Last October after much discussion with the family of taking in homeless youth we attended a conference on "Experiencing God" with Henry Blackaby. This was not anything new to us. We had done this in the past a few times but this time wanted to include the family and some neighbors. The Monday after the conference I got a call from a friend in social services and DHS was looking to place a 14 yr. old boy in our home. It was an "emergency" situation. When they say they give you all the disclosures...it's not full disclosure, it's more like on a need to know basis. He stayed with us for one month, and it was not easy. On the final day I called two of my friends for moral support and advice and instead got the opposite. Our friendships have not felt the same since.
Last February I received a phone call at 8pm from a young teen mom with two little girls that she needed a place to stay. I had already known her home life was not the best, it was pretty awful, riddled with physical and emotional abuse. The scars she carried and carries have crippled her in ways she doesn't understand. She and her two babies took over Justin's room. We took them in like they were ours. I feel like that is what Jesus has called us to do. Show his love. I am not sure how or if it is possible for me to love that deeply and not get "too attached". Once again, it seems as though we lost friends for taking on that responsibility. We heard comments like..."You can't even feed your own family why would you take in 3 more" my response was "no one else is willing" I won't go into the detail of what our days looked like with them here but suffice it to say we were very busy. Last Saturday morning (5 months of living with us) she packed up and left with no warning. She was trying to leave without seeing us or saying good-bye. We never got to say good-bye to her girls. I cried so hard that evening I actually became physically ill. Renee is taking it hard as well, she felt like they were friends and can't understand how she could drop us all so quickly. Barbara and Curtis are reacting similarly, somewhat offended and disturbed with the attitude and the willingness to walk away from God. The little girls seem to be okay. They do talk a lot about wanting to see Annalasia and Nyemah. 
The heartbreak that we have felt twice in one year has been overwhelming to me. That I could invest so much time and energy into something. Pray so hard. See God answer in so many profound ways and to meet us in such crazy circumstances only to feel like it was all for nothing. I know that we sow the seeds and God gives the increase. I Cor. 3:7 I like the way it's worded in the NLT " It's not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What's important is that God makes the seed grow" So, I guess I am not important in this equation. That maybe God is reserving the watering process for a different time. Some seeds take a long time to germinate and others pop right out of the ground and look like the plant they are going to become in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, some seeds never do anything, but it still took the same amount of effort to plant them all.
What now? I hope that God gives us a time of healing as a family before the next assignment and I am sure there will be a next assignment. I am praying that God would deliver to us some emotional support in the form of likeminded friends. We are attending a church in Mechanic Falls at the moment. It's a bit of a drive but the church fits our family.
Please pray for healing for our family and healing for the young mom (Raven).
Random happenings in the neighborhood
Christmas cookie making with the neighbors
Easter Egg hunt on our Street. We hid over 300 eggs this year and had over 20 kids come out to search for them. (I try not to take pictures of the neighbor kids if I don't know them) We do the egg hunt and the kids come to expect certain things now in the eggs which I am excited about. 
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