Maybe It is Coming Together

For a long time, it has felt (I'm going to speak for Teri here too), like we were kinda doing this on our own. For a long time, there were only a handful of people who were helping us, and we had just a few wads of cash that people had donated. And, don't get us wrong, it was enough, we were lacking nothing...except patience. 

You see, we have been dreaming these enormous, crazy dreams for about two years now. We have moved painstakingly slow, or so it seemed to us. Now...

We have our SECOND mommy class planned for August 1.
The book bus has been in "business" for more than a year. 
We had a very encouraging conversation with the county manager this week. 
We changed our book bus schedule, and several High Ridge residents noticed. 
We received a check made out to Seeds of Grace, our first.
We have realized we need to get an image designed to use on letterhead, thank you notes, etc.
A small, quiet group of women have been working on a Seeds of Grace cookbook for us to give away to our book bus friends, and they hope to go to print in the next two weeks.
It may not be directly related, but it has still been part of our dream- there will be a parent resource room at KHES this year!

We still have lots of big dreams and many are unfulfilled, but we are moving! A big thank you to all of you who have faithfully prayed, dreamed with us, worked on some little/big task, donated time/money, and spread the word about what we are doing! Keep dreaming with us! It is starting to get exciting!

Sometimes It Takes 9 Months

It may take 9 months to have a baby, but it took us 9 months to put together a
baby class for young moms. It was definitely worth it, though. The four girls
that attended agreed and are excited to come back for the next gathering.
Episcopal Children's Services shared two DVDs that
touched on the importance of touch, conversation, reading and
basically interacting with your child. It encouraged young parents to turn off
the TV and put down their cell phone and spend time bonding and playing with
their newborn. The girls enjoyed the information that was shared as well as
snacks and a special gift bag for each of them. The class ended with some
conversation, and all the girls excited to meet again. We are excited too- not
just for the opportunity to teach, but to encourage and become a part of a
support system within our community both for these girls and their babies.

The "Moms to Be" were thrilled with their gift bags. Thanks to Suzie, Deb,
and Jenah for all their efforts to put them together.

Everyone loves a cupcake

One of our new moms and grandma to be!

Could You Help?

You know the mail carriers have their creed. Here is the Book Bus creed: Neither tropical storms, road construction or mud will keep the Book Bus from sharing books with eager readers! At least that was the case on Saturday.  We were a bit worried at the beginning of the week but by Thursday we knew it was a go. Not only did we do our six stops in High Ridge but we also added a Melrose stop at the apartments behind Melrose Elementary off SR 26. We were thrilled with the response of the residents and plan to make it a regular stop.

I am not able to find the words to describe to you the emotion that fills me when we pull up to our Book Stop and there are cars and people everywhere waiting on us! There are always words of appreciation, sometimes there are requests for certain authors or types of reading material. I feel safe in saying that Carey and I both believe that our Book Bus is “God driven” . I am amazed at all He has blessed us with over the past year and I don’t just mean books. The people we have met and the things we have learned are priceless.

There are a few things that we are in need of. The Bible says, “ Ask and you shall receive” so we’re asking. We have noticed that preschool and board books are very popular. We are always running low on these. We have recently been offering cookbooks which have been a big hit, but our supply is running low. We also had a specific request for Monster Truck books. I didn’t want to leave that out. If you have anything you would like to donate please contact Carey or Teri. Thank you for caring about and sharing  how God is using us in our community.

They came inspite of road blocks and construction!

Time out to read :)

Our Melrose Stop!