Harbor Life Ministries

?It was easy.?

That’s what Sara had to say about the GED test.

Her road to getting a diploma equivalent began with a pretest in the areas where she was weak. She struggled with the calculator portion of the math test.

Sara then took a calculator class with a tutor. After that she studied the next three weeks on her own.

The actual test took around five hours to complete. When she had finished with it she wasn’t sure that she had passed. Actually, she feared she had failed.

Five days when by before the results arrived.

So now what?

?I want to get my STNA certification from the state and then look for a job,? she said.

Sara is staying at Harbor House until she has met certain requirements established by the county court. She had her baby last August, a boy named Bryce, whom she placed for adoption.

After experiencing the death of her son Keith, born prematurely on April 18th, Lysa has gone home to her family.

She arrived on April 4 and it was an absolute joy to have her; she brightened every conversation and never seemed to be grumpy or ill-tempered. Her attitude was positive even about coming to Harbor House. She wanted to be here and and wanted to get help with her situation.

Please keep Lysa and her family in your prayers. There is also a memorial fund set up in her son’s name for anyone wishing to contribute (Paypal alternate site).

Natasha was able to spend Thanksgiving with her adoptive parents.

This past Saturday her mom Susan arrived from Delaware (the state). Susan is staying in the guest room at the house until the baby arrives.

Tasha is rapidly approaching the end of her pregnancy and is doing very well handling things at this point.

Although she is due Dec. 8th, her doctor indicated at Tasha’s exam today that she might deliver before the end of this week.

Everyone is ready: parents, adoptive parents and, of course, Tasha.

Sara’s bus ticket has arrived from Job Corps, which means she will be leaving here for certain.

The whole process of getting her enrolled has been quite a… well, process.

Testing, doctors’ slips, criminal background check, etc. etc., and several unexpected delays since the whole application process was put into motion back around August 20th or so.

Sara can now be free to pursue her G.E.D. and then follow her plan: get a job, make money, get a home, go back to school, become a pharmacist’s assistant, pursue a social work degree and… wow, I can’t believe how tired I get thinking about that. It was really tiring just to arrive at step one, the Job Corps.

Keep Sara in your prayers. God has done wonderful things in her life to grow her spiritually while she’s stayed with us. Pray she continues to pursue Him and His kingdom first, so that all these things will then be added to her.

Well, it’s been almost 8 weeks since Sara gave birth to Bryce, and most of the time since there’s been a concerted but futile (so far) effort to get her into the Jobs Corps program.

She was (again) supposed to leave today, but we didn’t have her bus ticket which Jobs Corp was supposed to send via email. Finally, at the end of the work day they called to say that they still were waiting on one of her medical forms to be approved. Since Job Corps only does intakes on Tuesday, it would have to be postponed for another week (Tuesday, Oct. 14).

Don’t misunderstand, we love having Sara with us, and I think she’s grown to like being here too, but these several times now when she has planned to move on to the next chapter, said her “good byes” and then had the process halted… it’s hard to be ready to go but then not go.

After a somewhat dramatic departure from her home in Northern California and a tearful arrival in Ohio, Charlotte has finally settled in, although only for a bit.

“Now that I’m here and I see what you guys do, I wish I’d come a lot earlier in my pregnancy,” she commented. Charlotte is due sometime in late September or early October (she has her first appointment with the doctor very soon and should get a more specific due date). “There’s so much that would have helped if I’d been here from the beginning,” Charlotte added.

Since school has yet to start, Charlotte has spent most days–once morning chores are done–writing letters to her family and the baby’s father, Jordan. She and Jordan have made tentative plans to place the baby for adoption and are looking at prospective families.

Hanna is from Arizona. She was 14 when she came to stay at Harbor House but is now 15. Her baby is due to arrive at the end of February 2008. Hanna will be having a baby girl and is making an adoption plan for her. She has selected a family and will get to meet them very soon. They are a very nice couple who adopted their son from a resident of HH in 2002, so Hanna’s baby girl will have an older brother.