Cottage Quotes

"Hold on Miss Sara, I have to get my 6-pack ready."

"You're walking so slow you're like a regular snail"

"I'm going to be a pumpkin for Halloween. not just any pumpkin, a big fat pumpkin."

"I need to eat his snack so I can get fat and be a sumo wrestler."

"He's mad at me because I ate all the birds in the world."

"I just went to the dentist. Now the only thing I want to eat is a toothbrush."

"You can be skittles and I'll be m&m's. We'll be best friends."

A second grade girl came up to me and said "Miss Sara, I lost a tooth!"

I replied, "That's awesome sweetie."

She said "No really, I just lost it. I don't know where it is"

Her twin sister proceeded to pick it up off of the floor. 

Last week, I was talking with a fourth grade girl. She told me that "I just need to find somebody to love." She also told me that if I was ever going to do so, I need to get a new look. A look more similar to Selena Gomez. This week, she brought me a magazine with fashion suggestions. 

Passion.

          Since starting my internship at Cottage Cove this January, I have completely fallen in love with serving our kids. We have the privilege of ministering to the smartest, sweetest, funniest group of kids I could ever hope for. Whether it’s Philemon telling his funny stories, or K’niyah writing me sweet notes, or Tioana running up to hug me every time we’re in the same room; I honestly can’t imagine my life without these kids. I love every minute I spend with them. They have blessed me and changed my heart more than I can put into words. 

          As happy as our kids are, it can be easy to forget the kind of life they have to go home to. These past few weeks have been a heartbreaking reminder of that. We have heard story after story about the home life of our kids. Some families can’t afford food to have a meal for the holidays. So many of our kids have dad’s who are in jail, some have never known their dad outside of a prison cell. A little girl is trying to deal with the fact that her dad is an alcoholic who is constantly letting her down. Another has felt all alone since her parents divorced. And that is only a handful of stories out of the 60 kids that we see every day.   

           I have cried many tears for these sweet kids over the past few weeks. It absolutely breaks my heart that they have to go through all of this and experience so much pain. Through all of this and a lot of prayer, God has really revealed to me that this is why I am here. This is my calling in life, this is what I am passionate about. No matter what they have to go through, our kids know that Cottage Cove is a place where they will be loved. It is a place where they are kept safe. It is a place where they learn about Jesus, who loves them more than they could ever imagine. I am so blessed to be able to be a part of Cottage Cove, and I am so grateful that God has placed me here to be a part of these kids lives. 

 My service at Cottage Cove is a missionary internship, meaning that I am responsible for raising the entirety of my own support. I am completely reliant on your generosity to be able to continue living out God’s plan at this time in my life. I am so grateful for everyone who has already supported me throughout this year. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your support and prayers, and I won’t be able to continue my internship without you. I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider financially supporting me as I finish out my internship and pour God’s love into the children of inner city Nashville. Any amount that you are able to give will be very much appreciated, and all designated gifts to Cottage Cove for my support are 501(c)3 tax-deductible. You can make donations online at http://cottagecove.org/internssb.htm. I thank you in advance for your prayers and support, and for allowing me to continue in this ministry.

A Day at the Farm

A few weeks ago we took a few of our kids on a field trip to Ring Farm, and we just had the best time. All of the adults were responsible for a few kids throughout the day, and I had so much fun with my girls. They were so well behaved and had great attitudes the entire time. They spent most of the day making up songs about how much fun they were having and how much they love Cottage Cove. It melted my heart. 

We started off with a little school session. The kids learned about how corn and cotton grow, and even got to walk through a cotton patch and pick a cotton flower to take home. They also learned about miking cows, and had the chance to practice on a cardboard cow.

Makala and Brionna with their cotton flowers.

Sweet K'niyah learning how to milk a cow.

Next up was a hayride through the woods. I think this was my favorite part of the day. The girls spent the entire time laughing, singing songs, and making up silly chants. The destination of our hayride was a pumpkin patch, and everyone got to pick one to take home.

Singing on the hayride.

After the hayride we had a few hours to roam around the farm. We got lost in a corn maze, played on some gigantic slides, and climbed around on a tower of tires. They had glow sticks for sale, and a few of the kids bought some for themselves, and all of their friends. It warmed my heart that they were so willing to spend their money on their friends to they wouldn't feel left out.

Our girls. They called themselves "Team Go Fish" all day.

Girls with pink glow sticks.

I had more fun with the kiddies that day than I have in a long time. I always love it when we get to spend uninterrupted time with them and just show them love. We have some of the coolest kids at Cottage Cove and I'm so happy that I have the chance to get to know them.

fall break.

Our kiddos were on fall break last week, and it was just the best week. We didn’t have to worry about getting homework done; we just got to hang out with the kids. We had a lot less than usual, so we got to spend a lot more one-on-one time with them. We also got to see a lot of the older students that don’t get to make it on a regular basis during the school year. I had so much fun hanging out and getting to know the kids better. We played many games of kickball, football, and dodge ball. We played bible study games and learned the Hebrew alphabet. I learned that one of our kids has plans to play in the NBA someday. If that falls through his next choice is to be a doctor or a lawyer. It warms my heart to hear the kids talk about their dreams. I feel extremely blessed to be able to be a part of their lives. I love them so much and there is nothing else I would rather do than spend time with them. 

photo courtesy of my sweet friend Emily :)

lunch buddies.

My lunch buddy, K'niyah

Every time I walk into the school that most of our kids go to, I feel like a rock star. They don't expect to see us at school, so when they do they get excited. Everywhere I turn there is another kid saying "Miss Sara, Miss Sara!!" and asking for a hug. I can't even put into words how much I love these kids and how much they mean to me. It warms my heart that they are so happy to see all of us who work at Cottage Cove. Anyways, the reason for our visit to the school this week was for Lunch Buddies. Lunch Buddies is a program that allows us to go to the school and eat lunch with one of our kids twice a month. This was our first week, and I absolutely loved it. Having 50 kids in our building everyday, its hard to just get one-on-one time with them. Being lunch buddies gives us a chance to have some time to just be with them without being interrupted by a dozen other kids.  So the fact that I get to go eat lunch and hang out with sweet girl is such a blessing. We talked about her family, her friends in her class, and bible study. I tried, and failed, to get her to eat vegetables. At the end of her lunch time she gave me a hug and said, "Miss Sara, I want you to come eat lunch with me everyday." This was definitely the highlight of my week. I'm already looking forward to next Wednesday.

Kids are funny.

Especially our kids. They constantly make me laugh. Here are some of my favorite funny moments from the past few weeks.

Everyday we walk to the kids school and pick them up, and then walk them back to Cottage Cove. The kids all have partners for the walk, and they have to hold hands. One boy was complaining about having to do so, so I told him that one day he was going to want to hold hands with a girl. He responded: "Yeah, if I'm falling off a cliff."

Last week on this walk, a few boys burst out into song. Their song of choice? Who Let the Dogs Out. 

A 2nd grade boy said: "I actually have eight arms. I just keep the rest of them in my backpack so nobody can see them."

Two third grade boys were talking to me about their girl troubles.

"I don't have a girlfriend because when I try to talk to girls, I get shy."

"Me and my girlfriend have been together since 2nd grade. We have our fights and  disagreements, but we always work it out."

During bible study, a little girl asked "If Mary is Jesus' mom, does that mean that she is God's wife, or are her and God just boyfriend and girlfriend?"

It was explained to me that only people with swag should wear snapbacks. Because if you don't have swag you won't be able to pull it off.

 One sweet little girl said to me "Miss Sara, I love you more than my birthday."

I love my kiddies. 

learning.

This summer went by so fast. It was fun, but it was also crazy.  I had a lot more responsibility than I have ever had before, and that caused me to be stressed out a large majority of the time.

I was in charge of the afternoon program, which meant I had to keep all of the volunteers and work studies busy, write the schedule and keep track of 40 kids, as well as keeping up with the paper work and office work that needed to be done everyday. I was doing the best that I could, but a lot of times I felt like I was doing everything on my own. I basically had to learn as I went along, and I know that there were a lot of things I could have done better. It was not easy, but I know I learned a lot from it. I learned a lot that is helping be able to able grow, and be able to better serve the kids at Cottage Cove.

It was also a really fun summer. The kids had the opportunity to do some awesome things. One of which was to be on stage at the Bridgestone Arena with Roger Waters. 15 of our older students learned a dance that went along with the chorus of Another Brick in the Wall. We practiced the dance with them everyday for weeks. They worked so hard, and their hard work definitely paid off. On the night of the concert we went to the Arena and we had our own dressing room backstage and everything. They did a dress rehearsal, and then we were brought pizza for dinner. When it was finally time for them to perform they were on stage in front of 17,000 people. They did such a good job. I couldn't have been more proud of them.

On stage with Roger Waters.

Hanging out in the dressing room.

The whole group.

 The kids that were in our day camp program got to go on field trips once a week. They went everywhere from touring a Krispy Kreme factory to laser tagging. I was able to go on a few field trips with them, one of which was to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. Along with the gardens, they have a bunch of cool tree houses that the kids got to play on. It was a lot of fun.

sweeties.

Rainbow fish tree house

Pirate ship tree house

Willy.

Jordan :)

Now that the summer is over, we are starting to get back into the routine of picking the kids up from school, helping them with homework, and teaching bible studies. Everything is going great so far, and I think it is going to be a good year. 

If you are interested in reading my support letter or supporting me as I continue my internship, you can do so by clicking on this link: http://www.cottagecove.org/internssb.htm

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support!