Bad Blogger Award

I am awarding myself with the first ever "Bad Blogger Award." Not because my blog is bad or that I am a bad person blogging, but because I have been bad at posting blogs on a regular basis. I know what it is like to check blogs for updates and get nothing. I know what it is like to be bored out of your mind, hoping, praying, that someone will post something, anything worthy of wasting a few minutes to read. I'm sorry, really I am. I know you have heard it all before and there is really no excuse except that life often gets in the way. And work hasn't even been busy and we don't even have any kids...yeah, there is absolutely no good reason. And so, if you have humored me by reading through this first paragraph, you should know that this will be really random, just because it can be. And just because random is my middle name, you know, right after Kay. (I have two middle names) And because sometimes it is fun to say random things that run through my mind with no purpose just to see what kind of reaction you will get. Really I should carry a camera to capture the expressions received as a result of utterly pure randomness. That is a thought. Christmas has come and gone. As is usual, I put up the Christmas lights and decorations inside myself. Some people say I should get B.J. to help, and sometimes I think that would be a great idea. And other times I realize I really do like doing things myself. I get some sort of satisfaction or pride in doing things myself. So this year, we have two trees in our living room. I love them both. One is random homemade ornaments and ornaments from vacations, yearly ornaments, etc and the other is red white and green. I love it. I bought the second tree this year and it is a 9 foot tall skinny tree. love. it. While I was putting everything out and as I continue to look around at the Christmas decor, I can't help but think that next Christmas, I'll have children in my house and traditions to be started. Maybe they'll love decorating as much as I do. And as long as I can do my one pretty tree my way, I am okay to give control of the other decorations over to whomever will help. Kids make Christmas more memorable. I love Christmas decorations. I don't know what you think, but since it takes me a day and a half to put the decorations up, I don't want to take them down the second Christmas is over. I am thinking I'll take everything down just after B.J.'s B-day (which is the 6th). The decorations will be up a total of about 6 weeks. I like it. They make me smile and anyone who knows me, knows if leaving decorations up will make me smile more, then leave them up we shall. I tend to be too serious about life and must get over that. We have submitted our home study for a couple of groups of kids. If you've talked to me, you know more of the details about the kids. For now, what you need to know is that we are submitting our home study for kids that meet our original preferences, and trying to move on to the next kids. We have probably received info on 150 kids or so in the past 2 months. For some regions in Texas, we will know when a decision has been made, and for some regions we won't. The kids' case worker narrows down the selection pool to a few families based on what they think is the best fit for the kids and families. Then our "case worker" goes to a meeting with the kids case worker and advocates for us. For this meeting, where we will not be present, I am working on a photo book for our representative to take with her. I should get it mostly done tomorrow or next week hopefully. So we are waiting and praying and moving forward, one day at a time. Waiting for God's will and praying that God matches the right families with all these kids need forever families. It is quite overwhelming, but God is able to do so much more than we could even begin to understand. I am going to be an aunt in August! My sister and her husband are expecting and we are very excited for them. I'm sure its going to be hard for her being pregnant and living in Chicago away from all of her family, but they'll be fine. So it looks like next Christmas will be full of new traditions and our Christmas activities will change simply by the addition of one or more children into our family. And the fun begins! For Christmas I got a Kindle and I love it. It fits so nicely in my purse and is so much smaller than the typical book I read. I am reading a Ted Dekker book right now and it is just so nice. I also got a Cricut, which I have played with a little and love as well. I will be using it for my photo books I'm going to try and do tomorrow. Love. it. Jill and Sam were here for a couple of weeks and this morning they and my parents headed to Omaha for my mom's family's Christmas this weekend. This will be the second year we haven't been able to go because it is basically impossible for BJ to get off that weekend. I am praying this gets worked out someway so we can go next year, especially if we have kids by then. I'll fight a little harder for our kids than just for us to find someway to at least see my grandparents, even if it isn't when everyone else is there. Payroll is coming and I am trying to mentally prepare myself for long weeks again. It is so hard to go from having nothing to do to having SOOOOO MUCH to do. But we always make it. This first week of January is still pretty slow, so we are using the time to do some training and planning for the year. And then the three week tornado hits and then we get a break. Its the nature of this business, so you'd think I'd be prepared every year, but I still have to get myself pumped up for it. This year I am off the week between Christmas and New Years and its been nice to spend some time with my sister while she was here. I have also gotten some cleaning done and just odd jobs around the house at least started. Yesterday we ordered a new kitchen table and chairs for our eat-in kitchen. We are trying to prepare our house that is so used to having 2 people for a family so when we get the kid(s) the only thing we have to plan is their rooms. I love to plan and have goals, but for me, yearly goals are just too long and too hard to attain. And I tend to be overambitious with my goals, so they are never really reachable. And like most Americans, a few days or weeks into the new year, we fail. And we give up. So I don't think I'll make any new years resolutions this year. I anticipate the upcoming year will bring a lot of life changes for us, and I am so ready for some changes. As ready as I can be with so much being in limbo. So as we go into a new year, let me leave you with a verse that has really spoken to me and I hope will encourage, strengthen you.

"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3:17 NIV