The Christmas Tree

This year we had a very kind and generous church, the Korean-American Calvary Baptist Church in Federal Way http://kacbc.org/ host us. One of the members at this church attended our banquet in October and passed information about our ministry to his pastor. Pastor Daniel generously offered to have our party at their church, serve us dinner and provide gifts to our ladies as well as to us staff!

Stockings provided by the church for each mom

Dinner was served by boys in the children’s ministry.

The boys that served us!

10 moms, 9 babies and 3 expecting moms as well as 3 staff, 2 staff children,  2 directors and our foreign exchange student. WOW! We sure had a lot of fun!

Loud laughter filled the air while we watched two precious babies curiously playing with a banana box.  The smell of glazed ham and peanut butter cookies filled the air and the soft Christmas tree lights glowed in the background.  12 beautiful young ladies and their 12 adorable babies joined us for our 1^st annual Christmas party.  The evening was filled with reminiscing, laughter, eating, and lots of present opening.  We were tremendously grateful to the supporters of this evening; East Main Vision Clinic, Costco, members of Mars Hill Church and several other individuals in the community as well as to our INCREDIBLE staff assistant, Kristal Bean who coordinated the entire event.  The moms and babies were immensely blessed by all of our supporters’ generosity.  As we watched the joy on our young ladies faces and observed all of the friendships in the room we felt an overwhelming sense of thankfulness to an awesome God whom we serve.  His faithfulness and mercy cannot be compared to anything.  To witness his continual pursuit and love of His children is an incredible privilege.  Each and every day we thank God for allowing us to be a small part of His big plan for these young ladies.

Many thanks to Celebration Church who sent a team of folks to help us prepare our yard for the fall and winter!  They cleaned gutters, pulled weeds and pulled out dying flowers.  What the people of Celebration church did in an afternoon would’ve taken our staff weeks to complete.  We are always so grateful to volunteers for helping us with the task part of this ministry essentially freeing us up to spend time with women who live here.  Thank you Celebration Church for giving up your Saturday afternoon to serve your community!

What’s better than 4 mommies-to-be enjoying fresh hot scones and a Garth Brooks wannabe on the side stage??  We all had such fun at the Puyallup Fair on opening day this year.  Always budget conscious we packed our lunches but still enjoyed all the “must haves” at the fair!  We did a lot of walking (always good for exercise!) and a lot of eating (maybe not so good!).  We all took turns petting a 2 day old piglet and several amazing dogs at the dog exhibit.  We also walked through the pavilions and window shopped.  We contemplated putting the ladies on the Extreme Scream but decided that was probably not using much wisdom, haha!  While each young lady is taking steps toward becoming more independent and walking through difficult life choices, we can’t ignore the opportunity to also have some fun together!

Early in the morning the ladies at New Beginnings awoke to the sound of their cell phone alarms.  After a morning stretch and a big yawn they made their way to the kitchen to pack their lunches for our day at Fort Worden.  Fort Worden once guarded the nautical entrance to Puget Sound. It is now a state park and has many huge abandoned concrete batteries which were constructed in 1897 (http://www.parks.wa.gov/fortworden/history.aspx).  Fort Worden is also close to Discovery Bay, the YWAM base that our family attended in 2009.  All of us packed into two mini vans and made the two hour drive to Port Townsend (home to Fort Worden).  We all had fun playing on the beach, picnicking and exploring the old batteries.  When we finished we headed to YWAM Discovery Bay to watch the School of Performing Arts graduate and perform the dances they were taking to India.  We arrived home late in the evening feeling tired but full of joy from the day’s excursion.  Our family enjoyed showing the New Beginnings ladies a piece of our lives from DTS.  The day trip was a fun way to share life together!

A few Sundays prior to the baptisms, church service was just getting started when Colleen, Charles and Cianna scooted into our row. I waved hello and focused my attention back on worship.  However, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a giddy young lady doing a very familiar “happy dance”.  I looked over again and saw Colleen waving her left hand….she was wearing a beautiful engagement ring.  “Charles proposed to me this morning!”  All of us currently living at New Beginnings were sitting together and began hugging Colleen and offering words of congratulations.  I am sure that we made quite a scene in the middle of our congregation!

This past Sunday, after a particularly difficult week in the house we were reminded of God’s faithfulness when 4 of our past residents and their babies came to church.  All of us combined took up two full rows.  We invited them for an impromptu BBQ after church and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company!  We also took the opportunity to celebrate David’s birthday.  He was particularly touched by Rachel’s card to him which simply stated, “Happy Birthday, you’re the best dad ever”.

We love our Sundays at New Beginnings.  It is a day we set aside to attend church together and partake of God’s word as a family.  We are so thankful for all of your prayers and financial support.  We love serving these young ladies and without your help would be unable to do so.  Your partnership is making a difference.  Lives are being healed, renewed and restored every day.  Thank you!

All for His glory!

“Time to get up ladies!” we said as we gently knocked on their doors.  “It is time to head to our 1^st Annual Stroll N Roll!”  All the young ladies in the house were great sports as we woke them up early on a Saturday morning.  We had a great turn out for our first year and are eager to have any even larger group next year.  We would like to thank our sponsors, The Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse, Hometeam Northwest Realty and Clearwire.  We would also like to extend our thanks to our largest donor, Olympic Landscape and Irrigation.  Lastly, but definitely not least we would like to extend a HUGE thank you to all of our walkers and everyone who sponsored them.  All funds raised go directly to helping pregnant mommies who are in desperate need of housing and support.  We couldn’t do it without all of your help! Mark your calendars for the 2^nd Annual Stroll N Roll, Saturday, July 16^th, 2011.

On April 30^th we were fortunate to have several members of the City Harvest Church prepare us dinner.  We took this opportunity to invite over some ladies who had recently given birth in order to have a bit of a reunion.  We had no idea the elegance that was in store for us!  I walked in the kitchen and thought that they had hired a catering company but found that the ladies just decided to wear white shirts and black bottoms with matching red aprons.  They had prepared menus placed on chargers on the beautifully decorated table and served us a three course dinner.  To start we had a Caesar salad and bread and were even offered freshly ground pepper and cheese!  Our main entrée was gorgonzola chicken over a bed of pasta and for dessert we had delicious cheesecake.  They served us and cleared our plates between each course.  The attention to detail was phenomenal as was the food!  To top it off they presented each of us with gift baskets each including complimentary facials donated from Rejuvenation Salon and Spa! We were so incredibly blessed and enjoyed the time that we were able to spend with the new mommies and their babies.  Thank you so much ladies of City Harvest Church, you truly displayed a generous and servant heart which exemplified the love of Jesus!

The ladies from City Harvest Church

The ladies from City Harvest Church

The Art museum sparked much conversation and reflection, especially trying to visualize the architects aim at creating mountains and waves in the center of the building (not to easy to see for those of us who are not very artsy!) After finishing with the art museum we headed for the Bridge of glass and enjoyed the reflection pools outside the Glass museum.  We stopped along the way and pointed out our favorite Chihuly pieces.  Lastly, we wrapped up the day at the Washington State History Museum.  We sat in a covered wagon, dressed up, and learned a lot about the development of the railroad and the evidence that points to Bigfoot’s existence.  Both important to learn about prior to becoming a mommy!  Not really, but lots of fun and culturally enriching none the less!  After a couple of hours walking around museums tackling the walk back up 19^th st. was a bit taxing!  Overall we all had a terrific time and truly enjoyed a beautiful Pacific Northwest day!     

“You can do it…..one more push…he’s almost here” were common phrases around here this past month.  We have had the pleasure of welcoming three handsome lil’ boys to mommies of New Beginnings!  We have been blessed to walk with Amelia, Christina and Ha during their pregnancies and celebrated with them as they entered official mommyhood.  While we are saddened by their departure from New Beginnings we couldn’t be happier about their new little arrivals.  Congratulations ladies!