Jenny and Rachel are students at the summer project. They came a week early to watch the kids while we were doing staff orientation. We had the privilege of having them live with us this past week so we have gotten to know them well. They have been the biggest blessing in every way. Here is a video they made for the other 112 students who will start to arrive tomorrow! Thought you might like it too.
Kids Try 2 from Brian Barela on Vimeo.
We are slowly figuring out what life looks like for our family here in Ocean City. We are trying to keep some consistency to our normal lives and schedules but inevitably there are always changes. I’ve realized our kids are hesitant to change like their parents are. New people, new places, new food, new bed, new means of transportation (we walk everywhere here). Just in general there are a lot of new things. I don’t like the settling in process of figuring out where and how to do this and that and the awkward stage of meeting people that you’ll eventually know really well. I wish we could by pass all that and just get right to the comfortable part. Now that we have been here a week the kids are starting to see familiar faces around and are learning how we are going to do things around here. They love the students who are watching them and the new friends they have made. But I think one can only handle so much change and newness in a span of time. We went to church for the first time today and all 3 had meltdowns at one point or another. You could almost just see in their eyes that they were saying “Come on Mom, enough is enough already!” I had to agree. Both Brian and I were feeling the same thing. So if we are experiencing weariness and feeling overwhelmed then I know these 3 little people are. That is one thing I am praying for this summer. Wisdom and discernment on when enough is enough and when we just need to stop and rest. Although I recognize the signs of when this needs to happen the action of actually doing it is hard. So I am asking you, how do you help yourself rest?
Well we made it! It was quite the process to get here, kinda like planes, trains and automobiles to get here but WE ARE HERE. In Ocean City, NJ that is. Considering all that we went through the kids have done amazing, so thankful for that. We have a great place to stay in, which Campus Crusade has rented for us. A nice 3 bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor. So I am getting a great leg work out each day:) We had a couple days to settled in as the leadership team and now the rest of the 35 staff are here. We had our first meetings today. It’s awesome to see and hear the stories of each person who is here and how God has worked in their life. Tonight it was my turn to share my testimony and how I’m doing coming into the summer. I was thankful to say that I am refreshed after my best year in Chico thus far. It was cool to share some of the things God has done in just this past year and to remember those blessings. It has also been fun to be back in Ocean City (OC) where Brian and I met 9 years ago! So many great memories are coming back as I’ve gone on my early morning runs. Not just how my life was changed because I met Brian but how God used my summer in OC to surrender my whole life, future, career everything to him, resulting in going into full time ministry. How cool to think that 115 students from all over the country will be arriving shortly who will prayerfully have life changing experiences!
On a lighter note the kids are loving being here with the 6 other kids that are on project (the oldest is 6). The Little Mister has found his match in his new friend who is just as extroverted and talks just as much! She informed me that she is already attached to the Little Mister and that he is her second best friend:) Nice. Here are some pics of the kids at the beach for the first time on the East Coast.
So far loving our lives as Jersey locals. Lots more to come…
The Little Mister and his match
Girls checking out the scene.
Here is a little snapshot of what is going on at our house:
Departure time is 4:30 pm. Arrival time into Ocean City
(with several stops before then)
is Saturday evening.
Until then…
We’ve been counting down the days till we leave for our great summer adventure. Three different locations within the next 3 months! We leave this coming Tuesday afternoon for San Fransico. Brian has a one day conference at Stanford the next day on Wednesday and then we will head to OH bright and early Thursday morning! One day of rest on Friday and then Saturday we will drive to Ocean City, NJ! The last week or so we have done a lot of preparing for what lies ahead. There have multiple trips to Target, last hair cut appts., picking up prescriptions, dropping off dry cleaning, preparing our house for the house sitter and the house sitter for our house….and the list goes on. I’m happy that we did all this last week so we could enjoy Brian’s parents who are visiting us this weekend. So pretty much all we have left to do is finalize all the packing lists and then put it all into the suitcases. I say this like it is a simple task when it’s not. It’ll take atleast a full day and I know I will still forget things. But none the less we are so excited to go! We have been talking about it for so long with the kids. Brian and I have been dreaming of the time we could go back to the place we met. And now it’s happening!
I’ve recently decided that I am wanting and reading, well I don’t know if you can ever be really be ready, to run another marathon. I ran my first my junior year in college. It’s awesome to say I have run a marathon but the actual race day was not what I really planned. I think my nerves got the best of me and I did have the experience that I would like to be my only one. I finished, thankfully to my dad (my coach) and some others that ran a lot with me and kept me moving in the right direction. So it has taken some time but the urge and determination are back. With some encouragement from my friend Kyra at Chatterbox Corner we decided to embark on this journey together. We will be running the 2009 Nike Women’s Marathon in San Fransico in October. Because it’s a pretty popular race you enter into a random drawing of 20,000 women. Who knows how but we both got picked on our first try. We’ve heard that some women have entered the last 5 years and still have had no “luck”. Another perk besides a great accomplishment, running with my friend in an amazing city and 4+ hours to myself I will get a diamond Tiffany&Co. necklace when I finish. They are one of the sponsors of the race. Supposedly it will be waiting at the finish line. So now all I have to do is ALOT of training and run 26.2. Totally worth it, right? We’ll see.
The girls are quickly approaching 19 months. So much is changing I want to get it in writing so I don’t forget! Just as the title says they are 2 peas in a pod and definitely have that twin thing going on. They are constantly looking after one another but at the same time are each others rivals and competition for EVERYTHING! They are now 4 pounds apart with T tipping the scale at 24 pounds but she only has a 1/2 inch on her “older” sissy. K has longer hair by a bit, which fits her well because she is our girly girl. Loves new shoes, new dresses, getting her hair done etc. T continues to be our bossy one, even bossing around big brother (which doesn’t go over so well). She knows exactly WHAT she wants and WHEN she wants it, usually NOW!
Both girls love playing with their babies, feeding them, putting them to bed. They like to read, climb on things, play with their dishes, M’s toys, go outside, ice cream, Costco, go for walks in the wagon, eat snacks, drink their milk and they LOVE their little blankies, nigh-nights! And they are little talkers, especially Miss T, she’s is a parrot! They call each other “sissy” or T will say K-K. I love how when one gets something, a snack, thier shoes on, diaper change, a toy ,whatever it is they go and get the other one to makes sure she gets it too. They fight over momm’s lap. The first thing they do when they get dressed in the morning is find Daddy and point to their outfit and say “petty” aka pretty. And since Daddy has been out of town they ahve found the Little Mister and done the same thing.
We enjoy being the parents of daughters so much. It is such a sweet difference than being a parent of a son. And we absolutely LOVE being parents of twins. It’s an awesome experience that I cherish every day. We are thankful to have the experience of being parents to 3 amazing little people that no doubt have made us better people.
Right now Brian is living his dream in San Fransico. Well maybe not THE dream but A dream of his. He is at the Inbound Marketing Summit. Honestly, I don’t feel like I could describe it more than a place where experts of social media are gathering together to share knowledge. You’ll have to check out the link to see what is really going on there. Social media has become a new passion of Brian’s in the last couple of years. I love to see his excitement learning this new thing, sharing it with others and thinking through how to use it in ministry. I see and hear a sense of purpose in him that is so exciting when he so graciously tries to explain it all to me! And I do believe he is heading in the right direction. The Blogference that I talked about here went so well he got a personal call from Steve Douglas the President of Campus Crusade for Christ encourgaing him in what he is doing! So cool! Unfortunately Brian was out of town. But I took the call and chatted it up with Stevie D. for about 10 minutes or so. Yep, we’re really tight now. Look at me trying to steal Brian’s glory =) Anyways… right now he is at a 2 day conference in the middle of the city. He’s sitting through a lot of seminars in the midst of entrepreneurers, techies and business men and women soaking it all in. I think this is so awesome for him. I admire how Brian puts himself out there a lot, even sometimes stepping on others toes with humility of course, to try new things. He really goes the extra mile to get out of his comfort zone and learn new things. I think as we get older it’s so easy to get complacent with where we are at and to let fear creep in inhibiting us to try new things. This is not something I see in my husband and I really that appreciate about him. I’m so excited to see how God is going to use this in his life and in our family’s future!
