Monday, March 30, 2009

An Update

 It seems I have been too busy, to make posting in this space a priority. I will try to remedy that today.

 In February, the board of directors of the school where Boss teaches, decided that the school did not have the funds to remain open for another school year. They have put the school on a three year suspension. We were broken hearted to learn this news, to say the least. However, since then, God has provided for our family in a mighty way. The children's home where we work operates a Therapeutic Education Service Center right here on campus for some of our residents, as well as for some students from the surrounding counties. It is a school for children with behavior problems. On top of that, our children's home is considering educating all of our residents on campus next year, as well. They needed someone to be the director/principal of this new program, and they chose Boss. So, not only does he have a job for next year, he also will be receiving a small pay raise. In today's economy, we are more than thankful! It is not his dream job, but Boss is good at managing people and numbers, so I am confident that he will do great. We could not ask for more.

I still loving houseparenting. For me, it is the perfect job. I can still be a stay at home mama and make homemaking my number one priority, while also being of service. I love the combination of both. We have been here for two years, and have just signed on for our third year. For now, we are taking it one year at a time. Boss and I have also decided to homeschool Emma next year, so I have been busy reading up on all that I will need to know!

The girls are both doing well. Emma has really thrived at her preschool this year, and I am so thankful that she has had this opportunity to go. She can now write her first and last name, count and recognize numbers up to 100, do some simple math problems, and she is reading short books at only four years old! She is such a little smarty pants and we are so very proud of her. Kate is sleeping all night, every night, on a regular basis. We are working on potty training and she is expanding her vocabulary every day. And for anyone who is wondering, yes, she is still obsessed with Caillou.

 Our home study is completely complete! On the down side, we are having a very hard time finding anyone to accept it because of our unique living situation. Even those agencies who said they would previously accept it, are changing their minds now that it is actually done. It is a big run around, and I am getting tired of this game. We are still thankful to have our completed home study, as we are changing our license for our current job from Group Home Care to Therapeutic Foster Care in June, and that was a necessary step in doing so. It just seems to us that adoption may not be the best option for expanding our family at this time. I did go see another specialist (my third) who told me that it would be perfectly safe for me to have a third biological child. That makes two specialists saying it was safe, and one who asked why I would want to have another baby. At this point, the only thing stopping us from trying to get pregnant is my anxiety. I need to come to peace with closing the adoption door at this time, and heading in a different direction, before I can comfortably decide anything. I do take comfort in knowing that God is in control. Our mantra for this year has quickly become, Not my will, but Thine. Because even though things are not turning out the way we had originally planned or hoped, we are seeing clear evidence that God is still guiding and directing our family, and we really wouldn't want things any other way.