Time flys!

I guess it has been quite a while since I updated my blog. At least that's what Andrea keeps telling me! At least someone reads it. I miss you Andrea!

This weekend my entire family is going away for a long weekend. My Grandmother Janofski's brother died a while back and left a vacation home to his family and they are sharing it with us. We are excited. We are also nervous because the last vacation we all went on together was not a good one. Lots of yelling at each other and hard feelings. That's probably why we haven't tried one again. But my mother ever the optimist (at least when it come to her family) decided we were going to try again. This time we are taking a family friend Steve Hubbard and also Jay and Amy's newest family member Veronica. Maybe they can be the calming factor for the rest of us. I'll keep you posted if I live through it.

On September 11th I will have been at my new job for 6 months. For the celebration I am getting a raise! YEAH ME! Things are going a lot better for me. I'm really glad that I left the hospital although I do miss my friends that I made over there! I still have a few contacts who keep me up on all the goings on.

New Hope is struggling right now. Summer is a very hard time. Courts get short of money and they either take girls out of placement or keep them out of placement until the school year count is over. We are at 5 girls right now and 2 will be leaving us this week. 2 of our girls are private placement and so we change them only a small fee instead of the amount it costs. We need 6 girls to pay for the bills so as you can figure we are not at that point. We have been trying to get a DHS number and price for over a year now. We had 2 accountant try to help us and finally Amy and I sat down for 2 days and came up with the numbers we thought were right. Amy and our secretary also spent 2 weeks redoing things that the Department in Lansing wanted done. They promised we would have our number 2 weeks ago. Today we had a call on a girl from a DHS office wanting to place her with us but we still do not have our number or price. It is very discouraging! Please help us pray for this number. Once we get this number and price we should be able to fill all the beds in our house almost all the time. They are waiting for us to get it. Our staff has had to cut their hours because we just can't afford to pay them when the girls aren't there.

Have a great long weekend everyone! I really hope I do too!

old mind no new tricks!

Today I'm sitting in my 3rd week of a 4 week training for my new job. I have an hour and 15 minute drive each way. I must say I'm more than tired with this whole training thing. Tomorrow is the big test. If I fail no more job! I seems a little harsh to me. That's the state for you. I'm really not that worried, probably I should be.

Things at New Hope seem to be going good, right now. Everyone seems to love our new counselor. The girls, the staff, Amy, and me. Yeah!!! Today is the very first day for our secretary and at lunch when I called Amy said she was still there! The last one we hired lasted 2 hours. Brandi is back with us after her month away. So far thing seem to be going good. We received a new girl with her 1 year old daughter yesterday. The little one came right in and when up to one of the staff members held up her hands for our staff to hold her. Of course she is a huge hit.

I did really mess up my personal finances this last pay period. I had turned in my request to have money taken out of my check to go automatically into my 401k accounts. I had to put in the percentage amount and I thought I had put in 3% in both of the sections for a total of 6%. I got a letter stating that they had received my request for 60% of my check to be placed into my 401K. I just about threw up. Of course right away I contacted them to get it changed but it was to late for one check. I had 25.25 deposited in my checking account and 200.00 deposited in my savings. This has been a tight week.

Well class is over for the day so I'm outta here. Until next time.

Is it summer yet?

I see it has been awhile since I have posted anything. Not that anyone reads my blog anyway. Things go fast in my world this month we have lost 2 major employees and hired a new counselor and interviewing last week and this for a new secretary. I had a semi-major breakdown with all the issues this last week! Sorry Jay and Amy! Sometimes the stress is really heavy! I am so ready for a vacation. Thing is when you start a new job you can't just take a vacation. So I wait.

For the next month I will be going to training in Saginaw for my new job at the Department of Human Services. I have been working there now for 2 months. 3 more months till I can take a vacation! Actually I am looking forward to the training. When I get back I will start my own caseload. The other girls at the office currently have caseloads of 500-600 clients. They have been overworked for a long time since there has been a freeze on hiring new people. So they are very excited to get the new hires trained.

New Hope has been low on girls for the last month. It makes it hard to pay the bills. But this last week we received calls for 5 new clients. I would be happy if at least 2 of them turned out to really come to us! One of our girls has had a mental break down and is currently in a hospital for treatment. She really needs prayer. She was really making huge changes in her life and I felt she was really close to making a life changing decision about God. Please help me pray that the devil would be defeated in her life. The plan is for her to return to us if she is able to. She refuses to take her medication and has had to be sedated several times for violent episodes.

God has the final say in every situation and by no means do I feel like these situations are above His control!

Hey anybody have any good ideas of where to go for vacation in August of September?

Downer Days!

Why is it that after you have such a wonderful, exciting moment in life that the devil really likes to come and destroy everything? This week has been extremely difficult, not just for me personally but also for New Hope.

My new job is very exciting because everything is new, but it also is really hard. I feel stupid most of the time and have no clue what I am doing. I miss being confident in my job and not needing to check with someone all the time before doing something. The people here are very nice but they are extremely busy and I hate interrupting them for the new girls stupid questions. Most of you know that I am not a crier but I admit I have already had to episodes this week.

At New Hope it seems that everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. Our state inspector called and will be coming to see us in 2 weeks! We have an inquiry from the Department of Labor regarding an employee who is not satisfied, we have 10 days to get back to them and the lawyer is out on surgery leave and has no time available. The taxes are due on Tuesday, The books were so messed up that it is a wonder that we could even get them done. Thanks to Vicky and 6 hours I think that problem is resolved at least for the moment. We are down to 6 girls in the unit. It takes at least 8 to pay all the bills! I could go on and on but I am depressing myself. Please pray for us and me especially. The devil is right on my back right now and I am feeling the breaking point.

Do not think that I have given up or am by any means about too. I know that God is in control and that He cares about every aspect of my being. He has done incredible things for New Hope and we continue to see the transformation of girls as they feel the love from us and begin to see that that love comes from God. One girl in particular has really become a new person! God has great things in store for her and I hope we can be part of the process. Please pray especially for our girls as our church will be in revival in a couple of weeks and more than anything I want these girls to have a personal relationship with Him. Maybe that is why it's so hard right now maybe the best is yet to come.

Come what may I will follow Him!

What an Incredible Night!

Well it is now one week since our benefit concert with Selah and Jamie Jamgochian. I must say that I am just now catching up on all my lost sleep. Anything that can go wrong before a big event, did go wrong. I had finished all the newsletters and had them sent to the printer when my darling brother decides that if we would just by a new bigger printer we could save a lot of money. Whatever! Instead of it costing $700 it cost us $3000 with all the supplies and extra ink and whatever else the salesman talked him into. Of course now I was expected to make all the copies! 500!

Somewhere between the printer and redoing the printer from one to the other the zip drive got damaged and I thought the whole newsletter had been lost! Thank the Lord that my brother was able to retrieve a copy of it off of my hard drive.

Saturday morning we had a work day at New Hope put on by Family Life Radio. We had received word that their would be around 20 to 30 people. We ended up with over 60! Incredible! We didn't quite have enough jobs for all the women to do. They did repaint our entire kitchen and dining room. Plus wash all the windows and walls. They raked the yard and trimmed all the trees. It looks beautiful! We had a licensed contractor show up and he and several men worked in our basement to start redoing it. They really got a lot done.

Of course that night we were suppose to be in Midland to have supper with Selah and Jamie Jamgochian. We received news on our way over that Selah was stuck in Chicago and had missed their plan to Detroit. That was a little nerve racking. We thought maybe we would have to do some karaoke to fill the time. They got another flight and drove like the wind to get to Midland. They got there about 20 minutes before we were to start. We started about 30 minutes late but it all worked out.

The Dow holds 1500 people and we had sold 90% of those tickets which is 1350. I had to get up in front of all those people to thank all those who had helped us and tell a little about New Hope, plus we had a video I needed to introduce. I have never been so nervous! We I got on stage I forget everything I had written down to say. I did metion all of the right people. (At least I hope I did.) At the end of the video the audience was told that there would be green buckets at the door if they would like to give a freewill offering. We received more than $4000! God is certainly good to us.

This week we have already received a call from the Mt Pleasant Credit Union saying they want to do a fund raiser for us. We also have a business who wants to supply ice cream cakes for the girls along with free coupons. So people are still responding to what God is doing. Keep praying for us. We need pray support more than anything else.

My first week!

Well it has been one week since I started this job. Everyone here has been extremely nice and helpful. Makes me wondering what they are hiding! (Just kidding!) It does make me miss all my co-horts at Gratiot hospital. They all knew me so well. We had all the side jokes I hear everyone laughing at here. The good news is I already got my first raise! Not bad for I week of work. 2% increase will be on the next check. I have no idea why. Something about a union agreement. Whatever I will take it.

Next week they are paying me to go to Grayling for the week. I will be up there from Sunday night to Friday night. Class is Monday to Friday 900-1600. They are paying for the hotel room and I am taking the state car. They even give me like 7.00 just for breakfast. It will be like a mini vacation for me, since I won't have to work at New Hope and will be done with work by 1600 in the afternoon. I don't even have to make my bed! I don't know what I'll do with all my time.

For the first 3 months my shift is from 800 to 1700 with a hour lunch. After that we can discuss changing our time. I don't mind coming in later but I hate not getting out till 1700. I need a job where I need to be here by 1100 and leave by 1400 I think that would be great hours! They are much more lenient. Especially about arrival and departure times and dress code. I seem to be overdressed most of the time.

Well I'm sure I will adjust. I certainly have sat in on some very interesting interviews. Some names I recongizes as the same people we dealt with at the hospital.

A New Adventure!

Well after 12 1/2 years I am finally moving on to a different job. I have taken a job with the state of michigan as an Assistance Payment Worker. I will be helping people who need assistance with applying for Medicaid, food stamps, housing, heat bills and ect. I must say that I'm a bit scared to be starting a new job. I have become so used to what I do now that the challenge of it is gone. This new job will be a new challenge, more money and better benefits! All are a plus.

Of course I will still be working at New Hope. Things there are going good although the devil has been fighting. We had a baby shower for our new mommies on Friday night and over 40 ladies came. Mostly from our church! How wonderful to have a church family who supports you and cares about an outreach like New Hope. Sunday morning both of the girls had their babies dedicated. Although I am sure they don't understand all that it really means. Pastor Jones is so loving and kind and when I spoke to him about it said he was sure that all the women who had brought their children to Jesus to be blessed didn't understand all of it either. It was a very moving service when Bro Jones blessed and prayed for the babies and mommies that as they leave New Hope in a few weeks God would go with them. That is our desire for all of our girls.

The concert is approaching fast! So much work to get done before then. Thursday night we had a guy come who will be making a video presentation for us. We filmed over 4 hours for a 15-20 presentation. Hopefully by next month it will be on our website. It will be shown at our concert on the 29th. At least that is the plan. The new hope tee-shirts are in. 150 shirts to sell. So far we have sold around 700 tickets to the concert. The center of the arts holds 1500 people. Please pray for me as I will have to give a speech to all of those people and I'm extremely nervous.

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for New Hope. I continue to pray for 100 people to pray for us daily. We do believe we are missionaries here in America dealing with those who have been broken and cast aside. Please pray for 2 specific pray requests. Someone has been spreading lies about new hope and pray that God's truth will prevail! Then pray for us as we have an ex-employee who claims they are going to take us to court.

The Excitement Builds!

First off the baby has come! A boy, healthy and happy. Thank the Lord!

What I'm really excited about is our upcoming concert! Selah and Jaime Jamgochian March 29, 2008 at Midland Center for the Arts. We have been planning and working on this concert for months (since last September). It is getting close and the excitement is building! About 1 1/2 weeks ago we received a call from Family Life Radio which is the local Christian radio station that we are paying to advertise our concert. They told us that they pick an organization to support and they have decided to support New Hope. They said that they were arranging for Selah to come to New Hope the day of the concert to sign autographs and would like to do an open house so people could come by and see our facility. We were so excited!

Then yesterday we received a call from Family Life Radio stating that they wanted to have one of our New Hope girls to do a 60 second spot on the radio about how New Hope has changed their life and they are going to put it on all their stations all over the U.S. This is such a great opportunity for national recognition. There would be no way that we could afford to do this ourselves. God has opened this door for us and I am so excited!

In my devotions this morning I asked God to please help us to stay focused on Him. This is His business and whatever He chooses to do with it I will follow behind Him. My passion for God and His work is growing everyday!

Please pray that God would be with us and help us to make to decisions He wants us to make and please pray most of all for my staff and girls that do not know Him that they would come to see only He can change their lives and satisfy the longing they have deep in their hearts.

Come thou long expected baby!

As some of you know we are expecting 2 new babies this month. One of the mom's is overdue. Only by 4 days but to her and those waiting it seems like a lifetime. She has tried everything. She drank a whole bottle of caster oil. Thanks to one of my ingenious staff members! It only gave her diarrhea and made her want to die. She has run on the treadmill at midnight trying to get her contractions to deepen and strengthen. (Listen to me I almost sound like I have done this before!) At one point her contractions were 6 min apart for a good hour and then just like that they went away. To all our disappointment. Especially hers!



This whole waiting thing made me start wondering what the Bible really says about how we are to be waiting for Christ's return. I know that when Simeon and Anna were waiting for Jesus to be born they were very much like expectent parents. They knew what they had been promised and were expecting it to come and come soon. I wonder how many new parents they approached wondering if that might be the messiah?



I have to be honest and say I don't expect Christ's return like Anna and Simeon looked for that 1st arrival. The thing is that I'm really not sure that God expects us too. The verses that I found were Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. and II Peter 3:12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God...... I think that sound more like waiting for something that's a long way off. Something like my trip to Italy for my 40th birthday. I plan for it and save for it but at this point it feels more like a dream than a reality. I know that it will happen but at this point I have more pressing issues. Maybe my logic is messed up? I know God is coming and He could come today and I'm ready for Him to come, but until I get the word I'm planning to go to the Great Wolf Lodge this weekend with my family. I sure hope that baby comes before Friday night!!!

Thank God I'm and idiot!

Well what a week or should I say month it has been! For the last month New Hope has been struggling just to pay our employees every week! Every week we pray and pray that God will supply enough so that we can make payroll and He has come through for us every time. Although I must admit I thought I was going to have a heart attack before it was all over.

This month has been especially hard with Christmas and New Years we have only received payment from one court from last month. I had a stack of bills on my desk piling up that were all late. Every day I would tell God how much we needed Him to provide! Well last night we were all at our end, we hadn't received a check since last week which had paid our employees.

The troubling thing was that our bank balance showed a much greater number in the positive than I showed in my checkbook! I had gone over it time and time again and the only thing I could figure out was that our employment taxes had not been processed yet. Last night in my deep depression I pulled out the hated check book yet again! I started back at the beginning and worked my way forward. What a terrible headache I had by the end. About a hour and a half later I had found enough money in my stupid mistakes to make payroll! Thank God I'm an idiot! He provides yet again!!!

HELLO!!!!!

Well here it is 2008 and I have begun a blog. I'm always just a little behind everyone else. My life right now is really busy but also very rewarding. In July 2007 I began working at New Hope Youth and Family Services which is a juvenile girls home in Mt Pleasant MI. My brother Jay and his wife Amy starting this home in 2005. God opened the doors and Jay and Amy ran through! But about a year and half later they had not even received the state license. God has really used this situation to teach all of us to truly trust him!

Right now we have 11 girls, we can house 15. Tomorrow we will be receiving number 12. Two of the girls are pregnant and will be giving birth at any time. It is very exciting to watch them. Check out our web site at www.1newhope.org

So many emotions go into dealing with youth in need. Most of you know that I worked at a home for boys in Evart, MI about 10 years ago. It is such an emotional job I was determined that I would never do it again. But here I am. I have never felt like I belonged in place like I do at New Hope.

My plan is at some time soon, I hope, I will quit working at the hospital and go to work at New Hope full time. I am very excited for what is ahead.

In March we are having a benefit concert with Selah! We are very excited and hope to sell out of tickets. Money is extremely tight. Some weeks I wonder if I will be able to pay my staff? This is one of those weeks! But God has always provided. This is His business and He will provide yet again.

If you think about it please pray for me and for New Hope. Most of these girls have terrible life stories. But God has brought them to us to show His love for them.

I am asking God to provide 100 people to pray daily for New Hope that we would be the business He wants us to be and that we would have a life changing effect on each of the girls that passes through our door.