what it means to me.

When I say, “I am a Christian" I’m not shouting “I’m clean livin'," I’m whispering “I was lost, now I’m found and forgiven." When I say, "I am a Christian" I don’t speak of this with pride. I’m confessing that I stumble and need CHRIST to be my guide. When I say, “I am a Christian" I’m not trying to be strong. I’m professing that I’m weak and need His strength to carry on. When I say, “I am a Christian" I’m not bragging of success. I’m admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess. When I say, “I am a Christian" I’m not claiming to be perfect. My flaws are far too visible but, God believes I’m worth it. When I say, “I am a Christian" I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches so I call upon His name. When I say, “I am a Christian" I’m not holier than thou. I’m just a simple sinner who received God’s good grace, somehow.

spring 2010 in pictures

Zoo adventures with Lauren, Alexa and Logan.  I refer to AB all the time on my twitter.  She's the awesome girl I provide respite care for.

New Betsey Johnson purse.  This is by far the most I have EVER or WILL EVER spend on a purse.  I had a serious case of buyers remorse and almost shipped it back to Rue La La, but I was convinced otherwise.  I love the bright color and I have been using it nonstop.  But I need to freeze my credit cards or something because I've become quite the shopper lately, which isn't typical.

 My "little" brother turned 16.  Yes, you read that correctly, SIXTEEN!  Ahhh seriously, where does the time go???  I miss the little guy who refused to be separated from me; who was our ball boy at soccer practice and would listen to me over my mother.  He used to watch chick flicks with me and I didn't have to bribe him to hang out with me.  I miss those days.  Now he has far surpassed me in height and has become the typical too cool teen to be seen with his older sister.  It's strange.  At times I feel like he's grown into this individual I don't know, so I have been trying to rekindle our special bond.  I guess it just involves making compromises, such as going to see Iron Man 2 as opposed to Letters to Juliet (although I would prefer seeing the former anyhow).

 I attended yet another baby shower.  This time my mom's best friend's son and his girlfriend were welcoming their baby girl, Ava.  She graced the world with her presence this month, so my mom and Ge are happy grandmothers together.  However, modern day parents are apparently more uptight than the old days and they have not been allowed to enjoy Grandmotherhood as they should.  I told them both to wait until I have a child and they can be the grandmas they've always wanted.

Pictured below is my mother playing a funny new baby shower game we were introduced to.  The object is to do the traditional mother stuff (i.e. talking on the phone and hanging laundry) whilst holding the baby.  It was really entertaining to watch, but I refused to hold the baby since I have no experience with multitasking such as this and did not want my team to lose.  So my aunt and I volunteered our other partner to be the baby holder since she has like 7 kids and 10 grandkids or something ridiculous - needless to say, plenty of experience.   And we won!

 Their last name is Berry, get it?  Yeah my mom got the cake and thought it was cute.  I agree, cheesy, but cute.  And the bear matches Ava's bedding.

 For mother's day I went to take pictures of my nieces to put in the picture frame I had gotten my mother for Christmas designated for grandchildren.  Little miss Georgia did not really want to cooperate, but we managed to get a few good shots.  These aren't necessarily the best ones, but the two I happened to click for this blog.

 And of course I got to hold the little monster.  This was a Sunday, which is a break for my hair from the damage I routinely put it through, so don't judge my ghastly appearance too harshly.  I'm looking forward to getting to spend loads of time with my precious nieces this summer!

Lastly, I've been jamming to this album for the last, I dunno, however long it has taken to play all the way through.  Pretty good stuff, so take a listen. 

 

Well, this isn't all I've done this spring, but it's what you're getting until I decide to take the proper time to dedicate an entry to Singles Group, Free Journey and Story Formed Life.  I feel like I've been on a pretty intense spiritual journey recently and my life has been called to move in a new direction, which I have slowly been doing and facing opposition and struggles along the way.  It's just so much easier to sit down and talk about it with someone than to try to make sense of it in a blog, but at some point I will probably try.

be the change you wish to see in the world.

I have been the biggest slacker when it comes to my blog despite the fact that a number of noteworthy events have taken place in the past couple months.  Recently my church, along with 49 other churches, teamed up to bless the city of Cincinnati.  Crossroads has been a part of this venture for years and I have had the privilege of working on beautifying a number of different sites around the city.  This year I worked at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore which sells donated household items such as dishwashers, doors, bathtubs, furniture, etc. and all the proceeds go directly to Habitat.  The idea behind the Restore is to at least double the number of homes built in the tri-state area per year.  So our job was to clean the appliances and get them ready to be sold.

One of the service projects was even featured on the news: here And I'm sure my church will have a recap video available, which I will post as soon as it's released.

Afterward we headed down to Mt. Washington Park where, for the 2nd year in a row, 9 of Cincinnati's top chefs have prepared a FREE lunch for all of the 7000 volunteers, plus the entire surrounding community.  It was an awesome opportunity to break bread with the people we were serving.  There is music, dancing, games and face painting for kids, and of course lots of delicious food!  This awesome after party has been lovingly deemed "GO GRUB!"

Pictured front left with the crazy curly hair is my friend Lisa who took all the photos provided in this entry.  She has a bunch more I hope to share as soon as she gets them posted. It's so awesome to have friends to share this kind of experience with and make a difference together.  She had goosebumps despite the fact that it was a good 70 or so degrees outside because she realized how rare it is for people of all walks of life to come together to share a meal and celebrate the love we have for our city.

To my pleasant surprise, I ran into my homeless (at least I've assumed he's homeless) friend Booger.  My friend Lisa and I met him last year, as she was having me take pictures with random people we ran into, Booger being one of them.  This year, Lisa and I had the distinct pleasure of becoming official Boogerettes.  He made us recite a pledge and everything, which I'm pictured to the right doing.  Go Cincy and Go Grub have just been great experiences and I cannot wait to see the many ways we continue to bless the city in the years to come!!

A retraction of sorts

If you remember a few months back I went on a rant about my developmentally disabled great aunts who had been removed from their home and we had no idea where they were.  Then Hamilton County MRDD wanted to say that my uncle physically abused them.  An article was written in the Cincinnati Enquirer blasting my uncle and his wife, making them seem like the scum of the earth and out to get my aunt's money.  I was so heated by all of this and have remained that way since because NONE of it made sense.  Why not contact other family members to have the girls stay with family instead of some  strange hotel?  What investigation was ever done to substantiate these reports of abuse?  I personally felt the whole thing was a sham and MRDD screwed up somewhere and was trying to cover their ass; that or they wanted control of my aunts' estate for their own use. 

Well, yesterday my uncle went to court to fight the charges against him.  There were only two supposed instances of abuse and they had no evidence to appropriate the abuse.  I wasn't there, but my mother said my uncle's lawyer basically handed them their ass on a silver platter and all charges were dismissed.  Ironically, MRDD reps served my uncle with papers suing my uncle for control of the estate.  Does it sound sketchy to you?  I think so.  MRDD didn't have a foot to stand on with all the charges they had against my uncle and were made to look like fools.

After court, my aunts were out in the hallway and my mom and some family approached the girls.  They were hugging and kissing them and telling them how much they missed them.  My uncle and his wife stayed back so as not to cause any problems and no one else in the family mentioned that they were there.  My aunt Peggy caught glimpse of my uncle and began to trot on over to him.  A woman from MRDD actually tried to grab my aunt's arm to keep her from going, but what could she really do in a crowd of people, but let her ago.  Not to mention, holding her back is a complete violation of her rights.  Peggy grabbed hold of my uncle, hugging and kissing him and saying how much she missed him.  She also hugged my aunt, who began to cry.  The MRDD reps just kept giving each other looks, knowing that all the crap they've said regarding my aunts being afraid of my family was exactly that: a bunch of crap!

The same journalist who wrote the first blasphemous article was present at this hearing and printed somewhat of a retraction in today's paper.  I really think an apologize was deserved because my uncle was slandered and horrible comments were made about him in regards to the article.  My family has every intention of trying to get guardianship of the girls to make sure something like this never happens again.  Not only was my uncle thrown out of the home he was sharing with the girls, the rest of our family were not allowed to see them or we were threatened to have the police called on.  Are you freaking serious?  Totally screwed up.  Their job is to protect their rights, not violate them.  Their case coordinator from MRDD had the gull to say that they've spent thousands of dollars on these girls and my aunt was like "hello, i'm a taxpayer. i vote for those levies." - like the money was coming directly out of that woman's pocket. Get real.

UGH!  So if anyone knows of good/cheap lawyers for obtaining guardianship or has any suggestions on how to handle this situation, please send them my way!