Child at Height

2012 Happenings Thus Far

2012-02-13T16:36:00.000-05:00

2012 has kept me quite busy so far.

This is a good thing I guess...for the first time in a long time I am able to enjoy life with a schedule that is mostly the same as the rest of the world

(thank you new job)!

Anyway here is some of what I've been up to:

Ice Skating with the Youth Group

(this is a record for me since ice skating is not my strong suit...I've been twice in the month's span of each other...I usually HATE ice skating...it was fun this time though)

Did I mention that I got a new job and its wonderful (so far)??

The only downfall is that I am learning to battle rush hour...

I also got one of these suckers...it was hard for me to finally accept the fact that it would be better for me to get one instead of stopping at the toll booth every time I drive into the city....ugh.

(I had a mini mental breakdown...its like when the Mom finally purchases the minivan)

(Peach Pass is a silly name if you ask me but whatever)

We got a nice visit from Aunt Gayle, Uncle Ernie and of course the famous Beau!

They were so fun to have as usual!

(here they are getting to open their Christmas presents)

Beau was super excited about opening presents as well...like for real he would open them...

Katie and I have been trying to set the record for the longest Skype call EVER.

We are practicing for when they move to Russia.

(I am half proud, half embarrassed about this...yet here I am blogging about it...so mostly proud I guess)

I joined a small group where we take turns making dinner...well I made some Spicy Black Bean Enchiladas (thank you pinterest)

They were quite tasty...I do have to say.

I followed the recipe mostly but I couldn't find the green enchilada sauce so I just used the red.

I got to see some of my Russian friends from KGD!!!! BAH!

It was soo neat to see them here instead of there! This me with Ksoosha Joy, one of the Russian volunteers with Change30. Her and her husband are on a trip here sharing about the ministry!

(pretend I am wearing normal clothes and no glasses in this picture...i had to come from work)

And I love the moon!

Random...

2012-01-15T17:07:00.000-05:00

So I am really behind and have random stuff to update on....

Here it goes...

Cakes
Although I have been making them, I have not posted a cake since October!
(My goal, since August, is to make a different cake every month for a year...or until it gets old...just because)

Pecan Pie

So...its not a cake...its a pie...I know.
BUT its my favorite and every year I make for Thanksgiving (so yeah I am a bit behind on this one) and I assume everyone else loves it as much as me.
I use this recipe.

Kransekake

This is a Norwegian Kransekake (wreath cake)!

Thanks to my brother in law and his family we have our own set of molds for this fun cake and we finally used them!

Here is a loose example of how to make this cake:

Friends!
I have had the opportunity to see some old friends lately!

Meagan and the cute Mr. Elliot!

(he is my boyfriend)

Yes! Reunited after almost a whole year of not seeing each other! AND soon she will be working at my hospital!

I also got to see Emma!!!!
It had been like a over a year since I have seen her...she moved to Costa Rica (awesome right?) to live with her husband but she came for a holiday visit!

So good to reunite with old friends!

Job

I'm official.

The End

Oh and Land of a Thousand Hills upgraded....new cups, new sign, new tables, new staff, new website...its strange.

A Kaliningrad Christmas

2012-01-06T01:10:00.000-05:00

I got back from my trip to Russia a little over a week ago! With the New Year's craziness mixed with new job stuff I am just now getting a chance to sit down and write about it!

First of all I can't believe it is already over and we're back!

I feel like these trips never last long enough...and this particular trip was only 10 days, which is the shortest trip I have ever taken to Russia. :-(

As always, I never know where to begin when talking about a trip. It is a challenge to put into words all that I want to share...hence the rambling....

Overall (and as usual) my time in Russia was wonderful! This particular trip I returned to Kaliningrad, Russia to spend Christmas with Kolosok Orphanage. This is my second time to Kolosok (the first was this past summer).

(a view from the window at the Hall's apartment-the family we stayed with)

There are 40 kids living in this particular orphanage. We were able to meet about half of these kids this past summer, while the other half were at camp. But this trip we were finally able to meet ALL of the kids!

And goodness, each one of these kids are just amazing!

The week were were there we were able to do a lot of neat things with the kids. We talked with them about uniqueness, being hand made by God for a purpose, respecting others and communicating effectively, self-esteem and encouraging others. We shared with them the meaning of Christmas and used this awesome video and had it translated into Russian. We talked about what a relationship with Jesus really looks like on a day to day basis.

Along with all that we played a million and one games of ninja, twister and uno, made ornaments, painted nails, had a movie night (with popcorn!), decorated journals and decorated cookies.

(some of the kid's ornaments)

(ninja- the crowd favorite)

This trip we took special time for the older kids.

We talked to them about suicide...not easy...seeing as this orphanage in particular has been unfortunately affected by this in recent years. It was neat because at the end of the session on suicide we offered to write "Love" on the arms of any of them who wanted....ALL of them wanted it. Writing Love is inspired by this movement.

On another day we took the older kids out to ice skate! That was an adventure!

We did a boy/ girl night where were did a separate time with the boys and girls.

For the girls we had a beauty night where we painted nails and did hand massages. We read this letter to them and gave a copy to each girl.

Finally, on our last day we held a special bonfire for those kids who will be graduating this coming year. We introduced them to the great American food S'mores!! They went over very well!

The intentional time was spent with these older kids because they are the hardest to reach out to, yet the ones who probably need the most support. Gaining trust with these kids can be quite a challenge. Setting aside specific time and activities for them opens up a real opportunity to build meaningful relationships.

On Christmas weekend we were able to spend both Saturday and Sunday celebrating Christ's birth with these kids.

On Saturday, a mentor team run through Change30 came and helped us put on a big Christmas party for the kids. We had cake, skits, games, and a photo booth.

Then on Sunday we surprised the kids by hanging up the stockings they had decorated earlier in the week filled with lots of fun goodies!

A HUGE thanks to Spring Ridge Ladies Bible Study for providing funds for each one of these gifts for the kids AND for praying over each one of them during our time there.

Throughout our whole time we were graciously hosted and helped by the Hall family!

They allowed us to take over their whole living room and steal them away from their family during Christmas week...now that is nice.

The Halls have now been living permanently in Kaliningrad for about 6 months now. So along with hosting us they were able to give taste of what it looks like to live in Kaliningrad.

(Basically we had the most awesome team. Ever.)

So there you have it, a "summary" of my now 8th trip back to this wonderful country!

I don't know why God has given me such a passion for this place, particularly these precious children but I am ok with that.

For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek Him, you will find Him.

1 Chronicles 29:9

New Direction....

2011-12-17T02:08:00.000-05:00

Soooooo, I got a new job!

It was time to make a change for many many reasons...but the Lord is so faithful and provided a new job for me in the PACU at a hospital very close to me!

(I even get to be coworkers with my neighbor now!)

My last day of work was this past Wednesday.

It was sadder than I thought...I owe my coworkers a big thanks for taking me in a new grad and showing me grace as I learned my way around this career.

Even as I left they remained ever so supportive and made sure I left knowing where my first nursing family was and I would be welcomed back with open arms at any time.

Here are some of my favorites!

They even got me and another coworker a cake...

And I leave you with this one....

I call it "Demonstration of Bodily Fluids"

Thanks for giving me my start Dekalb Medical!

Silent Night

2011-12-17T01:45:00.000-05:00

I had a wonderful chance to catch up with my dear friend Ansley recently in downtown Decatur!

Like me, she enjoys taking pictures...so we took every opportunity to take some shots while we were in this cute little city!

Model!

We met three Red Cross representatives while we were there...and we ended up hanging out with them for a little bit...it was fun!

They help raise money for the Red Cross...they had a lot of cool stories to share.

And did you know that the Red Cross helps in 70,000 crisis situations a year.

(Ansley and I got free lattes because we guessed higher than that...free coffee ALWAYS good!)

There were beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere!

The moon was awesome that night

(I haven't had a moon picture in a long time!)

Then we met this man named Sidney....

He just looked so Christmasy that I wanted to take a picture and he was pretty excited about it.

He played us Silent Night.

I love reuniting with friends and doing random things.

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

2011-12-12T23:22:00.000-05:00

We were so lucky this year to have the Engers come for Thanksgiving and for an early Christmas celebration!!

I can't tell you how much fun we had! These two little boys are about the greatest ever!

We were able to have our traditional Thanksgiving with our forever faithful neighbors and able to celebrate an early Harwood Christmas (although we were really missing Aunt Sara)!

Essentially this post is an excuse to show off many cute pictures of my nephews...enjoy!

At the park with the boys.

Apparently Noah thought it was cold in GA.

We had a little photo shoot in the back yard...

Everyone loved it....

What at cutie!

The rest are saved for Christmas cards! :-)

Noah and Pops are BFFs:

This is Noah's cheese face...showing off his ginger bread man.

This is what might happen if Lollie, Pops and Aunt Amy babysit...

Having fun with Lollie...

Noah and Lollie decorated our baby tree...

Cozy Liam.

Christmas!!

This is Noah's "Can I open another one??" face.

I have the best family ever.

The End.

(bad teeth run in the genes though...)

Less than a month....!!!

2011-11-24T00:57:00.000-05:00

Plans for my next adventure back to Russia are coming along! I will be leaving December 17th...less than a month!!

Although the departure date is soon approaching there are about 10 million things that need to be done!

Yikes.

I am so excited nonetheless!

The Lord has really provided such a smooth path so far for this trip!

If you would like, here are some ways to pray for this trip:

1. The visas are to arrive next week (with our Passports)! (Hooray) Pray that those would come in on time and with exactly what we need.

No Visas= No Trip

2. Planning.

With our (small) team not even in the same state, planning and preparation has been a bit of a challenge. That coupled with working full time and job hunting at the same time...well it has been very difficult to find time to nail down the details.

We have an outline of everything we will be doing with / teaching the kids while we are there but when it comes to specific lesson plans...we still have to basically figure it all out. Not to mention we are covering somewhat "heavy" topics: respecting others, self-esteem, suicide etc. So please pray that these lesson plans would come together perfectly and quickly with exactly what the Lord wants us to teach.

3.The Kids.

Please be praying for the children of Kolosok Orphanage. The family I will be staying with on this trip were recently visiting Kolosok and reported that the kids were a bit more of a challenge than they normally are. So just prayer that their hearts will be softened and ready to receive us and hear the wonderful news of Christ's birth!

One small project I have been doing for the trip over the last few weeks with Spring Ridge Ladies Bible Study is having any of the lovely ladies who so wish to "Sponsor a Child" for thier Christmas gift and also commit to praying for that specific child this holiday season!

I have been doing this with them but then I thought to myself, why not expand this and put it on here too!

Basically, we have come to estimate that each child's Christmas gift, along with all the supplies, games and crafts for the Christmas party we will be throwing is about $15 per child.

There are 40 kids at this home, so that comes out to $600 for gifts and supplies for the Christmas party.

Right now we are almost half way to the goal!

There are 24 kids left who need a gift and prayer.

The way this works is if you feel lead to participate, you receive the name of a child with their age and grade and in return you can donate about $15 (or however much you can...for real even if its a penny) and REALLY commit to praying specifically for THAT child this season.

I just really think it would be incredibly AWESOME if every single one of those kids were completely covered in prayer this season! The Lord can really work through that in amazing ways!

If you would like to do this as well just let me know on here in the comments or email me at amygharwood@gmail.com

Below is a picture of all the kids left who need sponsoring:

(I wanted it to be a Christmas tree, this was the closest I could find in our house)

One last and very exciting note about Russia is that my dear friend Lindsey just completed the new website for Relational Bridges International (RBI).

RBI is the organization I started going to Russia with from the beginning!

You can check out this great new site by clicking HERE.

More than you ever wanted to know about Waco.....

2011-11-12T19:27:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I had the privilege to visit my dear friends Katie and Jarrod in Waco, Texas.

They moved there in August to attend a discipleship school run through Antioch Community Church.

This was a much needed visit since I was so used to seeing them almost every weekend for the past year.

This will be my SECOND trip to Texas this fall...pure craziness since I am not even that fond of the state (no offense TX, that's just the truth)!

We figured this trip was meant to be when we saw this sign on the way to K&J's house from the Dallas airport...

(pretty awesome, right?)

You will be happy to know (as was I) that like their other home in Atlanta, their Waco house also has a Narnia lamp post out front.

(it got freakishly cold in Waco while I was there, hence why they are sitting outside in the sun sipping on hot tea)

I had a lot of fun learning about Waco, meeting Katie and Jarrod's new friends, going to their church and most of all just hanging out with these two!

On the side of the church there is this awesome mural! It was too big to get all of it...but all over it were written verses and the word "Life" in all different languages:

I LOE THIS.

While I was there I also complied a list of observations about Waco brought to you in the form of pictures (there are a lot so get ready):

1. Shipley Do-Nuts are quite possibly one of my new favorites now....and you know how I am about doughnuts!

(I recommend the cinnamon and coconut)

2. In Waco, Texas you can find some pretty interesting things in your back yard...

Example #1: A dog decorated fence and over to the side out of the picture, there are also lions on this fence.

(if that doesn't scream KEEP OUT, I don't know what does...oh probably an actual big dog- or lion- which were in most people's back yards in Waco...big dogs, not lions, that is)

Example #2: Seashells...yep legit seashells. And from my investigations I believe the ocean used to reside in Waco, TX but it was sucked down this hole in the Zurcher's back yard... probably around 1917.

(those white things are the seashells)

Example #3: A windmill...I mean, why not? Right?

Example #4: A spare mailbox...just in case.

3. They are serious about selling ice cream in Waco, Texas

I mean ice cream trucks...always, every day, everywhere..

4. They like to keep just doors of buildings in Waco, TX.

5. There is a "happy hour" at a place called Bush's where you can get the biggest soda you have ever seen for only 50 cents!

6. Tortilla Tossing is a favorite past time.

We went to downtown Waco and tried out this tradition of tossing tortillas ourselves.

You have to go to this suspension bridge...

....and toss tortillas over to try and get them on that thing.

(we heard flour tortilla were best to use)

It was a lot of fun but the wind was really not on our side...as you can see by Katie's demonstration.

Here is an overview of Tortilla Tossing:

Both Katie and Jarrod were able to get a tortilla on the cement thing...I, however, need to work on my tossing skills!

7. Texas is Texas no matter what town you are in....

8.Waco, TX likes animal statues.

(we also drove by a gorilla painted like Winnie the Pooh...very interesting)

9. Famous people do actually live in Waco!

(apparently this is David Crowder's house)

Of course I had to use my new camera and attack Katie and Jarrod with it:

I just love these!

And Jarrod attacked Katie and I with it as well...

Big sunglasses and good friends...what more do you need??

Oh... Shipley Do-Nuts...

..but nothing more.

Hannah and Halloween!

2011-11-07T16:50:00.000-05:00

I was so lucky to have my wonderful friend Hannah came visit!! We haven't had the chance this past year and a half to really visit much at all so she came to stay for two whole nights. So we FINALLY were able to catch up for real!!

We were able to do lots of fun things while she was here including taking pictures...Hannah shares the passion of (very amateur) photography with me and was even one of the 365er's along with me!

Anyway, the weather was beautiful so we went to St. Andrew's Church and took pictures in their Stations of the Cross garden.

:-)

Here are a few:

I also forced Hannah to be my first official victim of my new camera....I basically attacked her with my camera whether she liked it or not.

In the end I got some really great shots of the beautiful Hannah:

(this is her epic/ serious one)

Our time got even better when we got to go to our long lost friend Meredith's Halloween party!!

(Hannah as Adele, Meredith as Cinderella and me as a blast from the 80's)

This is Peter (Meredith's husband) in his homemade gladiator costume! It was impressive.

Meredith and I in character!

It was so refreshing to be with old friends!!

:-)

Just a typical day in the ICU....

2011-11-05T19:21:00.000-04:00

This is a note from one of my patients:

(If you can't read this note it says, "You are cute. Perhaps we could do dinner. My treat!")

This is what you get when you mix a man on the ventilator with sedation and a pen and paper....

Apparently, having a tube down your throat doesn't stop some men..... especially if they are 20 years older than you and have no teeth.

Welcome to the ICU.

Modge Podge

2011-10-18T13:41:00.000-04:00

Here is a post for you in which I have collected several items that I have been wanting to blog about but just have been too lazy...

I also have this fear of becoming that person who blogs like every two hours (although at this rate I am quickly approaching that status) so I have held off.

Now I have a collection of mostly useless tidbits...but here I go anyway!

1. Fall is officially here!
I can confidently state this because we have been sleeping with our windows open for over two weeks now....in GA that means it is fall.

The pictures above are my feble attempts to take fall themed pictures with my fancy-pants camera (which I am still learning very slowly how to use).

I need to find some pretty leaves or something.

2. Have you ever wondered where they get those creepy ice cream trucks??

In my mind my they are kept in the back yard of the ice cream vendor...the same back yard in which this person hand decorated their own old van with ice cream stickers...

WELL... my friend Lindsey and I happened upon the land of creepy ice cream trucks right in the heart of Atlanta!

There is a whole entire fleet of them!!

It reminded us of those lots where they keep the school buses....

This picture doesn't even do it justice.

3. Food.

Rachel Ray's Thanksgiving issue came in the mail...and OH MY....it is GREAT.

Therefore, it motivated me to make new some things!

(click on the names for the recipes)

Rachel's Stuffing-Stuffed Mushrooms.

(they are really designed for leftovers from your stuffing from Thanksgiving, but I couldn't wait that long to make these)

Missy's Candied Walnut and Gorgonzola Salad

Grilled Balsamic Bruschetta Chicken

AND my first ever fondant cake!!!

I used this easy marshmallow fondant recipe.

It was super fun...very messy, but fun! And this fondant actually tastes good!
I my decorating skills have a long way to go but hey its a start!
(I am going to count this as one of my cakes since I totally forgot to make the Brazil cake for SRLBS the other week)

4. Christmas...

Let's just embrace that this time of year is coming again!

I am excited and may have accidentally, on purpose not changed my itunes shuffle when a Christmas song has come on lately...thanks to motivation from my dear friend Katie who shares the same feelings about the coming season...

I found this in Target on the very back wall behind the Halloween decorations....Target is excited too..

Publix is also now offering this delight again. It further justifies my excitement.
If you never have tried this ice cream I do recommend it!

5. A day in the life....

Dear friends this me after a day at work.
I work 7 am to 7 pm. This particular day projectile vomit hit me full on at about 8:20 am.
Great way to start the day.
I consider myself lucky for two reasons though:
(1) I moved out of the way enough to protect my face from getting hit
(2) Although it would be easy to feel sorry for myself (which I did a little) the real victim here is the one who is actually doing the projectile vomiting...this poor patient was in bad shape (clearly) and as the events of the rest of day panned out it proved to be ever so true with things like intubation, central line placement and 2 hours worth of tests...
All that to say I am just so thankful for my health and I will always prefer to be the one hit with vomit than the one vomiting.

Anyway, I got to try out a pair of Dekalb's scrubs for the first time.
Friends that is just a little window into ICU nursing.

6. RUSSIA.
Of course this record long post is going to contain something about Russia!
We (Katie, Jarrod and I) bought the tickets for our Christmas trip!!!!
Purchasing tickets always adds this "ok this is for real" aspect to the planning.
Now on to visas!

We continue to have awesome skype meetings with the Hall family who will be graciously hosting us while in K-grad December 17-27th. Although our team is small we are SO excited to see how the Lord is going to use us on this trip.
Please pray for the kids at Kolosok orphanage as this trip approaches. The Halls have recently visited the orphanage and have seen that kids have been a bit "tougher" and harder to connect with lately due to some changes around there.
Further, if you could also keep our lesson planning in your prayers since we will be covering some heavy subjects with these kids (suicide for example). We will definitely need lots of guidance on how and what to cover with this precious kids.

Alright I think that is it!
Thanks for reading!
I really hope I successfully helped you procrastinate today!

October Celebrations!

2011-10-16T22:28:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of important things to celebrate in October!

Here are some of them:

October 1st: Danielle's Birthday!

A fun dinner out at Fritti in the ATL!

Look at this lovely crowd to celebrate Ms.Danielle!

Love these girls!

This my favorite photo of the entire night...

D is a STAR.

October 8th: Tom (Dad-o) Harwood's Birthday!

I didn't actually take a picture of Dad on his birthday but I figured one with one of his grandsons would work just as well! :-)

We did get to celebrate at Provino's in Roswell and I actually got out of work in time to meet my parents there...what a miracle!

(You get a free meal if it's your birthday!)

I have yet to actually get my Dad anything for his birthday...bad daughter...

It's coming Dad-o!

October 13th: Faith and Tom's Anniversary!

These two just celebrated 32 years!!

Wow!

Still going strong even after (or still) raising three girls!

Awesome!

October 14th: Andrew's Birthday!

Again, I failed to take a picture of Mr. Jones on his birthday but I got a shot of his ALMOST birthday gift...

Andrew, this what Danielle and I were contemplating getting you...but in the end we went with the desk calendar...it was though call.

And finally October 23rd will be the ever famous Aunt Gayle's Birthday!

This is who I am named after (by the way) and she is awesome! I am hoping that by sharing a name with her I will eventually take on some of her loveliness myself!

She is all the way up in Ohio so we will be sending warm wishes from way down here!

I love you Aunt Gayle!

Ode To Pinterest

2011-10-11T21:17:00.000-04:00

Lately I have been exploring my crafty side for some much needed stress relief (much better and more useful than eating my way through a box of oreos or something like that, although that does sound tempting).

Thanks to my sister Ellen, I have been sucked into the magical world of Pinterest.

This (newer) site leaves you believing you can easily craft just about anything, cook for a king, become a handy-man overnight, and basically conquer the world.

I love it.

You should check it out.

Anyway here are some Pinterest inspired products I have made thus far.

Decorative Letters:

For Mr. & Mrs. Perozzi!

For the Engers!

For the delightful Danielle!

A redecorated mirror for the wonderful Hannah!

(please ignore the mess in the background)

Tortilla and Black Bean Pie

(HERE is the recipe)

(Thanks Martha)

My other pinterest inspired crafts were shown in an earlier post including wreaths, paintings and such...

I have never in my life spent this much time visiting JoAnn's, Michael's, and Hobby Lobby...nor did I think I ever would find myself in a place like this:

Who would have thought?

Oh well.

And everyone will most likely be receiving pinterest inspired Christmas gifts.

Please try to contain your excitement.

:-)

Tres Leches Cake

2011-10-01T16:09:00.000-04:00

On to cake #3 in A World of Cake!

Nicaragua was the country of the week to pray for at SRLBS.

My handy cake book showed me this cake under Nicaragua.

It is called Tres Leches which named for the three types of milk in which cake is soaked (regular milk, sweetened condensed milk, and evaporated milk).

This cake first became popular in all of Latin America in the late 1800's when canned milk came on the market.

The recipe for the cake was printed on the back of the cans to help promote the products.

Now it is a widely spread recipe which is used across Latin America and is sometimes even used for a girl's Quinceanera cake!

I am not really sure why it was placed under Nicaragua in particular...maybe they use it the most...or something??

At any rate I got to make the cake and my dear mother gets to take credit for the meringue topping since I couldn't wake up early enough before Bible study add that...

The book picture...of course very fancy...

Our version...

Not too shabby if I do say so myself...it was also quite tasty! We added the strawberries and pecans for a nice little touch. :-)

Dream Nurse Job

2011-09-30T17:44:00.001-04:00

Recently I was given the opportunity to be Mt. Pisgah Christian School's overnight camp nurse by my good family friend Andrew Jones!

I got to spend the night at Younglife's camp Shaprtop Cove.

If you have never been to Sharptop...well then I am so sorry because it is BEAUTIFUL!

I have not personally been up here since 9th grade when I went on a youth group trip. I'll never forget it either because that is when I got to put clothespins all over my sister Ellen's face for a game...love ya El! :-)

This time I got to come up and hang out for a bit and be there in case any emergency happened.

Above are the essentials of a "camp nurse" I would say. They include EpiPens, recue inhalers, a walkie-talkie, keys to the infirmary and a cell phone (in case you have to call 911).

Luckily the most exciting things that happened were helping a student wash her eye out and making sure another took his antibiotic at breakfast...pretty much poloar opposite of what I normally do.

The awesome teachers!

All the kids at lunch.

I totally forgot to take a picture of the scenery at the top of the mountain, so here is a shot on the way down...

Unfortunately I could only stay for one night because I had go back to my real job but all the way home I was thinking about how this would totally be my dream nursing job.

Mountains + awesome camp + kids = Amy's Dream Nursing Job

September Happenings....So Far...

2011-09-17T17:20:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it is already 17 days into September?!?!

Where has the beginning of this month gone?

Who knows...

Anyway here are some things that have been happening around here...

(I like lists so I'll stick to that format)

1. Adventures in the making...

So as some of you may know there are some plans for me to return to Russia over Christmas (please pray for this by the way, there are some unexpected conflicts with my work due to some major changes going on there...I am trusting all will work out for the good).

We (Katie, Jarrod and I) strongly feel led to return and share with the kids of Kolosok the story of Christ's birth and celebrate this with them while continuing to deepen our relationships with them.

They are all so precious.

At any rate in preparation for this hopeful trip I peeked at my passport and realized that I have one page left for a visa and other needed stamps to get to Russia!

Yikes!

Therefore I do not have enough room left for another trip back. With the help of my well traveled sister Sara and after going back and fourth over whether or not to add pages to my passport or to just renew all together (since I expire next year), I decided to bite the bullet go with a full renewal.

This my friends has become quite an expensive endeavor...ugh.

(there are about 50 million things you have to fill out to do this too...its crazy.)

But really when it was all said and done it was quite easy since it is all online now! I quickly got my new passport back before I even missed it or had time to worry about it!
It was amazing!

And get excited, I now look evil since you aren't supposed to smile in these anymore.

2. The Spring Ridge Ladies Bible Study (SRLBS) is back in full swing!
This year we are doing a "Round the World Tour"!

Here are our bookmarks that tell what country we will be talking about each week.

Needless to say I am super excited about that!

Along with our travels around the world this year we are also following the book Practical Christian Living.

So good to have the Ladies back in session!

Best part is that it is being hosted right here at the Harwood house every Friday morning!!

So come if you want!

3. The cakes continue!

Since SRLBS was coming right to our house I used that opportunity to make my September cake from my A World of Cakes book!

This time I chose the Cherokee Wild Huckleberry Cake

I ended up using the blueberry variation of this cake since I honestly never thought of huckleberries as a real berry...I thought it was just the name of a fictional character...any way it was very tasty and was so nice to share it with SRLBS.
This cake is said to have originally come from the Oklahoma area and is supposedly a type of Thanksgiving cake. It is thought of as the perfect Thanksgiving cake since it is a blend of the traditional Cherokee foods and traditional English cakes.
A fusion of the cultures if you will.
:-)
It is acutally quite neat that I happen to have this world cake book and Bible study happens to be covering a different country every week!!
PERFECT way to share my cake adventures.
(gosh I am so cool)

4. Crafty-ness

Lately, after being inspired my talented sister Ellen, I am attempting to be more crafty!

Here are some of my attempts at crafts so far!

The wreath:

The final wreath was sent to Katie and Jarrod to help bring in autumn in Waco, TX. Before I sent it I added a nice deep orange ribbon to it...you can see the final product here.

Katie made it look even better by using the ribbion as a extra decoration rather that to hang it by!

Painting:

I was inspired by my cell phone cover....

It was fun to make but now I don't know what to do with it...

The baby quilt:

I am trying my hand at sewing and I am diving right in by trying to make a quilt.....hahaha....it is still in the making...

Photography:

I have always been a lover of photography and have wanted a nice camera for years...well I finally did it!

LOVE IT.

If you already thought I was annoying about taking pictures...well be prepared cuz now it is gonna be worse! :-)

the end for now

Japanese Friendship Cake...a.k.a. Baptism Cake

2011-09-06T17:11:00.000-04:00

Back in June I purchased the book A World of Cake by Krystina Castella.

The book contains cake recipes from all over the world and talks about the traditions associated with each of them.

If you know me the prospect of combining sweets with different cultures is just PERFECT.

(I think Krystina and I could be friends.)

Ever since getting the book I decided it is my goal (or even calling) this year to try to make one of these cakes every month!

Any excuse to try new sweets, right?!?

Anyway my first cake was for August.

It is called the Friendship Cherry Blossom Cake.

I have now renamed it the Baptism Cake.

The tradition behind this cake comes from the fact that Japan has a TON of cherry trees and the cherry blossom is actually the national flower and is also a symbol of friendship.

So if you go to Japan and want to make friends just whip up a few of these and hand them out...

Here is the picture of the cake in the book:

(let me interpret, the cake says "friendship")

As you know, my nephew Liam just got Baptized.

Well, what is a Baptism without a cake to celebrate!

(After all one could interpret using this cake to represent the celebration of friendship between the Lord and us...)

So after tweaking the decoration a little (as much as I could anyway... I forgot that cherry juice would turn the icing pink and I unfortunately do not know how to write "Happy Baptism" in Japanese) I came up with a (soon to be traditional)

Baptism Cake!!

My ever so supportive Mother helped to bring the meaning of the Baptism Cake even farther.

You see, the pink icing represents Jesus' blood shed for our sins, the white icing decoration and cross represent the purity and new life we have when accepting Christ Jesus. And the almonds around the side of the cake represent the stepping stones of our faith journey with the Lord as we grow and walk with Him.

And here is the inside...I am wishing I put more icing between...next time!

(Anyone getting Baptized?)

Liam seemed pleased... :-)

So there you have it, cake one of twelve!!

(sweetness and a cultural lesson!)

Celebrations in Katy!

2011-09-04T22:17:00.000-04:00

My Mom and I had the chance to drive out to Katy, Texas to visit my sister and her sweet, cute, lovely family!

The drive was LONG, the weather was HOT but we had a GREAT time!!

(the drive to texas is SO boring...if you were wondering)

While we were there we got celebrate a lot and eat (too) many cakes and sweets!

We also got to get lots of balloons but they kept getting away...

Celebration 1: Ellen's Birthday

Preben made his famous carrot cake from scratch...yum yum yum!

Celebration 2: Liam turns ONE!!!!

And he is "SOOO BIG"!

Trying to get a picture with the birthday boy....I don't really know what is going on in this picture but I love it!

The tasty strawberries Pops sent us for Ellen and Liam's birthdays!

Celebration 3: Liam's Baptism

Are my nephews cute or what??

The people of honor this trip! :-)

We also celebrated the first rain Katy, Tx has had in a long long time...

Noah found his new umbrella quite useful.

The rain turned into a big storm. The power went out and everything!

This is Noah hiding from the storm, he refused to take the pillow from over his face even though it was hot from the AC being out...

The aftermath of the storm...yuck.

Right next door too.

Katie came to visit me in Katy! :-)

She drove all the way from Waco as a surprise!!!

Noah trying on Mommy's boots in his buzz underwear....oh two year olds...haha!

On the way home we stopped and picked up our neighbor Nancy in Baton Rouge!

It was nice to have another person to entertain us on the way home!

We had such a great time, we just wish the drive was four hours instead of fourteen!

Readjustment

2011-08-31T22:46:00.000-04:00

It has been a whirlwind since I returned home, more so than I expected!

Here are a few things that have been going on:

1. Day one post Russia return, I met up with three of my favorite people EVER (at the last minute too)!

Jessica, Ansley and Hannah!

Beautiful ladies!

(check out Jess's shirt too!)

So we went to this place where they have tv's at each table...naturally we chose to watch the Jetsons.

Seeing these ladies after returning was probably the best thing ever! Therapeutic really! :-)

2. Day two post Russia return was bittersweet.

I celebrated Katie's birthday with her and her family but also had to say bye to them. They have made a big move to Waco, TX to attend a discipleship school.

I am so excited for them but incredibly sad they will not be just around the corner from me now.

3. Returned to work. OH BOY. What a shocker. Anyway I survived...and so did my patients.

No picture for this one, HIPPA or something forbids it :-p

I do, however, have a quote I took from my friend Jessica' (see above) facebook status:

"Nursing is occasionally comparable to the art of juggling piranhas while handcuffed, blindfolded and riding a unicycle on a high wire with no net"

Amen sister. Amen.

4. I rediscovered my love of cinnamon toast.

For some reason I am having a hard time rediscovering (rather just discovering) my love for working out...hopefully that will happen soon since I ate more than my life time share of potatoes this summer.

I guess eating cinnamon toast is not helping that cause either.

Oh well.

Since returning I have also made a trip to Katy, Texas to visit my sister and her sweet, cute, lovely family, but that deserves its own post.

SO stay tuned!! :-)

Колосок

2011-08-12T15:53:00.000-04:00

The second half of my trip was spent at Колосок (Kolosok) Orphanage which is located in a territory of Russia just above poland.

Here is a map:

We were just about an hour outside of Kaliningrad (the largest city of this region) in a town called Bagradtionovsk (try saying that 5 times fast).

We took this portion of the trip with the ministry Fund Pchyolka.

Quite honestly, I started this week with many hesitations. After all we had just come from a familiar place with familiar kids and such...then dropped ourselves into a totally new setting, not really knowing what to expect.

The first couple of days were difficult, since we were new to the kids and not to mention the fact that most of these kids are older (13-16 years) and boys which always makes it a little more challenging.

But the Lord is good and by the end of the week we did not want to leave.

There were even tears.

This ended up being a very special week with these kids. The Lord really blessed our short time there. and relationships were built and hearts were changed.

I could go on and on but I will just let you see pictures instead! (Again, very hard for me to choose pictures since there were so many)

(Sasha, Vanya, Lonya and Sasha)

This was one of the first days when were were trying to make friends so we took the kids to get ice cream...this is the "we don't really want to be friends with you yet but you are giving us ice cream so we will come along" pose...haha!

(Jarrod, Me, Katie, Jackie, Zhenya, and Lonya)

Playing this super fun water balloon game borrowed from the Hall family!

This is Kristina waving at us from her window when were were on our way to the store to buy some more treats for the kids! Kristina is the sweetest 13 year old, she was very friendly to us from the beginning and would often times help us talk the other kids into coming to our little programs we would put on.

This is a sneak shot of the kids before one of our programs. We would usually have a story or a skit to do and then have them do a craft and then play games and hang out.

As the week went on it was so cool to see how more and more kids would voluntarily come and gradually they would stay later and later to hang out. These times with them were so precious and the Lord really blessed this and the conversations that we were privileged to have with these kids. By the last night the counselors had to actually come into the room and and tell the kids that it was past their bed time and they couldn't allow them to stay up any later....this a HUGE contrast from the first day!

The group working on one of our crafts...

The above two pictures are of me and Katie with Liera and Ilya.

These two are brother and sister and were new to the orphanage the same day that we arrived. Previous to this they had been staying in a shelter in Kaliningrad after being taken from their parents who were deemed no longer fit to care for them due to drinking.

It was neat to share being new with these kids so that together we were able to make friends at this orphanage...we hope this helped their transition to their new home.

We probably played the best games of twister known to man...

(Zhenya, Vanya, Lonya, Katie,Tanya, Me and Ilya)

One night we passed out the "I am loved" shirts to all the kids...these were the ones were were selling before we left..some of you may have them.

Well they were a HUGE success! So thank you to all who supported us in buying a shirt, with that support we were able to provide more than enough shirts for all of the kids!

"I am loved" with the verse 1 John 3:1(a),

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

was the theme for all of our lessons for these kids!

Kristina with her shirt!

One day we took the kids out and treated them to a day of bowling in Kaliningrad! It was a lot of fun. Many of them had never been bowling before so needless to say there were many funny moments.

Me with Denis, love this kid!

After bowling we took the kids back to the orphanage and had a great big lunch for them and then put on a scavenger hunt with all types of activities...one was to write the word "love" with something in nature. My team decided to make it out of leaves and to write it in English since it is a longer word in Russian! Haha!

(Katie and Lonya the last night)

(Me signing Lonya's Bible right before we had to leave)

Katie and I both became very close with one of the boys, Lonya. He was one of the in particular boys who was hesitant to get to know us at the beginning and a quieter boy but by the end he was like family to us.

Love this kid!

Our entire team the last night in Kaliningrad where we had pizza (and drinks with ice...a novelty)

at Matt and Jackie Hall's place!

The Hall family has recently moved permanently to Kaliningrad and started an organization called Change30.

Change30 focuses on equipping graduate orphans (who many times leave the orphanage with a small sum of money and no direction) with the skills and steps they need to be successful in life.

The name actually comes from the statistic that the average life expectancy of a Russian orphan is only 30 years of age. Many die early in life due to drugs, alcohol, sucide and things of that nature.

It was such a blessing to meet them and see their passion for helping this kids!

(Please visit their website to learn more: www.change30.org )

Overall our trip to Kaliningrad which was such a success!!

We cannot wait see these kids in the future!

Дружных!

2011-08-09T00:55:00.000-04:00

The first part of my trip was back to Camp Дружных (Druzhnih), where I have been coming since 2004!

It was a sweet time seeing many familiar faces but also seeing how much the camp has grown and changed. This summer was the celebration of the camp's 55th anniversary and Victor (the camp director) specifically asked to come visit during this celebration!

Here are some pictures from the celebration:

The Line Up Celebration....there was a lot of dancing and ribbon waving.

Our team.

We wrote a song about the camp in Russian (of course with the help of our interpreters) and sang it in front of the entire camp TWICE. The camp is now going have it recorded with children singing...AND there is definitely a video of us singing it on Russian facebook...I don't know how I feel about that one...yikes!

Victor and Mark

The best of friends and brothers. :-)

That evening we had shashlik...or Russian-ish version of kabobs to celebrate with Victor and his daughter Irena, who is the administrative director of the camp.

And this is me with my very own Camp Druzhnih umbrella that Victor gave as a birthday gift.

Yeah, that one did not fit in my suitcase so I took that as my "personal item" on the way home...I was the annoying person. But hey, I have a pretty freaking awesome umbrella now!

Since I have not been back to Russia since 2008, many of the campers were new to me. However, many of the orphans I know were still there. When I first started coming to camp, three orphanages came to camp as well. (If you know me, that is where my passion and heart is, with the orphans.) Over the years two of those orphanages have moved to other camps and now just one of the these continue to come to Druzhnih. That is orphanage #7. Fortunately, one of the other orphanages (#6) was staying in a camp near by. So we got to see them as well!

Seeing those kids just blew me away!!

Most of them have grown and changed so much!

(Oh man, you gotta love puberty!)

I took this idea from my dear friend Katie, but here are some "Then and Now" photos of kids we have gotten known over the years.

If this doesn't make me feel old, I don't know what does!

Always best buddies!

Still a "tough" guy!

Sasha actually used to be part of Orphanage #9, but then got adopted by a family in St. Pete's. He still comes back to camp, as a regular camper now. So neat to see how this has all unfolded for him!

I think I maybe come up to his shoulder...or is it his elbow!?! Anyway he is SO big now!

I have actually known Sasha since my first year (I just really like the 2005 photo of him) and he one that has become like a "little" brother to me. It is so neat to go back to what is deemed as a foreign place and be greeted by those you feel are like family to you. He is one of those kids to me. Sasha is actually a very intelligent boy and will be completing his final year of high school next May. Many times kids drop out before then if their grades are not as good and maybe go on to a trade school... if they get the opportunity. But in some cases, like Sasha, kids continue through school and if they finish all of high school, they have the opportunity for a college education. We talked with Sasha about this and he is hoping to go on to college. It hit me as we were leaving that we may never seen this boy again. Although the reality of that hurts, my hope and prayer is that he would continue on through school and have a bright future.

Graduating orphans are one of the highest risk populations in Russia.

And last but not least is Ruslan.

Now, here is another one who is like family to me. This boy has been close to my heart ever since I met him on my winter trip in 2006-07. The following summer I gave him a picture of us and and note on the back telling him that I pray for him often and things of that nature. The summer after that he found me and told me he keeps the photo with him and he remembered all the words to the note I wrote him. Oh man! Needless to say this kids is special to me. This year I was so happy to finally see him again!! We were able to talk a little bit and he was revealing how he is feeling discouraged because often times due to the orphanage he is in (which tends to be for kids with special needs) he is told that he is dumb and won't succeed. This could not be farther from the truth. We reassured him this was false, and I continue to pray that knows he is smart enough to do what ever he sets out to do. Things like that break my heart.

Overall my trip back to camp was like a trip to home in a way...sweet and refreshing!

There are like a million and half more photos but I could not possibly post them all. If you follow me here, you are most likely friends with me on facebook and if you really desire to see more...you have permission to stalk me. :-)

The Holtum Face

2011-08-03T16:46:00.000-04:00

The 4th Holtum Family Reunion took place at the beginning of July and once again proved to be one of the most fabulous events of all time!

(Sorry, I am a bit behind since I have been out of the country lately...)

Here are some (a lot of) snapshots:

The six siblings!

The most pizza I have ever seen!

Lollie and Noah on the dock

Sing-a-longs

Belmont Park!

Fun with cousins...

Water bottles...

...and t-shirts!

Prizes galore!

Liam and Ben

Some of the Atlanta cousins

Olympic Committee!

Maddie and Noah

On the pier

We had talents that would knock your socks off!

Beautiful!

World Famous Steel!

Our little Family

And that is the Holtum Face.

:-)

(Sorry for the random selection of pictures, we only had about 238,789,219 to choose from so I did my best.)

Things are coming along...

2011-06-26T09:53:00.000-04:00

There are officially 16 days until I leave for Russia and 12 before my teammates leave!

That means only 10 days until I leave for San Diego for the Holtum family reunion!!

Which means only 6 more days of work before San Diego, 7 before Russia!

(I like count downs.)

Things are coming along! These trips are SO close I can't even believe it, it feels like yesterday these trips were two months away!

Here is our Fund Pchyolka team picture:

And as you can see the t-shirts came in and they are awesome!

Our passports came in....

...with beautiful visas inside!

(Phew! We made it successfully to step 12 of "Getting to Russia 101")

We have also been celebrating/ preparing for our journey by consuming the traditional Cheesy Ramen (a ramen/ mac'n cheese concoction invented in the summer of 2006 by our mission team desperate for something more than dill and porridge). The actual nutritional value of this delight maybe lacking but the surprisingly good taste makes up for it!

(Goldfish is the garnish...of course)

Today we have our traditional Wal-mart run to shop for needed supplies and the various things on our packing list...in past years we have spent up to three hours in wal-mart at a time....pray we don't do that today...haha!

Further we have our final Fund Pchyolka team meeting this evening.

Other ways you can pray for us if you so desire:

~That the Lord would continue to prepare the hearts of the kids and our teams so that we are able share the love of Christ and that the kids would be receptive.

~Team unity

~God's provision for the lacking funds

~Easy entry/ exit into Russia and safe flights

~That we can give this whole trip into the hands of the Lord.

Thank all of you for all of your support!

More updates to come! :-)

Dad-o!!

2011-06-25T11:41:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day to the man who taught me all the important habits in life:

(just kidding...we were being goofy)

But for real Happy Father's Day Dad-o!

Thank you for all your support and guidance throughout the years!

(Missing Ellen in this.)

Dad with his father's day gift this year!

Love you so much Dad!

Love,

Long Lost Friends!!

2011-06-25T10:19:00.000-04:00

Recently I have had the chance to (FINALLY) see some of my nursing school friends. We are discovering that it is so much harder than we thought to get together as much as we had planned with real jobs and "grown up" lives.

Got to see this lovely bride to be at her wedding shower and found out that she will soon be moving very close to where I live! Yay!

Then I went down to Macon for a night to see these lovely people!

We ate at this place called Molly's Cafe....and let me tell you Molly (who ever she is) knows how to cook!

Yum!

We may be considered adults but...we are not...

And of course we had to go take pictures in some alley in Macon...Jessica and Ansley are two of the few people who appreciate taking fun pictures (all the time) like me. :-)

Ansley got a new dog Keeko who is SO sweet and beautiful!

She also has one blue eye and one brown eye!!

She also likes to lick toes but you can see her eyes well in this picture!

That night we enjoyed a home cooked meal that was quite delicious! It was complete with our own sangria and dessert!

Sangria!

Our meal!

Dessert!

Seeing these lovely ladies was a breath of fresh air!!

I am so blessed to have them in my life!

Next step is seeing my dear Hannah and Meagan at some point!

Mickey

2011-06-25T09:43:00.000-04:00

Mickey, our favorite neighbors' cat of many years just passed away from old age.

This is picture of him not too long ago. It was actually taken the day that little Deacon passed. I went over to the O'Biren's to pet some animals...and as you can see Mickey was very comforting.

We will miss him very much as we often cared for Mickey when the O'Biren's went out of town.

I don't even care....

2011-06-19T18:10:00.000-04:00

Yeah that is my "passport" for work with coffee all over it.

Do I care?

No.

I know, I need an attitude change.

(I guess it just proves that I have been working really hard on it...right?)

On the bright side there are now fish shaped cookies at Lord of the Rings!

Yay!

I am determined to keep up with all of the shapes of cookies they have throughout the year...one of my many noteworthy hobbies. :-)

Deacon Boy

2011-06-18T20:53:00.000-04:00

After 16 years of life, 12 of which were spent with our family, our dear little Deacon passed away on June 8, 2011.

He was such a blessing and joy to our family
He was a big part of our family and indeed considered the fourth (and many times favorite) Harwood child.

We will miss him tremendously.

Deacon when we first brought him home.
He was a Yorkie rescue.

Here are just some shots through the years:

We love you Deacon.

Curbside Cafe

2011-06-18T00:36:00.001-04:00

Recently my Mom's friend from childhood (Aunt) Janice was in town so we decided to try Curbside Cafe....well we had a Groupon so that is why we ended up going there to be perfectly honest.

It was very interesting to say the least.

First of all it smelled like the dinning hall at camp in Russia (this is not a good thing if you were wondering). My Dad and I shared a side of a booth with a broken seat.

Then the walls were so over stimulating with all these decorations that I thought I might have a seizure.

AND THERE WERE FLIES.

With all that said, our food came it all of it was super tasty!!

So I still have mixed feelings.

Mom and Janice.

(yeah, no worries each table comes with its own hand sanitizer...I can't decide if that makes it lose or gain more points)

We had a fun time in the end.

Cupcakes?

2011-06-18T00:13:00.000-04:00

So...I was bored.

And I made cupcakes from scratch.

For no reason.

We have this intense food coloring set so I decided to try it out...it was fun!

SO...again we learn that

1. I am a pig and

2. that I need a life.

The End

(now I hope you feel like eating something sweet)

Allison & Dan

2011-06-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

I had the great pleasure of attending Allison and Dan Duncan's wedding!! It was all so beautiful and so much fun!

I forgot my camera so I had to settle for using my phone...anyway first dance! :-)

Katie was one of the beautiful bridesmaids!

Katie and Jarrod!

Stars

2011-06-15T12:08:00.000-04:00

I added these to my bathroom today...another treasure I found in the Harwood basement.

I can't decide how I feel about them yet....

Getting to Russia 101

2011-06-05T21:22:00.000-04:00

So, in order to go to Russia (as a U.S. Citizen) there are many steps you have to take.

They include, but are not limited to:

1. Choosing to go to Russia

2. Figuring out what you plan to do there (this affects the type of visa you get)

3. Make friends with a Russian living in Russia or find a hotel where you will stay while in Russia.

4. Figure out which cities you will be traveling to for greater than 8 work days while in Russia...all of the cities you will be visiting greater than that amount of time need to be listed on your invitation...

4. Have your new Russian friend or hotel invite you to come to Russia.

5.Wait (4-6 weeks)

6. While you are waiting (because it might just take you this long) fill out the Russian Visa application which includes questions like your Mother and Father's full names, if you have had training in explosives, your last three places of work along with the surnames of all of your bosses and phone numbers...and other things of that nature.

7. Receive the invitation.

8. Get 2, 2 inch by 2 inch photos of yourself...not smiling.

9. Find a place that will process all of this paper work. 10. Turn in the invitation, the visa application, the photos, your passport (yes your actual passport), and about $200 to the embassy or company you find to process your paper work. NOTE: You may not turn this paper work in until you are at least 45 days out from leaving for Russia.

11. Wait (two weeks)

12. Get your passports back in the mail with shiny new visas pasted inside!

Congratulations you are now permitted to enter Russia.

For our team going this summer we are on step 11.

So close!!

Please pray for smooth processing of all of our paperwork and prompt delivery of our passports (with visas inside).

Here are our attempts at taking our own 2"x2" photos:

I clearly took this picture of Jarrod...I think Katie had to step in and take the next one.

Smile = FAIL

Another rule to taking these photos is to look your absolute worst...

Needless to say we turned this task over to the professionals... thank you Walgrens and Bob W.

Tea Time

2011-05-29T23:17:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of taking my Mama out for a belated Mother's Day lunch to the Roswell Teahouse!

Pretty Faith.

Yummy Food!

And some excellent tea!

Happy Mother's Day!

I love you!

Loud and Clear.

2011-05-25T23:22:00.000-04:00

Saw this randomly while driving around...I guess I needed to get that message.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

No fun.

2011-05-25T23:06:00.000-04:00

Seriously, when will this ever end?

I Am Loved!

2011-05-14T09:56:00.000-04:00

As most of you know, I am in the process of preparing for my mission trip back to Russia this summer!

Our theme that we will be using for the second half of our trip is "I am Loved".

As part of our project we have designed t-shirts with the phrase "I am loved", written in Russian along with the verse 1 John 3:1, "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God", and will be providing a new shirt for each one of the orphans we work with!

In order to be able to provide these shirts for the kids we are selling them to anyone who is interested for $20, which covers one shirt for you and one shirt for a child!

An event on facebook has been created to help us gather the needed sizes in one place and to allow everyone to see the design of the shirt!

If you are interested in purchasing a t-shirt please visit the facebook event and post your size on the event wall.

If you are unable to do this and would still like a t-shirt please email me directly at amygharwood@gmail.com.

Click HERE to see the facebook page!

Here is the Design!

Things that make my day..

2011-05-09T08:54:00.000-04:00

I received this card in the mail today from my cousins for nurses week.

:-)

Tangled

2011-05-09T08:48:00.000-04:00

This dear friend came to visit!!

She too, is a fan of Lord of the Rings!

We found it ALL in Roswell...

It was a short visit but a good one!

Wishing we lived a bit closer to each other and that out schedules were not opposite!

Old Place, New Leaf

2011-05-08T00:15:00.000-04:00

Spent Easter Week moving my sis back up to D.C. to start a new job!

Oh how I love this place!

GREAT Trip.

(Except for the part where I leave)

Nephews

2011-05-07T23:16:00.000-04:00

Best few days with these kiddos!

Tom on Facebook...

2011-05-01T12:35:00.000-04:00

So my sister set my Dad up on facebook...

today I helped him log in for the first time, here are some quotes from this experience:

Tom: What is this? I see everyone's business!Me: That is called the news feed. It shows you what your friends are up to. Tom: Ugh...I don't want to know all that!

Tom: Who the heck is Haley Smith?!?!
Me: It is a just a friend suggestion.
Tom: Oh my goodness, what, is it cross referencing me??

Tom: WHAT? Why are you on the bottom here??
Me: I am chatting you!
Tom: Well how do I get rid of you??
Me: What, you don't want to talk to me??
Tom: No! You are in the same freakin' room as me!

Me: I am tagging you in some photos...
Tom: You are doing what to me??
Me: Tagging you...like showing what pictures of mine you are in...
Tom: Oh....Oh my gosh...look at all these! Don't do all that!! Oh there is me and Noah...thats my boy!

Tom: So I can see what all these people are doing?
Amy: Yeah.
Tom: Ohhh....I can see how this can be dangerous....

Tom: Ok I have had enough for today. How do I get outta here??

Welcome to the future Dad.

Do Good.

2011-04-25T01:06:00.000-04:00

Enjoying some Good Words with some Good Coffee.

Exploring around the Walton LOTH after Sara's shift.

Look how the tree grew around the wire!

Oh nature...so cool...

(Sara gets the credit for noticing this...)

:-)

Letters!

2011-04-22T00:25:00.000-04:00

Behind.

2011-04-22T00:20:00.000-04:00

So I have been slow to post lately...

Life has been ridiculously busy.

These are all the pictures I got in the last month:

This lady came to visit and made me laugh.

Did some Russia team building over a Tin Drum dinner and Miracle.

Enjoyed a great rendition of my favorite story (and at half price!)

Shared this treat with my family.

Four pictures in one month....that has to be an record low for me.

Missions Conference!

2011-03-29T10:42:00.000-04:00

It's official my friends, I am FINALLY going back to Russia!!!!

Fellowship Bible Church hosted a missions conference which also served as our first meeting for our trip to Kaliningrad with Fund Pchyolka this July.

Our table!

Our small but very passionate team!

We are so blessed to be serving the orphans in Kaliningrad this summer!!

I am pretty much beside myself with excitement!