Christmas musical, not because I thought he would be the most dramatic, but because I thought he was the only person who could memorize the enormous amount of lines. He ended up being the absolutely funniest actor I had ever had. He just amazed everyone. The next year when he got to Manheim Central, he landed a lead role in the fall play, and has had major roles in every production since. (He's a sophomore now.) Wow, this was just the shot in the arm I needed.

Kelsey Snavely as Who Dey 

Brandon Kreider as Mayor of Whoville 

Amanda Nissley as Koochiek Who and Lauren Hammer as Gotcha Who 

Hillary Snavely as Mrs. Mayor, the Honorable Tish Who 

Matt Garber as General Genghis Kahn Schmitz  

COBYS Family Services

Last evening we went to a fund raising banquet for COBYS Family Services. They are the Christian agency that we were foster parents with for 20-some years. It was fun to be there, but it's just like any other place - the staff continues to change, and in this case, the foster parents change, and we actually didn't see that many people we knew. One person we knew is Mary Sourber. She was our case worker back in the late 80's when we went through the heartbreak of letting our precious little Maggie and Richard Gonzalez move to Puerto Rico to live with their father after we had had them in our home for 14 months. She was an awesome support through that. A few years ago she was an invaluable source of support to us as we had to figure out how to deal with some legal situations regarding Destiny. It was so good to see her familiar face.

Our initiation into foster parenting was simultaneous with COBYS beginning as an agency. In September 1980 Lisa was 6, Anthony was 4, and Jeremy was a baby. There was a 15-year-old girl (Kathy) whom our church (Kauffman Mennonite, at that time) had been closely involved with, who was in a very unstable family situation. We felt that God wanted us to let her live with us. We were advised that we should have a legal agreement with her parents, and that perhaps a brand new agency, Church of the Brethren Youth Services, could help us. They really were brand new. They did not even have an office yet, and it took several weeks until we were able get in touch with anyone. When we finally did, they invited us to take their very first parenting class. During the weeks that we took that class, Kathy's home situation changed somewhat, and she returned home. However, it was not long after that till a 14-year-old girl was placed in our home through COBYS. That 14-year-old girl is now our adult daughter Miki, a successful artist and business woman with a heart after God, married to a Swedish medical doctor, and the mother of two children. COBYS has also grown tremendously since those early days. They are involved in teaching all kinds of family classes, they offer family counselling, foster care, adoption, a group home. I believe God's hand has certainly been upon this agency.

Mary Sourber - a long-time COBYS employee and true friend. 

Little girl on the run

Lisa got my hint from yesterday and emailed me some pictures today. (They were just what I needed for a lift after a day of putting up with rowdy boys and petty girls and an unhappy parent.) Lisa said that Sophie just can't let Macy (their female dog) alone, and today, in her extreme desire to reach Macy, who was peacefully sleeping on top of the couch, Sophie managed to climb up onto the couch for the first time. I'm sure Macy is just delighted - not!!

"Oh what to do, what to do?" 

"I'm a big girl now and I can walk all around the house all by myself." 

Aha! I just got a good idea!" 

"I see you on top of the couch, Macy, and I'm coming to play with you. Aren't you happy about that?" 

"Ah! This stool is just what I need!"