Just Because

I came across this on Facebook today and thought I'd share :)

Patience

My husband shared this meditation on patience with me. It is excellent and so fitting for my life right now. I highly recommend reading it! I hope you enjoy it too.

Meditation on Patience

(This is the September meditation. After this month you should be able to find it in the archives through the same link.)

Quick Takes #2

Wow, I am actually participating in the link-up here two weeks in a row. So here goes...

1. We found out Wednesday that the birth mother we were presented to has decided on another family. I was surprisingly calm with the wait this time around. I'm really grateful it wasn't a long one! It still stings, though, to be passed over yet again. I know, I know we will be blessed with the child that is meant to join our family (I truly do believe that), but why can't it be now? 

2. Another reason (besides the obvious one) that I want an adoption to finally happen is that I so desperately want to go back part time. This whole full time thing is overrated. I feel like it has been way more tiring than I ever remembered when I worked full time in the past. I mean it's 9:30 on a Friday night and I probably could have gone to sleep 2 hours ago. 

3. My Wednesday class was a nightmare this week. I don't even feel like writing about it. Pray that my patience grows immensely and that perhaps I can get through a day without being swung at or spit at. That's not too much to ask, right?

4. Now onto more positive things from the week... Last night we saw Kevin James at the Chicago Theatre. Besides the giant tall man sitting in front of me, it was a good show! It felt good to go out and forget about everything else going on right now. Plus we had pretty good seats, first level, about halfway back. 

5. Today I got to see the kids at my new school. They were my saving grace this week! We took them to Jewel today on our community trip. They have a Kid's Club where the kids get a card that can be scanned  each visit and is good for a free apple or banana to promote healthy eating. I had never heard of this before but thought it was really cool. I guess I'm easily impressed. The kids were each able to pick out their fruit and "pay" at the register. They also got free cookies and hats from the fish counter. You should have seen the looks on their faces when they were handed those hats. It's so much fun seeing them experience and enjoy the little joys in life.

6. While we were at Jewel, we of course had to stop by the bakery to pick up some free cookies. While we were there, one of my little guys was checking out the cakes. His birthday is next week. Well, he spotted a cake that had a sell by date of his birthday. So clearly, that meant it was his cake. He started to take it off the shelf since it was his cake, after all. We had to remind him to ask his mom for a cake. It was just too stinkin' cute!

7. We can actually use the shower in our remodeled bathroom again! Glass went in the other day. We are going to clean everything up tomorrow so we can finally start using that bathroom. I can't wait to try out those body jets. At least now I will have that fabulous shower to come home to on my frustrating days at work. 

Have a great weekend!

So long for now...

...to our pool. We enjoyed swimming on hot summer days but just didn't love it enough to repair it. Next up, the demolition of the deck! Our yard is going to be huge. What to do with it? The possibilities are endless :)

Quick Takes Numero Uno

I thought I'd try out the 7 Quick Takes link-up over at Conversion Diary. I have been reading everyone else's for so long, and every Friday I think it would be fun to try out. Then I go to post and realize I don't have the energy to think of 7 things to post about, so we'll see how this goes.

1. I was going to put this one last for the big finale, but I wanted to be sure you see it (in case this ends up being boring and you stop reading after number 1!) Exciting news yet again! We got another call this week about another potential adoptive situation. We are being presented to another birth mother, along with 5 other families. Baby is due in November. Please keep everyone involved in your prayers!!!! We are excited but keeping pretty calm this time around. This is the fifth time our long profile has been presented in the past two years (and we've only been chosen once), so we realize the reality that there are 5 other families who could be chosen. I think after letting myself be completely consumed and convinced that it was IT last time has made me extra cautious this time. So we'll see what happens. I think I am finally at peace because I feel like our profile is finally getting some action. This is the second time in the past 2-3 weeks that we have been presented. That's promising! Profiles are being presented Monday, I think, so we'll see if I continue to stay calm after that.

2. We spent last weekend at a family reunion with Dan's family in Effingham. It was a great time visiting with family, which involved lots of eating delicious food from some of my favorite local places, including sundaes with twinkle coat. Can't beat that. If you've never had twinkle coat, you are missing out! There was also some intense game playing of Left, Center, Right and lots of music to be played. There is quite a bit of musical talent in the family, so I always really enjoy listening to them. Here's the siblings (his mom's side) performing together Saturday night.

I stole this from Dan's cousin, Jamie's Facebook since I didn't get any pictures myself

3. I got to spend Tuesday night with my So You Think You Can Dance buddy Julie and her hilarious 15 month old daughter. This kid was walking around my living room doing the Weekend At Bernie's walk. She one day discovered that people thought it was funny and apparently continues to do it for laughs now. She has one of the biggest smiles and lights up the room. Not much actual dance watching happened because the little lady was putting on her own show, but I honestly didn't care. She gives me some of that "baby time" that I so desperately need every once in a while.

Don't let her shy little look here fool you. She's quite the entertainer!

4. From the moment my work week started I was dreading Wednesday. That is one of the days I spend in my awful room (the other is Monday, so I got a break with the day off this week!) I seriously don't think I have ever dreaded going to work so much in the past four years I worked there. So on my lovely commute (which by the way is starting to feel way too long lately) I decided to pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet, take a deep breath, and hope for the best. I decided to make the most of it and push to do the most I could attempt to accomplish in the most chaotic room I've worked in to date. Let me tell you, in case you didn't know, God is so good! I had a great day in the room that day. I'm not going to say that I love the room. I don't even think I would venture to say I like it, BUT I'm going to make the most of it. A couple of the students have a lot more skills than I had realized. One of them is even pretty good at using a communication app on his iPad, which could be really cool to work on this year. The hair pulling, swatting, and being yanked around the room was not as plentiful as last week. I even got the wanderer to sit down for a few using my firm "mom voice", as we call it at work. I can only hope that the room keeps getting better each week, but I'm not going to get too confident yet. I'd rather be prepared for the worst and be pleasantly surprised. 

5. Have I mentioned that I absolutely adore my little sweethearts at my new school? They are seriously the sweetest group of kids. There really isn't a rotten apple in the bunch. There are a few that I can tell are going to try to give me a run for my money on occasion, but overall I really can't complain. They are also really bright, can carry on a conversation with me, and remember things from our language group the previous week. I could definitely get used to this!

6. Tomorrow Dan and my brother, James, plan on starting to take down our pool. I have some monstrous weeds to pull in my "garden" that I never got around to planting anything in this summer. It's seriously a jungle out there. Then we're heading over to the Rib Fest at my parents' parish. It should be a good day :)

7. The bathroom is sooooo close to being done! Glass is being installed Tuesday, and then we can finally use it :) I can't wait!!!! 

These quick takes ended up being not so quick... Have a great weekend!

It's been a while...

... and there really isn't all that much to write about. The school year has started, and it has been pretty crazy so far. This whole working full time thing is overrated, if you ask me. It's been exhausting! I think it's going to take me a while to get used to it again. I absolutely love my new classroom at an outlying site 2.5 days a week! The kids are so sweet and make me laugh too many times to count each day. It's going to be a lot of work getting myself used to the type of therapy I need to provide for them. They are working on higher level skills than I have worked on in years. But I think once I get into the groove of things, it's going to be amazing! Unfortunately, I can't say I feel the same about my caseload at the location I have been working at since I started. I have had one of the rooms for the past 5 years and do still enjoy working with the kids and staff in there. BUT my other class is new, and if things keep up with the way they were this past week it's going to be absolutely awful. I'm not exaggerating here either. They put all kids with severe behaviors in one classroom, threw in a new teacher, half the staff is new, gave them no supplies, and said have at it! So after one day of being pulled around the room, pinched, hair pulled, swatted at, and my arm nearly twisted off... I kinda wanna leave and never come back. I can only hope it will get better. My hope is that we are blessed with a baby soon so I can go back to part time and hopefully just keep my new amazing room of well behaved sweeties.

In other news, the bathroom is almost finished. The main work is completed (and has been for over a week), thank goodness! We just have painting, which will be done Wednesday by a family friend. Then the glass for the shower will be installed next Tuesday. And we will finally be able to shower in our incredible shower (which I'm so desperately going to need after work on those days I'm in my rough room!). I'll post before and after pics once it is 100% done.

Lately we've had pretty much anything that can go wrong, go wrong. Most of it was with the bathroom, but our streak of bad luck has continued. I came home from work last Thursday to find this...

The hose had been running all day to fill up the evaporated water... it only takes a little over an hour to refill. Whoops! We're not entirely sure what exactly happened. Dan was home all day and didn't even hear it fall to pieces. So we will never know exactly what happened. At first we freaked a little, but to be honest we were thinking about getting rid of it anyways. We just weren't using it enough for the amount of money and time we dump into it each year. At this point all we can do is laugh. So now we will have another job in progress very soon. Fortunately we have some family that enjoy demolition :) Another perk is that this is going to open up our yard quite a bit. So bye bye pool! 

I'm sure there is more that I missed, but that's all I could think of for now. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are so very ready to bring home baby- it's about time for him or her to find us!