& life continues.

i sit & watch as life springs back into this land. 

ditches that have shown no life for the past months held bright yellow daffodils.

life

fields that once appeared barren & brown became covered in a million little purple flowers. & if you looked closely you could see tiny little blue flowers growing within the purple. they came & went & now we have fields that are green. 

life

bradford pear trees broke forth into bloom. so white. in the moonlight they seem to shine. now the white is replaced with little green buds. 

life. 

a little bush put on a display of brilliant yellow. it wasn't popular but when spotted on my drives a smile always crossed my face. 

that yellow brought me life. 

bird song fills the trees around us. as we sit at the supper table we can see the sky being painted " can we just take a moment to look at that sky." these words  or some similar to this are spoken by me most every evening. 

spring peepers are heard as the sunlight fades away. 

life. 

i focus on life because it feels at times the amount of pain & grief that is being held here at the ranch is unbearable. when it all feels so unalive & the hurt just takes over, i sit on the porch swing & i am reminded of life. life surrounding us. life holding us. 

life moving ever so swiftly. 

here we are already 3 weeks away from another homestay. the time really is swiftly moving along. 

this month has been filled with much normal. yet it wasn't "normal" at all. 

the 9th & 10th held a journey to United Centre. Just a rancher & myself off to her cousin's wedding. i was unsure if i would know any one here. there we were walking into the night before supper, & there stood samantha & javana. sam is from home! o to see a home person was grand.  & javana from cartwright. o it had been too long. i had a nice time catching up with some central kansas friends that showed up to the wedding. 

ms. eddie went to be with Jesus monday morning. a past volunteer, this news took ranch authorities & spun them into a cloud of pain. from the memories that have been shared & the tears that have been shed, i know that ms. eddie was sunshine to these people & i do wish i could have known her. 

our team pulled together & stood in the gap as some of our team members left for the funeral.

was it easy? no. did we make it? yes. 

thursday the 21st. mr. doug's, ms. jera, ms. sam & i found our way into rogers after authorities meeting. ms. lora had an evening of 'sand tray therapy training' planned for us. i wrote on this near the beginning of my stay here so i won't bore you with repeating myself. this evening was really interesting. the knowledge i get to gather here truly amazes me at times. 

grandpa & grandma regehr ! 

how am i this lucky that so much of my family & friends have came to see this place. 

22nd-23rd grandpa's & i sat together, drank coffee, talked, took a tour of the ranch, went out to eat & just had together time. grandma & i journeyed to pour jon's, my coffee spot, on saturday as grandpa took a nap. & then we prepared for the saturday night's happenings. 

what ever could said 'saturday night happenings' be? 

i shall begin with saying. 

i have the most amazing friends. i really don't know how i found such good humans. 

my dear ole wig has been nearing the end of it's wearable life & these lovely humans here wanted to help raise funds for the purchase of a new one. 

now. honestly. this was hard for me to accept. but. it happened & i am ever so grateful for all these most amazing people that have become my people & been ok with me joining their little life here since i have arrived in north west arkansas. this night was filled with crazy hats & hairdos. roller skates & daisies. cake & ice cream. water colouring & big drop cloth painting. really just a lot of things that i love. the evening ended with a good round of charades. all in all it was truly a fun evening. after i got past all my nerves & feelings :) 

sunday the 24th we loaded the chariot up & headed for miss brooke's reception 3 hours away. 

o it was nice to hug her & see her smile. i sit in the very back & decided to do blind skittle testing with some of the ranchers. its funny handing them a skittle & watching as the mull it over trying to decide what flavour it ever could be. arrival back at the ranch was late. i was ready for sleep. 

what kind of silly conversations have been happening at the ranch lately? 

well i got a list. 

"what's a third world country?" 

well this question led to what's a first world country? to is there a second world country? to is there such a thing as a forth world country? 

so google was consulted & before much more discussion could be had we were called to breakfast. 

" excuse me miss tiffany . You look a bit like a giraffe today. " 

well thanks my dear. i pull out my best giraffe impression. after some breathing exercises led by mr. doug the question was asked " how big do you think a giraffe's lungs are?" 

i am so thankful for google. i now know more about a giraffes vital organs than i did 5 days ago. 

during supper one evening the i survived ! books were being discussed. a rancher loudly proclaimed 

" i think my favourite was the i survived the gettysburg! "  

i wasn't going to laugh but as hard as i tried i failed. it was explained to her that maybe she had the wrong title. 

& life continues 

every day still holds unknown questions. 

every day still holds endless laughter. 

every day holds new battles 

every day shows God's power. 

there is pain here at the ranch.

there is sadness. 

& there is still healing. 

please continue to pray for us here. 

till next time 

ms tif.