springtime in Georgia

hi dear friends! It's been a long time since i've written and i know this be long - I've put my prayer requests at the end if you want/need to skip ahead. Please know that i am thinking of those of you who are far away from me now, and i'm am relishing in the friendships God has provided while I am here in GA! You are such blessings to me in ways you may never know! From sweet little Elise to laughing inside when i think about Ned Flanders, I cannot help but smile when I think of how I am blessed with my new Georgian "family." Thank you all. To those of you in Alaska - I am only a few short weeks from home for the summer! 7 weeks to be almost exact! I can hardly wait to see you all and hug you and tell you how much i have missed you all! Ok - with that all said, can I now tell you how much I am enjoying this Atlantan spring? :D It is so amazingly beautiful - it sometimes brings me to breathlessness! The crickets are making their "electronic hum" in the evenings, and the frogs are singing their songs. A few weeks ago spring started "springing" with the blooming of the plum trees - these are gorgeous lavender and pink blooms that lined the highways and streets and were plentiful in the yards. The daffodils and narcissus popped up and a flowering bush that i cannot remember the name of, but it looks like azaela sort of. This went on for about a week and the plum trees began to "push out" (this is a "southern" term I learned from my good friend and native georgian neil! - thanks buddy!) which means that the blooms begin to give way to the leaves. At that point the bradford pear trees bloomed - pristine white bloosoms - large - and those trees are everywhere! Someone called them a popcorn tree - and that is what they look like - popcorn popped all over the tree! About a week after that, they began to push out and the dogwood started to blossom! Wow - what a spectacular display of God's amazing artistry! Red Bud trees (with luminous purple blooms all the way down the branches) began to bud and the azaela bushes are also beginning to bloom! We have a great fuschia color azaela bush by our back deck, and a purple one in the front of the house. We have three big pink dogwoods out front too - they are just starting to bloom. I call them strawberries and cream - the insides are cream and the outer flower is pink! I cannot tell you how amazing it has been to witness this process - I'm sure those of you who have experienced it before are thinking, yeah, yeah....but for me it has been incredible. So, shall we talk about the weather? :D It has been unbelievably gorgeous and apparently unseasonably warm - with dips back down in temps. As an example...Sunday i called mom and she told me they were getting 8 inches of snow in alaska - new snow - fresh snow.....I was out sunbathing in the 80* heat! :D I have been laying out on our back deck each weekend, and going to the botanical gardens almost every sunday. I am loving the weather - it's been in the 70's during the day and the 50's or 60's at nite. A few weeks ago we were supposed to get down to freezing again but did not - thank goodness! I didn't want all of the beautiful buds to die! So, the work update. My unemployment ran out in the middle of March. I have applied to numberous places over the last few months that i have been here. NOthing has panned out. about 2 months ago i met a gal who needed some assorted help - i may have written about her last time, i don't recall. I have been working for her about 15-20 hours a week for a while, and am quickly becoming attached to her family. She and her husband have 4 blessed children - Andrew (9), Robby (6), Daron (3) and Elise (less than 2). They have become like a 2nd family to me and while i don't always know how to handle 3 boys together I am learning and loving it! :D I am looking forward to taking them all to American Adventures (or Marion Besendures as Daron calls it) before i come home - it's an amusement park. Should be a lot of fun! God has also blessed me with a job at Enterprise Car Rental! My roommate let me use her car while she was gone, which was such a blessing, but then i was back to weekend rentals at the $10 a day. I can walk to Sheri's for work - it's just about 2 miles, so that worked out great. But about 3 weeks ago i heard from the driver who was picking me up (enterprise will pick you up and drop you off) that the driver/car washer at the Powder Springs location was on a 7 week mission trip in Austrailia and they were looking for someone to fill in. Ok - ready to hear how "GOD" this is? The Powder Springs location is where I first started renting cars when i got here -then i moved and went to a different, closer location. I had gotten to know Brian, Elaine and Jason pretty well when i was renting from them and had even mentioned how fun it would be to work with them! Jason is coming back to work Monday May 10....I leave (God willing) for Helena, MT Friday May 7! They were more than happy to have me on board, and the most exciting thing...I get 50% off the car rental! It is supposed to start after 90 days, but becuase the only way i could take the job was to have a discounted car...we struck a special deal. God is so creative in His dealings with us! I am working about 35 hours a week for enterprise and having a great time! The pay is only $7.25 an hour, but for the car discount it's worth it! I haven't worked this much for this little in a long time, but it is great to be working again and I'm loving every minute of it! I meet wonderful people picking them up and dropping them off, and washing the cars is great fun! I used to have an auto detailing business for those of you who may not have known me then...something i really enjoy doing! Church-wise I am still going to NorthPoint Community at 8:30am, then to Weslyan Fellowship at 11:00 am. I get such different things from each place, but it is interesting how the teaching seems to almost parrellel each other....maybe God is trying to get something through my sometimes very thick skull???? hmmmmm.... I have recieved so much healing from God through the teaching of Andy Stanley - he has such an amazing way of simplifying things. I am still enjoying the small group with Weslyan on Wednesday nites - called a "cell group" because the goal is to multiply the groups once they get a certain size. We are slowly growing and changing - it is a great group of people to be close to. Alpha (a 10-week basic christianity course) just finished up at Weslyan on Tuesdays and we are taking a two week break and then hitting the next session. I have been working with the 2-5 year olds and they are such a blessing! I am looking forward to meeting our new batch of kids! :D I won't be here for this whole next session, but I'll help out until I leave. Those kids are so precious - you should hear them praying....Jesus wants us to be like them... Mid-March I was truly blessed with visitors from Alaska! A group of children's ministry workers from Faith Christian Community (my home church in alaska) came to atlanta for a children's conference. I knew my dear friend Jan and her husband were coming - but I didn't realize 8-10 others were with them! :D It was so much fun to hang out with them - we got to spend friday nite together and then part of the day saturday. Jan and I actually got to spend some precious alone time - we went city exploring, got some great bargains at a few awesome thrift shops (atlanta is FULL of them!) and she even was able to come see where I live and meet one of my roomies! It was so much fun and such a great reminder of home. I'm looking forward to seeing all of them in a few short weeks! So, that's what God has been up to in my life. My time of resting is over - physical resting, but I am still spiritually resting in my loving father's arms. Timewise, I am hoping/planning to leave May 7 for Helena for Kathy's graduation, spend a week there, then head to spokane for a few days. Then over to seattle for a few more days and back to alaska from there - probably around the week before labor day. I am interested in a seasonal job in alaska - someone mentioned working for the railroad or tour companies - that would be fun. If any of you have contacts there please pass them on to me. Thanks - I'm looking for something that is working with people, will offer the opportunity for OT with the availability of staying close to home. Also, I'm interested in exploring places to live. My renter has been an incredible blessing to me - she is wonderful! She has also agreed to stay through May 05, so I am looking at housing options for the summer. My folks have offered that i can stay with them, but that is also where the guests stay....I'm interested to see what else is out there. I am keeping my room here at the house in GA for the summer, and I believe a friend of mine will stay here while I am gone - that's not finalized, but that is what we are hoping for. I am planning to come back in GA either mid-late august or early September, and I am expecting to drive down. All plans are subject to change at God's request, but that is what I see happening at this point. So, prayer request....job and housing for the summer. Thank you all for sharing this adventure with me - it has been so much fun writing these updates and it's almost like a journal for me. I would love to hear back from each and every one of you - :D! Blessings, Debbi Jacklin