3rd or 4th

We're going on our 4th week here or is it our 3rd? Any who, the house has slowed and only small details are being dealt with right now. My kitchen is finally done and the cabinets painted. Plymouth Beige and the pantry cabinet Barn Red! I LOVE my open shelving. I had requested the open shelving and Jacob's Ladder was more than happy with that since it's a cheaper option but once we moved in I was less than thrilled with the thought of my upper cabinets being open and having to be neat. But I must say, they look fabulous with my dishes and I'm glad I went with what I've always wanted. I still have to get cabinet pulls and a kitchen rug. Well, I pretty much have to get a rug (or two in the living room's case) for every room in this house. Not one square foot is carpeted! We've got a lot of floor room and eventually I will probably put in an island for food prep. The real front door is up and primed for my red to be painted on it tomorrow. I think everything will be done by Wed. I'm so excited so that I can unpack everything but a little sad, too. I've grown to really enjoy the workers. Two are Hispanic fellas from Mexico and I've really gotten to know them. They're brothers and very hard workers. They can do ANYTHING. I'm getting their number for other projects I may need help with and I want to invite them to dinner to enjoy the house they've labored over since the beginning! Then there's the Jacob's Ladder volunteers. Oh, the sweet men they are. Most are retired men and some very accomplished individuals. There's a university student who is studying urban redevelopment and church groups that come in masses. They all volunteer their expertise and services on Wednesday's So I've come to look forward to my Wednesday's with them. We spoke at Emmanuel UMC on Sunday to Bill's Sunday school class and many of the men who help in one way or another were there. Bill also has some people from the neighborhood helping. A painter and cleaner in particular. Jeanette cleans and does odd jobs for him and I had her come this weekend to help clean and unpack with me. She's coming tomorrow to clean because we have our first meeting with our new social worker for an update on JP. I'm a little nervous since our new house is in the hood but I"m pretty sure our other SW explained the situation to her. Let's hope she's understanding....
Our neighbors have been so good thus far. We've got Glinda and Linda to our left, Boshia and her sons Donny and new baby who live with her mom, Phyllis, to our right, Ms. Mary across from her, Wolf beside Mary and Edmond and his wife, Bessie, behind us. All of these neighbors have been welcoming and assured us they'd watch our backs. Donny's been over to play several times. He's a wild man. 3yrs old and bigger than all three of mine combine! He was disappointed in my drink selection as he rummaged through my fridge trying to find juice. Our house alarm went off last week at 4AM. I'm pretty sure it was a fluke because Sasha (Ed and Bessie's German Shepherd) didn't bark and she barks at everything and the strays that have taken up in the abandoned home next to ours didn't bark either and they bark at everything too. Ms Linda also reported that her Chiquaqua didn't bark and she always checks when the dogs bark. Nothing was misplaced or taken or moved and the back door pops open if not dead bolted and I had forgotten to deadbolt it. No one could have gotten passed the two by four that arms this door anyways. We're sure it was nothing but it scared the jebbies out of us when it went off. Somehow the little kids slept through it as it blared down the street but B woke up and went straight back to sleep.
Sometimes it's hard to believe we are actually here and I"m really having to secure my doors with a two by four at night. The Lowes man who is installing our wood shed asked me today, "No offense, but why in the world did you move to this neighborhood?" First, I wanted to say in the words of Bonquiqui (click for a good laugh) "RUDE" but I answered honestly and calmly. I get it people. It's strange that a successful physician and his family would move into the hood where poverty and crime mark the streets and the faces of everyone who roams them. And sometimes I wonder why we're here too. On Sunday when we were driving down the beautiful suburban streets and I thought to myself, "That could have been our house and our yard" as I looked at these beautiful homes but then the Lord said to me, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is their your heart will be also." Matt 6:19-21. I know at any moment for any of us life can change and every materialistic possession we own could be gone and worth nothing. I think of the earthquake victims, the displaced refugees, the tsunami victims and the people of war-torn countries. It could be any of us. Something out of our control could happen and take away all we've built our lives around. I want my treasures to be in heaven where nothing can take them away. I imagine Jesus was talking about relationships, good deeds, and changed lives that glorify Him. That's the type of treasures we'll have. But my fleshly side takes over at times and my nature is to want the bigger and the better and to covet what others have. I have to remind myself that I have enough blessing to last a lifetime inside the walls of this house and it really doesn't matter what the shell looks like but the lives that dwell inside. My prayer is that our home be a place of comfort and understanding and that our doors will be open to those in need and our table feed those that hunger and that our relationships will lead others to the One that IS the bread of life. I pray my children see their parents have an active and real faith that focuses on the greatest commandments to first Love the Lord with all your heart and the second to Love your neighbor as yourself. And through this they will develop a deep and personal relationship with their Maker. However God chooses to accomplish this is up to Him. Right now it starts in a ghetto called Orange Mound.

I'll leave you with some more pics.

This is a view of the dining room from the kitchen. The front door is straight ahead. The wall to the right in the kitchen was completely taken out and opend up. There's a bar there now that over looks the dining room.

This is the dining room still. The kitchen is to my back and this is to the right of the room. The door way led into what we think was the first addition to this house. It now houses JP room to the front of the house (backed to the living room) the play room in the middle and straight through this door way and then B's room to the back. The playroom acts as an entrance into both of their rooms set in the middle of them.

This is the orginal kitchen. The left wall torn out and pushed up. The doorway closed in (now Bethany's room with a bath) and the right wall has a doorway that leads to our master bed and bath and Lydia's nursery. The kitchen is much bigger than this now.

More to come next time.....