Run4Justice Weekend

Last Friday, Andy picked me up from work with supper to go, and we headed to Dallas for a Stars game. For those of you that don't know, the Dallas Stars are an NHL hockey team. They played the Chicago Blackhawks, which has a former Sioux player on the team (Jonathan Toews). It was a great game that went into overtime, and then a shootout after that. I have never been to a professional game of any kind, so it was a lot of fun!

Each hand print represents 1,000 children

On Saturday, Andy ran a 5K that was called Run4Justice, and was associated with the church we have been attending. They were raising money for a cause called  IJM (International Justice Mission) to help put a stop to human trafficking. It was an incredible turnout, with over 2000 participants. I'm sure everyone is wondering how many poor souls had to eat my dust that day as I sprinted past them, but I forgot my running shoes at home and unfortunately wasn't able to show off my mad cardio skills. (Hopefully you all know that I'm lying.) I hope to run some events in the future just to say I did it, but I am horrible. I would also prefer to have a partner in crime with the same mindset, so if anyone is up for that job position let me know! :) For now I'll stick to being a cheerleader for the participants. The day was sunny and a little chilly, but overall beautiful. Andy's knee has been bothering him lately, but he still did very well and placed 8th! Thanks to all that donated for the day, every little bit helps get these kiddos out of bad situations.

The other side of the wall....

The event focused on raising money for the trafficking going on currently in Cambodia. They work in various countries throughout the world, but the church has sent groups to Cambodia the past several years, giving them a heart to reach that area of the world. They had an 80 foot 'wall' set up with the background of Cambodia, and what is going on there with human trafficking, as well as what is being done after these children are rescued. It was extremely powerful and humbling, knowing that every day, 30,000 children in Cambodia are going through these awful scenarios. They had pictures of the brothels, and of the actual rooms these little girls are forced to stay in, while men pay to have sex with them throughout each day. Most of these girls are elementary and middle school aged. They could be your daughters, nieces, or granddaughters. IJM actually goes into these brothels, collect evidence, and team up with local law enforcement to bust the brothel owners and pimps, as well as the pedophiles, and save the little girls. One organization that they team up with for recovery is AIM (Agape International Missions), who do an incredible job trying to give these children back some of their childhood, by showing them the love of God, allowing them to have fun, counseling them, and safely integrating them back into the community when they are ready. Check out their websites by clicking on the blue links, it will be worth your time.

Over $133,000 were raised for the race! It was very cool to see how family's came together for the event, as well as how involved the youth were. It seemed that the whole church formed a giant team to help bring these children justice on the other side of the globe. 

 

Catch up from January...

I forgot to fill you in about what we did once we got here with furniture and such. :) Let's pretend this is from the first week in January.

We got our van unpacked and our mounds of junk into the apartment the day after we stayed with Corey. It's a pretty nice place on the top floor which is good because we don't have anyone making noise above us, but bad because everything had to be hauled to the third floor. We came with totes full of stuff, and a giant air mattress we had delivered to Corey. Home sweet home, lol. Most things were unpacked and organized the first day: our clothes, computer, box of kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, etc. It was looking pretty empty but we were determined to make it into some sort of home.

Unloading the van was followed by a trip to the nearest Wal-Mart and Family Dollar. There we got extra hangers (we are lucky to have a large closet and since we don't have a dresser like they had for us in Sandpoint, the hangers have been a much needed addition), a garbage can, FOOD, a couple camping chairs, toilet paper, a few plates and bowls, sheets, towels, etc. When we were in ID, our place was fully loaded as you might say. We had dishes, towels, sheets, extra blankets and new pillows, a television/surround sound, etc. We were extremely lucky. There we only brought our clothes and necessities as well as a few spices, coffee pot, our wok, and a few other things. So we expected to need these items when we got here.

The evening was spent looking for rummage sales and steals on Craigslist, as well as local thrift stores. We were looking for things like lighting, a TV, furniture, a desk, etc. After breakfast the next morning, we were off. The temperature was in the 60s so that was a much welcomed change from the subzero temps in ND we had just experienced. We went to a couple garage sales and multiple thrift stores in the Midcities area. That's the area between Dallas and Fort Worth, which we are a part of. At times we wanted to kill each other, as you can imagine, but we ended up ahead of where we started. Andy needed a bit convincing that some of the things I found were really great deals, and I also needed some restraining when I thought I found one. :-) Good thing we balance each other out. I am a supporter of thrift stores and especially loved the Salvation Army with the extremely friendly staff and the blaring Christian rock, but it may not always be the best place to find a TV or furniture. Many of the TVs said 'as is' and had a tube missing or broken. Where would I find the tube inside a TV and how do I even get that thing apart besides using a hammer??? And for the furniture, some were decent and giant, and some were torn and stained. I'm not saying that getting furniture from a thrift store is a bad thing. There are some great finds that you could clean well and then update with new fabric, patching, etc. But thinking of hauling these things up 3 flights of stairs with Andy and my out of shape self just wasn't making me very excited.

We ended up going to a few more stores to get more things like drinking glasses, rugs, and a shower curtain. Across the stripmall was an Aaron's Rental, and we decided to run in to see if they had any options that were affordable and a bit of an upgrade to our camping chairs, totes, and blow-up bed. They ended up having a few options that we could choose from to rent while we were here, and we were pleasantly surprised. We ended up choosing a package that included a couch, love seat, coffee table, two end tables, two lamps, and a rug for $100 dollars a month! They also had free delivery and pickup at any time and could get it to us the next day. It was a like a dream come true just imagining them haul it up those stairs instead of me. So obviously we were sold on the deal, and partially regretted all of the running around the entire day from suburb to suburb.

So that's pretty much it for us settling in. We are enjoying our place, and I can put up pictures later. Our photo uploader is MIA so we have been on the lookout for it for the past few weeks. And by the way, our air mattress is awesome. We had a little well deserved fun poked at us when we told people that we were doing it, but it's actually pretty nice. It's a queen, and it's one of those raised ones that looks like it's two mattresses on top of each other. You only have to put a little more air in every few weeks, and the pump is inside it. Anyway, it's way better than we thought it would be. We have been streaming TV shows from time to time on our computer which is in our room, so it has also been doubling as a couch.

So sorry about this post being way too long, but I'm on my second cup of coffee and words just kept coming out. :) Enjoy your Saturday!!!

Texas

So this is officially our 4th week in Texas. It's been too long since we last blogged!

 

 

 

At Corey's for a Sioux Game

Here's what we've been up to:

In general~ We are getting acclimated to TX, although the crazily fluctuating weather makes us feel like we are in ND at times. It was 75 degrees last Saturday, and yesterday and today have been in the teens with below zero wind chills. Work has actually been canceled for me for the past two days because of the ice covering every road. The traffic has been a bit of an adjustment for us, but we make a pretty good team when manning them. Hopefully I'll be comfortable driving them on my own by the time we're done here! We're still trying to find a church to be involved with, and have been to a couple different ones so far. There are so many options it's overwhelming trying to narrow things down. The Superbowl will be here this weekend so the area is getting pretty hyped up. Unfortunately, we will not be sitting in front row seats. If we want to watch it from the parking lot on a big screen tickets are $500, but to park in that lot is $1000. Lol, maybe we'll save toward a vacation instead! :)

One of the churches in downtown Fort Worth

Me and some of my co-workers & friends downtown FW, ESPN headquarters

Kara ~ I am currently working at an LTAC which stands for Long Term Acute Care. I guess the best way to explain it is to say that it is for people that are too sick or weak to tolerate a rehab or skilled nursing facility. Our job is to get them prepared for tolerating more therapy and for nursing to help stabilize them medically. I have never been in a facility like this, and I really do enjoy it. Most people are very sick, so we give them only what they can tolerate. Some patients can tolerate only 15 minutes or so of sitting up, where many others are down at the gym with us working out for an hour or two at a time. The people that we see either go to rehab, where they will need to tolerate 3 hrs of therapy per day, go to a nursing home (many people come from a nursing home or assisted living facilities) to receive therapy and other assistance until they are ready for the next step, and we do have many patients that are rockstars and go home from working with us. My co-workers are great, everyone is super friendly and helpful. So far so good!! :) 

Long horns at the Fort Worth Stock Yards

Andy ~ He is continuing his work with MetaXpert, the company he worked for while we were in Sandpoint, as well as looking for what the Metroplex has to offer him while we're here. He loves running, biking, and most things athletic, and enjoys participating in races from time to time. Continuing this is something he would like to do, however he has decided that if he is going to do these things, he is not going to make it all about himself, but to do it for a purpose. He is registered for a 5K that is next weekend to help fight Human Trafficking, which is a very real situation going on all over the world today, especially with children. Many people (mostly women and children) are being sold into sexual slavery and labor every day. Here's a quick stat from a paper written by Mary C. Burke:
"Human Rights Watch (2003) and the State Department of the United States (2005) are among those who estimate that 800,000 to 900,000 women, men and children are trafficked across international borders each year for the purpose of economic exploitation with approximately 100,000 more trafficked within the borders of their own countries."
His fund-raising page can be found HERE (just click on the underlined word) or at: 
http://www.active.com/donate/run4justiceGrapevine/endhumantrafficking
This is also a link to a video about the actual event, called Run4Justice. If you feel pulled to donate, please do so. Every little bit helps!!!! Andy's also decided to take a weekly Spanish class offered by one of the colleges around here. This week we are trying to find some volunteer opportunities that we would be interested in doing during the next 9 weeks.

Mark came down for a weekend! Corey, Mark and Andy

Corey, Andy, and Mark

We've spent our weekends hanging out with friends, experiencing the Stock Yards in Fort Worth, downtown FW and Dallas, and spending as much time outside as possible when the weather is good. When it's not, we are usually catching up on the TV show Lost online, which we only have a couple episodes left!! Any good suggestions for another series we'd enjoy?

Hope you all enjoy your week, we'll try to keep up the blog more often from now! :)