A Day with the Sheltons

I just got home from spending the day with the Sheltons at the hospital. There is nothing new to report. That wasn't already covered in a previous note or post. Surgery is tentatively set for 10:00AM Friday morning, they are giving the steroids plenty of time to do their job and started working on getting sarah to eat some today.


This post is more to address the "How is everyone...really?" questions.

1st of all let me say that I do not speak on behalf of the Sheltons or any friends or family, this is just what I observed from spending the day with them.


Really... everyone's world has been shaken up. And really... no one is excited, happy or joyful in the fact that poor sweet Sarah has a brain tumor. I want that to be clear before you read on, but the day I just had can be described as nothing less than joyful, hopeful and even, at moments, fun.
 

Jan told me that this morning a nurse came in and asked Sarah who she was, where she was and why she was there. One question at a time Sarah responded, "Sarah Shelton, Stillwater, because my head hurts." A little later after Sarah had been alert for a bit Jan took the opportunity to tell her again everything that had happened. Explaining that she was in St. Fransis in Tulsa because she had a brain tumor and describing some of the events that had gotten her there. Jan told me she also explained to Sarah that they knew this was just a start in what would be a difficult section of her life. "But," Jan told me, "I also told her that from what I knew, attitude was really important in her getting better and that I needed her start fighting now so she could start getting better soon." Jan then asked her if she understood what she was hearing. "She was very tired and couldn't form words at that point so I just asked her to blink twice if she understood me. She blinked once and then kinda squinted like she was trying to blink a second time so I took that to mean that she did."
 

Shortly after having that conversation Jana told me to go ahead and let her know that I was here, so I woke her up and told her good morning. She rolled her head toward me and stared blankly. I asked her if she knew who I was and she didn't respond at all. She just scratched at tubes in her head and rolled the other direction as Jan pulled her hands away. Needless to say that was disheartening. I went back out to the waiting room to sit and talk with the rest of the family and friends who had come to stay.
 

Just about an hour after that I think it was Jared (brother) had gone back to check on her. He came out and excitedly said, "She's awake and she knows where she is. Jarrod (boyfriend), she's asking for you and she is talking better than she has yet!" The nurse had come in and asked her the three questions again and this time she answered. "Sarah Shelton, St. Fransis and I have a tumor.” So for the next couple of hours we all took our turns going back a few at a time to talk with her and really... just to see what she'd say. ;-)
 

When each person would return they'd share the funniest comment she'd made while they had been back there. Now some of the comments were funny just because she is still pretty tired and out of it. Like when she asked Laura to bring Cali back to see her. Laura explained that they didn't allow babies back where Sarah was staying. Jana said she got a really confused look on her face and half stated and half asked, "I won't hurt her?" But, not all of her humor was because she was out of it.
 

When I took my turn, she recognized me immediately and began talking with me. Her speech is slurred some and it takes lots of thought for her to form her words but she definitely wanted to talk with people. We talked about what movies she'd want to watch if she could and she said a Disney movie, specifically The Little Mermaid. When I asked her why she said, "Because Prince Eric is so hot!" Then she grinned at herself, opened her eyes and looked around the room for Jarrod, her boyfriend.
 

Before I left during that time I told her she had a room full of brothers and sisters out there that would probably bring her anything she wanted, and that if they didn't she could just tell me and I'd thump them for her. Again she grinned and said, "You should just thump them anyway." Then opened her eyes and look at me and laughed a tiny tiny bit.
 

Sarah has every right to be crabby, unresponsive, serious or just plain cranky, but she's not. Of course she tires easily and like I said a "conversation" with her is very simple right now, but she was trying to make people laugh. Besides that first time I went to see her in the morning, I never went back there when she didn't smile really big when she recognized me and thank me for coming to see her. I think if nothing else, her attitude set the tone for everyone else who was there today.
 

The whole family functioned together today drawing strength from one another and reminding each other that, "God's got this under control." Board games were broken out to help pass the time, homework was worked on, cell phone games we downloaded and shared, a few friends came by and brought all kinda of food, snacks and drinks, and generally the tone of the day was hopeful, even joyful at moments.
 

It seems like everyone was just settling in for the long wait until Friday. That girl has so much love and support in the waiting room and all over the state. I told her that she and her penguin were now an internet sensation and that she was an online rock star. She just smiled and said something about "her public" (We didn't catch all of that one and she moved on asking me about my parents before we could ask her to say it again.)
 

At one point, this evening while Mark was on the phone he said, "We know we've got a long road ahead of us, but today was just pretty much an all around good day." And I couldn't agree more. I was blessed by getting to spend time with the Sheltons today. Catching up with old friends while loving on and lifting each other up was such a blessing! Keep praying for them and especially for Sarah. She is already fighting... and laughing as much as she can. :-)

Chicks 4 Orphans

What's the Deal?
This Sunday (Nov. 6th) is "Orphan Sunday!" (http://orphansunday.org/) So... I'm kicking off my own little get-involved-campaign. There is a Christ-centered organization in Zambia called Every Orphan's Hope (http://everyorphan.org/). I found out about it and heard about the things they are doing this summer when a friend of mine went on a mission trip to help put on Camp Hope. A giant camp that Every Orphan's Hope puts on during the summer for the large population of HIV/AIDS orphans and "at risk or disadvantaged" kiddos in Zambia, Africa.

They are doing a fundraiser called Chicks 4 Orphans (http://www.chicks4orphans.org/) to help fund the work they are doing, and I want to get involved.

So I'm asking everyone I know if they'd like to get involved with me. Chicks 4 Orphans is asking for a onetime donation of $4 to buy a chicken to help get the orphan's chicken farms going. Just $4 bucks. If you're interested just let me know and I'll pick up your cash or check whenever its convenient for you. At the end of the month I'll mail in the total I've collected. I've set a goal for myself of 40 Chicks in the month of November.

Why Every Orphan's Hope?
I really love that this organization is not just throwing money at a problem and hoping it helps. Their website says that, "We don't build orphanages. We build homes..." The model they use is simple. They build a home fill it with 4 orphaned boys, 4 orphaned girls and a "Mama" who is usually a widow who has devoted her life to serving God and these kiddos in the homes. They start a micro enterprise (such as chicken farming) within each home and with some time the home becomes self-sustaining freeing up resources to build more homes for more orphans.

The way EOH works is on a community level. Instead of building a large institution in a central city they are addressing the problem in the smaller communities and are placing the orphans in family units that are right there in the same community the kids are from.

Why Chicks 4 Orphans?
I'm a recent college grad and am building a small business. I don't know exactly when my next check is coming in and I don't have $40 a month to sponsor a child. But I do have $4 in my wallet right now that is not promised to anything (except maybe a white chocolate mocha and I can probably do without that this one time ;-). So this is something I can do. And since I can, I'm hoping others will see that they can too and get involved with me.

Can I just give online or do I have to give it to you?
Yes! You can and if it won't work out for you to give me your donation then please do donate online. The chicks 4 orphans link above has a tab that's called "buy a chick." You can give online right there.

However, if we can work it out to get a check or cash to me then I'd ask you to do that. (I understand that takes you having faith in me that I'm not going to steal your money. All I can give you is my word that I won't.)

Here is why: In any type of online or electronic money exchange there is typically a debit charge or some sort of processing fee set up by whatever company is actually running the credit cards (EHO has no control over this). One of the online site where you can donate gives you the option:"I would like to pay the processing fee for my gift." It adds like 31 cents to a $4 donation. Which I agree is not much, but the fee is based on percentage. So if can get 40 people to buy a chicken, but we all do it online that is three chickens ($12.40) that are not going to Every Orphan's Hope. So instead of losing $12 of our collective donation I figure it would be better to pay the 75 cents in postage and mail all of the checks at the same time.

So... please let me know by comment, facebook post, text message, phone call, whatever... if you'd like to buy a chicken with me. Come on... it's just $4! :-)

Karen

P.S.-Oh... and I'm making stickers for anyone who gives me $4 for a chicken. You know you want one!

Praying Together

     My roommate and I have been friends for a long time. We met in the summer of 2003 at a christian girl's summer camp. We were counselors together and made instant friends. We shared a love for that place, the spiritual lessons we'd learned there as kids and the excitment of getting to be the "leaders" as other young girls shared the experience we'd grown to love.

     The next summer we were not in the same cabin, but we remained good friends encouraging each other all summer long. That fall semester she moved to Stillwater to go to OSU while I finished my Sr. year in high school and we've been the best of friends ever since. We usually have attended the same church, served on a church staff together for about 2 years, and often go to the same bible studies/retreats/spiritual things of that nature.

     We've often talked about spiritual things together. We've seen each other in good times, bad times and just down right ugly moments of our own lives. As this school year began we decided to take some time each night to pray together.

     I'm not gonna lie, at first it was WAY awkward. Prayers were short and well thought-out, almost mechanical. I feel like we both dreaded it a little bit so we mentally prepared, "Ok, tonight I'm gonna pray for this, this and that." Spit it out and say amen so it's over. But as we are coming up on a month of spending some time praying together, we are much more comfortable praying out loud in front of each other.

     Last night we had one of the most sweet times in prayer I've ever experienced. We've both been reading/thinking/hoping/wanting/asking about a specific area of our life. And last night it was almost like we weren't even aware of the other one being in the room as we poured our hearts out to God. There were both chuckles and tears last night as we prayer for one another and even confessed our own secret shortfallings infront of one another.

     I was so encouraged to hear her heart as she talked with her saivor, and humbled to hear her pray over me so specifically. I'm so thankful God has given me a friend who will both lift me up and hold me accountable!

WANTED: Irresponsible man with a serious lack in confidence!

WANTED: An irresponsible guy who has zero confidence in himself. This confidence lack should be evident in his speech as well as in the way he carries himself from day to day. It would be nice if he would flirt with my friends occasionally so I can always feel in competition with them. Under no circumstances should we be on the same page spiritually. He must either believe in something slightly different than I or at least be way under my own spiritual maturity level.

Guess what? I'm reading yet another, "Use your singleness to prepare yourself for marriage," type of book. This one's starting out pretty fun though, so I'm holding out some hope it'll be pretty good. The first exercise was to create a want ad for your husband that was all wrong. Thus, the want ad above. There were some steps to go through before creating the ad to help me pinpoint some of the "best" bad qualities I should highlight. The point was to be funny and I literally laughed out loud while I was composing my ad.

The next serious of journal exercises were to help me identify and articulate what good qualities were extra important to me individually. Even though I've spent a lot of time dreaming about who God might have for me, the book actually asked several very specific questions that I really had to think about before I could answer. 10 pages later, (no joke) I'm really glad I decided to get a notebook and actually follow along with the journal activities it suggests. (I'm not normally one to do that. I'll highlight, underline and write in the margins of my books like no body's business, but when they actually encourage you to "take some time to write out ________." I rarely ever do it.)

The last part of the journaling had me read back over everything I had just written and sum up what I was looking for in a quick, "I'm looking for a man who is ______." statement. The author said that when she was single her statement was, "I'm looking for a man who is single, sexy, successful, saved and sane." Then she explained in a little bit of detail what each one of those descriptors meant to her. I decided to go with the alliteration and came up with the following.

"I am looking for a man who is looking, loving, learning and who is not lazy."

Looking- He is looking for/open to being with someone in a dating relationship. If I hear, "I think God might be calling to be single" from one more guy that I am interested in then we're gonna add another "L" word to the list because I am going to Loose it!

Loving- He is generally loving in his interactions with others. No guys with chips on their shoulders, or who are constantly putting other down please.

Learning- He is seeking after an active relationship with Christ, continuing to learn more about Him through the bible, books about faith and others who are more mature than he is. He is also interested in learning new things in general, just has an excitement for life and new experiences.

Not Lazy- He has goals for himself and he works towards accomplishing those goals in his day to day life. I'm okay if his goal is, "To serve Christ, and I don't really know exactly what that looks like yet," as long as his attitude toward life is not, "Whatever, I guess."


So that's my "Statement." If you know anyone who fits these... lol. ;-) I might add a post here or there from this book's journal, we'll just have to wait and see.