Oh my goodness, it has been SO long, it has been TOO long. My insides ache to write. I wasn't even going to come here, because I don't know that I can fully let loose right now, but I have had 2 people in the last week ask me when I was going to write, so I had to at least give a hearty HELLO to all my bloggy friends.
We finally have internet access. It has been 10 months without access except on the phone and I survived! We got it turned back on because we are at the point in our adoption that we really have to be online. There are grants to research and apply for, there are checks to complete online, there are classes to attend via web. It's a brave new world, right? But hey! Here I am!
So, some big updates:
Allan is a Certified Prosthetist! He passed the last exam he took in June and can officially write some letters behind his name. PRAISE THE LORD! For those who know, this is a really big deal for us. For those who don't, it was the 4th attempt at the test and he did it! I'm so proud of my man for persevering. Plenty of people would have quit, but not Allan. That's why I love him.
Allan has a job he loves and won't be pursuing prosthetics for a while. It's a pretty good job and he is really enjoying it and the people he works with.
Allan didn't go to Ghana. But we are praying for the very next trip! He wants to go desperately, but we were unable to raise funds in time.
We moved to Kansas. What on earth? Hey, when you wonder where your next week's worth of groceries are coming from, it's time to go to where the job is. In our case it was in Kansas. We have discussed a lot of states and whether we'd be willing to live there or not, but Kansas was never included in any discussion. Isn't that just like God? ha!
GraceAnne is in public school for 3rd grade. I don't really like it, but she does and she's doing great. She's way ahead of the class for now, so we'll see how it goes once it actually challenges her...maybe she'll want to come back home. She has a great teacher and I'm working on getting a bible study going with her in the mornings.
My dad was diagnosed with stage IV bone cancer and given 6 months to live...3 months ago. The kids and I were back and forth earlier this summer while we were transitioning between Texas and Kansas, but we haven't had any luck selling the TX house yet, so we haven't been able to get back up there since early July.
The littles are great, smart as whips and wild as ever. They love having 7 acres to roam, (though we really just stay confined to the half-acre in the back of the house) and their favorite thing ever is to feed their lunches to the 9 hens we have now. Yes. 9.
Aaaaaaand, we're smack dab in the middle of collecting all the paperwork for our home study. We took a couple months to consider what it was we needed to do and when we finally came around to not being stubborn, we called the agency and she gave us a GO on a local homestudy agency here who we love so far. If my calculations are correct, we should have our homestudy complete by mid-October...
Which means big-time fundraising mode. We raised a little over $600 at the garage sale before we left Texas and the home study will cost us $1400, not including improvements we need to make (more smoke detectors, a CO detector, a fire extinguisher, etc. etc) and then, of course, the actual cost of adopting once we get placed. I'm looking into a catalog fundraiser and need some "coordinators" around the country, so if you think you can show people a catalog (all fair-trade and organic items) and collect some orders, I would absolutely LOVE to talk to you about helping us bring the kids God has for us home.
And how do I feel about all this? Really-I feel pretty great. There has been no room for us to mistake that any of this is anything but the grace of God. We are exactly where we are supposed to be and it gets SO lonely sometimes (though we are close to some old friends and so happy to be near them again!) but He has been so good to us. We recently found a church we think we can call home and we start small group in a week. I'm getting to know all the local hippies via the Farmer's Market and we are really having fun "nesting." Now it's time for all my friends to come and visit! *hint hint*
Signing off for now-the littles have been alone long enough! Love and miss you all! Leave me some love and a message below :)
~Tara
2 comments:
Glad you finally wrote! I had wondered how you were doing. So sorry to hear about your Dad, that must be so hard to be so far away. YAY for moving to Kansas! I'd love to be able to meet up with you when I get back out to Missouri to see my Mom. Congrats to Allan on his certification. Best wishes to all of you in your adoption journey!
I'm so glad that I"m able to sit here and read all your blogs. Not sure if I told you before you left :( I have a blog out there and I just love sitting here writing. :) Love you and miss you.
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