I finished this 6 day shift thinking "Wait it is already my break? Could another week really have gone by so fast?" A lot of it I think was the fact that it had been a crazy busy week plus the Easter holiday. It seemed super weird to have my first Easter not at my Nana and Papa's. It is a tradition every year to have Easter Sunday with my cousins and my Nana and Papa and to not this year was very odd. But it gave me an opportunity to start a new tradition. I was off for Good Friday but we had an Easter Egg hunt for our girls and Girl's Cottage girls for those who hadn't gone home for a visit. So Caitlain and I went out to Chuck's (our boss) house in the country to hide Easter eggs since it was our day off. We then proceeded to hide the eggs with the help our our new found friend John Mark the kitty who helped us hide them. Starbucks in hand and a bag full of Easter eggs and wonderful weather we had a blast! The kids had a blast as well finding the eggs and getting candy of course.
Saturday we ended up coloring Easter Eggs with the girls! It was super fun to just spend the day outside flying kites, dying Easter eggs and spending some quality time together while the other 2 girls had visits at home. It was a pretty low key day. We did some baking preparing our Carrot Cake for Easter Lunch the next day after church and getting some side dishes ready.
Sunday we got up for the sunrise service at 7am. It was a spectacular service to be able to see the sunrise at 7:15am and listen to the service of Jesus rising again at the same time! It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend that time worshiping the Lord with the girls as well. We then had breakfast at church at 8am. Then went to the regular service at 9:30am. To the surprise of those who know me pretty well I wore an Easter dress I picked out by choice and I loved it! :) We then had a big Easter lunch at Castle with all the other Grace kids and staff that were around. It was a wonderful time to just hangout together and have a wonderful family meal and play some Rock Band and fellowship. We completely wore the kids...and ourselves out so we went back to our cottage at like 3pm that afternoon put on our comfy clothes, took a nap and then watched Matilda that night just to unwind.
Monday the kids had no school so a few of the girls came back that day and we just spent the day relaxing, doing homework, and really just trying to re-energize for the week. It wasn't until Tuesday that things got really interesting. We had an issue with our youngest girl who had been here for three weeks, she didn't want to do her homework. And in the midst of the argument she went into her room...slammed her door, slammed dresser drawers, walked outside and so I followed. We ended up walking all around town with her trying to get rid of me, and ended up at the entrance to the town at which point the Program Manager had to take over and drive next to her in his truck while she ran 3 miles into the corn field before deciding to come back. Can you say my life never is dull here at Grace Children's Home? For sure! Though even though there are definitely rough days and those days that I wish I could just scream and walk away...I wouldn't trade them for anything. I know that I am helping these kids grow and hopefully go home to a better environment, or grow and go to better places. And they continue to help me grow every day as well. I mean we all have things we need to change in our lives right? IT isn't just them. And I tell them that daily. They have things to change, as well as I do. We are all humans, we are not perfect, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try and change for the better. It is all I can ask for from them and myself, but they need to be willing to change as well.
The rest of the week flew by with business. We went to York College for a college visit and what they call Songfest. Where basically their sorority type clubs perform these musical performances they come up with and it was fabulous! It was one of the best shows I have been to in awhile. IT was great to be able to take our juniors and seniors onto the campus and show them around and see what college life is like. Something to look forward to and start to think about for them. We didn't get back until late that Wednesday night so we were exhausted. Prior to the songfest while the kids were at school I Went to pick up one of our program managers from the airport in Lincoln and then we went and did a preplacement at the detention center. This time it went better than my first time at the detention center. I wasn't as nervous. IT seemed almost normal now to me even though I feel like it isn't normal but in my line of work it is. So it was a very long day of running around and doing errands. My last day on Thursday was simple with errands, grocery shopping at Walmart and preparing to get our new girl which we got today. She came today and so our cottage is now up to 5 girls! It is crazy how even though 5 seems like a lot of girls it is a small number. We will be getting another new girl as well on the 18th so we will have 6 girls in our cottage. We can hold up to 8 so 6 girls is pretty normal around here which that is a lot of teenage girl drama in one house! I hope that I have the strength to survive! But I have faith and have help of course. This is what God has provided me to do and I have faith that I can do the work He has planned for me and whatever challenges He gives me. IT is a great lesson to learn all He teaches me and I am in this job for the long run. :) I can easily see myself here for at least a full 2 years so we shall see what God has in store for me as the months continue to follow.
Thank you again for following my journey and sharing in my adventure! Here are a few pictures from my Easter weekend! Hope you enjoy! Love you all!
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