“Hope is a Force of Nature. Don't Let Anyone Tell You Different.” ~Jim Butcher

So... I bought a house.

Anyone who can find this place is invited to the housewarming party (TBD)

It's a Miracle
I obviously did not do it on my own (it wasn't even my idea originally), but with the help of my dad, my amazing real estate agent, who has basically adopted me, even my co-workers, who were ready to cover for me when I had to drop everything immediately to take care of whatever crazy thing came up next (seriously, my real estate agent even admitted that this was one for the books), I bought a house.

This is also why the blog has been quiet.  I'm pretty sure I was losing my mind, and even if I had the time to sit down and write, I don't think you would have needed to read what I had to say when I was in that state.  But now that it's over, I'm just realizing that it really was the house drama.  I didn't think it was, I thought it was just the icing on the cake, but now I really think it was the trying to buy a house for so long and not getting it-- it was slowly eating away at me.  Now that it's over, nothing seems as bad anymore.

What does this have to do with my work at Pomona Hope?  Well, I definitely would not have even considered it if I wasn't working here.  When I was in graduate school, one of the articles I read an article called, " A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures" by C. Tiebout (pronounced tee-bow, like a hair bow) in 1956, which laid out what is now known in the Public Policy world as the Tiebout Model.  Without getting too into it (I hope) and boring anyone reading this, the model basically says that in a perfect world, people would vote with their feet-- meaning that if they didn't like the way a city, state, country, etc. was run (mostly city level though), they would just move.  After I read that, I realized that yeah, we do get to vote, but sometimes the vote doesn't go the way we want it to, and there is the very real possibility that it would go so far against what I wanted it to, that I would not want to live there anymore.  And it's way easier to move if you don't actually own anything.  (But it also turns out that you're way more likely to want to move if you live in an apartment complex with 100 inconsiderate neighbors vs. the possibility of maybe 5 neighbors who could potentially be inconsiderate.)

Anyway, I'd basically resigned myself to never owning a house (unless I won the lottery or married rich) because it was all too expensive for me anyway.  But then I got this job, and I knew what community I wanted to be in.  And I knew that things were bad here already, and I still wanted to fight for it to get better (sorry, Tiebout).  And whoever heard of a missionary who didn't live where they worked anyway?!

Of course, I didn't actually come to the realization of any of this until my dad said one day, "You should think about buying a house.  Tom says that the housing market is really cheap in Pomona right now."

I blew him off for the first couple weeks.  But I also thought about it.  I finally had to tell him, when he brought it up again, that even if I wanted to buy a house, there was no way I could afford the down payment, the closing costs, whatever it cost to fix the place up to livable, etc.  I could maybe afford the monthly payment if I had a roommate, and at that point, the main thing pushing me to even consider it was that the rent was going up again (consistently $100/mo. more every year) and the roommate I had was moving out.  So, he generously agreed to help out.  So glad he was there for the actual buying process!

So the hunt began in May.  I went through 6 real estate agents before finding one that would actually bother with anything in my price range... literally the bottom of what's selling now-- I have so many horror stories.  Not just of houses.  Of the entire process.  I still don't fully understand it, and I think that having been so out of control of the entire process made me desperately want to be in control of everything else, when I really wasn't the take control kind of person.  So when everything else wasn't going perfectly, I didn't adapt well.

This is a good thing to remember in times likes these.

I will not bother you with all the stories unless you ask.  Partly because I don't really want to think about them anymore, and partly because it would take you at least an hour to read them all, and me even longer to type them.  And I have a lot of other stuff to tell you about what's actually happening at the program!

The big news is:  I bought a house!  I now have literal ownership of my mission, and it's in the same neighborhood as many of my kids.  It's walking distance to work, folks.


Math Art Journals
You know those Indiana Jones Math Art-type journals I was talking about teaching to the kids awhile back?  Well, I started on January 10th.  Every Friday, most of my 4th-6th graders come in the afternoons to do this workshop.  It's only been a few weeks, but they really seem to enjoy it.  I've found something interesting about my kids too.  No matter how much they complain about you giving them an assignment, if they get to do some kind of research and they don't have to come up with the perfect answer, they really get into learning.  Last week, they started researching/doing the math to find whether or not all the animals Noah was supposed to pack really could fit on the Ark.  The first half is done: they figured out how big the Ark was.  Just so you know, I haven't actually done this math either, so I'm not sure what they'll come up with.  But the Bible gives specific measurements (although the kids have to convert them to something they understand), and it's possible to figure out (yay Google!) how many animals actually would have needed to ride the Ark.  So, they'll come up with something... stay tuned.

House Cleaning
Don't be fooled into believing everything is perfect all the time.  There has been a lot of drama, and we had to do some house cleaning, but I don't think it's right to go into any details, to protect kids and families involved.  But as a staff, we've learned that we really need a form to record everything.  And it's not just to protect us as an organization, but also our kids and our volunteers.  It sucks that it's necessary, but I guess that's the world we live in.

Volunteer Coordinators
This will probably be confusing because I am the Volunteer Coordinator for Pomona Hope, but Emily learned when she was doing everything that it was easier for her to have one contact person for the bigger organizations that are supporting us with volunteers (schools and churches mostly).  These people are volunteer Volunteer Coordinators.  The one with the most difficult job I think is the one for the Claremont Colleges.  That's 5 schools of college students to keep track of!  And most of these students don't drive, or if they do, don't have cars.  So not only does this person have to keep track of our largest volunteer base and report to me on who is coming on which day, but they also have to find rides for the volunteers, make sure everyone coming in the same car can stay for the same amount of time (at a time when we actually need that many people), etc. etc. etc.  It's NOT an easy job.  And they do it for my eternal gratitude.

I started out the year with one of our former interns being the Coordinator for all of the 5C's, but she had to go and get a really awesome study abroad assignment in Ecuador.  So, I was on the hunt for someone else who could do the job (while planning advent stuff, helping with Christmas stuff, still doing my regular job, and buying a house... can you see why I was stressed?).  I couldn't find any one person who thought they could do the whole job well.  And as big a bummer as that was, I was actually really grateful for the honesty.  And LUCKILY, I found two people who thought that they could do a good job with two different parts of the assignment.  And so far, they're doing an awesome job!  I'm so excited!

Also, through this whole process, I've discovered the wonders of Google Drive, because of a former volunteer coordinator.  Did you know that you can create surveys on Google Drive for free?  Ask as many questions as you want, have certain answers take you to different questions, and have it all automatically update a spreadsheet for your convenience!  WHAT?!  That was what a former volunteer coordinator used, and it was genius.  I spent an entire evening trying to figure out how to link SurveyMonkey answers to a spreadsheet and trying to figure out how to get all the necessary information out of 10 questions so I wouldn't be charged, and it turns out I had the capability all along!   I think I may try to have all my potential volunteers fill out surveys after this year ends.  Keep the information centralized.

I'm also gonna start making random surveys in my free time.  So, be prepared. (Don't worry too much, I just bought a house.)

Fundraising
I found out last week that Pomona Hope only has enough money to continue paying me at full time for 2 more months.  After that, I'm not sure what happens.  I may be cut back to half time.  I honestly don't know how everything will get done if that happens.  So, since I don't really have time to get grants, and most of my salary is fundraised through individual donors anyway, I'm wondering if anyone out there has any new ideas?  Because I'm running out.

I've started a crowdfunding site, so please share it with your friends who might be interested in making sure our kids get the best attention we can give them!  Thank you!!!

Pomona Hope Kids Coordinator Campaign

K-3rd Art
This is pretty much the only thing I have pictures of, so have some pictures of cute kids decorating cookies for MLK Jr. Day!