be in this moment ... now is all there is.

 wow. it has been a long time since i have shown up here.

sept 9. this day dawned and it went alittle bit different than planned. ms. katie and ms. anna marie were sick. & it was ms. jenna's day off. so it was a big day for me. i got to do the intake which consist of going over everything they brought and checking it off the list that had been sent to them. i also got to take care of ms. katie. in the evening we did yoga, so that was fun :)

sept 10. we did normal things, but there was a visitor here learning about the ranch. she is interested in helping out here sometime. in the evening, ms. jenna and i took a picnic to the woods. we hiked abit, talked, and i read to her. ha. then we did a regular walmart stop :)

sept 17&18. it was my weekend off. on  saturday, i went with becky to Pearl of Grace for a graduation. this is a girls ranch that is about 2.5 hours from here. a youth girl from here spent a couple years in their program. it was really cool to be able to go. really wished i could have had a tour and seen how things are there. i had met some of the staff from there, so it was fun to see them again.

sept 23: happy birthday, mom !

sept 24 - 26. canoe trip. when we go on these adventures into the wilderness, we have a group goal, a personal goal, and a theme verse. our group goal was: work as a team-encourage each other-focus on now-being ourselves. my personal goal was to notice God in everything.

we left before the sun had peeked over the hills. i drove the expedition and pulled a canoe trailer with four canoes. ms. hannah (she plans our canoe/backpacking trips) followed in her car, which was great since the trailer lights wouldn't work. we arrived at lake ouachita and unloaded everything into canoes. we set out to find an island to camp on for the next 2 nights. that evening, as we were eating supper, a storm came in full force. it poured rain, thundered, and lightening. we all huddled under a tarp. one of my girls was very scared. and of course her tent was the one that the fly did not get put on. so it was abit damp in her tent. i put a dry bag and taped a black bag over the opening to she could stay dry. (please laugh here) on sunday, we each wrote a 250 word essay on our theme verse which was "yea, though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i will fear no evil: for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." we arrived home monday evening very happy and ready to be clean again. (clean hair is the best) a few highlights: swimming, watching the sunrise, rowing in sync, journaling, making faces of certain emotions, talking with the girls, drinking hot chocolate around the campfire, singing, seeing the milky way, & the STARS. 

the canoe trip is a trust building activity. they have to trust us to keep them safe. one thing that was hard for some of them was the food. they had to trust us that they would have enough to eat and drink. 

sept 30 - oct 1 : parent seminar was held at church. our next rancher spent that time here at the ranch while her mom was at the seminar. i got to do horsemanship friday morning. i saddled toby. i got to lead him around the arena with one of the ranchers on him. ms. katie and ms. jenna went to the seminar in the morning. all three of us went in the afternoon. saturday was a relaxed day. i say it was relaxed, but there were alot of emotion about home visit. for home visit they have a packing list. they got out what they wanted to take home. then one of us mentors went over what was going home. the rancher i helped had a sweatshirt she brought back after last home visit. her mom had told her she wasn't allowed to bring it back. but she did anyway. it sat in her suitcase until now. so i talked about it with her. we talked about respecting what her mom said. and what her mom said would happen if she brought it back. we also acted out the best and worse way her mom could react to the sweatshirt. (me pretending to be her mom) after they were packed up, we headed to church for lunch and they could see their parent(s). then there were checkout visits. we meet with the parents and go over goals and expectations for the home visit. two of the families came to the ranch so the support people they brought could have a tour of the ranch and have their visits.

that evening we built a fire, cooked supper over it, and then slept out in the back of the pickup:)

oct 3: the ranch authorities went on an outing since ms. jenna was leaving the next day. she had wanted to go to Turpentine Wildlife Refuge. it is a sanctuary for abandoned tigers, lions, big cars, and bears. 

oct 4: the sad day of having to say goodbye to ms. jenna until november. she is planning to come back for another year, if the border will give her another year visa. at this point, we have hope that she will be back to stay. she has to go home for alittle over a month before she tries to re--enter the US. ms. katie and i took her to the airport and said goodbye for now. then went to target and a coffee shop. then we spent the rest of the day at home :) 

oct 5. i went and donated blood. (this is something i really support ! ) afterward i stopped at a few stores. in one of them, someone stopped me and wondered about what i was. amish or mennonite? she wondered if we used technology, if we always dressed in a dress/skirt,  etc... but things got deeper. by what they said, i could tell she knew about Jesus. i asked what her relationship with Him was like? i felt she was very real and said she was struggling. one thing she is struggling with is her gender. we talked for abit... i think she did most of the talking. i invited her to church. i feel like she is really searching for truth. i just ask that you pray for her. she asked for my number, so i guess i will wait and see if she reaches out.

the last couple of evenings i have had fun cooking out of the newest half baked harvest cookbook 😊one thing i love very much is half baked harvest recipes. i don't think i have ever made something that wasn't good.one of the coolest things is that she is from colorado and sometimes i think it would be cool to be able to cook for a job. 

about this. i guess it is really hard to live in the moment. my mind wanders away to other places, times, and people. i think back over the memories i've made and wonder what the future holds. this brings me to a thought about grief. i hadn't ever thought about that moving to a new place brings grief of leaving the places you have been. i guess this is something i have had to think about. the grief or loss of leaving a place i had come to love and call home. one thing that really hurt was thinking how i may not be as close to the people that once were such a huge part of my life. my prayer for now is, live in this moment. for too soon it will be gone. embrace each day and love it to the fullest. 🤍

since ms. jenna left, ms. nette is coming to fill in for the next month. she is arriving here on saturday!

please send prayers up for us over in northwest arkansas🤍

xo,

ms. brooke