Pray for Ukraine!

When Micah and I were in Ukraine in 2017 with Steiger International, we were privileged to pray with these men and women there in Ukraine.  Go to "Provoke and Inspire Podcast" to hear a live update (only two hours old!) from Valerii who is currently there.  Hear how you can pray and support our dear bothers and sisters who are in shock, who are trusting God, who will be fighting for their country!

School Counselor . . .

Our school counselor retired last month, and by default, I got the job during recess today!

"The fifth grade boys are planning a strip club . . ."  (Hope they don't do it outside today!)

"_______ smacked me in the face . . . "  (Two apologies were given - both parties were guilty - problem solved.)

" _______ is talking about me to all the girls in my class and now no one likes me except _______."  (Saved by the end-of-recess bell!)

"I was laying on the ground and my friends were doing pretend CPR on me and _______ came over and jumped on my feet!"  (________ was guilty as charged and issued an appropriate apology before I left for the day!)

I really do like working with these kids!  They're great!

 

Thankful Thursday!

After two absolutely miserable days of indoor recess (actually, only yesterday was miserable - Tuesday was just challenging!), we had OUTDOOR recess today! Someone obviously didn't look at the temperature as it was a warm and balmy -4ºF, but we were ever so thankful to have the masses outside!

(District policy is to have indoor recess if the air temperature or wind chill is below 0ºF.) 

Two. Two-two. Two-two.

On Two. Two-two. Two-two,

I gave blood.

How 'bout you?

What'd you do 

On Two. Two-two. Two-two? 

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Today is Matt's twenty-fifth birthday and we celebrated it with the F.O.O.'s (Matt and Micah's Family of Origin).  Prior to going up to their house for tacos, we had all made plans to give Matt a gift of "twenty-five".  

The brothers were born four days apart.  

 

Check out my gift of twenty-five cans of COKE!  "Happy Birthday Matthew Zupke" has exactly twenty-five letters, so I lettered his cans.

Is that Logan photo-bombing us!

 

Here's all five kids - and a list of birthday gifts.

Micah and Matt's friend Josie gave Matt a new camera lens, but wrapped it TWENTY-FIVE times!  Matt was not happy with that!

Kennedy gave Matt twenty-five Twix bars.

Kingsley gave Matt twenty-five KitKat bars. 

Lincoln gave Matt twenty-five pennies.  Think about the double meaning here - Lincoln gave Matt twenty-five "Lincoln's".

Sam gave Matt twenty-five $1.00 coins - a happy flash back to the days when the kids were paid for their paper route in dollar coins.Maternal grandfather Tony and his wife Sherri gave Matt a birthday card cut into twenty-five pieces - Lincoln thought it was so much fun to put a puzzle together! - along with twenty-five crossword puzzles (with answers!).

Putting together Tony's puzzle while Tony watched!

These four played a mean game of "Killer Sorry" while the rest of us watched and laughed!
 

Corey and Josie

Matt and Lincoln

 

Here's Matt and Kingsley as we prepared to leave a fun and special twenty-fifth birthday party!

Thankful Thursday!

On Thursday, I can't tell you how thankful I was that it was Sandra's birthday!

We were short two tutors for noon supervision, so we all ended up working an additional shift.  Mine was first grade and kindergarten lunch.  There was not enough Advil in the building to take care of my ensuing headache, and I still had to work my noon sup shift - including third grade recess INDOORS!

But like I said, it was Sandra's birthday, so I told her class, "If you don't know what you want to do for recess today, it's your teacher's birthday and you can make her a card.  She'd love it!"

Oh, my gosh!  She had a STACK of cards on her desk when she came back from recess . . . and I had my best indoor recess in third grade ever! 

 

Famous or Edited?

Sam and I drove up to New Life (our adoption agency) today to be interviewed while being videoed on transracial adoption.  Our clip will (hopefully) be used by NLFS with couples who are hoping to or already have adopted transracially.  We thought it went well.  We answered all their questions.  Then we started to laugh on the way home.  What if we were SO BAD that they TOTALLY CUT us out of the video?  I guess time will tell . . . 

Um, No . . .

One of our OHE staff had a birthday on Thursday.  When I stopped by her desk to wish her a "happy birthday", she asked me (knowing my birthday was the next day) if we celebrated my birthday and Valentine's Day together like she and her husband did because then they only HAD to go out once.  NOT.ON.YOUR.LIFE.  Two separate events, two separate celebrations at my house😁

Is that blood?

We had blamed the fifth graders for making the blue snow that the third graders had eaten on Tuesday.  We discovered today that our assumptions were quite wrong.  We found out that our third graders were bringing food from the lunchroom and stashing in the snow fort farthest from the school doors.  Karen found it.  I got the grape juice.  I had to look twice.  At first I thought I had found a "bloody mess", until I listened to the playground chatter.  It had been "strategically placed" to trick us!   

It's My Birthday!

 

I walked into my space this morning, ducking under the "happy birthday" banner to find my table full of cards and presents (including the plant you can just see).  It was totally unexpected and the beginning of a very fun day for me . . . everyone should celebrate birthdays in an elementary school!

The first group to sing to me were Janelle's second graders.  Then it was Julie's fifth graders, followed by an ENTIRE lunchroom full of second graders!  Add to that a gigantic birthday greeting from Aimee's class.  

Then there were the fifth grade students who, every time they walked by my space, they called out a 'happy birthday, Mrs. Zupke!'  On the way to specialists . . . on the way to the library . . . on the way to the bathroom . . .

And we can't forget my fellow tutor, Angela, who remembered that I don't get peanut butter sandwiches at home so she made me a "freshly ground peanut butter and raspberry jelly sandwich on honey-whole wheat bread".  Lunch never tasted so good!

Add in those two third grade girls who are best friends.  One made a 'happy' banner for me, the other forgot to make the 'birthday' banner.  Guess which one cried in my arms at the beginning of recess, so distraught that she had forgotten my special day! 

It was a very happy day!

An Early Birthday Party!

Micah has a big cake order coming up on Monday, so she asked me last night, "Can I make your birthday cake tonight?"  Sure!  

We had "Raspberry White Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes".  The recipe made five.  We each had one.  There was one left over.  Micah asked me if I wanted it.  Definitely!

Since she had eaten all the raspberries, I just want you to know that it was equally delicious with strawberries! 

Thankful Thursday!

Yesterday, all four of our fifth grade classrooms went skiing at Highland Hills, leaving poor me behind.  Since I had no fifth graders to work with, I was sent up to Christina's kindergarten classroom.  It has been rumored throughout the building that there is NO classroom as bad behavior as Christina's.  Kate's is close, but Christina always wins hands down!

Understand that when we had recess quadrants last year during Covid protocols, I had Christina's kinders.  We had not only developed a strong working relationship, but a friendship.  I was looking forward to the challenge!

I walked in to her room, telling her I was there to help ALL DAY.  She smiled and said, "They just need to be experienced in order to be believed."

She was right!  There were good moments, there were fun moments, there were challenging moments!  I read to kinders, I dressed kinders for recess, I did math with kinders.  Let's hear it for "Tiny Tumblers" rolling down the mountain!

She so appreciated my coming up to help her.  And I left so thankful that I do NOT do kinders all day, every day!

Don't Eat the Snow!

It happened Tuesday at recess.

"(Put in any third grade names here) are eating blue snow!"

I run over to the third graders who were being accused of eating blue snow.  Sure enough, there was blue snow there.

"It tastes like blueberries!"

"It's so good!"

"Do you want some?"

"Um, NO.  And you shouldn't be eating it either."

"Why?"

"We don't know where it came from.  We don't know who poured it there.  We don't know if the person who poured it there had any contagious diseases - like Hep A or Hep B or Hep C . . ."

"What's Hep C?"

So done with the arguing.  What happened to students who would stop when an adult said 'no'?  I gave them the correct answer:

"It's a blood borne pathogen."   

Where the exhausted mind swims . . .

Bone tired and beyond weary, my mind has gone to swimming songs that never were:

• Margaret Becker's "Swimming in Solomon's Pools" aka "Swinging Solomon's Shoes";
• The Imperial's "Swim On" also known as "Sail On"; 
• and my very favorite, Leon Patillo's "Swim in the Morning" or as he called it "Star of the Morning".
  

Oh, the places you'll swim . . .

This morning, as I completed my 2600th swimming mile at the Y, I began to wonder, "How far have I really gone?"

Well, I've now swam further than the length of the mighty Mississippi River - that's only 2320 miles.

And I've gone further than Duluth to the Atlantic Ocean which is only 2342 miles.

I haven't quite gone from New York City to London - that's 3462 miles - and I'm over 800 miles short! 

But then I found it . . . I've now officially swam the distance from San Diego to Honolulu - or at least I will be there very soon!  That's 2608 miles.  Give me just four more swims . . .

Thankful Thursday!

A funny thing happened yesterday that makes me thankful for the relationship we share.  The kids' birth mom, Allison, sent me an email saying she had been invited to share her story of why she is not a "typical birth mother" at a video taping at our agency, New Life Family Services, on March 19.  

Seriously, we got the SAME EXACT email, but where her email said "typical birth mother" ours said "transracial adoption".  Sam and I are slated to be taped next Saturday, the alternative date given.

As Al and I sent messages back and forth, we were like, "Hey, maybe NLFS would like to tape us together!  That would be kind of fun!"  So we sent a message to our post adoption social worker who responded today with "we would love to do a triad video with the three of you sharing your stories".  That would be Allison, Micah and I.  Our taping will be right after Allison's on the 19th.  To God be the glory . . . 

Rejoicing!

I have become a bit of an "earring snob", or maybe "earring collector" is a better term.  I have earrings from every country I've been to except one (the Faroe Islands) and I have earrings from friends and family - I love them all!

Yesterday, I wore my Dominican Republic earrings to work and lost one.  I was heart-broken because they are irreplaceable.  How do you search for one tear drop earring in a playground covered with snow?

My sadness turned to joy today I walked up to the lunch counter and saw my missing earring!  A teacher had found it yesterday in the lunchroom and it was put out with lunch today hoping the owner would claim it!  I was so happy I could!

 

A Promise Fulfilled

  

: The Africa Mercy® Returns to Senegal

Volunteer crew wave flags as the Africa Mercy arrives in the Port of Dakar, Senegal.

The long-awaited moment finally arrived for our patients waiting for surgery in Dakar. Our crew lining the Africa Mercy decks were full of emotion as they strained for their first glimpse of  Senegal.

Tuesday, February 1^st marked a very significant milestone for Mercy Ships patients and partners across the globe. As promised, the hospital ship Africa Mercy returned to West Africa, bringing hope and healing as she docked once again in the port of Dakar, Senegal.

This return follows a turbulent and challenging few years for every nation. Particularly in countries with middle- to low resources, the COVID-19 pandemic led to overwhelmed hospitals and declining access to healthcare services.

In the wake of the pandemic, the nation of Senegal was left with a strained healthcare system and its people with limited opportunities for surgical care. With fewer than seven physicians to treat every 100,000 people, the global pandemic not only took resources and capacity, but also the hope of many patients given surgery dates on the Africa Mercy.

During the early outbreak of the pandemic, Mercy Ships made the difficult decision to sail the Africa Mercy from Senegal several weeks earlier than planned.

Having been given dates for surgery, many patients had to battle concerns they might never get the help they had come so close to receiving.

But Mercy Ships made a promise to the country of Senegal. A promise to provide hope and healing and to return to those in need of safe surgical care, now more than ever. In February, after much research, planning, and collaboration with the government of Senegal, it was time to return.

The return of Mercy Ships is a promise made and now fulfilled, giving more than a thousand patients back the hope they thought lost.

The Africa Mercy arriving in the Port of Dakar, Senegal.

While the ship may have left during the pandemic, Mercy Ships never did. Thanks to a strong partnership with Senegal’s government and Ministry of Health, Mercy Ships has continued standing shoulder to shoulder with Senegal during the pandemic, partnering to provide vaccination programmes, providing vital medical supplies such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and supporting the Ministry of Health’s campaign to provide cataract surgery to more than 100 local patients.

Members of the Mercy Ships Country Engagement Team remained actively at work in the country, with one Senegalese team member making thousands of phone calls per month to keep patients updated and connected during a time filled with uncertainty. During the last months of 2021, the team traversed thousands of miles across the country to revisit formerly scheduled patients and arrange their next appointments on the ship.

Now, hundreds of patients hold appointment cards to see the surgical staff on the Africa Mercy and receive a new date for surgery. Over the coming weeks, the hospital onboard will again come to life. The wards will fill with children and adults recovering from lifesaving or life-changing surgery. The onboard pharmacy, laboratory, rehabilitation, and outpatient rooms will live out their purpose as patients go through the journey to healing. And the operating rooms will become spaces for not only transformative surgery, but vital medical training.