Thursday, July 29, 2010

this week

I have been blessed beyond measure to receive my little cousin from the airport on Monday night. She is staying with us for a week and I have to admit...I'm having a wonderful time with her. She is 13. Emmalee. We all love her, and with good reason, she is precious. So far...we have been dining, driving, going to Movies, swimming and we are going to hit some shops for the next two days. Oh, and the pedi. We had pedi's. I love having a girl in our house. And not just any girl...but one of the most precious on the planet.

I also have a quick Zim update. I have reached my goal this week. I am waiting to receive a couple of other donations that should be coming in soon, but taking those into account...I have reached my goal. Sweet SB paid $50 to my paypal account. I received $25 from EP in the mail and one of my dear sisters sent me $1,000. I am so thankful! Honestly, I'm speechless, again. God uses so many sweet people to provide the funding for my trips to Zim. I am so grateful to Him and to them. I am still spending several hundred of my own, but that is totally okay with me. As I have mentioned before, they are worth every penny. My prayer now is just that the amount of cash I take will suffice. I don't know how much my food will cost... and I'm hoping to have enough money at the end to purchase another jasper stone for my collection.

I'd write more, but the kids are waiting "patiently" for me to take them to the swimming pool. Here we go!

4 comments:

Sharon Cohen said...

It is not very often that I have seen the name Emmalee. By any chance is your cousin from Trafalgar, Indiana?

Melissa Irwin said...

hi sharon. no, my emmalee is not from that area. i also have never seen that name before...pretty wild.

Pete Ahlstrom said...

Hi Melissa, It was WONDERFUL to hear that you've gotten in the money you need! We've been praying for you together every night.

And we'd still very much appreciate your prayers for us.

I was struck by your comments about having enough cash. It reminded me a lot of my own experience in my first summer at the U of Denver. That story's too long to tell in this comment, but if you'd like to see what I mean, you can go to our www.sparkleofnature.com web site and click on the book - then on chapter 16, "Tithes, Offerings, and Loving our neighbors." The story is under the heading "Is Putting God First Easy?"

Enjoy.

Love and prayers from all of us.

Pete & family

Pete Ahlstrom said...

Melissa, please excuse the second comment, but we'd love to hear more about your jasper collection. How many- what colors - where from - etc.

Way back when we started collecting minerals, we lived in Santa Maria on California's central coast. North of Santa Maria, we collected a lot of agates and quartz crystals. Down where I worked, on Vandenberg Air Force Base, the ground was just littered with jaspers (brown & yellow). I think we still have a fair number of them. They're presently buried in storage, but once we get the house sold and get moved - and can find them - we'd be glad to send you some.

Around here we don't have any jaspers that I know of. But there is lots of a dark agate containing little turret-like snail shells, (called "goniobasis agate," and also some nice clear selenite crystals. If you're interested, just let us know.

Love and prayers,

Pete Ahltrom @ all