The weird and wonderful world of Crusade

We live a strange existence. We're living in a temporary community with 15 other families that have 55 kids between us. This provides for a lot of fun, friends and chaos. Here are a few of the unique blessings and challenges of our weird and wonderful life as Cru staff.

One of the moms hosted a "girl party". 14 little girls and lots of bottles of nail polish in a hotel suite. Emmie returned from the party with hot pink nails and a "bosom friend", Maggie.
All the kids are gathered before we begin the "obstacle course" where they traveled in groups to 6 different rooms, each with different fun activities. I hosted the room with a dance party, of course, among other things. It was a blast, but I required an hour and a half nap later in the day to recover!!
The kids aren't the only ones who get play dates! I have throughly enjoyed getting to know the moms, as we all understand the bizarre existence we share. Here we are on a night out at the mall. In trying to get to a restaurant, we ended up getting lost in the bowels of the mall. Pictured with us are workers we came across who helped us "escape".

It's interesting being a family of 5 with no dinner table. The kitchen has two stools and the other 3 sit around the coffee table. Here we are eating a pie right out of the pan. I think this may become a new family tradition for us. Why do dishes??

Yet another oddity of our experience...there are two beds for 5 Kollars. Jackie opted to sleep in "the fort". Yes, "the fort" is just a euphemism for the closet. Sometimes he sleeps with the other two, though that can lead to unwanted outbursts about someone's smelly feet or someone thrashing in the night.

To borrow a line from my new favorite TV show "John and Kate Plus Eight" (we have cable here...yea!), "It may be a crazy life, but it's our life!"

signs

In Psalm 86:17, David asks God to give him a sign of His goodness. So many times He gives me signs of His goodness and I miss them. But, I have caught a few lately...

First, our motel in Clearwater...the only one I would have been willing to stay in on the whole street. We loved it and would recommend it to anyone on a limited budget who doesn't mind that it's old. It is clean...by the second night I was even sleeping underneath the sheets.


Second, we went on the beach to take a family picture. Of course, I had to be the costume director and drag my boys out in long sleeved button-downs in the heat of the day. It was windy and miserable. Jack's face says it all...


But, God gave me a sign of His goodness as I dragged the kids out at sunset to try all over again. We didn't have high hopes for this experience to turn out any better. But, guess who we just happened to ask to take our picture? A professional photographer. He whipped out his humongo camera and just emailed us the pictures today and I actually like them (but I can't figure out how to post it which is frustrating me at 1:03am)! Just wait because I'm sure it will be our Christmas card picture because Bill won't want to go through the agony of a family picture again.

A third sign of God's goodness relates to our days on the beach. I prayed a few random times that we would find a sand dollar. We spent time every day searching for them and other shells. We found lots of shells, but no sand dollars. Tate was getting bummed. Then, as we were getting ready to leave the beach on our last day, two guys came up with 20 sand dollars in their hands and offered each of the kids one. The kids were overjoyed and I was amazed at the sweetness of my God. Isn't that just like God??? He provides out of His abundant goodness! And I know He will do that as we need bunches of money to move forward with adoption as well.




P.S. Jack immediately broke his, which is SO Jack! There were a few tears, but then he decided that his was the most special because it was the most fragile. The broken one is just as special to me as the "together" ones...I guess I can relate to that one the most!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Totally staged picture, by the way! They never stare serenely at the ocean on their own!

what a difference a father makes

At home, we've been hit with a lot of storms recently. We spent two different nights sitting in our basement shower with tornado warnings. The first one Bill was out of town. But all the rest of us, including the dogs, hunkered down. Tate was being "the man of the house", so he held it together on the outside, but Emma and Jack were freaking out. Emma was crying and asking, "Are we gonna die????". Jack wanted to sing songs for comfort, but literally moaned the words to "Jesus loves me" as he sang in lament. And, to be honest, I didn't feel so great myself.

Fast forward about one week. Bill was home and there was another tornado warning. And we were in the basement shower, yet again. This was the same storm system that went through the Boy Scout camp in Iowa. It was actually a more frightening situation. But, what were my kids doing? They were laughing and telling jokes. They were still scared (okay, and Mommy was too), but the mood was more peaceful. The second night was drastically different than the first and there's one simple reason why. Daddy was there.

What a difference a father makes. His presence calms fears and brings hope. It was true for my kids that night and it's true for me with my Father each day. Father's Day always reminds me that I don't have my Daddy anymore on this earth. But, as the years go by, I am learning more and more a beauty that God is my only Father now. And I am my Daddy's little girl.

Happy belated Father's Day!

He really IS a rock star!

It's weird to think that Jack won't be the baby of our family anymore, if things go as we hope. But, there are some things about Jack that I don't think will ever change. And one of them is his rock star quality. See for yourself...

not just any old trip to the post office

I'm starting this blog all because of a trip i took to the post office today. it was like no other trip I've made to the post office before. It went something like this...

First of all, I had all three kids in tow. As we walked into the building and stood in line, Tate was on the phone with Bill (who is out of town) giving him a play by play of the experience. "Now the lady is taking the letters from Mommy. She is putting a stamp on the blue one. Now, she is putting a stamp on Mommy's speeding ticket payment. She is taking the package. She has the package and she is typing something into the computer. The package is gone. Now, we are leaving the Post Office..."

What's up with that? Well, "the package" was our application to All God's Children International adoption agency for their program in Ethiopia. After 5 years of wondering and praying, we have taken our first step. We may be in for one wild ride, but I wouldn't miss it for the world!