Fun vintage finds!

a suitcase in great condition (save the mirror, which will be covered up anyway!)

this is what I'm making!

humpty dumpty!

Vintage baby dress 1

delicate detailing on dress 1

Vintage baby dress 2

Vintage baby dress 3

Vintage baby dress 4

Featured Follower Friday - 2/18/11 edition

Every Friday I'm doing "Featured Follower Friday". Now, if you aren't technically a follower ...  no problem! Anyone is welcome. Share a part of your story, write about yourself, be creative, crazy, silly, poetic, whatever - and if you have a blog, be sure to link it too! Then other people can "meet" you, connect to your blog, or just find out something interesting! Wanna participate? I'd LOVE volunteers!! Don't be shy ... let me share my blog-space. 

Today's featured follower is none other than ... my mom! :-) Thanks, Mom.

My name is Corey Koster and I am Lisa’s mom. We met when she was born. :-)

After you are a wife, mom, and nurse your whole life, serving becomes an art and passion. I have the gifts of hospitality, serving, and helping. But I have to be careful with the helping, sometimes I go a bit too far. It’s in love, of course, but it can be overpowering too. Both my husband, Jim, and my kids can tell you what that is like. Any gift can be a curse if not fueled with the right motives and God’s guidance.

My passion when I had children at home was raising them in such a way that they would love God, serve Him, and function in society as responsible adults. We sacrificed much of ourselves along the way to make that happen. Since no parents can do it perfectly and there are no guarantees. Still I loved them and did my best, which at times was not enough. But God said He would fill in the gaps! We read together, made cookies together, vacationed together, prayed together, ate together and did life together, and I loved every minute of it! (Okay, most minutes of it.) I miss that, but don’t have the energy for it now, anyway, so I watch from afar and marvel at the gifts and abilities of my children. I love them with an unending love, Ryan, Lisa, and Jenn.

My other passion now is my marriage and my husband Jim. God gave me a quiet one because He knew what He was doing. Only so much enthusiasm and talking can live in one house! We have been married 33 years this July. More sacrifice…we married at 20 and 21 and we thought we were so smart, little did we know! Literally! We have changed and been molded together and I wouldn’t trade him for the world. He has put up with a lot, BUT, then again, so have I. That is the way God fashioned the family, and I am grateful for the one He gave me. More grateful as the later years go by, and we only have each other. I appreciate him more every day.

My other passion is Haiti. We were missionaries for seven years to the country of Haiti. Nothing in my life before or since could have prepared me for what took place. We were so far out of our comfort zone that God could work miracles and that He did. One quick story, and I will close.

It was 2007. We had just finished a church in south Haiti. We had hired a truck driver to bring us out to the site over sharp lava-rock like stones and barely got down the hill. When we were ready to return, our driver must have decided that he had enough in the first trip and didn’t come back to pick us up.

And he didn’t bother to tell us.

So after hours of waiting, we climbed up the mountain to get cell phone reception and called back to our campus to let them know we weren’t going to make it back to the planned meeting point.

Finally someone came and picked us up after several hours. But, instead of one really big truck, we had to get our entire work team, the luggage, and all of the valuable tools into the back of two small pickup trucks. (Making do – “dega je” – at its best!)

We decided since it was so late we would have to stop about halfway back, in Bleck, at a pastor’s home. In the meantime, there was absolutely no way to get word to Franz, our driver, who had the big truck to take the team back home. He had been waiting for hours at our rendezvous point. 

Or so we thought.

About 15 minutes after we arrived in Bleck, I saw Franz drive up!

I ran to the truck and asked him, “Who called you and told you to come here instead?”

In his calm and quiet manner, he replied. “I was waiting [at our meeting point] and then God told me to come here and here I am.”

I was in shock. Talk about getting your socks blown off!  It was such a great miracle. We drove home later that night. One thing we learned in Haiti: God is never late but He definitely has His own timetable.

God, how I love you and Haiti!

Introducing ... my new husband!!!!!!!!

doesn't he look AMAZING?!!?!

So I'm on the phone to my best friend in South Korea and this strange man comes down the stairs ... and I realize the beard is GONE!!

It's GONE, my friends! Can I tell you how happy this makes me? At least as long as it lasts, I'm a happy wife.

Love you husband!!!

P.S. You can have as many kisses as you want!

Featured Follower Fridays - 2/11/11 edition

 So, every Friday, until I run out of people to feature, I'm doing "Featured Follower Friday". Now, if you aren't technically a follower ...  no problem! Anyone is welcome. 

Share a part of your story, write about yourself, be creative, crazy, silly, poetic, whatever - and if you have a blog, be sure to link it too! Then other people can "meet" you, connect to your blog, or just find out something interesting! Wanna participate? I'd LOVE volunteers!! Don't be shy ... let me share my blog-space. Send me a picture, email, whatever. 

This week, let me introduce my friend Sharla. If I am jealous of the location of any of my friends, it's Sharla's. I *heart* Switzerland! Read on to find out about her story.

Hi! My name is Sharla Günthardt. I live in Schaffhausen, Switzerland with my Swiss husband and two little boys. Adrian is 5 and Ryan is 2. They keep me busy.

I first met Lisa when she was an exchange student at the European Nazarene College and then really got to know her when she came back to Büsingen to be a volunteer. Between the time Lisa came as a student to the time that she came back again to be a volunteer, I had my first son. Adrian was born on May 30, 2005. It was a great day. He looked perfect. He came into this world with a short little cry and then promptly fell asleep. The doctor assured us all was well and he was handed to my waiting arms. The first two days were filled with normal first time baby things. His first real cry came with his first diaper change and I cried right along with him. The third day of Adrian’s life was the day that changed everything.

On the third day Adrian had a routine check by the pediatrician. He did all the normal checks on him. When the doctor listened to his heart I noticed a slight hesitation on his face. But what ever it was that caused him to pause, disappeared from his face and he moved on to finish the exam. I had a feeling something wasn’t right. He looked at us and said, “I hear a slight heart murmur.” He went on to say a lot of babies are born with murmurs and they usually fix themselves, but he would take an x-ray to put our minds at ease. Off he went with Adrian.

When he came back into the room with Adrian and the x-ray, he didn’t come alone. He came with a second doctor. His next words were, “Adrian’s heart concerns us.” We were then directed to a pediatric cardiologist. He listened and did an ultra sound and then told us Adrian had a hole between the heart chambers that was 7mm wide. The hole would not close on its own and would require open heart surgery around his 6 month birthday. Adrian was born with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. He seemed stable after a couple of days of monitoring and so we took him home.

With this condition they told us all kinds of things that would and could go wrong with him. He might be developmentally behind, have trouble with weight gain, and he might turn blue (that one made me freak out a little bit). We had to be very careful about him getting sick and so on. But despite all of these predictions, Adrian remained extremely healthy. He was a happy, chubby little baby. Never, ever had a symptom that indicated he had a heart defect.

On November 22, 2005, Adrian had his surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich. I prayed all the way to the hospital for the Lord to heal him. I knew God would heal him one way or the other, but I prayed for divine healing all the way up to the surgery date. God chose to heal him through a surgeon’s hand and He gave us one of the best pediatric heart surgeons in the world. Adrian had a successful surgery. It wasn’t without its complications, but he is a happy and healthy 5 year old. You would never know by looking at him all that he’s been through. We still see the cardiologist each year and can expect a valve replacement some time in his future.

There are a lot of details to this story that I have left out. But the biggest details to the story are the ones where I can look back and see God’s hand. His hand was in every single detail. I will never understand why He allowed Adrian’s heart to develop like it did. But He took care of us and supplied all of our needs.

Thanks, Sharla! 

Come by next week for another FFF!

In the name of Love.

Jeremy and I aren't really big Valentine's day celebrators. We like to celebrate love, but on more days than just one. But, with that said, I still remember the 1st grade Valentine's day parties - decorating a valentine's bag, picking out or making valentines for everyone and ... well... getting some fun candy! (My mom also would make heart-shaped cookies with all of my classmates names sometimes ... I wrote about it in this post.) So in lieu of things past, sometimes I like to celebrate. Just a little.

This year, I made just a few things in the name of Love.

Still fun.

Cherry pie for my Dad. Not too shabby huh?

Valentines.

a heart garland - to fill some empty post-Christmas space

Do you celebrate Valentine's day? If so, how?