A gentle reminder...

Another week down. I don't even know how to begin to express how much I love this place. Today on my bus, we only had 19 kids (pretty low for some reason), so I actually got to sit in a seat and just chill with some of my kids...finally. I definitely soaked up the moment! Anyways, I was sitting with two of my kids, a brother and sister: Samantha and Termaine. Both such sweet kids. Samantha is 11 and Termaine is 5 years old. He is the cutest kid ever! So many of these kids I just wanna snatch up and take home with me! They are so adorable! All that to say how cute he was...man, do I ever love my kids!

In our first session of Sunday School today, I had 2 interesting happenings. While the lesson was going on I was doing Quiet Seats (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, it's simply watching the kids while the lesson is going on, but having candy to give out to the quietest kids...yes, we do bribe them to behave!). First a girl just to my left sneezed a huge sneeze and got snot all over her face and hand! So I had to bring her to the bathroom to clean up....yummy! Then, within 10 minutes, a girl just in front of my puked all over the place! So I had to bring her to the washroom as well and clean her up. I had a little laugh thinking about it all afterwards. It's funny how I coulda had a bad attitude and talked about my morning being so awful cause of those two girls who I had to clean up. But instead, I didn't think of it that way. Even during it, I really wasn't bothered! Interesting how we can change, and adjust ourselves to situations. Just a thought there.

The cold weather has definitely kicked in now. My friend Emily and I are going for some winter boots on monday, since the forecast is calling for a snowstorm monday night. Better to be ready then not! Sidewalk went great this week. We had a huge coloring contest for all the kids, and we gave away tons of toys! It was awesome! The kids were real excited too. They colored so good...my Pink Houses kids made me so proud! I still had 71 kids come out even though it was freezing cold out and so windy.

We're still doing lots of wrapping presents and getting the stockings ready for next week. Every kid that comes to Yogi Bear next week gets a stocking stuffed with toys and candy. People from all over the world have sewn stockings and sent them in to us and tons of people have also made the stockings and then filled them themselves and sent them to us. We'll have over 20,000 stockings by the time we have them ready and give them out to the kids! These next 2 weeks are big weeks for the kids. Getting the stockings is so exciting for them and then the Christmas presents...oh yah, the kids will be coming for their gifts no matter what...even if it's freezing cold!

Let me add a little God note. God has really been working on my spending time with Him consistently. I know some of my girls may be surprised (Becca....I think you might be...hehe!), but I have really struggled with reading my Bible everday and especially with spending time praying and just being with God. It's hard to find the time at the pace we're goin at every single day. And then when there is time, I feel too tired to open my Bible or whatever. I know I can do it though, cause the first while after I moved here I was so consistent. But then I ended up putting my job before my God. I had a God moment the other day, and He reminded me of what my priorites were. You see, I hadn't thought of my lack of time with God as a priority mix up. Instead, I thought it was cause I was too busy and too tired. Think again, Dana! God should be number one, no matter what. Above all else - before work, before family, before university, before friends, before business, before tiredness, before lack of time. Because with God we are absolutely nothing. He's the one that is directing our path, He is our strength, He is the one who knows us best. Shouldn't he then deserve our all - He should be our number one, not our second best. So there you got it, my little God moment. A much needed reminder! And I hope those of you who are reading this and are living for God get what I'm saying. And think about it for your own life...I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who has failed in this area.

Up early tomorrow to go pick up my peeps for church, so I'm off! Sunday and Monday will try and work on my emails...so you just might be lucky and get an email from me! Yay! Night.