"Biggest Puddle in the World"

We went to Shy Pond for a little while this afternoon. It was wet and muddy and Jack spent most of his time running in this puddle. When he first stepped in it he looked at me with a guilty look on his face. Once he saw that I didn't really care, he just ran through it over and over again. He was plenty gross by the time we left.

Home Study Tomorrow

Our home study is tomorrow at 4:30. I think we're ready. The house is cleaner than it has been in a long time. All except for Jack's room of course. The little creep can't keep his room clean for 20 minutes. I'm exhausted. I'll just have to do a few little things tomorrow so I'll be able to relax most of the day. I've decided to just throw some stuff in the crock pot in the morning and maybe by dinner time we'll have something resembling food. I'm hoping it will turn out to be tortilla soup. We shall see. Anyway, I'll update on how the home study goes.

Distraction

I'm looking at Tenor Saxes on e-bay to distract myself from feeling so anxious about getting another kiddo. Anyway, I found a couple that I would like to get. One of them ends in just a couple of hours and I thinnk it's going to go for a pretty good price. But Phillip is not here and we have not talked about spending a few hundred on a saxophone right now, so I won't be bidding on it...as much as I would like to. Here's a pic. of the one that is ending in a couple of hours. It's a Buescher made in the 1920's. It will probably go for $500.00 or so. I had an instructor that had one of these horns. I love the way it looks. I'm sure it would need some work, but it would be worth it.



This is another one that would be cool to get. They are going for quite a bit more if they're in good condition. This is a Conn "Naked Lady" tenor sax made in the 1940's. They are going for $1,000.00-2,000.00. Here are a couple of pics. You can kind of see the "naked lady." It's really just her upper body and face.





Or I could just drop 3-4K on a pro. model Selmer or Yamaha. But I'd really rather have an old beater to get fixed up.

A call about a placement

Well, we just got a call about a placement.

A boy.

I guess she forgot that we requested a agirl. I kindly reminded her and she said, "Ok, well, nevermind." Now is this something that's going to haunt me forever? Did I just unknowingly turn away the child that was supposed to be ours? As soon as she said "he" my mind began racing thinking of how quickly I could get rid of everything pink in that room. Not possible.

Hopefully she'll call back soon.....with a girl!

Baby stuff

I know all of my faithful readers have just been wondering and wondering what I decided to do about the valance. Well, I took the other one back and my mother-in -law made a valance out of the same material that the bedskirt it made of. Here are the two pictures side by side. I think the new one looks much better. Thanks, Debbie. Oh yeah, and we also added a celing fan to the room. The light fixture that was there was hideous.





By the way, we're having our home study on Sunday afternoon at 4:30. It will probably last three hours or so. Should I have dinner ready and ask her to eat with us?? Will she think I'm sucking up? What if she doesn't like my cooking? What should I do?

Texas Burrito Factory

There's a new restaurant in Freeport called The Texas Burrito Factory. I heard about it from a couple of people, so I thought we should try it. It's a really cute little place in the arm pit of Freeport and their food is really good. I think it's family owned and I think that maybe the family that owns it lives above it. There were like four little kids running around upstairs. The owner said it was racoons. Anyway, they're a lot like Chipotle, except the rice is not as "clean." That's just kind of an inside joke that about two people will get. Actually their rice is just fine. But it's just a pretty good little dive to get a huge burrito. I actully got a big ole quesadilla, aka "Texas Fold 'Em." You can expect to pay about $6.00 or so for an enormous burrito full of all kinds of stuff. They are located at 218 West Broad in Freeport incase any of you are interested in trying it. Their hours are 10:30-6:00 Monday-Friday and 10:30-3:00 on Saturdays, closed on Sundays. You should check it out.

Best Morning Ever

Phillip and I took our CPR/First Aid Training class today. The class was supposed the be NINE hours!! I thought it was supposed to be four. But we finished in just under six. Six hours of lame jokes, scattered cuss words, repeated information, stupid questions, hacking coughs, and ridiculously horrible videos. The "instructor" looked and sounded like she has been smoking about two packs a day since she was nine. Now this next comment is really mean and not very humble so just be warned. In this last month of training to become foster parents, we have been around more ignorant, uneducated people than ever before in our lives. And we have had a really hard time keeping it together sometimes. Just for example, in one of our classes, someone asked if you have to have a G.E.D. to become a foster parent. The answer, surprisingly enough, is NO. No, but you do have to take a G.E.D. equivalency test. Who knew?! So, there you go. There's a glimpse into our last month or so. I realize this is all very mean-spirited.

But the good news is WE ARE DONE!!! We'll have our home study this week coming up and then we'll be on our way to having a little crying, pooping, spitting up bundle of joy. And I have no doubt that this last month will end up being well worth it.

Season of blessing

For a long time now, I have been asking God to pour out a season of blessings in our lives. I have asked this with the knowledge that we are His kids and He loves us and desires to give us good things. Now, I know that just to breathe is a blessing, and our family and home are blessings. Food is a blessing. And I'm not trying to knock those things. But when you've been in a sea of pain, disappointment, and loss for so long, it's really hard to see the blessings sometimes. I mean, on one hand you're always looking for something to be thankful for, but on the other hand, it's hard to be thankful for things that you feel should be a "natural human right." I am finally starting to see God's hand begin to put things in place in our lives. That does not mean that He hasn't been doing that all along. I just couldn't see it. All I could do was believe the promise that He knows the plans He has for me (Jer. 29:11). I am so looking forward to our future now. And that's kind of a big deal. Of course, I know that nothing is certain. I know that things like Cancer, floods, and drunk drivers happen every day. But I am also beginning to see that trials do not have to take a person's soul. I'm finally starting to feel the fog being lifted. Regardless of how long this season is in our lives, I am so grateful to know that it came. And that I noticed.

A Little Update

We have one more class this Tuesday evening. And then we have CPR/First Aid training on Saturday. The director said she plans on doing our home study the last week in July and licensing could come within a couple of days after that if there are no problems. The agency we're using moves very fast. Since we are requesting a mixed race baby, we won't have to wait very long at all. Some people get a baby on the day they're licensed. So, long story short, we'll probably have a little one sometime in eary August, possibly the first week in August. We're pretty excited.

The Process: Foster to Adopt

Maury asked how this process works, so let me explain if I can.

I get to tell Maury something that he doesn't know!! Ok, this is a first, so let me just take a minute to bask in the glory of being able to impart my wealth of knowledge to one who is lacking in understanding.




Ok, so this is the way this thing works. Phillip and I are going through classes to become licensed foster parents. As licensed foster parents, we will be taking into our home "wards of the State." We could take any age, gender child we wanted to take. We could probably have as many as 4 other kids in the house if we wanted to...which we don't. We are specifically requesting an infant whose legal status is "termination" or "adoption." Some kids are put into foster care so their parents can get their acts together and be reunited with their kiddos. This means that the baby we get will either be on it's way to having the parental rights terminated or they will already be terminated. We have to have the baby in our home for 6 months before we can start the adoption proceedings. That time starts the minute the baby is placed with us even if rights are not already terminated. So, until the adoption is final, it is still possible that the baby could be reunited with birth family, not necessarily the parents, but extended family. But the relatives cannot have any history with C.P.S. whatsoever. And unfortunately, there aren't usually any people who qualify within the family. So, once we've had the baby for six months, we can move to consummate the adoption and the child will be legally ours.

Any questions? I gotta go to work!

Lots of Clothes

Man, this kiddo is set....atleast for the first 6 months of her life or so. We have bought a few things here and there in the last few weeks. Some friends of ours passed along a ton of little girl things that their baby has outgrown. That was such a blessing. They must have given us 20 hair bows! I guess their daughter doesn't like those things.

I really don't like to do laundry, but I have been having fun getting all these little clothes washed and put away....and taking them out and looking at them and putting them back.....and refolding them and putting them away some more. It's crazy, I know. Check out these little ruffled panties I bought today. Aren't they cute?!



F.Y.I., I asked about putting pictures on the internet...big fat NO, NO!
So, unfortunately, we will not be able to post any pictures of her on our blogs or flickr pages. But once she's adopted, we'll be posting them like crazy!

Not enough posts??

Ok, Aunt Gale, Phillip told me that you said we don't blog enough. I just want you to know that I have had 240 posts in about 16 months, which is an average of about 3.75 posts per week. I think that's pretty dang good. Now, if you want to say that Phillip doesn't post enough, that's fine, but leave me out of it.

Ladies, I need your advice.....Men, go find something else to do

I bought a valance today and I'm just not sure if I like it or not. At first I bought a different one and got it home and didn't like it at all so I took it back. Then I got home with this one and it was missing one of the rings. It's a balloon shade so it has all these plastic rings on the back or it so you can raise and lower it, but on the upper left it is missing the ring that the other ones connect to. Hard to explain, but anyway, it took me about 2 hours of messing with it to get it up there looking decent. But now I'm just not sure about the pattern. I know it's "in" now to have different patterns together. But I'm just not conviced. It's not in the picture but I have a laundry basket with a similar flower design. I wanted to have a valance to match the bed skirt, but I would have to order it on line and I'm just too impatient for all that jazz. Blah, blah, blah, I sound like my mother....

Anyway, honestly, what do you think? It's kind of hard to tell from the pictures.

I got a bunch of Jack's neutral baby clothes together and got them washed, folded, and put away last night. We finally got the July schedule for the agency we're using and it looks like we'll be done with our classes on July 18th. Old Codger Fire Inspector came yesterday to tell us we need three more smoke alarms in our tiny little house. That will bring us to five smoke alarms for 1300 sq. feet. Whatever, we'll do it. Whatever it takes.

The reality is slowly starting to sink in.

There are so many things I wonder about regarding the baby and this whole experience. How will we feel the first time we see her? Will she feel like our daughter? Should she feel like our daughter? She won't legally be ours until we've had her atleast six months. There's no guarantee she'll become ours at all. What will I refer to myself as with her? Mommy? Is that a smart thing to do? I just don't know the right answers to any of these questions.

Some friends and acquaintances are expecting babies right now. Some of them, their first. From the moment they hear that little heart beat or see that baby on ultrasound, they will be in love. With every bit of knowledge they have about that baby, they will fall deeper in love. I really think we love Jack more today than on the day he was born. We didn't really know him then. He was cute and totally dependent on us for everything. We would have laid down our lives for him in an instant if we had to. I think in the beginnng, the love we feel for our kids is more primal and instinctual.

It's like they (we) are woven together in the womb and as that's happening the love between parent and child is being woven together too. I think the weaving of that love never stops. Sometimes the weaving is repair work to mend parts where the threads have pulled away. Sometimes the parent or child may get stuck weaving in the same place until the fabric in that place becomes too thick or knotted and takes some effort to find our way out of it. Sometimes the bump in those places never goes away. Sometimes there is not enough attention given to certain areas and those areas become thin and worn and can't be trusted to keep things together. There are holes. Some are big enough for others to see and some you can just feel and you hope nobody, not even the child, knows about those. The fabric of love between parent and child is beautiful, flawed, always changing, always being worked upon in some way or another.

I think the way I will begin to love this child is just very delicately. Little by little. The weaving has already begun as we begin to prepare for her. As I touch the clothes that will be hers and think about what she may look like. As we think of a name.

I'm ready to see her face. I'm ready to start getting to know her.


John 10:14
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Baby Purchases

I found these two items on ebay to hang in the nursery.







Probably once the kid has a permanent name, we'll get some wooden letters and spell her name somewhere on the wall. Just imagine....

S H A A K - T I

spelled out in pretty pink gingham letters hanging from ribbon over her crib. Won't that be cute?



Ok, maybe not.

I also bought some girlie clothes today. I found some great deals at JCPenney and Dillards. I could probably turn them around on ebay for a decent profit but then I'd have to go out all over again and buy more stuff. Girl clothes are so funny. Many of them come with these little built in panties.....so cute.

Jackson quote

"Maybe when I get to be like 48, I can defeat a gorilla."

Baby Names

We're trying to think of some baby girl names. Really, the truth is that I'm trying to think of some baby girl names. Phillip and Jackson are no help at all. Here are a couple of Phillip's suggestions:

-Shaak-Ti (from The Clone Wars)
-Symphony

And here are two that Jackson has suggested:
-Pippin
-Rock-Pa or Rock-Puff, I'm not sure which (I think his Granddad helped him with that one.)

Many more ridiculous names have been discussed but I can't seem to think of them right now. I'm thinking about maybe Claire or Olivia. I guess we'll have to see what name she comes with and see if it's something we can live with or not.

Nursery pics

OK, even though the baby won't actually be here for about a month and even though the bedding will need to be washed before the baby gets here, I couldn't resist putting it together in the crib to see what it will look like. I'm hoping to buy or get one of our moms to make a pink valance. I finally found the rug that we're going to get. It took me entirely too long to find one that will work. And where did I find it? Walmart.com of all places. I think it's big enough to cover most of the tattered wood floor. It still looks pretty boring in there, but I think it will come together.

Done Painting

Phillip and I just finished painting the nursery. We had to do quite a bit of detail touch up work to cover the remnants of the old paint job. We'll probably be getting the rest of the nursery together tomorrow excluding rug, pictures, etc. I still have to buy that kind of stuff.

I don't think the reality of having a new baby in the house has hit us yet. It still doesn't seem like it's really going to happen. I feel a little out of place looking at baby stuff at the store. I avoid eye contact. Like I don't belong there. Like someone's going to find me out and say, "Hey, what are you doing here?" It feels like a charade.

We won't believe it until that baby is in our house. A new baby. In our house. Cool.

Kilz = Nasty Stuff

I started priming the walls this evening. Kilz smells:

TERRIBLE!!!!

HORRIBLE!!!!

NO GOOD!!!!

VERY BAD!!!!

Erin came over to help me. Thanks, Erin.

As you can see in the pictures, I will need to do two coats to cover the insane paint job that was there. I told Phillip that once he got the room cleaned out that I would paint and he wouldn't have to help.

I have since changed my mind.

We're working out a deal. The details of the deal are not pertinent to this post.

Nursery Before

The room is almost ready to paint. I will probably tape it off this afternoon and start painting either tonight or tomorrow evening. This is the paint job from Jack's nursery. We had a really cute transportation border up where the red is now. But Jack began to peel off the border while he hung out in his crib. So I took it down and painted red where the border had been. It wasn't a very relaxing room as you can imagine. So, I'm hoping a coat of Kilz will get rid of this and then I plan to paint it "toasted almond." Which basically means I'm painting it a really light tan kind of color. Anyway, I'm hoping the room isn't too blah when it's finished. It looks good in my head but that doesn't necessarily mean anythinig. I may put up a border, but I'm not sure yet. Anyway, I'll be posting some pictures as we complete the room.

Nursery Stuff

I know that I haven't written in a while. There is really absolutely nothing going on to write about. I have no deep spiritual truths to share (not that I have many of those anyway). Jackson hasn't been doing anything terribly noteworthy except getting into trouble on a daily basis. Nothing catastrophic or amazing has happened in our lives at all that I know of.

I did order nursery bedding a couple of weeks ago though. We have gotten the room cleaned out that will be the nursery. So either today or tomorrow I'm going to begin to paint over the crazy paint job that is currently in that room. Here's a picture of the nursery stuff I ordered.



We're thinking of requesting a girl. Initially we weren't going to request a gender because you can't request a gender if you have a biological child. But almost nothing about this is left to chance anyway. We have to request an age and race, so we might as well request a gender too. We haven't decided yet exactly what we're going to do.....still time to think it over. But if we do get a girl, I'll be putting some pink stuff here and there like a pink crib skirt, pink valance, etc. Anyway, that's kind of where my brain is at lately. We've gone through a couple more classes since the orientation. We'll be going through about 7 classes during the first couple weeks of July. Fun stuff, let me tell you. Anyway, sorry that this blog has been almost as uniteresting as some of the other blogs I visit. Don't give up on it. Someday something amazing might happen and you don't want to miss it.

New Car...sort of

After driving back and forth to Pasadena twice, we have a new used truck. It's pretty cool. It has a V8 engine, not that I'll need that driving around Brazoria County, but hey, the more power the better. It's a '98 Ford Explorer with 58,600 miles on it. It's in really good shape considering it's 8 years old. Hopefully in a few months we'll be getting something else so we can ditch my falling apart, no air conditioning, no windshield wipers, hail damaged '96 Chevrolet Cavelier. We're thinking about a Honda Accord. The coupes look pretty dang cool. See.....

A two door is not real practical I guess. But we'll have the Explorer to drive kids around in. And half the time Jack gets in the front door and climbs into the backseat anyway.

We got a good deal on the Explorer. And the next car we buy will atleast 5 years old too. Well, anyway, that's what we did today. It was a really long day.

Stuff and Junk

I've had some things on my mind the last few days to write about but I just haven't taken the time to do it. We've had a lot going on.

The insurance co. declared our car totalled. So for the last couple of days Phillip and I have been looking at used cars on-line. We've narrowed it down to a couple that we're going to go look at tomorrow morning. We found what looks like a great deal on a '98 Ford Explorer. I know they don't get very good gas mileage, but we plan on just driving it around town. After Phillip's job situation is more secure, we plan on get something a little newer that gets better gas mileage.

We replaced the vanity, sink, faucet, mirror, and light fixture in our (only) bathroom. I say we because I picked the stuff out and watched as they actually put it in. We're hoping the sink doesn't leak tomorrow when we try it. It looks so much better than the junk we had in there. The wallpaper is still awful but we plan on doing something about that in the next couple of months.

Our dryer stopped working all of a sudden. It's fairly new so I have no idea what's going on there. We were already behind on laundry as it is.

Jackson has not been getting as much one on one attention lately with all this other stuff going on and it's starting to show in his behavior. Phillip's parents are out of town and they give him lots of undivided attention. And my mom used to see him about 10 hours a week and she hasn't seen him as much lately either. So, he's kind of stuck with us and we haven't been as attentive as we should be lately. I need to really make an effort to hang out with him more. Someone asked us recently if we would consider moving to Houston if Phillip got a job there. The answer: NO WAY! Jackson needs his grandparents. I'm not just writing this to kiss up to anyone. It is the truth. Phillip's parents and my mom are such a vital part of his life. It would take something completely outlandish for us to move.

Bounce U

Today was my brother's boys' birthday party. Garrett will be six in a couple of weeks and Kyle was four a couple of days ago. Anyway, they had their birthday party at this place called Bounce U. It's like this indoor bounce house place for kids and adults. It's pretty cool. Here are some pictures of my brother kicking my butt in the boxing ring.

But that's ok because I was laying the smack down on some little kids.

Nasal Pot

A friend of mine responded to my previous post saying that I needed to get a nasal pot to clean out my sinuses. Well, I decided to see what in the world a nasal pot looked like and this is what I got. Visit this website to get your own. Thanks for the suggestion, Lizanne, but I think I'll pass.



Just a thought: How in the world did they get this poor girl to pose for this picture. You couldn't pay me enough.

Sick again

I started feeling a little crummy Monday night. So Tuesday morning I started taking Zicam. Who knows if it really works or not but I figured it was worth a try. Maybe it has helped a little, but now it's Friday and my voice is pretty much gone and I'm fairly sure I have a sinus infection. I'm pretty sure about the sinus infection thing because of color and consistency.....would you like for me to go on? I could go on.....

Anyway, we were supposed to help with worship at a church in Pearland on Sunday morning and a church in Tomball on Sunday night. I don't think either of those things are going to happen. I hate to leave those churches in a lurch like this, but there's not much I can do about it. This will be the second and third time in the last couple of months I have had to bail because of being sick. Is it a sign? Maybe so.

First Class: complete

We went to our first class tonight with The Arrow Project. We watched a video that probably lasted like 45 minutes of the founder giving his life story. Phillip said it was all done in one take. I don't notice such things.

I have been reading up on this stuff for a while, so there weren't any real surprises. We will probably be done with our classes by the middle of July. We could be licenced as early as late July/early August. One thing I didn't realize though is that even if a baby is abandoned, CPS has to take every attempt to contact the biological family and terminate the rights. She made it sound like the quickest that can happen is about 90 days after birth. So, that's a little scary. And, then we can't start the adoption process until the child has been with us for six months.

We are just going to have to go into this knowing that we might not get to adopt. We will just love the baby to pieces whether we have him/her for 3 weeks or forever. Really, none of us are guaranteed that we'll have our kids tomorrow. The concept of being stewards of our children really hits home when it comes to foster to adopt.

Foster/Adopt Update

We have the first of about 10 classes tomorrow evening. Tomorrow is just orientation. We'll have 2 or 3 more classes in June and then 7 classes in July. We should be done with all of our classes by the end of July. In the meantime, we need to get our application finished and turned in, have our house inspected for fire safety, and take CPR/First Aid training. Once we have finished our classes, they will be do a home study and then we'll be licensed. July is going to be crazy and exciting getting the nursery ready and taking classes. So that's it for now.

Oh, yeah...

I forgot to mention that while we were standing out there in the rain waiting for the tow truck, we got attacked by killer ants. People who have been in a wreck standing out on the side of the road look stupid enough without frantically getting ants off their legs. I wish I'd had a bag to put over my head at that moment.

Wreck

Well, we were in a car CRASH!!! tonight. Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it spun our car around and the impact hurt pretty good. Phillip pretty much summed up how I feel about it on his blog so I won't bother re-writing it.

Well.....I guess I'll write a little....

I really don't know how many glares, eye rollings, unpleasant groans, and WATCH OUT!!(s) I have to give him before he starts bothering to pay attention to what he's doing behind the wheel. Ok, enough said. I'm done. I'm glad we're o.k. It could have been much worse.

Isn't he cute?

I took this at the Sea Center a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what kind of fish it is. Nor do I care. I think he was smiling at me.

My First Car

Since Phillip posted the car he wants to get on his blog, I thought I would post the kind of car I want to get......again.



When I was 16, I got my first car. It was a 1974 Chevrolet Caprice Classic 2 door. It was awesome. It had power windows and locks, cruise control, and nice vinyl interior. It had been owned by some old lady who kept it in the garage and rarely drove it. It had the original 8 cylinder engine. Mine was not the color of the one in the picture. Mine was a kind of grey/green color. And the one above is a convertible, which mine was not. I think it had under 100,000 miles on it when we got in '94. We paid $1,000 for it. Quite a steal.....

And I had no idea how truly cool that car was. I just kind of thought it was some cheap piece of junk and I took horrible care of it. We ended up having to replace the original engine with an 80's Malibu engine and after that it ran like crap. One time in high school I ran it through some really high water over in front of Girouard's in Freeport. The water was a couple of inches below the bottom of the window. It had rained like crazy that day and I decided to ignore the detour because I thought I could get through it. Water got all inside the car. My friends were freaking out like they thought we were going to drown or something. Anyway, after it sat for a couple of days, it started right up. This was before we had to replace the engine. I think the standing water, the donuts on the beach, and the fact that I never changed the oil caused the engine to eventually blow. After the whole flooding incident, it smelled horrible. I ended up selling it to my cousin a few years later for a few hundred dollars.

Man, that car was cool. I had people asking me all the time if it was for sale. And I thought they were crazy. I just didn't realize it was kind of a classic. An ugly classic, but a classic just the same. I would really like to get another one someday. I can't even describe how fun that thing was to drive before I blew the engine.

Ministry Opportunity

Lately Phillip and I have been hoping that some opportunities would arise for us to lead worship at some other churches. We have done some of that here and there since we got married almost six years ago but it's been pretty sporadic.

We've been talking to a pastor of a church in Pearland lately and it looks like we might be going there to lead worship on a regular basis. It is a new church that is just getting started. Their plan is to be a multi-racial church. This could be really great experience for us to start easing our way into music ministry. We are going to be visiting and leading there the first two Sundays in June. If we feel like that is where we are meant to be, we will be leaving our current church and hanging out there on Sundays. We have not committed to this church yet. We are going to check things out before we commit. We will still remain connected to our current church. I will still be working in the church office for a while and we'll probably both be helping out with Saturday night services sometimes. In a way it will be hard to leave, but we've been feeling like our time there has been drawing to a close.

I'm excited about the possibilities. I'm excited to be singing every week.....and I'm scared to death to be singing every week. I'm looking forward to working on worship stuff with Phillip every week. And I'm also a little apprehensive to be working on worship stuff with Phillilp every week. We don't always see eye to eye on things, but I think this could be very enriching for our marriage. Knowing that we are probably going to have a multi-racial family, it is very appealing to be part of a multi-racial church.

So if you're part of the BPF family, you'll be seeing Phillip and me on stage this Sunday. And you possibly won't be seeing us up there again, atleast not regularly. I'll keep you posted of our final decision. Please pray for discernment.

Foot Cleaner

We went up to the church office earlier this week so I could do some work. Maybe it was last week...I don't know. Doesn't matter. Anyway, I told Jackson that his feet were really dirty. So a little while later I caught him "washing" his feet. He was licking his hands and rubbing the dirt off of his feet and then re-licking his hands and rubbing more dirt off. It's funny to be around a kid that is particular about his hands and feet being clean but has no real concept of germs. Like if he's eating at the coffee table (which he does sometimes at lunch) he'll wipe his hands on the floor because he doesn't want food remnants on his hands. I always provide a napkin or two for him to use but I guess the floor or his clothes are more convenient.

Makes absolutely no sense.

Nepal Blog

A couple of friends of ours, Tommy Stunz and Danny Crocker along with some other guys, are currently in Nepal on a mission trip. Those guys along with their wives here in Texas have started a Blog to document their experiences. It would be a great idea to check it out.

The Way to Nepal

We're home

The Conference was good. They really cram a lot of information into a weekend. The wife of one of the speakers spoke in the women's session. She has given birth to EIGHT children....all by c-section. In addition to that, she has had SIX miscarriages. She has been pregnant a total of FOURTEEN times in the last 17 years. And she still wants to have more children. Wow. She homeschools all of their children and she still seems fairly sane.

I took a few pictures that turned out kind of interesting. They are actually of me in the bathtub. I know, I'm sure you would be perfectly content to live your entire life without having to see pictures of me in the bathtub, but here they are anyway. And if you're reading on bloglines, don't worry, they're clean. No pun intended.

Weekend to Remember Day:1

Phillip and I are at a Family Life Marriage Conference. We have been married for six years in June and we have never been to any kind of marriage conference. Since Phillip's dad did our pre-marital counseling, I'm not sure that really even counts. So, anyway, it's a wonder we're still living under one roof. Just kidding. No, really, just kidding.

Anyway, we got to the hotel and waited in line to check in. The couple in front of us spent 10 minutes or so (ok, maybe not that long) griping to the check-in lady because they had reserved a King sized bed and were getting two doubles. They did lots of complaining and threatening to talk to the manager and all that stuff and still ended up with two double beds. So when we finally got up there to check in, we smiled and graciously accepted our two doubled beds even though we reserved a King because we saw their fruitless efforts. So last night, at a marriage conference, Phillip and I slept in separate beds. We have a King at home so we're used to not touching each other during the night while we're sleeping. We felt like June and Ward Cleaver. But like a friend of ours at the conference said, "You only need one bed for a few minutes anyway." Ok, Debbie, I'll stop there. I know you're reading this.

We thought we were getting a good deal because they put us on the Concierge floor and they have complementary breakfast on these two floors.....Mon-Fri. So much for that.

We sat next to a pen clicker and her husband. I tried and failed to steal her husband's book on accident. I don't know why click pens even exist. That is one of my few pet peeves. Well, there are more than a few. Pretty much any kind of repetative noise drives me crazy very quickly. So pen clicking falls into that. Also, half of what Jackson does in his daily life falls into that category also. I think today before we sit next to anyone I'm going to ask to borrow their pen. If it's a clicker pen, I'm either going to pretend to use it, give it back, and sit as far away from them as possible or I'm going to throw it across the room and run away. Not sure which yet.

We ended up sitting right next to people from our church. We were going to try and avoid anyone we knew, but it was cool. During the prayer me and my friend from church were making sex jokes. We didn't know the guy was praying until he said "Amen." We both thought it was pretty dang funny.

Anyway, that's it for now. I think we're supposed to learn something about conflict resolution today so that should come in handy.

Uncertainty

It seems that right now there are many things in our life that could change over the next couple of months. We are excited and a little scared.

Phillip is looking for a new job for next school year.

We are going to start pursuing foster/adopt processes very soon. New baby possibly by the end of the summer!!

And we are not sure what we are supposed to do about church stuff. We have both been wanting to get into worship leading stuff and it looks like an opportunity may be surfacing. We need to try to figure out where/when God wants us to do what.

Our life as we know it right now could be very different in just a few months. If only I had a crystal ball....

He actually did it!

Today was Splash Day at Jackson's preschool. They had this really big blow up slide. Most of the kids couldn't wait to get on it. But just as I thought, Jackson was aprehensive. I encouraged him a few times to get on it and he just said he didn't want to. Then he finally told me why. It is because there was some mud at the end of the slide that that you climb up. He didn't want to step in the mud. He was out running around in the grass barefoot, getting in and out of little pools filled with grass and dirty little kids. But he wouldn't go down this awesome slide because he didn't want to get mud on his feet. Unbelievable! So, I helped him to get onto the slide without having to step in the mud and he loved it. Then he went down it two more times and tried his darndest (sp?) to avoid the mud. I can't believe our kid is a clean freak.

Spiderman goggles

Some family friends bought Jack some Spiderman swimming stuff for his birthday. It came with Spiderman goggles, flippers, and glove things that shoot water out like webs.....what will they think of next? Anyway, Jack really likes the stuff and just wants to wear all of it around the house and out in public. The house, o.k. ...public, not o.k. So, here are a couple of pictures of him in his Spiderman goggles. Enjoy.

Mother's Day Pledge

I will love you unconditionally.

I will love your daddy more than any other person on this planet.
I will love myself so that I will not resent the other people I love.
I will try to teach you the things God is teaching me.
I will notice and point out when you do good things.
I will teach you to respect women.
I will always try to see you for who you are and not just who I want you to be.
I will pick my battles.
I will fight for you if you are not able to fight for yourself.
I will hug and kiss you not matter how big you get.
I will be safe to talk to.

I will not let you get away with being lazy.
I will not let you be one of those kids that adults dread to be around.
I will not let you take advantage of people.
I will not foster in you a sense of entitlement.
I will not always be there to catch you.
I will not let you be a quitter.
I will not do things for you that you are capable of doing yourself.
I will not let you lie your way out of trouble.
I will not be your friend.
I will not be a pushover.

I will not be perfect.

Change of Plans

You've probably read previous posts on this blog about our plans to adopt from Korea. Phillip and I are now seriously reconsidering that plan. I have had some feelings of doubt lately about if this is really the right thing for us to do.

I called a friend of mine the other day who works for CPS to see if she could give me any kind of information. We just wanted to atleast look at some other options before we get too commited with Dillon International. I kind of thought that she could confirm my thoughts that trying to adopt through CPS was not the best thing for us. But much to my surprise, we have come to realize that it just might be the best thing for us.

I spoke with a lady who works at The Arrow Project, which is an agency in Angleton that places kids through CPS. She told me that there are many healthy newborn infants that come through their agency that need permanent homes. The child would start out as a foster child then after six months, we could move to adopt. It is a little more risky because there is always a chance that a member of the birth family could want to reclaim the baby. And that is a little scary. But they do not place infants with families wanting to adopt unless they feel as sure as they can that they will not be reclaimed by birth families. It is very sad but many of these babies are abandoned and no one in their biological families can take care of them. It sounds like this process could move rather quickly if we decide to go in this direction. She told me that if we will adopt a child of a mixed race that we could have a newborn straight from the hospital and that the wait would not be very long at all. Also, there is absolutely no cost to us.

It all seems to good to be true. We have not burned any bridges yet with Dillon International, but we are really starting to feel excited about this change of plan. It is very possible that we could have a new baby as soon as the end of the summer. We are going to an orientation meeting early in June and we'll just see where we go from there.

If you're reading this, thanks Pennie.

That's sick

I went into the playroom today to pick up a few things and I saw this:



Elmo chopping on a large helping of Nina Turtle.

Bubbles

Josh and Ashley got Jackson some giant bubble wand thing for his birthday. It's pretty cool. I took a few pictures but most of them didn't turn out very well. Jack was popping the dang things before they were barely in the air.

Party Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Jackson's birthday party. We had a good turnout. I ordered 20 pizzas and gave about 7 or 8 of them away. He had a good time and got lots and lots of stuff.

Jackson couldn't seem to make up his mind what he wanted the "theme" of his party to be so we decided on "Jackson's favorite things." I think the cake turned out pretty cool.

Jackson got a kick out of Yoda having icing on his feet.

Jackson got really mad because he wanted to take a big bite directly out of the cake and I wouldn't let him. It took mean ol' Nanna to hold him back. I like Kylie's face in this picture. She looks shocked at his horrible behavior. And so was I.