Hunger, The Hunger Games, And Ahnalin

Ahnalin loves to read.

She loves to go to the library.

Every Thursday, we go to the library

to check out books and read to dogs.

A wonderful, local organization trains support dogs

and brings the dogs to the library so the children

can read to them. 

Almost every time we visit the library,

there is at least one homeless person near the door.

We talk to them.

I don't always have money to share,

but we always talk to them. 

Today, before we left for the library,

Ahnalin asked if she could take an extra apple

and cheese stick.

I said yes, but asked why.

She said, "Mama, every time we go,

we always see hungry people asking for food.

We don't always have money to give them,

but I want to have some food to give."

I got a little teary,  but I agreed.

 

We didn't see anyone waiting outside the library 

as we went in.

But Ahnalin asked me to hold the food

while she read to the dogs,

because she wanted to make sure we had it 

on the way out. 

So while she read,

I smocked.

And the food was sitting on the table

next to me. 

A woman stood near the table.
 

She was talking to a young teen about "The Hunger Games"

movie and book series.

She turned to me and asked if I had seen the movie,

or read the books.

I said no, as they are really not my style.

She explained that she felt they were important

books for young adults and parents to read.

She felt that they were helpful

so that readers could think for themselves

how they would live in a "dystopian society".

She spoke of the need to have firm beliefs

in the event of famine and corrupt society.

She spoke of the absence of moral absolutes.

She told me that she is the mother of teenagers

and felt her children learned a great deal

about themselves from the books.

Ok. 

She then spied the apple and cheese stick.

She asked about them, as eating is not allowed

in the library.

I explained about Ahnalin

wanting to have them to give to a hungry person.

I told her that Ahnalin knew we often

give money to people in need,

but didn't always have it.

But she wanted to be prepared 

with food if we encountered someone today. 

She looked uncomfortable.

She told me that she felt it was not a good idea.

She told me that she made a point of never

carrying cash so that she could honestly

say she didn't have any if a homeless person

asked for money. 

Because then she wouldn't be lying. 

She didn't think I should allow Ahnalin to give

food (or money) to the people on the street.

She felt that "They were better served 

by agencies."

I was shocked!

I said that she was just telling

me of the important lessons of 

"The Hunger Games"

and this was an important lesson.

She said it was different. 

Wow.

Ahnalin heard none of this, 

as she was happily reading to the dogs.

You see, this is personal to Ahnalin.

Even though she is very well fed and healthy now,

I know that her soul remembers hunger.

For months after we brought her home

from China, she would pry my mouth 

open and take food out of it to stuff

in her own mouth.

It didn't matter how much we fed her,

she could never seem to be full.

She was terrified of being hungry

and alone. 

Ahnalin has her R.A.D. moments,

but her heart hurts for those in need.

Anyway, 

after she was finished reading to the dogs,

she came over and picked up the food,

along with her library books.

As we checked out the books,

she looked out the window

to see if there was anyone outside waiting. 

There was no one waiting today.

Once we got into the van,

she told me that she was sad because she 

wanted to give the food to a hungry person.

As we rounded the corner, 

she spied a young woman with a sign.

"HUNGRY AND HOMELESS"

Ahnalin yelled
"MAMA!! PULL OVER!! THAT'S HER!"

We had never seen this particular girl before,

but she was hungry. 

Ahnalin rolled down the window 

and handed her the food.

The girl smiled and said

"God Bless You Little One."

Ahnalin said "God bless you too."

As we drove away, 

Ahnalin said 

"Feeding hungry people makes my heart happy!"

Then she said,

"Mama, are you crying AGAIN?" 

I said "Yes, but it is happy crying."

I am grateful that my little one is listening 

to what Jesus tells us to do.

I am grateful that she gives out of her heart

instead of holding back in fear.

I still haven't read
"The Hunger Games".

I may or may not. 
(I prefer my Jane Austen,
Anne of Green Gables, and other
girly goodies.)

But I hope my children are learning

the important lessons of how to treat others.

Matthew 25:35, 40

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

I was a stranger and you invited me in....... 
..............The King will reply,
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did
for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me."

Change On The Horizon

Change is Exciting!

(and kind of scary)

Let me step back a bit and let you know what is happening

in our family life.

I know I mostly write about sewing, and my kids, and my hubby.

Well, here is a bit more about my hubby.

Before we moved back home to California,

Don had been a full-time music pastor

at several different churches across the U.S. 

As a family, we experienced a great many health difficulties,

several miscarriages, and many adoption

attempts that fell through leaving us heartbroken and 

emotionally and financially depleted.

Our last home, before we moved back to CA,

was a darling historical home in Historic Brownsburg, 

Bucks County, PA. 

The house was infested with bats and black mold,

but I loved it anyway. 

That house affected our health in a very bad way.

So eventually, when Don's parents built their lovely

home in the Sierra Foothills of CA, 

they asked us to move into it with them.

We gratefully accepted!

We have lived here ever since.

In this time, we have dealt with India's multiple diagnoses,

more miscarriages, more adoptions falling through,

Ahnalin's miraculous adoption, 

and then, of course the recession.

We started to attend a wonderful 

and loving church, 

called Twin Cities.

The people of Twin Cities loved on us

and loved us back to wholeness.

They were with us to mourn and 

to celebrate. 

The admonished and encouraged us. 

The showed us in VERY practical ways,

that we were worth more than just

the sum of our talents. 

They were the Hands and Feet of Jesus.

Almost as soon as we walked in the doors of Twin Cities,
we were folded into the arms of the
Celebration Arts Team.

You see, my husband,
and of course I say this COMPLETELY without bias,
is the greatest guitarist who has ever lived.

REALLY!


For 8 years Don played guitar
with the CA band.
And 5 years ago, he was hired
as the band leader.

Dave Bollen, the man on the right in the above picture,
is the Minister of Music at TCC and a very dear friend.
The first picture you see at the top of this post
was taken October 3 at about 6:30 AM,
on our last Sunday as a family at TCC.

Yes, we would arrive to begin rehearsal when the
moon was still out.
I love this place.

Ahnalin is sitting on a little stool on the stage at TCC
at our last morning rehearsal.

She was so sad that it was our last day there as a family.

TCC is the only church she has ever known
and she is fearful of getting to know a new church,
school, town, and friends.

Oh, I forgot to say why I am writing all this!

This is our NEW CHURCH!!

You see, Don was hired to
be the new worship leader of the
Contemporary Service at First Presbyterian Church 
in Santa Rosa, CA!!!!

Yes!!

Somehow, the Lord decided that it was
time for us to make a change.
And a WONDERFUL, EXCITING
change it is!!

Again, COMPLETELY without bias,
I can say that Sonoma County CA is truly the
MOST BEAUTIFUL place on Earth.

For years, Don and I have prayed that
the Lord would someday, in His Grace
and Mercy, provide a way for us to move back to this area.
And we love being in the ministry.
When we heard about this position,
and met the people,
we fell in love.

I mean,
WE FELL IN LOVE!

The people in our new church are loving and genuine and
they LOVE Jesus!

Sure, we have a few details to work out still,
but God has already answered so many prayers
and questions that I know the rest will somehow fall into place.
Last Sunday was our first official Sunday at
First Pres.
Ahnalin was fearful and nervous.
And because I had decided not to sing on Don's first Sunday,
I chose to stay with Ahnalin in her Sunday School class.

India was very sick and she laid down most of the morning but she
was there with us. So we started out at our new church as a
family.

Our dear friends from TCC,
Don and Lola Stamey, came to visit and support us
on our first Sunday.
Afterwards, they treated us to lunch at our
favorite local restaurant,
"Fitch Mountain Eddies" in Healdsburg.

And then, because I promised my friend Laura,
we dropped in to her daughter's
cupcakery called  "Sift" .

  In celebration, we each chose a different flavor
of cupcake and then cut them up
so we could each taste the different flavors.

(To my Prism diet buddies, yes, I tasted them all!)

After this, we drove around neighborhoods
looking for available homes for rent.

We are praying to find the right house
soon so that we can get moved in.

So, how, you may ask,
can you be praying for our family?

Well, thank you for asking!

Please pray for Ahnalin's anxiety during this transition.
She is extremely anxious, and we find that she is
struggling more with her PTSD and RAD than she has
for a very long time.
Please pray she meets a friend.

And for India, who is waiting to hear whether or not
she has been accepted into the Disney College Program.
This change and move is coming right at a time
when she is transitioning to adulthood.
And she is unsure what this will all mean for her.
Please pray that she is accepted into the DCP so that
she at least knows how to plan and pack. We all
feel that the DCP would be a great fit for her.
And please pray for her health.
She has an ulcer right now in addition to her other
medical issues and is so tired of feeling cruddy.

And for my Hot Rockin' Hubby,
please pray for him as he is learning the culture of a new church and job.
Please pray that he would be able to joyfully embrace the mission of
our new church home. He is making friends already with the musicians
in his new band, and I am so grateful for these wonderful people.
He is so excited and happy,
and I am so glad to see him that way!

For me, well for all of us really,
please pray that
God would direct us to the right house.
I am praying for a school where Ahnalin will feel accepted and
eager to learn. She is a great student but so nervous about it all.
I pray that our new home will allow us to get a dog
for our girls, who have begged for one for so many years.
I pray for a home where we can
entertain friends.
I pray for a home with a place for me to set up my sewing.
And mostly I pray that our family will be a family in our new place.

Yes, I know this is a much different post than I usually write.
I will be back to sewing next post.
If you have stuck with me in this post, thank you so much.
I am so grateful for your friendship and encouragement.

So, I have a lot of packing to do, in addition to
sewing some testers for other designers and
some custom items for clients.
I will try to post as often as I can,
but I really do beg for your prayers.

Happy Sewing!

Christos Anesti!!!!!

Christ is Risen!!

He is Risen INDEED!!!!!!

My husband is from a Greek family.

Every year on Easter Sunday, 

 we greet each other with a kiss and the exclamation of

CHRISTOS ANESTI!!!!!

And the proper and joyful response is

ALITHOS ANESTI!

Indeed HE is Risen!!!

I love this. 

I love that Christ died for MY sins and that He did it because He loves me.

He did it because He knew that the only way for me be with Him in Heaven, 

was to give himself in my place.

He did it for all of us. 

Isaiah 53:5 says this:

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

I am so grateful that Jesus did this for me. 

I pray you have a beautiful and blessed Easter. 

And please, please, remember how much you are loved.

Sivje

Giveaway! (and other stuff)

I will get to the give-a-way in a few minutes, but let me work through a bit here first. Hang tight because you will really like this give-a-way!! I promise!!

After ignoring our storage unit for almost 7 years, YES! 7 YEARS! Don and I spent the day going through it all, donating old furniture and clothes, looking at old pictures, reading old receipts, smiling at old greeting cards, and breaking down old boxes. Yeah, it was all OLD! Some of it was old as in vintage. Some was old as in valuable. Lots of it was old as in sentimental. But there was a whole lot of it that caused us to wonder not only why we had kept it all these years, but furthermore, why we had moved it across the country and back again, why we had paid storage fees to keep it. I mean, it is all just stuff. STUFF!

But it is our stuff.

After all these years, we felt that God was leading us to give away a lot of the things we had been holding on to. This was not just a physical thing. It was very much an emotional and spiritual exercise. I cried. You see, we so badly want to have a home of our own again. And for me, a woman, a mama, a wife, a "nester", these things represented my own "nest".

Hebrews 12:1 says this:
¹ We are surrounded by a great cloud of people whose lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.
So, was I sinning by holding on to all that stuff? Maybe. Maybe not. But it was doing no good in that storage unit. Will we have our own home again someday? I sure hope so. Oh Please GOD!!! But until that time, we need to keep working toward the goal. And the goal for this time in my life is becoming clearer. And for that I am grateful. Things are not getting any easier for us, and we are still very much having to lean on our faith. But I do believe that there were things in that storage unit that I was holding onto that were holding me back from fully depending on God. They were mine and I did not want to give them up. NO WAY!

Did I give everything up? Not yet. Will I? I don't know. Am I supposed to? I don't yet know that either.

Do you want to know what it was that was so hard for me to relinquish? It was a sofa, chair and ottoman, upholstered in navy and white ticking stripe by Lee Industries in 1989. They were old, dirty, torn, and not in good shape. But these items of furniture were the first real items Don and I bought as a couple. I had been working as an interior designer in an upscale store in the Bay Area, and these pieces represented our first real home as a couple. As Don and I, and later India, moved from place to place in the ministry, these pieces represented our "nest". What I should have realized and embraced, was that as long as we were together, we were "home". But still, I loved those pieces.

So, God spoke to me one night, in my tears of wondering if we would ever come out of this struggle. He told me to relinquish those old, torn, broken pieces of furniture. That was a few months ago. It took until today for me to do it. I do not yet feel relief that I did it. Don was very supportive. We were able to move our things into a much smaller storage unit today. When we finally do move into our own place again, we will know what is in every box and tub in that unit.

And I do believe that since God is the giver of all things, and He wants to give His children good gifts, that someday I will be able to buy a new set of furniture. And it will be exactly what I am meant to have, given to me by a Heavenly Father who loves me more than anyone can love me. Because He knows me the best.And just like my old, broken furniture, He wants me to give Him all the old, broken things in my life so that He can replace those things with what is best for me, whatever that may be.


Ok..........enough of that for now!!!

So I have a few fun pics to show.

First of all, here is another of my tester versions of Olabehe's Kirstin skirt. I used the pattern as a jumping off point and added a fun element. I channel ruched the overskirt with ribbon so that it could be pulled up to create a different look.

Ahnalin loves it! Dawn (the designer) loved it too but was concerned that people would wonder how I did it. Well, I do believe that I will work up a tutorial for this, so that once she releases the pattern, you can copy the look for yourself. So, hold tight and check back for the tutorial in the near future.



In addition to this, I have been working on my sewing area. My wonderful husband and my father-in-law worked together to build me shelves for some of my fabric and patterns.

Yes, even though we live with my inlaws, I am so blessed to have my own little spot. I am by no means done with the organization of my little area, but it is getting better by the minute. However, while working in the storage unit today, I discovered even more thread, patterns, fabric and notions that had been stashed away all these years. I do not have room for it all. So I have to start paring it down too. NO!!! But I must. So, I will go through that stuff, organize what I can, and give the rest away. That will come soon.

This does not even show my serger cones!
But I do believe that I will never have to buy thread again as long as I live........or at least for a few months.

I have not even brought over the 7 boxes of patterns I found. The crazy thing is that now, between designing my own patterns, and testing for other designers, I rarely use other patterns!

Here is the work in progress.....that is my sewing area that is starting to come together.
At least I can sew here now, instead of on the kitchen table! That means my mess is at least a little more contained to the joy of those around me! Under this table, there are stacks and stacks of fabric that are hidden by the fabric curtains. There is also a pie safe filled with fabric, and that does not include the fabric in the storage unit still! YIKES!

India and Ahnalin are enjoying the box of dress-ups I found in the storage unit. India has been begging us to find them for years. Sadly, they were in the very back of the unit!

India has grown out of most of them by now, but she loved dressing up her sister this afternoon.





Now........if you got through allllllll that.......
I will tell you about my first ever GIVE-A-WAY!!!! WOOHOO!!!!
I am giving away two things here.
First, I am offering a "Side Winder" portable bobbin winder. This is such a cool thing! I have two of them, and one is unopened. So, one of you awesome, amazing and super cool people will be the lucky recipient of this neato thing!


Second, you all know that my hot, rockin' hubby is an awesome guitar player, right? Well, he is the lead guitar player for the up and coming country group, the Denny Russell Band So, I am giving away one of their cds! They have recently been getting radio play both here in the US and in France and you will hear much more of them in the future. And you can say you heard it here first!



So, leave me a comment on this post if you want to be entered. And if you want an extra chance, become a "follower" of my blog. As a mom, I am always telling my girls to be leaders, not followers, but it is ok to be a follower here, ok? If you are already a follower, tell me that and you will get two chances.

I will draw the winners on Wednesday, June 17, which also happens to be my Daddy's birthday.

Thank you for reading this far. I so appreciate you all!

Sivje

Plan C or the Totally Cheater Easter Outfit

Well, last year, I smocked Ahnalin a beautiful pink pique dress with chocolate bunnies for Easter. It won a blue ribbon at the fair last year. Good for me. So, I started to smock her dress for this Easter, several weeks ago. Then we had one disaster after another, some merely minor and annoying, and some a bit more challenging. So, suffice it to say, THE Easter Dress (Plan A) did not get done. So, because my pride can not fall too far, I cut out another dress that should have gone together easily, (Plan B), however I was not satisfied with any trim choices I had and could not find any that would work in the few places I found to look on my miniscule budget. Then on Thursday, I had my wonderful, exciting, and much-longed-for oral surgery. True, I did try to smock while under general anesthesia (not kidding here!) but I finally conceded defeat.

So, here it is........Plan C. I had purchased a few cheapo t-shirts from a cheapo place and pulled one out to embellish with some of the neato trims I have and a cute embroidery design I fell in love with. The design is from the Martha Pullen Internet Embroidery Club 2009. I love how these stitch up.

The skirt is a free pattern from Oliver & S called the "Lazy Days Skirt" . You can download the pattern from the blog. It goes together super quick and uses very little fabric. I used only 15" length of fabric and used wide ribbon for the waist casing.

I had planned on embellishing some socks and her hat, but Don told me I could not sew after the services tonight. I am supposed to be asleep right now, but, heehee, I am bloggin'!

Ok, I didn't make the shoes, but they are so stinkin' cute that I had to show them.

Ok, I am going to bed now. It is before midnight, early for me. But, we have to be up at 5:00AM to get ready for church.

Tomorrow is Easter!!!!! I LOVE EASTER!!!!!

Ok, I admit it, Easter is NOT about the outfit. I know it. It is really about how Jesus chose to give His own life so that I do not have to die as a result of my own sins, failures, and bad choices. And I get to celebrate Easter openly, with other believers in Jesus, and our family.

Thank you Jesus.