Donut Day

Today is a donut day. Actually, any day for me is a donut day. I try to limit my donut consumption to about one donut a week, but I would "like" to have a donut everyday for breakfast. Somehow that desire does not fall in line with my weight watchers plan. Like many people, I have struggled off and on with my weight over the years. After giving birth to our youngest daughter who joined our family through the miracle of embryo adoption, I really began to struggle with my weight. My blood pressure was all out of whack and I will admit that I am a bit of a stress eater. Naomi spent two months in the NICU after being born close to 3 months early and then subsequently had heart surgery. During that time, there were a series of unfortunate events (medical issues) that contributed to me stuffing my face with unhealthy food choices. Although I kept running and competing in marathons, I kept gaining weight. Being on different medications due to acquiring HELLP syndrome during my "advanced age" pregnancy also did not help.

Then came a wake up call when I realized I could barely huff my way up the Mountain in Haiti. I decided that I needed to get serious about losing weight. I joined weight watchers and eventually lost 43 pounds and hit my goal weight. Yeah!! BUT....it has been a long haul and continues to be a challenge. I currently fluctuate 5-10 pounds over my "goal" weight and it seems to be a continual challenge to stay in a healthy range.

Today is my 41st birthday, so it seemed like a good excuse to get a donut. I stopped at the library and spoiled myself with a donut. I was reminded of another donut day at the library not too long ago. I conveniently offer on my way home from work to stop and pick up books on hold for the kids at the library because there is a donut shop inside the library. There is one particular donut that I absolutely LOVE. With weight watchers, basically I learned to not just shove my mouth full of junk, but to stop and think and then "decide" to eat only what I really like. So, generally speaking, I won't just eat any donut. If I am going to drop 8 points on something (with only 26 a day),  I want it to be worth it.

That day when I arrived at the library, I noticed that there was only one of the chocolate frosting filled donuts that I like. There were a few people in line ahead of me and I was honestly standing there praying that none of those people would order MY donut. Then I saw two lively little boys in line in front of me. They were floating back and forth to the display case. One of the little boys was pointing out to his father which donut he wanted and it was MY donut. ugh....I stood there and tried to shrug it off. I told myself it was ok. I'll just get a different donut for one of the older kids that had done something nice for me and I'll come back another day for the donut that I like.

But, the kids kept floating back and forth between the line and the case. They were really not staying in line. In fact, someone walked up even behind me and went up and ordered because she wasn't quite sure there was a line. That is when my "Mr Bean" moment came out. I'm ashamed to say that I took advantage of the situation.

The lady at the counter finished with the customer and I stepped forward and ordered "the donut".  The young boy immediately started to complain to his father that the donut he wanted was gone. I simply pretended to not know that he actually wanted that specific donut. I even actually said, "Oh, did you want that donut" (pretending I did not know) and the father proceeded to say that he could get a different one.

I felt about an inch tall. I had the reward, but I had lost character in the process. I went out to the car and sat there to eat my donut. I saw the dad walking out with the boys who had selected different donuts. Although they seemed happy enough, I actually slunk down in my seat. I call it a Mr Bean moment because although Mr Bean is funny,  he is basically self centered and rude. In the end, I was willing to take down a child for a donut. That is a very sad fact. Yes, I can justify that the kids learned something that day, but hopefully I also learned something as well.

I know that I need to be very careful and not allow my self-centered nature to rule my life. Especially when donuts are involved!

Julia's Shark

Julia is having an amazing time with my cousins off the coast of Georgia and Florida. We miss her very much, but are thankful that she has been given this incredible opportunity to relax and enjoy some time with extended family. She has a big job (and sometimes a very tough job) in the family as one of older kids still at home. She helps everything to run smoothly. Once in a while though, we all need a break from our day-to-day lives.

Julia absolutely loves kids and is an amazing big sister. She a heart for the medical field and loves to help children that are struggling with illness or disease.  Julia joined our family as a baby from Oregon. She has had her share of medical concerns throughout her 15 years. She finished chemo a year ago this month and the Lord has healed her completely. Praise God!

Her love of medicine and her love for Haiti has brought her on numerous medical mission teams. She has worked hard to raise all her support on each trip by fundraising, braiding in hair extensions, babysitting, and lawn care. She's a hard worker and she loves the Lord. We are so thankful to have her as a part of our lives! We love you Julia!

Team Members for Guatemala

Tana and I are still seeking team members for Guatemala. We're leaving out of Los Angeles the night of the 18th and arriving early morning on the 19th of July. Return date is the following Friday the 26th (one week trip). There is ABSOLUTELY no training required to travel with the team. We simply need individuals with a heart to serve and the ability to roll with changes.

We have a "tentative" schedule, but it we will need to adapt to circumstances in country. We need people to do weights/measurements, count out pills in the pharmacy, color with children while they wait (like Tana and I are doing above), take notes for doctors, hand out hygiene packs, and a range of other things in order to help the clinic run smoothly.

You can hang out with Pitufa the fire dog. She's an amazingly loyal friend!

You can hold babies while their mothers are seeking treatment.

You can learn how they make coffee (Javi is trying to explain to me, but maybe the details are lost in translation)...

You may even be able to ride on a fire truck.

But most of all, you will be able to serve those in need and assist these amazing volunteer fire fighters who are dedicated to serving the people in their community as well as the surrounding communities.

If you cannot travel, please consider helping sponsor a team member. Tax deductible donations of funds, supplies, and frequent flyer miles is greatly appreciated. We also could use donations of small fire equipment and gear. The men and women that volunteer at the fire station are usually relatively small, so we need smaller size boots, gloves, coats, etc. The picture below is my shoe next to a fire fighter. I wear about a size 3 in kids, so they wear probably around a size 6 or 7.

I'll also publish a list of over the counter medications we are trying to gather that typically can be purchased at the dollar store. Please spread the word! Contact me if you have any questions: haitimissionaries@gmail.com or 503-888-0050

Thank you!!

Final Sheppard Quarterly Birthday Party

We had our final quarterly Sheppard birthday party on Father's Day.  It was a lot of fun. The party was for the late spring/summer birthdays in household: Naomi's 3rd, Roseminique's 11th, and Talitha's 13th.   David (turning 19) and I (41 this week...wow) also have birthdays in June, but we didn't officially add those to the list since we're supposed to be grown ups at this point in life.

Quite a few years ago, we transitioned into quarterly parties (fall, winter, spring, summer) simply because there are so many birthdays throughout the year with 14 kids. Although we LOVE having parties, the logistics of having a party for each individual child was too much to manage. We have three birthdays in October for example. Yikes!

We talked about it and the majority vote was to have a bigger event less often instead of a smaller event on each birthday. For their actual birthday, I have a tradition of taking them to the movie. Going to the movie with mom once a year seems to be a very big deal. They talk about it months in advance and start making plans. I'm sure this will become a good memory once we are in Haiti since there are no movie theaters! We also will usually bake a cake or make cupcakes together on their actual birthday and spend time together as a family. Naomi in the picture below had helped me make cupcakes on her 3rd Birthday.

The quarterly parties have been a TON of fun. Often we will rent a snow cone machine, cotton candy machine, BBQ hot dogs and hamburgers, play basketball, and jump on the trampoline. Since we are a relatively large family, we tend to know families that are also somewhat large. We may have 5-15 families, but sometimes over 50 kids.

This last party was smaller then normal due to my lack of planning (I tend to throw things together last minute) and due to it being father's day, but it was nice to be able to spend more time talking to each other with a smaller group. We are very blessed to have amazing friends, prayer partners, and such a strong support network.

We already have some close friends in Haiti and are looking forward to making new friends. We will miss our friends in Oregon as well as many of the traditions we have established, but we look forward to making new traditions and meeting many new people in Haiti.

We plan to have a going away party before we move. It is tentatively set for the first weekend in August. I'll try to keep everyone posted. The kids are already talking about the next event and looking forward to it!

Tough Mudder

David and I survived the Tough Mudder. I say "survived" because there was a death waiver required in order to participate in the event. Leading up to the Mudder, the main question people asked was "Why in the world would you do that?" 

Why would you deliberately swim through ice water, crawl in mud under barbed wire, run and crawl through 10K volts of electricity, or any number of extreme obstacles involved in the Tough Mudder? 

David's answer is that he did it for fun. It simply sounded like an exciting thing to do. Me, I did it for the challenge. I am always interested in overcoming obstacles in life. Placing myself in positions that are challenging help grow my faith. 

I got to thinking about it and came to the conclusion that our life is pretty much like the Tough Mudder. It has not always made sense. There have been many tough obstacles to tackle. Sometimes we've been shocked and knocked on our behinds. Sometimes we've had to crawl through a tunnel with no clear vision of the future. We've filtered the same question of "Why in the world would you have so many children?" It doesn't necessarily make sense to people and it certainly is not easy and free from pain. 

We have simply had to forge ahead and push through knowing that God has a plan. 

Would I do it again? YES!!! 

I would do again especially if I could see David on the very last 5 feet of the race: His feet went flying in the air and he face planted straight in the mud. The shock literally knocked him off his feet. I saw that he was getting back up, so I proceeded to run by him. I figured that there was no sense in me going down as well. The motto of "No Mudder Left Behind" left my mind and I saved myself. Maybe I'll need to evaluate that aspect of my character in the future, but for now it was really funny. He ended with a smile on his face. I hope the organization posts some pictures of that ending. 

Another Prayer List Update

1. ADOPTION: Jordan's adoption has been filed in the courts. We also have received confirmation that the judge has signed a replacement adoption decree for Roseminique (could not find her decree). We're asking for continued prayer that Jordan's adoption is processed right away. The courts could take 90 days, in which case we would not have his adoption complete in time for him to travel in August. We are praying that the adoption is signed quickly and we are able to submit for  his passport. Plan B would be that Ron would stay behind with Jordan (and possibly some of the kids) and we would travel in two groups. Possibly half of the family could travel with me in August and the other half a month or two later. Pray that we all travel August 19th with the medical team we are bringing in!

2. PASSPORTS:.Selling books on ebay has been successful. Especially textbooks are selling well. We have processed five more passports and only have two more to process. Yeah!! Yes, I had to actually take some of the kids back into costco and re-do their passport photos because the very safe place that I stored them could not be found.

3. TEAMS: Currently praying for team members for Guatemala July 18th in particular. We will still travel, but the amount of work that we can do will be limited with such a small group. If you are at all interested, please let me know. There are NO required skills needed. We only need people with a heart and desire to serve. We know that the Lord has the EXACT team members lined up for this group. Sometimes I wish though that He would outline that in advance for me, but I have been reminded that that is where Faith comes in. If we knew it all in advance, there wouldn't be a need for faith.

4. WORK: Ron is drawing floor plans on the side. He is planning to continue working for Permapost on a part time basis from Haiti. They have really been amazing in this whole process! My practice is adapting into more of a remote practice and will continually evolve. Our prayer in regards to work is simply peace and direction from the Lord. We are not simply moving to Haiti so that we can still continue to work in the USA. We are moving into full time ministry because that is where the Lord is calling us, but we also see that the Lord very well could be opening doors at least in the short term in order to retain medical insurance and to have some consistent income while we continue to gather support.

5. SUPPORT: I have compiled some partnership packets to give to individuals and churches. If you'd like a packet to show to your church ministry board, please let me know. Or if you'd like one yourself. I have not actually sent them out to anyone yet, but plan to do that soon. I've posted a version of an electronic copy on the "Biography of Family" and "Partnership Packet" tab.

6. HOUSE: Still praying about the house and details of what we will do. We "may" gradually move my mother into this house, but change will be hard for grandma. We may also simply open our house up for missionaries to live in on a short term basis. Our house in Cherry Grove is listed for sale. Please pray that the home sells quickly. We do not have the resources to keep it vacant for very many months. Otherwise, we will need to rent it out again in order to cover the mortgage. Again, we are confident that everything is in the Lord's timing, but this is probably one of the hardest aspects for me personally: waiting on the Lord and His timing. I would love to just know how long it would take to sell the house in order to better formulate a plan, but again that puts the control in our hands (needing to formulate our own plan) vs where it should be: in the Lord's hands and trusting in Him that it will be as it should be.

7. HEALTH: Leaning towards skipping the typhoid vaccines, but still praying on that end. It is probably on the bottom of our "to do" list currently. If the funds come in, we will move forward and vaccinate most likely, but we also do not intend to live in fear of the "what if" when typhoid is rarely seen in the area we are going.

8. MEDICAL INSURANCE: It looks like we will be able to keep Ron's insurance through his work. Praying that this element continues to be taken care of.

9. MY MOM/FAMILY: We're trying to spend more time with extended family before we leave. We will miss everyone, but hope that at least some of the family will come to visit. I will be heading down to the bay area the end of the month to see my mom's side of the family. I've posted a picture of my mom and my aunt.

10. OBEDIENCE: Romans 2:6-8 He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.  

We continue to pray that we will have patience and focus on serving others instead of serving ourselves.

Passport Update

Five hundred fifty-five dollars later and we have submitted for five more passports today. Yeah!! It was quite a process just submitting all the details. It is always a confusing thing when we have not only one name change, but multiple name changes along with birthdate changes and some confusing/conflicting information on foreign documents that were later corrected. Please pray that we have submitted all the correct information in order to process their passports.

We actually only have two more to go. We're waiting on a replacement adoption decree for one of our daughters and a new adoption decree and birth certificate for one of our sons. Please keep those two situations in prayer. Apparently we "can" travel to Seattle and directly walk in the office and pay a TON of money to get those passports within 2 weeks of travel, but we would have to actually have the documents in order to even do that. We're praying that these documents come in soon enough and we will not have to go that route.

Everything is moving forward. There seems to be a million little details in mobilizing such a large group. All the kids are incredibly excited about moving to Haiti. They have brought up the idea of each of them posting on the blog, so we're planning on letting each of them write a short post about their thoughts on moving to Haiti and full time ministry work.

More to come soon.....

Mission Meeting & Guatemala Update

We had a great turn out this evening at the mission information meeting! I'm always encouraged by so many that want to serve. Please continue to pray and spread the word regarding upcoming mission teams. I often feel a little stressed when we're coming up on a team date and the team members are not all secured. It would be amazing if we had it all outlined many months in advance, but I think that's where faith comes in. If we had all the T's crossed and the i's dotted months in advance, we would not have the chance to witness how miraculously things always come together. The Lord continues to tell me,"Don't sweat it. I have it covered!" I have seen some amazing teams pull together in the last minute.

We still have six weeks before we leave for Guatemala. Dates are July 18-26. The cost is $900 plus airfare. For Portland area team members, this makes it around $1600. Basically, this means gathering 16 partners to donate $100 each or 32 individuals donating $50 each. Usually it is a combination of a few things.  I just spoke to a friend that raised $2700 by doing one garage sale. They asked people donate items and advertised what they were doing and why.

There's still a few weekends left to coordinate a HUGE sale and raise the support! We have a VERY small team currently, but we will go and do what we can to serve within the community. It would be very helpful to have some more medical professionals. It would also be helpful to have more support team members (these team members do NOT need medical training).

I did speak to a paramedic/fire fighter just yesterday that is considering joining the team. Praise God! The Lord continues to open doors and provide what we need over and over again. The volunteer fire fighters in Guatemala have been asking if we will have a fire fighter in our group. They are very excited that we may have a fire fighter and he even speaks spanish. I also spoke to an old friend from my days at Western Baptist College and one of her daughters may join the team. Yeah!!

Please post a comment and let us know that you are praying for the team! Please pray that funding comes through for all the team members, job schedules open up, and that we continue to trust and rely on the Lord that the EXACT people that are meant to be on the trip will be on the trip!

Mission Information Meeting

We're having a free information meeting tonight from 7-9pm to talk about short term mission opportunities (medical, evangelism, school, building teams, etc). Please feel free to spread the word! All are welcome. I'll show a couple short clips of some of the past trips and discuss details of the next teams. 

Location: 

Hawthorne Farms Station Center

4660 NE Belknap Court (conference room at my office)

Hillsboro OR 97124

Date/Time: Wed. June 5th from 7-9pm

Community Gathering

Today, David is writing on the blog....

I would like to talk about our family outing to east Portland today. Normally, we attend New Song Community Church in NE Portland. A couple days ago, we were invited to spend some time in fellowship with some old friends who have started a new church farther east in Portland. This was a celebration of their new church building. It was encouraging to see how God works everything out. There are now three churches sharing this same building and they were all present at this gathering. Before they had this building, one of the churches had been meeting in a cafeteria. It was great to see churches come together and work together for God's glory.

Because there was lots of food, all the Sheppard kids had a blast. There was also face painting and various other activities made everyone present a "friend" in the eyes of even the youngest Sheppard, Naomi. Sadly, she didn't have the patience to wait in line for face painting. Instead, she got several temporary tattoos which she adored. A frog and a rainbow were the ones she most admired and showed to all of her "friends". While we were there, Naomi missed her nap. This means that when we finally piled back into the family bus, she quickly fell asleep. Everyone else was tired also. However, the candy kept everyone awake and made the trip back home quite exciting. Forty minutes of sugar induced laughter surprisingly didn't wake Naomi, but Mom and Dad needed to stop at Starbucks. Hillsboro seemed far away and coffee was necessary. I'm sure you understand.