Stateside

For all who are not aware, I am Stateside for the time being. I'm taking it easy as I adjust back to life here, and the past two weeks of catching up with famiy and friends has been so good for my heart. Blessing after blessing has truly poured forth from my Father and He's being so patient with me as I re-learn some things about life here. I haven't taken many pictures, but I do have a few I'd like to share with you all...

This is the crew that met me at the airport. I was only expecting Daddy, Mama, Stephanie, and Laci, but to my surprise, Nana, Uncle Mike, Aunt Jen, Brady, Cynthia, and Daniel showed up as well! This was my first-time meeting with my nephew, Daniel, and let me just tell you, he's one awesome baby. The next picture is of our first encounter:

My summer job is to babysit my younger sister, Laci, on Thursdays and Fridays. We've really enjoyed eachother's company thus far, and my heart's desire is to intentionally invest in her during this time. I want to engage her and make wonderful memories all the while encouraging her spiritual development and character. Geeze...that sounds super wordy...basically, I want her to fall super in love with Jesus and am doing all that I can to show her His love.

I'm pretty pumped about one of the behavior systems we're currently implementing. At the beginning of the summer, Laci and I sat down and had a meeting to brainstorm about the things we'd like to do. One of hers was to color eggs...random, I know, but apparently there's been a coloring kit in the cabinet for a while now and she's itching to use it.

This next week, our parents are going on vacation, so I'll be taking care of her for the entire week, 24/7. (I think this will be good chance for me to see how I might handle motherhood one of these days...haha!) In order to encourage positive behavior, I have created the Egg-celent Behavior reward system, pictured below:

At the end of every day, if she has successfully accomplished the items on the guidelines (1. Finishing all tasks on her GOAL card  2.Obeying quickly  3. Speaking in a polite tone/ with a good attitude), then she gets to take a paper egg out of the egg basket and put it on the chart. The number of eggs on her chart at the end of next week determines how many eggs she will get to dye next Friday.

Another thing on her list was to have a Fancy Nancy party. Jaclyn and Julie decided they wanted to join in on the fun, so this morning we had a party fit for the fanciest. This is a picture of the four of us with the magnificent table setting the girls put together:

We used Julie's fancy dinner ware and had a lovely brunch with omlets (that's a fancy way to fix eggs), a fruit medley (that's a fancy word for mixture), and delicious blueberry muffins. No fancy brunch is complete without dessert, so we had homemade chocolate maltball parfaits (that's a fancy word for ice cream) with whipped cream and sprinkles! A special shout-out goes to the Js for taking the time to invest in Laci and make the party extra special just for her!

I'd like to close by answering the ever popular question, "What's next for you, Christine?" as so many have been wondering. My response is that I am peacefully clueless as I wait upon the Lord to tune me in to what the future holds. I'm trying to remain as Dominican as possible and continue to live in the moment and enjoy things as they are happening. Multiple times a day I am awestruck by the ways He's loving me and teaching me to love Him and others in return. It's good stuff, my friends, and I don't want to fogg it up with worrysome thoughts of the future. Each day has enough troubles of their own, and by golly, if He's taken care of the birds of the air, He's for sure got what I need covered!