Right now while we are training and waiting for a cottage of our own to open up, Cliff and I have technically been hired as what they call "singles". This basically means that we are the relief workers for full-time teaching parents who live in with their own cottage of eight children permanently.
The way a rotation on the BGC campus works is that the
teaching parents work 8 days on and 4 days off. So our job as singles is to
fill in on those 4 days off. This means that right now we are actually serving
in 2 cottages. We work 4 days in a boys cottage (while their teaching parents
are off) and then 4 days in a girls cottage (while their teaching parents are
off) and then we have our own 4 days off after that.
It's quite a lot of shifting around from place to place
as the routine dictates that on the days you are working you are there and on
the clock 24/7 (really with this schedule more like 24/8) and that you live in
the cottage with the kids while you are working w them. So right now we
actually live in the boys cottage 4 days, the girls cottage 4 days and then in
a staff cottage on our 4 days off! Whew!
But we are learning to shuffle our stuff and are working
on setting up living spaces that feel like home wherever we are. Each cottage
has a singles quarters w a room and bath to ourselves that we can set up and
make our own, but finding the time to unpack and personalize the space is
proving difficult. In the meantime we make it work.
The actual cottages are very nice. Each one has a large
open floor plan with a living room, dining room and kitchen with four rooms and connecting baths for kids off the
main living areas. Two kids live in each room for a total of 8 per cottage.
There is also an office off the main living area and the singles apartment
(where we sleep) is through a locked door off of the office, as is the larger
family apartment through another separate locked door for the permanent
teaching parents and their families who we serve on their days off.
A typical weekday during the school year for us starts
before 5am usually around 4:30/4:45 depending on how big of a breakfast we are
making and how much we have planned ahead. (At least a couple of days a week we
try to have a breakfast casserole or breakfast burritos pre-made and ready to
warm up for an easier morning.) But
whatever the menu may be we usually try to fix the kids a substantial breakfast
since their days start so early and go on for so long.
This last week I used the Crescent Roll Breakfast Casserole
I found here on Pinterest
and tripled it to feed 8 hungry boys!!
I usually get up to make breakfast and wake kids up in
the girls cottage while Cliff gets to sleep in an extra hour or so with Bug and
in the boys cottage we switch, with him cooking breakfast and waking the boys
while Bug and I get the extra hour of rest. (I think Bug gets the best deal personally!)
By about a quarter of 6 the kids (and C and I ) are all
up with everyone fed, then its time for meds administered to those who take
them, chores done, kids dressed, morning devotionals, and the bus for the jr high and high
school kids arrives by 6:35. Then we
have about an hour before the elementary kids' bus arrives and this is my
favorite part of the morning.
Bug has usually woken up by this time and I can enjoy a
cup of coffee on the porch swing while I watch the kiddos play outside. Its
those quiet moments of reflection during the dawn, watching the sunrise in a
big ole Texas sky sparkling and picking up the red flecks in Campbell's hair as
he plays with his new brothers and sisters, that I have time to stop and thank
The Lord for my new very busy, but oh so blessing routine.
Then at 7:40 the bus picks them up too. Campbell loves
watching the big yellow school bus come to pick up his friends as he waves
goodbye to them for the day.
The next few hours are our "down time" while
the kids are at school but we are finding it difficult to get much rest even
then. There is much to do during this time to manage a cottage of 8 (9,
counting Bug who doesn't understand the meaning of down time). We spend our
mornings coordinating carpool for after school activities, planning and
facilitating doctor's appointments, going to training classes, meal and grocery
planning, paperwork to be filled out and managing our own personal errands like
banking etc. It's amazing how much your down time gets eaten up with 9 kids to
care for!
One day last week
we were in the car driving back and forth to the high school all morning as
phone call after phone call came in one right after the other for errands to be
made to bring eye drops to this one, an assignment that was left to be turned
in for that one and to pick up the next one for a trip to the doctor. It can be
a lot to juggle but we are happy to be serving these kids and relish the fact
that we get to do it together as a family.
Eventually when we have settled a little better into a
routine (maybe starting in the fall) I want to add some home-preschool time for
Bug into the morning mix, but that will take careful planning!
By 3:00 the older kids are arriving home on the bus and they
begin snack and homework time with the younger kids following close behind. The
kids have afternoon tutoring, athletics, counseling and special lessons like
guitar and piano or art at various times throughout the week that take place
in the afternoons. On very busy days we try to have a meal in the crockpot
cooking for dinner but I am soooo thankful for a husband who can and will cook
delicious meals from scratch! I have been so blessed at those times in the
evening as well watching him in the kitchen stirring and mixing bubbling, boiling pots of sauces and rouxs while he
interacts with the kids. It's so wonderful to see him serving The Lord in this
capacity that comes so natural to him.
After dinner and chores there is usually time for some
play but the school year winding down has kept most of the kids busy trying to
"finish strong" with grades. I have been impressed greatly with the
ones who have chosen to hop on the computer to get in some extra study time, or
who have asked to turn in early to get good rest for an exam the next day.
These kids for the most part have been taught the value of hard work and it
shows.
They do, of course, like to have some fun, too and its been extra fun for Bug to get in on the action going on in the evenings in the cottages he now calls home. They are teaching him to be a little football star and a little Texas cowboy already!
Bed time varies by age but most nights in the cottages
where we serve the kids are in bed by no later than 9:30 or 10:00. Our poor
high school boys are so exhausted after football practice in the afternoon that
they are falling asleep on the couch by 8!
One of us usually tries to put Bug down while the other
helps w the bedtime routine of the cottage kids (usually we make the same
switch off-- C with the boys cottage and me with he girls cottage-- at bedtime
that we do with the morning routine).
Hopefully by 10:30 or 11 C and I can go to bed and get
some rest before another long day starts over again.
Weekends are a bit more relaxed w church on Sunday and
free time for fun activities on Saturday.
I know that as the summer hits the routine will change a
bit but that it will be no less busy as the kids will begin with swim lessons,
summer camps, cottage vacations, mission trips, church camps, summer jobs and apprenticeships and the like. I am
looking forward to the summer though bc I know it will be a great time to
really bond with the kids.
This closely intense living situation and routine has caused us to easily get to know and love the kids quickly. Four of the girls in the cottage where we serve are either graduating from high school and moving on to our college and career campus or they are going home to be with their families. Already we are saddened to see these new connections go. But that just means that four new girls will take their places by summer's end and new journeys will begin as will our relationships with precious new souls.
Our days are long on the Boys and Girls Country Ranch but so far time has flown by. God is good and He has given us the endurance to settle into our new routine. We pray for His continued renewal of heart, mind and body with each sunrise and sunset as we make our way through a day in the life on the ranch, all the while making each day truly His!
Prayer Requests:
Continued endurance for the long days
Travel safety for our journey to Nola and MS coming up this next week to see loved ones and to retrieve some more of our things
Continued understanding of our next steps as they come particularly in the area of one day serving in our own cottage
For all 16 cottage kids we currently serve-Faith, Skyla, Rachel, Shonnie, Tirzah, PJ, Destiny, Ka'Tara, Austin, Greg, Essay, Jospeh, Tyler, Angel, Josiah and Alton. Each one representing a family who needs prayer.
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