The Children of the Corn... I mean, of our apartment complex

I think we have officially figured out what our niche will be in our apartment life ministry. And that is with the kids. Yes, those wild and crazy, unruly kids. They range in ages 3-9 and they rule our complex. I think people are actually afraid of them! They have a grand 'ole time. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy breaking windows; plugging up the Jacuzzis with rocks; having yard sales with the things you found in the trash (unfortunately for them, their clientele figured out the origin of these "treasures" pretty quickly because they had the sale directly in front of the dumpster); and climbing to the very tippy top of the three story high pointy, slippery roof above the jungle gym. Now add to that, going over to Scottie and Breanna's every 20 minutes and banging on the door until they answer (because you just know they're home and they probably can't hear you) so that you can use their "internet" (they think Microsoft Word is the internet). Sounds like the life to me!

Well needless to say, we totally love these kids. We love walking out our door and seeing a kid in a tree pointing a water gun at us and hearing his very stern voice yell, "freeze motherf***er!" followed by the immediate begging and pleading that comes with the apology of a terrified child who just realized they accidentally allowed a grown up witnessed their wrong doing. Btw: This is the same 8 year old who asked my mom a few weeks later, "what's church"? (Of course she explained that it is a place you go with Scottie and Breanna before you go to McDonald's).

These kids are just real and themselves, and we love it. Now for the part that I am excited about.... Here are 6 specific goals we have for these kids in the near future:

1. Take as many of them to church as often as we can (McDonald's included when the tooth fairy's feeling extra generous- j/k we'll sponsor one trip per kid).
2. Arrange a rewards system for them. Something like a star chart or possible where they can earn "beans" (Nanny 911 tip) in order to accumulate enough for a reward (like a camp out night or buying nick knacks in a store). This rewards system will also function for good Sunday school behavior. i.e. 1 star= McDonald's, 3 stars= Happy Meal!! (We have to start low because we'll just be excited if they get out of the negatives).
3. Work on a "Character Counts" kid's club. This will be using the public school's curriculum for this program. Each month we will gather to do fun activities all centering around a particular character trait using the acronym TRRFCC (Terrific): Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Citizenship, Caring). (yeah I think that acronym is a bit of a stretch too- no way does that spell "terrific"- but whatever, it works).
4. Spend time with the main troublemakers (the older kids) discussing leadership and the responsibilities that come with it (I'm so grateful to Spiderman's uncle for stressing this point- makes for a useful teaching tool). Then teaching them to use their natural leadership to create positive change in the world by working on traits that strengthen this positive leadership.
5. This one is my favorite. My husband had the great idea to work together with the maintenance crew to find easy jobs around the complex that he and the kids can do together (i.e. patch all the holes the kids have kicked in the walls). This isn't a form of punishment, rather it will be a time to make the kids feel special because they get to spend time with Scottie (they totally crave positive male attention) and they will get to feel proud of the things they do around the community, as well as seeing how much work goes into keeping it nice so they will hopefully think twice about destroying it. Plus, Scottie can reinforce all the things we talk about in the "character counts kid's club" while doing these activities.
6. And then of course, we want to just love on them. Just spend time with them, let them on the "internet", let them throw water balloons at each other off our balcony (I can't blame them, it works so much better from the 3rd story than from ground level!), do art projects with them, paint the girls' nails, and ask them to be helpers for our event (they love being made to feel important).

So now that you know our goals, I'm counting on all of you to ask how we are doing on them! They're not easy and they take a lot of time and MORE than a lot of patience. So please pray that we've got the stuff to get this done! Actually, we know we don't have what it takes, we count a lot on volunteers and people to support us so let us know if you ever want to help or if you have more ideas, supplies, etc. for us!

P.S. Don't worry, we know how to set boundaries too. We're going to make a red light/green light door hanger. Green light means, "go ahead and knock and we'll discuss it". Red light means, "leave us the hell alone."