Hello

I am in the middle of baking cookies this morning.....mini chocolate chip and also oatmeal raisin cookies. Yum! Our house smells wonderful! :) And, I'm also in the middle of working on our piles of laundry -- but, while they're baking and washing/drying -- I have a few moments and thought I'd give a couple of updates:

1st) We finished our Foster Parenting Training classes last week! Ten weeks....DONE! YEAH! It was a long 10 weeks, and we're glad to be done. We learned a few things, but we were also disappointed because we didn't feel like they gave as much information as they could have. We've had to find out more information on our own, through research and talking to others. The last night of class, they invited 2 families that had done fostering/adopting and had them share their stories and the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was interesting. One of the families had never had children before they fostered/adopted, so their story was interesting to listen to, but a lot of it didn't relate to us, because some things they said was just 'duh' to us because we've been parents already. But, the other family was amazing! They have 7 children, 4 of them through adoption through the foster care system. Their story was so heartwarming and they've been through a lot with them and just with the whole system and biological parents, etc. It was wild. For example, one child they got was 18 months old and only spoke German and had been living in a German prison for 6 months prior to entering foster care! Can you imagine?! And, yet to hear how this child is doing now and how they are thriving and growing. It's quite amazing the impact they've been able to have on these children, even though there's been many trials along the way.

So.....where we're at right now is.....we've finished our training and have our second home study this week with our agency. Then, we need to have a home study with the state licensing board, plus we have to finish up all our paperwork - which includes medical check-ups, vehicle 'check-ups', and a lot of other paperwork. Once everything is sent in, we're looking at 30-60 days for approval. Ours might be a bit longer since we lived in Iowa and they have to do background checks in both Kansas and Iowa. Not sure.

Steve is totally excited about it all! As for me......I'm still scared, but just taking one step at a time, and trusting God to lead us step by step. The other day I was able to talk to a Mom that attends our church and they have 7 children and have adopted a lot and done the foster care system, too, and she was so good for me. When you're taking classes through the system and spend 10 weeks hearing the world's view of all this, it can seem daunting and overwhelming and it's easy to lose sight of why we're doing this in the first place. So, talking to this Mom was so good for my heart. She encouraged me to remember that we're partnering with God's heart in all this and of His love for the 'fatherless' and the spirit of adoption. It was such a good reminder for me. She encouraged me that 'being afraid' is normal, but encouraged me to hide myself in God's heart. She also gave me some practical things for decisions we need to make about the exact age we'll take, and just overall what we can accept as a family and what child would work 'best' into our family. She encouraged us to not feel 'forced' or 'guilty' by the system, but rather to just take our time and wait for the child that GOD himself has chosen to be a part of our family. It was really good re-focusing for me!!!!

So, we're still walking all this out. :)

2nd) We have someone moving in with us next week. Yep. I'm looking forward to that. Her name is Chrissy and she and her sister were here for an IHOP conference a few weeks ago. She's the gal that I trained back in Iowa and is now going on to get her NASM personal training certification. She is moving to Kansas City for a bit and will be living with us for two months. She's a great gal and I'm sure it'll all go great. We've never had anyone living with us, so it could prove interesting, but if we had anyone living with us - she's great! Thankfully we have a guest room. With me going back to work, it'll be so helpful to have someone here to help with the boys, too. :) She'll be working part-time, too, but I think it'll all work out great.

3rd) Tonight we're going to an informational meeting about The Daniel Academy. We're praying about sending our boys there next year, or at least Brennan. He so wants to go there. It was started by some parents at IHOP and it's a combination homeschool/private school. I don't know a ton yet, but we're going to find out tonight. We're anxious to learn more.

4th) My whole work situation is 'interesting', at best. I THOUGHT I had a job last week,but am not getting any responses from the lady I interviewed with. There was to be training last week and I've tried to contact her, even though she said they'd contact me, and I'm just not getting any more information. It's been frustrating to say the least. So, I'm not sure what's going to happen with that. I'm also looking into more at-home work. There's some really interesting possbilities (THAT ARE VALID!) out there, so I'm checking into different ones. I'm not sure what'll happen with everything -- I'm learning, more than ever before to wait and trust. Oh, another thing I'm working on is a new blog -- a health & fitness blog, from a spiritual perspective. I'm not sure how it's all going to work yet, but I'm looking forward to doing some more writing about all this! :)

Well, I think that's about it -- oh my house smells soooooooooooooo yummy with all these cookies on the table. I'd better hurry and freeze some of them so they don't all get eaten! :)