Sue instrumental in helping friend

My wife and I have made Anne a part of our family.  When Anne had a stroke last month we took her to the hospital, stayed with her until she was admitted, and have visited her faithfully as Anne's friends and community have gathered around her. 

Sue has been instrumental in helping Anne as she recovers from the stroke.  Even though Anne is grumpy, acts out, and threatens her, Sue continues to love on her and show her compassion.  Sue and DeeAnn went over what the housing authority said about the stuff in her apartment, and today Sue marshaled the boys and a couple of friends in cleaning out the garbage and junk in Anne's apartment. 

I am very proud of Sue, and have told her several times that Anne appreciates her even if she (Anne) doesn't know it yet!  Sue laughs, smiles, and keeps doing things to help set Anne up to succeed as she recovers from her stroke.  Go, Sue! 

Good mission trip to Nicaragua

 Sue and her team had a great time on their mission trip to Nicaragua this past week.  They went down and taught students at a school for the deaf in Managua ways to share their faith with their friends.  The theme of the trip was an "explosion of love" and they used volcanoes as part of the theme for the trip.  On one of the days they used a line of cups fille with water, baking soda, vinegar, and salt to demonstrate how God's love overflows to those around us.  Several of the cups didn't get enough of one or another substance so they didn't bubble and overflow very much.  One of the girls commented that they didn't overflow because they didn't share about Jesus - that's when the team realized that they had gotten their message across to the kids and it all became worth it.  Good job, team!

Sue on mission trip

Sue has gone to Nicaragua again on a mission trip to work at a school for the deaf in Managua with 3 other interpreters.  I am sure that things are going well and that they are reaching kids with what the Lord has to say to them.  Woohoo! 

Sue got a new phone!

Her old phone was coming apart to the point that the screen was cracked.  We went and looked and she got a Samsung Galaxy 3 S!  She wanted to be able to do things by voice and now she can do that and lots more.  She is very excited and is learning all of the new capabilities she has.  Woohoo! 

Good meeting with missionaries

Sue took a trip to Florida to see family and friends and to visit with Matthew and Eva, her missionary friends from Nicaragua.  They had a good time together, and Sue learned a lot about what she will be doing with the group she is taking to Nicaragua this coming June.  She took Matthew and Eva up to Penney Farms to see her mother and Jane, a friend of Eva and Matthew from their time in Nicaragua.  Good job, Sue! 

Sue signed at new church

They asked her to sign "Silent Night" which she did.  She did a great job, and Megan M came be to see it.  Who knows - this may lead to more signing at our new church! 

Coordinated Cmas shop at SCC

Sue did a great job helping to organize and coordinate the Christmas shop at Stockbridge Community Church (SCC) today.  She's been working with our new Faye for the past 2 months on this, and it all came together well.  The idea the church had was to have a shop filled with newly-bought-donated toys and stuff and sell them to families that are having a hard time at 75% off the price.  The proceeds from the sale of these donated items go to Woodland Elementary School, one of the schools that our church supports through volunteer efforts, donations, and the Good News Club. 

Sue said it was a bit overwhelming how organized SCC was about this effort, and after all the planning and preparing it went off without a hitch!  Many people gave a couple of hours here, a couple of hours there, and the way this touched our community will only be known when we get to heaven.   Go, Sue! 

Susan helping with Christmas project at church

She volunteered to help out with a Christmas project at our new church, and today the whole thing kicks off. She is helping to organize a Christmas shop where instead of just giving the gifts away we will give families that need some help a way to purchase deeply discounted gifts donated by our church members. It's an interesting way of doing soemthing like this. Sue is in the thick of things, helping out at all three services this morning and having meetings to work out details over the past 3 weeks with plans for more in the next few weeks. Go, Sue!

Sue's foot still not better

She's been dealing with pain in her heel due to plantar fasciitis and a bone spur. She's done the exercises, gone through the physical therapy, and still has almost constant pain in her foot. So now she is going to have a procedure done to help speed the healing process. It's cool - they take some of her blood, spin it out so they just have the platelets, then inject them in to the area of her foot where the pain is. This is supposed to induce a better healing reaction in the body and get things moving. She's having it done at the end of the month and will have to wear an air cast for a few weeks, so it should be interesting. Please pray for quick healing!

Sue and the power outage

So we had a big storm at our house tonight. Sue found out that they were fire engines at the house behind ours. So she headed over there with the boys to find out what was going on.

The lady that lives behind us is pregnant and her husband was there with her and they told Sue they didn't have any candles or flashlights and didn't know what they were going to do with no power. So Sue came home and got some emergency flashlights a lighter and some candles for them and took them over there.  On her way back she got into trouble with the rescue personnel because she went underneath the tree that was leaning on the power lines and she made her way back to our house.  She said afterwards that she just wasn't thinking and just one underneath the tree no big deal.

My beautiful wife! She sure loves to help people...

Studying for new certification

Sue has been getting ready to test for a new certification in mental health interpreting.  The program is based in Alabama but she has gotten to work on most of in the local area.  She has been busily reading articles and books, doing practicum, and psyching herself up for it.  Pray she does well when she takes the test in April! 

Good conference

Sue had a good time at a mental health interpreting conference down in Montgomery last week. She learned lots of good techniques and made some new friends in Alabama. Good job, Sue!

Gearing up for Nicaragua

Sue is getting ready for her second mission trip to Nicaragua in June. She is going with our church again, and is hoping to go and meet with a missionary couple that may be able to guide her to a deaf school Sue wants to contact and learn about. She is hoping that in 2012 she and some deaf friends can go down and serve at the deaf school and maybe even put on a VBS and share the Good News with the kids there. Please pray for her safety and guidance as she navigates these new experiences with the Lord. Go, Sue!

Sue's book has been (self) published!

Last year when Sue was getting ready for her first mission trip to Nicaragua she was inspired by God to write devotions leading up to the actual trip. After she got back she was so moved by the whole thing that she wrote more devotions, asked a friend to edit them, and put them together as a book she calls "50 Days of Preparation for Missions". She's very proud and humbled to have an actual book out there that she wrote, and hopes that it will help those getting ready for a mission trip to focus their hearts on God.

You can learn more and order a copy of the book (paper or ebook) at http://www.preparationformissions.info. We appreciate your support and prayers as we go with this endeavor!

Sue teaching herselft Spanish sign language!

She bought a book on sign language from Nicaragua and is going through it translating the Spanish words to English so she can learn the signs. It's slow going because there are over 800 signs in the book and she is having to use Google Translate to figure out what each word means. She is hoping this helps her on her next mission trip to Nicaragua. Way to go, Sue!

Good birthday

Sue had a lot of fun - her "sisters in the Spirit" came over and had fun doing a Bible study, then she hung out with me, then she took Kevin to karate, then her brother Dan came home with Jacob and spent the evening with us, and we had a good dinner and a tropical fruit pie with bavarian cream. A good way to celebrate!

Good trip to see Cathleen

Sue went down to St. Mary's to be with her friend Cathleen on Cathleen's birthday and had a great time. Then Sue went down to Penney Farms to spend New Year's Eve with her mother. Sue and the kids said it was kind of quiet but they had a good time. Way to go, Sue!

Sue worked hard on wreath night

Sue is heavily involved in the PTO at Kevin's school, and enjoys it for the most part. She is disappointed in some of the decisions that are made, but enjoys helping to raise money to make our community's children's school experience better. This week she helped by making and helping to sell Cmas wreaths at the school. People could walk by an dbid on the wreath, and this fundraiser helped to make the PTO lots of money this week. Good job, Sue!

Sue enjoyed "Seize the day"

Sue had a good time at the "Seize the Day" event in downtown Atlanta today. She got to see Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly, Laura Bush, and others speak on how to improve her business and "seize the day". She took one of her friends from her Bible study group, which made it a lot of fun for her. It was hard to carve out the time from our busy schedule, but I'm glad she sets such a high priority on learning and expanding her horizons.

Sue came in first on game

Sue was very cute riding the motorcycle in the game room. She was going at it really well, and was sooooo surprised when she won the game! I was lucky enough to capture that surprise in a picture :-)