Chickens, China babies and gettin through the cold months!

    For the sake of keeping up with this (and the possibility that we'll have something more exciting to write about once Spring Break comes along) I'm updating. It has been a fast and busy January and February, just like we suspected there hasn't exactly been a lot of time for a good Ethan and Elaine adventure. But we have managed a few things of the normal things that occupy our time together that aren't exactly adventures and rather than really be specific on one instance, I'll be broad on a few.
    First of all, we have chickens. Neither of us have written about them yet and most people already know about them, but we've had them for almost a year. Their names are Nancy, Petunia, Dottie, and Bertha. We raised them from chicks and have watched them turn into fine young ladies. They lay eggs almost daily and live in a very nice abode at the Schmidt residence (Ethan has been meaning to write and has some AWESOME pictures but they'll hopefully come later). In these cold months, Grandma Kim (Ethan's mom who previously might have denied a relationship with our girls) installed a red heat lamp so that water, eggs, and chickens did not freeze in the frigid winter nights. She was informed not to buy a white lamp because white light would cause the chickens to turn savage, hostile, or cannibalistic. So although the chickens looked like they were scheming evil plans with red light streaming through the cracks and windows of the coop, we were happy they would remain civil and continue to produce the eggs we love. Much to our surprise, cannibalism was unavoidable.
Some time ago, our oldest/most dominant Petunia, went on a rampage and wounded the other three girls to a state which they had never been in before. That's a little dramatic, but they may be some of the more pampered chickens in the town of Greenville and very little has ever harmed them. I can't quite describe the emotional state of Ethan when he first discovered our chickens with missing feathers, bloody bottoms, and a lone chicken without a scratch, but it was not pretty. Petunia was immediately stuck outside with Ernie (a large Retriever/Lab mix) and left completely vulnerable to the elements, while we surveyed the damage. We couldn't do much because once a chicken tastes blood they never go back. So it was either keep a crazy chicken and lose 3 good ones, or chuck the crazy and keep the good girls. Now take this from a parental perspective: if one child is bad and lashes out on the other children, do you just throw it out and keep the ones that didn't get in trouble? No of course not, because at any given time that child is once again a joy in life and one of the others may be the one hitting. So regardless of chicken logic, we settled for solitary confinement as her punishment and stood in the dark and the cold snowy damp while Ethan lovingly set up the dog cage next to the coop for our demon daughter. In the weeks that followed we hoped to see a reversal in her behavior (no one believes in you quite like your parents) but she has continued to let us down. We have been forced to sentence her to life as a free-range chicken. She lives as she pleases and must seek shelter in a cage when she sees fit. It is difficult watching our children make such unfortunate mistakes, but sadly, such an important part of the growing up process.

The sponsorship table

   In addition to our chicken parenting lives we do lead lives of somewhat normal college kids, in attending concerts, needing money, and waiting for the future. In fact, this all was exhibited on one night a few weeks ago. Ethan and I went to the Winter Jam 2011 concert at Freedom Hall at which we saw several Christian artists like Francesca Battestelli, David Crowder Band, and Newsong. Just like many Christian concerts there was an organization that sponsors children all over the world and asks only for people to donate 30 dollars a month. A horseshoe shaped table was on the main floor covered with photos of children needing sponsors and a slide show was shown between artists with faces and statistics that could tear your heart out. Ethan tried to keep from watching the slideshow because he knew he wanted to give all he had for those kids. In hearing 30 dollars a month we considered, "That's only a day's wages at either of our jobs....but the thought of missing a payment and being unavailable to a child that I promised to help is almost more hurtful than waiting to sponsor." We definitely felt the tug on our hearts and the sting of our wallets and had to hold on to the thought that one day, be it a China baby, Guatemalan sweetheart, or African princess, we'll hold those kiddos and love on them somehow.    
   The day after the concert, Ethan, our friend Phillip, and I sang at a 'memory care unit' in a nursing home. To get an idea of the fun folks living there, we asked a resident what they'd had for lunch and she smiled at us and said "we don't know what we ate but we ate it!" Fantastic depiction of their thought process. Well, we sang every song in our repertoire, some Elvis, several hymns, and folk songs like My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean. As much as the three of us huddled together in front of our small audience, it was still so good to be there watching these people smile and sing along with our old songs and know that one day we'll be in their shoes and some group of happy hearted college kids will be playing "I Got A Feelin'" by Black Eyed Peas and we'll be together singing "OOOO HOOOOO!!!" a little off key. I almost can't wait.  :)
   Fast forward a little and Ethan visits Evansville, Valentine's day comes and goes, I have a birthday and Ethan works a Senior Retreat at the Mount. This was just this past weekend! I'm gonna brag a little, you can scroll down if you don't want to read it, but I guess you'd never know where to stop scrolling unless you read it! I love hearing him talk about the experiences he has when he leads kids to better know God's love. They say the best way to learn is to teach, and I think that has to be true. He sets goals for himself in leading and never thinks, 'this doesn't apply to me, I'm just a leader.' And I am so proud of him for how he grows in his relationship with God, and I'm jealous of his fervor and his willingness to serve. That sounds like such an old fogey statement but it's true and if you ever get the chance to chat with him about the people he's seen changed by faith, you'll see it in his face and you will desire at least a drop of that motivation. SO even if that weekend kept him from spending the day with me for my birthday, I don't mind 'cause in the long run it's totally a better choice.
  So now I'm almost a week from my Spring Break and could not be more ready to go home, see Ethan, and hang out all around the great homestead :) Sadly it won't be Ethan's spring break but maybe I'll be a U of L student for a day and follow him around, who knows?!  Just gotta visit Ball State this weekend, tough it out through midterms next week, and then I'm home free, hopefully to make more adventures that are slightly more eventful than the past two months and then return for soon to be brighter and sunnier days.

"Sometimes I feel cold as steel and broken like I'm never gonna heal. I see a light, a little grace, a little faith unfurled....hello World!"   - Lady Antebellum "Hello World"

hurry up Spring,
Elaine