October what?

Oh how fast this month is going!

Our house (aka 2 BR apartment) has been a whirlwind of activity.  We have had the kids here much of September and a good portion of October as well.  When Limaris is home and feeling good, they are with her and when Ruby (Jonerik's other sister) is not working her kids usually stay with her - there is not pattern to scenario.  Someone asked me today how we do what we do, and I just laughed.   I really have no idea how, but it really does all work out. 

Some keys to keeping my sanity:

-I finally bought and use a good old-fashioned calendar which is now filled and color coded!

-Noting ways to feed lots of people with little notice - keep cooked pasta on hand in the fridge...have more meat ready to thaw and cook-it can be stored for another meal if it turns out to be just the 2 of us and we have extra - I am always open to suggestions!

-My coffee supply is fully stocked =)

-I try to keep my Bible in the center of our house (the shelf in the kitchen)...and open!

-Prayer, prayer, singing, prayer, singing, and more prayer.
(I can usually gauge the level of happiness vs. stress in our home by the amount of singing going on... when things are going well our life is typically a musical)

Limaris has another test tomorrow that will help us know where things are at with her cancer.  She will most likely go to the hospital again for treatment on Monday and will be in for about a week. 

When the kids off  from school recently, we went to one of our new favorite (very small) parks for a picnic lunch.  It is settled right under one of our bridges and isn't too far from our home. 

Poem by a friend...

A friend of ours approached me recently and asked me to share this poem in hopes that it may help someone else struggling in a hard place:

Antifreeze is to cool an engine down.

I drank antifreeze down cup after cup.

Then went to sleep with antifreeze running through me.

My husband died.
I lived!

A true miracle of God.

I can speak!
I can see!
I can hear!

I can actually write this down due to God alone.

I live because he chose for me to live.

Why he chose to intervene?
I know not why.

It goes beyond understanding and knowledge.

I am walking with the Lord now.

God is the only one who can truly love us.

He can give us a peace beyond understanding.

He can reach through pain that no one else can get too!

To invite him into your life changes your life.

It brings breath to life.

Why he chose me is a mystery to me!

Many choose suicide as a way out.

My own father chose to shoot himself.

The cost of suicide is a high price!
It’s a ticket straight to hell not death or rest!

So before you try to kill yourself why not invite the Lord your personal savior into your life!

-Anonymous Friend

Bridge of Hope LCC

Before I (Emily) came to Philly and married Jonerik, I worked for a non-profit organization called Bridge of Hope Lancaster and Chester Counties.  The mission of Bridge of Hope LCC is:

"to end and prevent homelessness for women and children with the help of trained mentoring teams within congregations. Single mothers achieve permanent housing and financial self‑sufficiency through employment and attain stability and enhanced self‑esteem through ongoing mentoring friendships. Our goal is to exemplify Christ’s love and to promote physical, emotional, social, and spiritual wholeness."

Does that sounds amazing?  Because it is!  This organization's goal is to assist single mothers who are facing homelessness and to do through the church and through trained professionals.

My role with Bridge of Hope LCC in Lancaster was direct work with the mom's in the program.  I met with women on regular basis and we worked through budgeting, life skills, finding resources, more education, ect.  I did this for 3 1/2 years.

When we got married, I commuted to Coatesville part-time to work in the Chester County office as the Program Administrative Assistant.  I did this for about 6 months.

My current role with Bridge of Hope LCC is "Program Communications Coordinator".  I write for a few of their publications, handle press releases and do other communications work.  The benefit of this role in our current situation is that I can do 95% of this work from home (the closest office is in Chester County)!

Check out the website to learn more:  Bridge of Hope LCC

We are also on Facebook and soon we will be on Twitter!

If you aren't on the mailing list and want to be, just let me know!  It will be well worth your time.

Fall Updates

A lot has been going on this month.  I always heard mothers speak about how crazy September was and how busy they were as school started, but I never shared in the beginning of school craziness until this year.  Now I have a better understanding...I've got you!

Due to Limaris' health, treatment, and appointments, we have had the kids staying with us for a good portion of the month.  We are SO grateful for our mini-van!  Emily got a part-time job that allows her to work from home for an organization that she loves (more to come on that soon!) and that has been a big blessing in many ways as well.

Through A LOT of answered prayers, the kids are attending the schools we were hoping for (ok our first hope was to get them into a good charter school, but that wasn't realistic for this year).  Gigi is in a headstart program M-F (it's growing on her).  Dante, Bubba, and Damian are at the schools they attended last year (2 different elementary schools close to us) and Lymary...

is enrolled in PA Cyber!

If you are not familiar with PA Cyber, they give you all the supplies you need (and more) for FREE including a computer and printer.  She has 4 virtual classes with real teachers and classmates as well as two self-paced classes.  She is loving it so far!

We decided to pursue this for her after a lot of prayer and we are excited about how it is working out.  She is in 7th grade this year and we wanted to offer her an alternative to the public middle school that she attended last year.

As crazy as this process has been we consider it a huge privilege to have the kids with us.  We would obviously choose full health for Jonerik's sister and for the kids to be with her all the time, but this is the plan God has laid out for us as of today and we choose to be joyful.  I heard a quote this past week that says:

"When you go through something hard

it will either make you better or it will make you bitter."

We are praying that God will continue to make us better through this.



Exciting News!

Great news!!!  For all of you who have been following our updates and emails you know that we have been asking the Lord for some specific things this summer.  One of our desires was to make our home more kid-friendly and a welcome space for our nieces and nephews that are here frequently.  God blessed us in a big way and we are so thankful.

Another request that we've had is to buy a minivan that would better suit our families needs.  When we were transporting 5 kids, our Ford Focus just didn't make the cut.  To safely and legally take the kids places we had to get creative.  God provided money for us to buy a minivan and this week we found one that fit our needs!  Here she is:

This is not the actual van we bought, but it is a picture of the same model.  I don't have a picture of the outside of our van yet, so this is as close as I could get.  Here is a picture of the inside:

That's right, we broke her in this past weekend when our family went to Camp Greenlane with our church for a retreat!  We had a blast all weekend out in nature with another partner church.  From what I heard there were over 100 people from Cornerstone at the retreat for at least part of the weekend!!

There were a lot of outdoor activities!

This was our cabin (there were two more sets of bunk beds)

There was lots of down time to just catch up.

And Dante's birthday was on Sunday!!  Of course we had to embarrass him with a cake an loud singing!

For more pictures go to:

Camp Greenlane

Spreading the Love

This past week a group of fantastic teens and adults came to Philly all the way from Faith Fellowship Alliance Church in Butler, PA to serve God and love on people.  They partnered with some friends of ours, the Varaso family to work on an abandoned lot that they are transforming into a place to host, serve, and play.  They also interacted with people in our neighborhood - praying over them, giving out food and socks, and playing games with kids.

Here are some pictures that they captured of our neighborhood:

We had a great time partnering with them to spread the love of Jesus to our neighborhood and to the streets of Kensington.  We were blessed by their encouraging attitudes and their boldness to share Christ.  We were led to remember the goodness of God and to see Him working in the midst of so much struggle around us.

They did activities with kids like tye-dyed t-shirts, football, cupcake decorating, and games!  They talked and listened to the people around them - offering to pray with them and they were able to meet some practical needs like food and other items they were able to give out.

Jonerik was refreshed through leading them in some worship and prayer this week.  They took time each day to seek the Lord's leading and to praise Him for all He did.  Music is always a great way for us to connect and this was no exception.  We enjoyed spending time with the group and hearing more of their stories.

This was not a ministry opportunity through Cornerstone Community, but it came at a great time during the summer when we had fewer responsibilities.  Thanks to all of the team members that came to Philly and to the Varaso's for a great week! 

Beautiful Chaos

As I sat down to update our blog this morning I was interrupted with two requests to come join the fun in the back bedroom.  As much as I was wanted to stay on task I couldn't resist the laughing and giggling that was being heard in the distance.  I stuck my head in the door and found 5 little ones and my sweet husband in an all out pillow/stuffed animal fight!!

This is one example of how our lives have changed dramatically in the past few months.  Changes like finding baby shampoo in the shower, a booster seat at our table, mini clothes in the laundry basket, and the timer on our microwave is getting more of a workout now that the kids take turns on the computer.

Jonerik's sister is scheduled to come home today from a week's stay at the hospital.  We have had all five kids most of the week (we were down to 2 for one night) and we are not sure how long or how many we will have over the weekend and next week as she comes home and works to bounce back from her treatment.  A brief update, she still has a mass on her heart and that has now spread to the wall of her lung. Her lung is still filling with fluid regularly and she has a nurse help drain that every few days.

This summer we have watched the kids a lot and while we are honestly LOVING it, it has stretched us in new ways.  I have never been in a parenting role before and while I have worked with kids a good deal and led lots of activities - I haven't had this role of constant modeling, teaching, correcting, feeding, and cleaning.

God has been gracious to us and has provided for us in so many ways.  One way He provided for us was by gifting us (through others) with beds for all of the kids in our second bedroom.  No, it's not an ideal long-term solution, but it is SO great to be able to tell some of the kids to go play in the back room and not have to worry about breakable things I used to store back there.  Our storage is mostly on some new shelves by our front door which works great!

So it's ok for the kids to have a pillow fight with Jonerik back there and I can rest easy that it is their space for play and sleep and reading.

Another fantastic new addition to our apartment is a paved backyard!!!  Our housing situation is a little hard to explain to people who haven't been here or don't know our living situation, but we rent our apt. from our neighbor's (and fellow staff members) parents.  We share their backyard and this past week they had a team help them pave it!  This week it has become our own little water park/skate area/sidewalk chalk canvas.  It is so great to be able to take the kids outside to play while something is cooking or we just need some fresh air.

Some friends from the church were I grew up generously sent some clothing for the kids.  This was one of Gigi's favorites (all of the dresses fit into that category!) which she loves and asked if me if she could wear it to VBS this week!  Thank goodness for the "out of sight, out of mind" concept!!

We are so grateful for these ways that God is walking through this journey with us.  It is still so hard to be strong.  To hear a little 4 year voice ask God to heal her mom and ask that she will be done with cancer.  But through it all it's like He is holding my hand and whispering, "I've got this.  Trust me."


Thank you for your prayers and for your love as we follow one day at a time.