Wow! This is a wonderful story! It's a great testimony to the potential for creating your own breaks!

Two are coming home, two are not. We are adding in a family of four from east Africa who are spending their first Thanksgiving in the US. All four young adults will be home for Christmas--let the merriment begin!

Two current, quick, engaging reads: Gone Girl Where'd You Go, Bernadette

My feet issues (including plantar fascitis) also respond to Chaco's. My go to winter/dressier shoes are anything by Earthies. I look for sales in off season, and I have built up to several pairs.

You have been married for 20 years, and I'm pretty sure neither you nor your husband are the same individuals you used to be. This is a great time to take stock of who you are now, build the next stage of life together, and try to move past the grief that comes from change you didn't necessarily want.

I find that BBC and Al Jezeera provide a solid, non-American perspective on the world.

Beautiful! Don't you just love going in there and looking at it?

Congratulations!!!!! :thumbup:

Learning a new language takes a long time, even for a child. For an adult who is literate in his native language, research shows that it takes two years of study to become functional in the new language (even when immersed in it). Fluency takes even longer. Although a 7 year old will learn the language more easily than an adult, it is still a very long term process. This is why our city, which has a lot of immigrants and refugees, does not mainstream recent immigrant children directly into a school. The kids start at a Global Academy so that their classes will be taught with an ESOL overlay until they get their footing with English. Usually at least a year. Please help your friend educate herself about language learning. She will need to be patient and to use strategies that will help her son. If he had no English when he came and doesn't have access to a speaker of his mother tongue, he will be very isolated.

I have been a member of a megachurch for 10+ years. I chose it because Jesus is front and center in everything the church does. The rest is secondary; and pretty great!

" Dh said all open positions are posted on the website, and you should check there regularly." A person should be proactive in his own job search. If the relative is interested, he'll apply and then approach your dh to see if he can give a reference. Anything short of that is allowing you to do his work for him.

Vineyard USA is an association of churches who share core values and a Statement of Faith. Existing independent churches may petition to become Vineyard churches, and other Vineyards begin as church plants. Each church expresses the core beliefs and values in a way that is relevant to its mission and congregation. Some churches are very small, others are huge. Some have traditional worship, others contemporary, and others may be a very non-traditional format. One of the core values is to partner with the Holy Spirit. Some churches may be very charismatic in expressing this value, while others will be more subdued.

I'm a Vineyard, and I will begin working full-time for a Vineyard Community Center in two weeks. You can probably guess that my experience has been good :lol: . Is there something specific you would like to know? Vineyard churches can vary widely, so one church may not be a good fit while another could be perfect. Beth

I can't help with the current problem, but every year I have my Dr. give me a prescription for Valtrex to take as soon as I feel one coming on. I keep a vial on hand so I don't have to go to the pharmacy. I have never been able to identify triggers for my cold sores, and Lysine, Abreva, etc. do nothing for me.

When we were rural, neither softened or un-softened water was palatable. We always had reverse osmosis systems installed. They were worth every penny.