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.

Sara has gradually but steadily grown in her walk with Christ. She is learning what it means to be a follower of the forgiver. Without having been baptized though, the church body local has been privileged to watch her plunge under the water to symbolize her washing by Christ’s blood of the old sin nature, the coming out as her rebirth, and got to hear her testify publicly of what Jesus Christ has done for her and how her hope is now in Him, not in herself.

That changed on Sunday, April 26th, 2009, when she allowed Pastor Bruce Rzengota of Norwalk Alliance Church to baptize her in front of the church.

“I was a sinner who got pregnant, did drugs, stole things, and disobeyed authority including my parents. When I got pregnant my parents brought me to Harbor House. Here I got to find out about God, and learn what the Bible teaches, but I also saw it modeled by Doug and Karla [Eberle]. They are perfect examples of what a Christian is supposed to be, so I’ve tried to act like I see them act. And I go to Erik and Kim’s [Phillips], they’re great, I love them so much. And their kids, the Eberle kids, they’re all such good people, so I know I wouldn’t be able to do this without what they’ve done for me, and they’ve put up with a lot.”

Well, I have to rebut her testifying that I’m perfect. My wife Karla is near perfect but I…well…I’ll just keep those things between God and me and the people I need to seek forgiveness from.

Anyway, very cool to watch Sara get baptized. I love to watch baptisms, especially when testimony is shared. Sara does have a great testimony. Please pray that she continues to grow in her relationship with our Savior.

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.

Saturday often is a day to sleep in but, being away from home, the plan was to get up at 7:30 and be ready for breakfast at 8:30.

Well, we all did end up sleeping in and got up at 8:30, but were ready for breakfast by 9 AM, with everyone showered and dressed. The day was spent at the Ohio State Fairgrounds where the Quarter Horse Congress was being held. We walked a great deal looking at all the exhibits and then watched the horse events. It was a few of the girls? first time at a horse event. We had fun. We returned back home, on our way stopping by a shoe store, every girl?s dream. We spent about half-an-hour trying on and playing with shoes… what fun!!!

It’s two hours from Norwalk to Columbus, Ohio (a little longer than the Celina to Columbus trip) but even so, two of our family’s children have great Christian doctors in Worthington, a north-Columbus suburb, so it’s a trip we continue to make at least once every three months. Sara, Natasha and India went along this time on a planned overnight excursion.

We met up with some other family members and friends, then doctor visits and, finally, just hung out. After a second straight day in the car, however, everyone was very tired. We made a quick trip to the mall, but it was very quick; then to dinner where we had Chinese; and swimming; and finally at 11:00 off to bed.

Sleeping arrangements at somewhere other than our own home is always a challenge. Who sleeps with who?? Very interesting how they come to that arrangement.

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.

Both Charlotte and India will be going to the Ob/Gyn today, although India will not get to see the doctor yet. Charlotte has already made one visit and met with the new patient coordinator, filled out the necessary paperwork and gotten the “Now that your pregnant….” brochures and booklets, so she will get to actually have a doctor’s visit.

Sara will be going to Sandusky today for Job Corps orientation.

The “classroom” at the house is finally taking on the appearance of a classroom instead of the cluttered “office” look it has had all summer.

The first order of business to get ready for school is to have a functional location in the house for the girls to work. Originally it was my plan to take a 12 foot countertop that I had been given and prop it along the windowed south wall in the room just off the living room that has been functioning mostly as an office.

My good friend (and my “boss”) Bill Rieth was here last week and after considering my plans, he suggested some alternative ideas. He didn’t say so but I’m sure he was taking into consideration my lack of any discernible skills in woodworking and craftsmanship.

I ended up scrapping his ideas and decided instead to pull three desks from out of storage that we had used at the house in Celina. They originally been donated just for the purpose of school desks, but were abandoned as such after only a short time in use due to some difficulties in putting them somewhere where the schoolwork could be monitored. Most of the time we’ve had them they’ve served as pedestals for storage boxes. That’s what they were doing when they were reclaimed from the basement at Laylin Road and brought to the house.

I could only get one desk at a time in the back of the Chevy van, even with the last seat removed. Not to say I didn’t try to squeeze two of the 48″ by 30″ by 27″ desks into a space that appeared to be adequate but wasn’t, based on a variety of tried juxtapositions.

Sara, Charlotte and Natasha helped out on the first two trips, although they bailed out of the van while it was parked at Laylin Road when a large bug (a locust, maybe?) flew into the van and disappeared. India and my daughter K.C. helped bring the last desk home.

Next: set up computers and printers, move a bookshelf and filing cabinets in, and find two more chairs somewhere. Then we can say, “School is in session.”

There are some winters where you feel sorry for the people who own snowmobiles and snowblowers, and you believe the scientists are right about global warming.

The other winters are good winters, even if it means too many back-breaking shoveling days, because winter north of the 38th parallel is supposed to be white on most days that fall between Christmas and the day when the buzzards return to Hinckley.

So when the school shuts down for a snow day–something that legislators believe should happen no more than five times per winter in Ohio (although morning delays can happen as often as you like)–the focus of most young minds will shift to the “Hill.”

In Celina, the “Hill” is a man-made pile of ground in Eastview Park that acts as a barrier in summer to keep the long balls from rolling into the pond. On a snow day in winter, however, the Hill–which is only maybe 50 yards in any direction from its summit to the flatlands at the base–is filled with hundreds of kids. It’s like the mall on a Saturday in mid-December.

That’s why we sledded at night, usually after 11 p.m. If we wanted to go day-sledding we would leave Celina altogether and head 6 miles due east on the double-lane, to the first exit with a ramp up. From the top of the ramp, the Hill–which was only snow-covered when we had at least 6 inches of snow due to the tall weeds–gently sloped down about 500 feet to meet an Ohio Department of Transportation fence.

No one else knew of this place. At least we never found anyone else sledding on our hill.

Norwalk has a “Hill” too. It’s called Hogan’s Hill and it’s all natural; nothing manmade except the guardrail that separates the children from the traffic which seems to pass dangerously close. Thankfully the road borders the peak of the hill and not its base. That’s the river’s job, although it meanders far enough away from the bottom to keep from being dangerous to slide into.

We made our first trip to Hogan’s Hill today–Sara, Kara, Kavin and me. It’s about a five minute walk to Hogan’s Hill and now I know that the excitement from sledding in Norwalk comes from walking on Elm Street, which has no sidewalk on the hill side of the road. Just the guardrail.

Just to prove I haven’t turned 50 yet I gave Hogan’s Hill a try. It was a lot of fun but after trudging back up the hill I proved that I’m closer to 50 than I am to 40. Maybe I discovered the origin of the expression “over the Hill.”

It’s a difficult adjustment for most new residents to make to maternity home life. Sara arrived Saturday and seems to be adapting.

At the same time, Hanna has had to make adjustments as well. As the lone resident last week, she enjoyed a relaxed schedule with a flexible bedtime and chore list. With Sara’s arrival, a cleaning schedule with assigned tasks and rooms was put in place and bedtime is now strictly enforced.

At 6 AM, each girl should be up and be ready to start household chores while Karla makes breakfast. Morning chores include dusting, mopping, sweeping, vacuuming, and picking up/organizing/putting away.