Summer 2012

Summer is winding down here at the Peters household, but it has  beenquite a whirlwind!!  After 15 plus phone calls from our foster care agency (most of which we said yes to, but were passed by for other reasons), we now have 3 foster children under the age of 5!  They have been with us for 3 weeks now and so far, so good.  We can't post pictures or reveal names via social media, but we can tell you: L - is a 4.5 yr-old girl who is full of energy, protective of her brothers, loves princesses and started pre-school 2 days ago!  J -  is a 2.5 yr-old boy who is a great actor, loves to do puzzles, copies his sister and eats REALLY well.  A - is a 1 yr-old boy who is content, smiley, sleeps well, eats REALLY well, and just began taking his first steps. He's also into everything BESIDES the great toys we have. 
We have all done some adjusting, however things have been going pretty well.  We went from 2 of us to five of us overnight, so our household looks a little different here's how: Dinner-time (sure, we have chicken ground into the carpet and we probably won't have a chance to vacuum), but hearing L lead us in "open shut them" prayer before each meal is fairly priceless.  Who knew there was an amazing weight-loss plan in which all you do is eat in between feeding someone else?! We also seem to eat dinner at the "nursing home hour" of 4:30pm, but that means more time to digest.   Bathtime (we pretend it's raining in the tub, just to get shampoo rinsed out of hair or pretend to sneeze while throwing a cup of water on the suds), TV shows (I'm pretty sure we quote Dora the Explorer in our heads during the day and there's a certain Veggietales episode we've seen 20x's).  Bedtime (I feel like a we've never watched the clock so closely and got so excited to have our own time in the evening and usually we are both profusely sweating after running up and down the stairs a few times and chasing little ones around just to get them into a diaper and pj's). Riding in the car (frequently asking everyone to "keep your hands to yourself" or trying to answer the age-old question "what's that?" a million times, but what oh what fun it is to sing Old McDonald or VBS songs while moving along).  Diapers (who knew #1 and #2 could consume so much of your day. We are thankful for the great gifts of diapers since 2 kids are wearing them. However, currently J is being potty trained and we've only been peed on twice (I think...maybe I lost count?)
Monica is now working only 2 days a week while Daryl plays "Mr. Mom. Daryl then works the other days; fortunately his schedule is very flexible when needed.  We have a great amount of responsibilities as foster parents including providing a ministry to these children and to their birth parents (the case is confidential and we are unable to discuss the few details we know). Some days are harder then others, but we keep reminding ourselves that we are "the hands and feet of Jesus". 
We are so incredibly grateful for our dear friends and family because without your help and support we would not be able to do what we need to do!! Thank you from the bottom of our exhausted, excited, drained, and humbled hearts!!!

Happy 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We hope this letter (or blog) finds you enjoying time with family and beginning to relax after the fun and festive events of the holidays. Our holiday celebration was fairly low key which is just perfect for us. This was the first time in 5 years that Monica had 4 days off in a row around Christmas! She does still have a deep appreciation for those working in retail, especially during the holidays.

Here's a little recap of 2011:

In April we bought a townhouse after Daryl's mom graciously let us (+ 3 cats and a bunny) live at her house for 6 months. As you know, home ownership comes with a long list of endless projects, but we love having a place of our own again. We also narrowly escaped the September flood in 2011 with the water coming within 15 feet of our basement since the creek behind our house overflowed it's banks (see pictures below).

Daryl is very busy with the children's ministry at Lebanon Area Evangelical Free Church. He is so thankful for a great job, which he loves and is very rewarding. The AWANA program is in full swing and has had an extremely successful beginning at LAEFC with an average of 100+ kiddos every Wednesday night. Daryl is thrilled at the progress and the excitement of the participants each week. During January, he will begin interviewing canidates for a much needed part time administrative assistant position to help alleviate some of the workload for the children's ministry program.

Monica has been at Physicians Surgical Center (outpatient surgery center) as the full time Instrument Tech for 6 months and things have been busy (which means great job security since I'm the only Instrument Tech). For those of you wondering "what's an instrument tech?", I'm the lucky girl who cleans and sterilizes all of the instruments after being used (including dirty endoscopes after colonoscopy proceedures). I don't mind the work since I have the privilege of working independently and with my iPod. This job has been a good choice as far as scheduling since it's day shift, weekends off and better income.

On to 2012:

We will be celebrating our Christmas this year in March as we jet set to the beautiful island of Hawaii to visit Daryl's brother who lives and works in Oahu. Daryl's mom and youngest brother are going as well and it will be their first trip to the island. March canNOT come fast enough...

Our biggest adventure for the new year starts immediately. We are in training for a foster to adopt program! We will attend a 9 week program 1 night per week for 3 hours. There are so many children just in the state of PA who are waiting their "forever families". The Peters household is excited, scared and realizing that our little world is going to change in a big, amazing way! The surreal potential is "overnight instant family" without much room for pre-planning the age and the quantity of children. Thankfully God has put some great foster parent role models (you know who you are :]) in our lives for solid resources and great support. We sure do appreciate your thoughts and prayers for this upcoming life change and will try to keep you posted on the details as best as possible.

Thank you all for your friendship and support and IF there were a Starbucks nearby we would

love to catch up over coffee!

Zenon, Zebrina, Zurg and Zagnut are enjoying their digs and have adjusted after Daryl's mom graciously opened her home to us for 6 months while we settled to life in PA and looked for a home. They are always there to greet us at the door when we come home!

We are enjoying the summer closer to our friends & families here in our new house in the booming metropolis of Jonestown, PA which includes a small grocery store, a Turkey Hill, a gas station & a traffic light . But...what we have in our backyard is a peaceful marshy area with the Swatara Creek flowing through it! This comes with lots of wildlife (including a groundhog living under our shed), bullfrogs & crickets at night and this snapping turtle!

Daryl has been the Children's Pastor at the Lebanon Area Evangelical Free Church since November and has been enjoying every minute of it! He loves working with the kids and has become quite the popular guy at church among 2-10 year olds :) Already it has been a growing experience for Daryl and the Children's ministry! We are ramping up for VBS and expecting up to 500 kiddos for the week!

Monica has been working for a non-profit organization that provides housing for seniors in Lebanon County. However, she just recently switched jobs again and accepted a position as an Instrument Technician at an outpatient surgical center. So if you're ever having surgery, you want someone like her sterilizing your intruments to prevent infection. She is excited about the opportunities and new challenges within her job as well as the chance to advance in the future as well as brushing up on her anatomy terms.

Merry Christmas 2010!!!

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of our friends and family!!! We hope this message finds you all healthy, happy and enjoying the reason for the season!!!

In the beginning of November, we made a 15 hour day-trip back to our native state of Pennsylvania---for good!!! We loaded all of our stuff into 19 feet of trailer space and put all of the animals in the cars before driving 15 hours, and surviving. Daryl accepted a position as Children's Pastor at the Lebanon Area Evangelical Free Church and Monica transitioned to Starbucks store #6 in Hershey, PA. The church has has made the transition easy for us and Daryl is loving his new job! Monica is getting exhausted from the crazy retail schedule, so she is searching for a new job that hopefully will provide more routine and stable hours.

We figured you might want our current address. Daryl's mom has been gracious enough to open her home to us until we can begin looking for a house in the spring.

1270 Pine Grove Rd

Fredericksburg, PA 17026

Fall 2010

We are moving!!!!!! The plans are underway for us to move back to Pennsylvania and in a few short weeks, we will be leaving the Chicagoland area for the mountains of home.

Daryl has accepted a Children's Pastor position at the Lebanon Area Evangelical Free Church in Lebanon, PA starting in mid-November. You can go to http://www.lebefree.org/ and see Daryl's video expressing his passion for ministry. After we were married in 1999, we attended this church and served as youth leaders. There are still a lot of familiar faces and the church is growing, especially with children!! We couldn't be more excited for him to be back in full-time ministry and to be back home with family and friends!! Our last piece of the puzzle will be to find someone to sublett our townhouse here in Illinois, and eat a final slice (or 2) of deep dish pizza.

Monica will be transferring to another Starbucks (store #6 for her) in Hershey, PA seeing how it's at least a job and those are hard to come by these days. She hopefully will be able to maintain her supervisor position even as a transfer. The goal is to find a fulltime job, hopefully outside of the retail realm and in her field of study.

Daryl is still working on his Master's of Biblical Arts at Moody Theological Seminary, but it is difficult when finances are tight and you work fulltime at Lowes. Fortunately he only has a few semesters left and most likely will be able to study with online classes while in full-time ministry. He already has some great ideas for his new ministry position and is extremely excited about getting started.

The start of a New Year 2010

2010!! Wow, a new decade! Both Daryl and I are hopeful for lots of changes this year-starting with Daryl's new job. He applied for an outside sales position with Lowes by way of a contact that I had at Starbucks. After a 3rd interview they were so impressed with his sales and people skills but felt he lacked the product knowledge. The managers, however, did not want to lose such a great sales person, so they offered him a full time position in another department with the prospect to promote him in the near future. The benefits are quite promising and Daryl always works hard no matter what the position. He is just so happy to be employed full time, with guaranteed pay and that he is not going door-to-door outside in the cold!!

Daryl also finished a 3rd interview for a ministry position with some amazing potential in the future! We will not know the outcome of this opportunity for another few weeks, so we'll keep you posted!!

This semester at Moody Theological Seminary, Daryl is taking 2 more classes; Preaching from the Old Testament and Apologetics & Evangelism. He's got a lot of reading and writing to do, but he loves every minute of it! His text books from class, have sparked many great conversations with friends and strangers.

I continue to work for Starbucks, but I am seeking other employment opportunities that will advance me in the professional world and provided better pay with the same benefits.

In March, we are soooo looking forward to traveling Orlando to visit Monica's family!! This trip can't come soon enough, since we haven't seen my family since their visit in September. There will be much needed rest, relaxing, visiting and warmth!!