Monday we were blessed with a visit from special New Orleans friends... 3/4's of the Screen family. :) What was initially just a trip to record some violin tracks for a CD project we're working on, became a whole day of fun! The girls were enamored with Ms. Stephanie...
First, it was storytime with the violin... then all things girlie... hair and later tea party... ran out of time for nail painting...
Victoria, showing off a hat she made at school, danced with joy (her middle name - ha ha)...
When I returned home from taking James to soccer practice and facilitating our Women on Mission leadership meeting, we found our mailbox dismantled on the ground...
It quickly became an opportunity for the men to display their manhood (thereby escaping all the girliness inside - ha)...
Ms. Chris took over the kitchen and cooked us up a nice meal... (extra blessing for me whose Mondays are a race from start to finish :)...
We all gathered for the feast... what fun!
Afterwards, while the kids put their pj's on and laid out clothes for school, we quickly transitioned the kitchen table for a tea party... which comically ended with a few rounds of the game, "Rock, Paper, Scissors"... ha.
We are so grateful for friends like the Screens, such a blessing... We shared much laughter in reflecting on shared experiences together and where God has brought us... One funny story in particular, was the time we "moved in with them" following Hurricane Katrina when we'd found ourselves homeless... the story of the "crazy lady"...
Our first day back in the city with a church full of disaster relief workers from Arkansas camping out, Pastor Tony (a.k.a. my husband) directed a woman in need to Stephanie and my care at the Screen's house (I believe Mr. & Mrs. Screen were out to get some Red Cross meals for the night)... Tony had called beforehand to make sure it was ok that he direct this woman to come use the shower... She had gone to the church office (one of only a few operating facilities around) after a day of cleaning out what she could from her unlivable apartment... She showed up in a roach infested car and gathered some items to go and wash up... Everything seemed normal... After a few minutes of being in the bathroom, she called me over to get something out of her car for her. When I returned with the item, she graciously took it and then looked down at the Screen's dog 'Cinnamon' and said, "I'll talk to you later," then closed the door. That moment was when things started to get weird...
About an hour later, after tending to the smoke alarm (which had never gone off in the Screen's home in the many years they had lived there) the woman departed the smoky, steamy bathroom... She then began to talk about the need to get to an uncle in California... Mr. Screen who had returned in time to deal with the smoke alarm, was able to get in touch with the uncle who was quite confused about her desire to go there when she had 60+ relatives living much closer... Long story much shorter - Tony and I decided to escort her back to the church for a place to stay. When we arrived and offered accommodations for her to "crash for the night"... (Tony, meanwhile, had connected with our friend, Landon, in Baton Rouge working with emergency shelters, but she didn't want to go there)... she began to talk about her inability to stay at the church because of "the children"... While we attempted to counsel her away from that the 8 PM curfew was at hand... We ended up giving her some money and directing her to the National Guard station around the corner, entrusting her to God's care and praying she would get the help she needed... So goes the abbreviated version of our "crazy lady with the Screen's" story... Hope you enjoyed...
On a completely different note, Victoria enjoyed her first birthday party experience at a friend from school's house - Princess Emily... :)
She had a blast jumping in the bouncy bin, getting her face painted and hitting the pinata...
Oh, what fun with friends...
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