How We Became Dog Owners - Happy birthday Rahab!

Last year May 10th was a Friday and we had just been in our rental house here in Fort Worth a little over a week. We went to Frontier Forts Days at the Stockyards to learn some Texas history, check out the Stockyards for the first time and take a break from setting up our house. When we pulled into our driveway we saw a German Shepherd dog run across the street and into our yard and hide behind a bush. Glenn warned us to stay in the car to gauge what the dog would do. Seeing that she just looked scared and didn't attack he shooed us inside then, since it was such a hot day, went in to get water for her.

After drinking some water she laid down on our sidewalk and settled in. I guess she felt like she was safe with us. She was bleeding, whether from fights with other dogs or from wounds inflicted by humans we don't know.

We didn't know what to do with her. She had a collar on so we put her picture out on Craigslist as a found pet, contacted the city and the humane society and left her description. No one had reported her missing. We had just moved in and had told the landlord we didn't have any pets though we had discussed with him what we would need to do if that changed. We didn't want to let her into the house.

The kids were smitten with her. Initially they called her Voda because her ears were so funny and she reminded them of Yoda. We took her into the back yard and the kids set up a tent out there thinking they'd sleep with her out there.

In the morning she was still there so we took her to the Humane Society and found out that she wasn't chipped so no luck on finding her owner that way so we had a dog until someone claimed her. We decided to call her "Number Five" since she was playing the role of our 5th child and since we didn't want to give her "a real name" so we didn't get attached. The only problem (besides we didn't have a pet on our lease) was that we were leaving for a 3 week graduation in NY/ family reunion in WY trip on the 12th and we didn't think it was a good idea to take a new to us dog on a several thousand mile road trip. We looked into kennels but not having any idea of her shots history, or any history really, she was not a candidate to stay at any of them. What were we going to do with a dog in this city where we knew no one? God provided once again.

We contacted the German Shepherd Rescue to see if they could help since the Pug Rescue had been a help to my brother in the past with my aunt turned niece Tootsie. The first couple of people we heard back from said they couldn't help and then a lady contacted us asking if she could meet the dog. She told us that if she didn't clash with her dogs she would watch her for us for the whole time we were gone provided that we promised to take her back when we returned from our trip. She told us she already had 3 German Shepherd and 4 Pugs and she really couldn't adopt another dog long term at this time. We agreed to her conditions and drove up to meet her. The meeting went well and Amber even agreed to go and take her to get her first shots. We are so grateful for God's provision of this lover of dogs who was willing to take on one more for 3 weeks for us.

Number Five's first car trip - you can tell the kids don't like her at all, right? haha

She was kind of confused that we were leaving her and stared after us at the gate.

Well, we got 3-4 responses from our Craigslist ad but they were all either looking for a dog that didn't disappear until after we'd posted the dog's picture, didn't meet her description or we could tell they were just spam so we were now dog owners. Since she was actually going to be a part of our family we decided to give her a real name and the kids thought the name Rahab would be appropriate since we rescued her from the streets of Fort Worth just like Rahab was rescued from the destruction of the city of Jericho in Joshua 6 (not to mention that she may have lived a similar lifestyle out there on the streets before she came to live with us).

A quick family pic when we picked her up after our trip.

Lydia, our animal lover, is so excited to have a pet!

I think Lydia liked the kennel more than Rahab did. Rahab didn't do well in the kennel so it went into the garage.

Everyone loves Rahab.

 So, we've had a dog for a year now. There are pluses and minuses but we are so grateful for her. I was especially thankful after our break-in that God had already provided a guard dog for us, we had just taken her with us, not left her at home when the break-in occurred. She still needs a lot of training but she is a good dog and we love her. She is not the dog I would have chosen nor would I have chosen to go out and get a dog but God decided she needed us and we needed her. He knows best.

Finally, I leave you with some pictures from Rahab's first camping adventure to Dinosaur Valley State Park. She did great.

I'm so cool I need to wear shades

Dino tracks are much bigger than dog tracks!

Happy birthday, Rahab, we love you!

April PTO Adventures ABCs

Our "after we made it back out of the Grand Canyon" picture

 To pass time our way home from our adventures we like to go through our ABCs to help us remember all the things that we did. Here are our ABCs from our most recent trip. I plan on posting my journal of our adventures soon, after I upload our pictures. Until then... our April PTO Adventures ABCs:

A- Abigail, Albuquerque, Arizona, apples, Angel Bright Trail, artifacts, adobe, Alsup, air pads, atlas, Albertsons, archeology
B- Bluewater Lake State Park, beds, Big Agnes, breakfasts: campside, street side, Easter and hotel, bacon, Basha's grocery store, Brunton stove, birds, buzzing insects, buttes, basket maker, baskets, botany lessons, Blue Mesa, badges, beautiful vistas, books, bill boards, bite valves, blue pots, BNSF train engines, bananas, bison, baby prairie dogs, Best Thai, brown sugar
C- Caleb, cattle, camping, icampgrounds, camelbacks, California license plates, Continental Divide, chicken, cattle guard, cows in the campground, cacti, cotton tail rabbit, coyote, Colorado River, condor, cattle shoots, Celeste & Luis watched Rahab for us, crop duster, Caprock Canyon State Park,
D- dogs, danger, deer, desert, donuts, dead wild hog
E- elk, early mornings, Easter, elk chasing rabbit, exit
F- forests, fossils, Fossil Walk Ranger talk, food, foreign languages heard, fauns, flowers in the desert, free petrified wood pieces, fly (of our tent) free nights, flexibility, fleeces, fried potatoes
G- Glenn, Grand Canyon, Golden Pride, Grand Caravan rental van, glass bottle Mountain Dews, geodes
H- Hannah, horses, hills, Homolavi Ruins State Park, Hopi art, Hopi Point, horse poop in our campsite, hot chocolate, Holbrook, hiking, hot, heat, He calmed the storm, hail AFTER we were off the trail, hand squeezed orange juice
I- ice cream, ice block, interstate, Indian roadside stands
J- Junior Ranger, juniper trees, Junior Ranger patches, jackrabbits, jelly, Jeff Myers CDs
K- kivas, Kendra's suggestion, knife- Caleb's new one, Keens
L- Lydia, Lydia fell in the Grand Canyon not into the Grand Canyon (PTL!!), Little Colorado River, license plate game, layers, library, lizards
M- mom, Mohave Point, Maas adventures, McDonald's parking lot- $4.20 for overnight parking and we got a free large fries, Mountain Dew, mesas, mule deer babies, mountains, mules
N- Navajo, necklaces, New Mexico, Nebula, nalgene, neon lights, National Parks and Monuments, nooks, National Geographic Store
O- Ortega's trading post, open range, Orange Line, orange juice, oranges, open late campgrounds, oatmeal
P- Petrified Forest National Park, petrified wood, Painted Desert, Painted Dessert Inn, Petroglyph National Monument, petroglyphs, Pizza Hut, pueblos, Park Pass, Paid Time Off, PBJs, pottery pieces, picnic area, patches, Park Rangers, parking spot, Ponderosa Pines, Peace Suplus, pairie dogs, Palo Duro Canyon State Park, plants
Q- quesidillas, Quitaque
R- railroad, Route 66, rim trail, red dust, ruins, rocks, ravens, Rainbow Forest Museum, rescue team on the trail down, rest areas, rain jackets, road runners, Rosa's Cafe, reading
S- shuttle buses, sage brush, schedule, showers, sunglasses, sunscreen, sunrises, sheep, Super 8, Smokey the Bear, sleeping bags, stars, spur of the moment, self pay stations, silversmith, scenic overlooks, strawberries, state parks, Sunset Crater National Monument, sausages, sunsets, singing
T- tourist traps, tortillas, tunnels (we made it to the 2nd one!), trees, Texas, tent sites, tooks, thrift stores, tumble weeds
U- umbrellas
V- van rental, visitor centers, vulture, vaulted toilets
W- water packs, water, washes, wind turbines, windmills, water fountains, wind, wool socks, Walnut Canyon National Monument
X- xantera
Y- yucca
Z- zipped together

Interesting Epiphany or When the Sky Started Falling

Yesterday the kids and I went over to the church because the community ministries that we help with is moving to a different part of the church and we were helping out. While there I got a call from Glenn asking where we were and saying that he really needed us to come home to help because part of the roof had fallen in in the back room. (At least that's what I thought he said.) I ran around gathering kids, telling them we really needed to get home and we ran home to help where we could.

As it was it turns out it was the ceiling, not the roof (Glenn probably said ceiling and I, in my panic, just heard roof).

 I guess that some animal had chewed the insulation stuff off our pipes and, with the temps under 20 the previous night, the pipes above the ceiling had frozen. It could have been horrible but here are things we're thankful for:

- Glenn's afternoon clinic had unexpectedly been cancelled so he was home at the time. (The kids and I probably wouldn't have gotten home for another half hour after we did and that would have been almost 2 hours after the pipes had burst - our house would have been flooded, tons of stuff destroyed and lots more damage would have been done to the house, etc, etc, etc.)
- Glenn had been in the room doing Wii Fit while waiting for us to get home when he heard and saw the water start flowing and was able to get some stuff moved before chunks of the ceiling started falling.
- Glenn was home and knew to and knew how to turn the water main off. I would have had no clue!! (Again, saving from a lot more damage.)
- Our landlord was close by. When Glenn called him he was actually just behind our house checking on the garage apartment back there that is vacant.
- The landlord's handyman was able to make it over and do a temporary patch job to make it so we could turn our water back on. (Hurray for being able to go potty in our own house!)

It could have been so. much. worse! We kept talking about what we are grateful for and and mentioning God's providence and how He worked things out. It took me back to our catechism book:
Q11. What is God's providence?
A. God's providence is His completely holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action.

I'm thankful that, in God's providence, Glenn's clinic was cancelled yesterday afternoon so he was home when the ceiling starting coming down in the back bedroom/ school room. Now we get to heat the outside as we wait for the remaining parts of the ceiling and insulation to dry before the handyman will come back and fix the hole in the ceiling. I'm, once again, so thankful that we don't own this house!! I'm thinking that our landlord probably wishes it wasn't his either.

Our normal tradition is to have our Magi and their entourage finally arrive at the baby Jesus, exchange gifts and eat Chinese take out (since the magi came from the East) on Epiphany so while the handy man was working on the pipes we exchanged gifts and phoned in orders to two local restaurants. We had never ordered from the Lebanese or the Chinese restaurant before so we ordered too much and ended up with tons of food. I guess we'll have leftovers for several days.

After dinner Glenn and the kids had an all out Nerf gun war and then we played another round of 10 Days in the USA. (It's our game of the week that we picked up on clearance at Hobby Lobby.) After that we did Thank Yous and read "The King of all kings" from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

It was not your typical Epiphany celebration but it was a good day. I got to spend most of it with my favorite people. God was, again, so gracious to us and I, again, wonder why He chooses to be so gracious to unworthy us.

Family Fun at Day in the District

A couple of weeks ago was "Day in the District" where a bunch of the museums downtown in the art/ museum district were free for the day. We went to a few of the museums to check them out. 

We went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to check it out and see if we wanted to get a membership there. We had a good time there but because of the ages of the kids, our busy schedule, having only one vehicle and the cost of parking downtown we decided it probably wouldn't be worth it for us to get a membership. We did have fun though

making a snowman on a giant Light Bright,

 laying on a bed of nails,

 making and testing paper airplanes with Dad,

and then trying to corral cattle at the Cattle Raisers Museum upstairs.

We then got to go to "Energy Blast" a 4-D theater "Journey to the Center of the Barnett Shale" and then learned about fracking in Texas. The opinions about fracking here are much different than the ones I heard in upstate NY.

 Another one of the museums that was free for the day was the National Cowgirl Museum. While there the kids all had a chance to "ride the bronc." The printer wasn't working for the two younger girls so we weren't able to get the video codes for them but below are the videos of my two older bronc riders for your viewing pleasure. One of them did better than the other as you will see but neither of them had very good form. I think we need to take them to a rodeo so they can get a better idea of what they were supposed to be doing. Maybe next year their form will be better.

 

Here's Lydia on video that I secretly took with my phone. I wish I would have taken one of Abigail.

Day in the District was fun and it was especially enjoyable because Glenn had a rare day off and could come with us. I look forward to doing it again next year if they have it.

One Year Ago Today - Our Road Trip to Residency

One year ago this afternoon I was at the Lowville Library to check out books and for the kids' Art and Literacy Class. While there I got a call from Glenn that I tried to take discretely. He told me that we had gotten our first interview offer! Not too long before we had finally gotten the residency application done and submitted. All of the required letters of recommendations were still not in but we had our first interview offer from JPS!

We were excited. JPS is one of the 4 programs that are always mentioned whenever you ask about the kind of broad spectrum family medicine residency training that Glenn was looking for. One of my first thoughts on hearing that he already got an interview though was, "Oh no. We are not ready for this. I have no idea how we are going to work out all the details and how we are going to arrange travel to all of his interviews." We had only applied west of the Mississippi because they do not offer the training that would give us the best preparation for our future on the East Coast and that meant expensive, time intensive travel. Looking at the map we had no idea how we were going to work out all the details of the travel that would be required to get to all of the 11 places we applied to. I don't think we called to schedule his interview for 2 weeks because we weren't sure what we were going to do.

After much prayer and discussion we decided that driving would be the cheaper than flying and, since we all wanted to check out all of our possible future cities, we thought we'd make it a big family homeschool field trip. A quick plot on google maps revealed it would be a 8000 mile field trip if we went to every place in the most convenient order. Yikes! The thought of it frightened me a bit.

We prayed about it and looked at the map and the calendar and wrote down a penciled-in, hypothetical, "if everything would work perfectly" schedule. We knew that we wanted to go to the Global Missions Health Conference in Louisville, KY at the beginning of November so we made that our first stop and started plotting destinations after that. As more interview offers started coming in we just stood in awe of how God orchestrated our itinerary to match up almost perfectly with our with our penciled in hypothetical "if everything would work perfectly" plan. We decided for various reasons to not interview on the west coast removing 3 of our options and one of our Colorado options didn't fit in our itinerary so we decided that was God's hand in saying no to that location. In our schedule we were able to meet my niece for the first time in Ohio on our way west, visit with some of Glenn's family in Wyoming and even have Thanksgiving dinner with them and meet up with some friends.

I am still amazed at how God worked out all the details. We left right after we voted last year to head out on our interview trip. The GMHC was amazing. So glad we could all go (Glenn and I get to go back this year and represent JPS - yay!). The theme printed on big posters all over was "Find Where You Belong" - a fitting theme, I thought, for setting out on this interview trip. God allowed us to meet an amazing couple at the conference that has been a huge help, blessing and challenge to us over the last year.

Most of our pictures from the past year were lost when our computer was stolen but here are some pictures from our trip that were on Glenn's phone to give you a bird's eye view of our crazy ~7000 mile residency interview roadtrip adventure.

A trip of 7000 miles begins with a new set of all weather tires of course.

We finally got to meet Naomi!

The kids were super excited to see The Maverick, a flying car, in person at the GMHC.

We got to meet up with our friend Cortney at the GMHC. We hadn't seen her since we left TN in 2001!

The kids had heard of Lambert's their whole lives and we decided to take a slight detour to let them experience it.

A new battery we picked up in College Station.

A poster seen in an office Glenn interviewed in reminding us Who we were doing this for.

Abigail lost a tooth in the dark somewhere in Kansas.

You might be in Texas if you see packets of salsa at a gas station condiment bar.

An early view of the Rockies.

One of many tunnels we passed though.

Front porch view in Idaho.

Wow.... on the way to Utah.

This could have been our back yard.

One of many dinners with residents we enjoyed (This was the fanciest one - yak)

Chickfila with family in Cheyenne

Bighorn sheep on the side of the highway in Glenwood Canyon on Abigail's birthday.

More wow.... we got to drive through Colorado National Monument.

Thanks for the recommendation Grandpa Earl!

The one hotel we had to pay for (the rest were paid for by residency programs) was comped for us because we woke up with lovely bites. Thankfully, since we've conquered bedbugs before,  we knew what it was and treated all of the very limited amount of stuff we brought into the hotel with us before returning to the van and brought none home with us.

This elaborate display was across the street from the home of a resident who hosted us for an interview dinner.

Crossing back over the Mississippi on our way home.

A quick stop in to play with cousins in Ohio.

We were a little over the every 5000 mile recommendation but we stopped back by to get our new tires rotated.

 It was a great trip full of amazing views of God's creation and God's amazing provision (our only expenses ended up being gas and some food because God provided free housing for us for every night we were gone). We heard so many stories of credit cards being maxed out and people having to take out more loans and then moonlighting during residency to pay for their interview travel expenses of flights and hotels, rental cars and food. I'm not sure why God is so generous with us but I am so thankful for His provision and for the opportunity to see so much of the country during the month of November (and on the 2-3 crazy long road trips that followed this one which will have to be a story for another day).