Cloudy Day ....

Today, my mood just matches the weather. Cloudy.

I have so much to be thankful for - I certainly haven't lost sight of that. Just a bit gloomy.

I was told by an elderly man today, who had just come within 2 inches of plowing over my cart full of children groceries in the crosswalk, that his time (all 20 extra seconds it would have taken him to stop and let us pass had he chosen to do so) was more valuable than the four precious faces in my cart. I generally ram my cart into the fenders of said crosswalk offenders, but I had exercised self-control, much to my chagrin now. Just kidding. Kind of.

I put away the highchair for the fourth and final time.

There are home repair projects that desperately need to be done, but I can't do it myself (enter the sobbing when I came home to discover my 85-year-old neighbor brushhogging our pasture because it's embarrasingly overgrown).

We have this puppy that I really like but can't seem to fully housebreak, and even I am tired of steam cleaning.

Dexter won't quit vocalizing through his nose - think nails on a chalkboard.

Remission is no longer a likely outcome for Nick's grandfather.

I have become a last-minute, procrastinator out of necessity.

My momma doesn't feel good lately.

Everyone's bedsheets need to be changed.

I miss my best friend.

There's a 6-inch hole in my living room carpet - let me tell you that cleared a room when this Momma discovered that!

I have gained 5 pounds and haven't exercised in weeks, unless you count holding down a 100-pound obnoxious puppy yesterday.

My kitchen is still half-painted.

Despite 3 hours in town this morning, I still have a list of errands a mile long.

I haven't vacuumed along my baseboards in months, and my plants are droopy and begging for a drink.

My first-ever Smartphone just died. So much for technology.

I have a massage gift certificate that I haven't used in almost 2 years. Thankfully, it has no expiration date.

I just feel gloomy, and then I feel guilty and ashamed for letting these things, most of which are horribly insignificant, bug me.

Attitude is a choice, and I will smile.

No Whining

As I grew up and envisioned my life, my visions of family portraits certainly didn't include a fiesty little Asian man. In retrospect, I'm not quite sure how our life journey wound up here, but I'm so thankfult that it has.

I've always been a "suck it up; get up and get moving; get tough" kind of gal. I run a wee bit short on mercy and find it difficult to coddle those whose only affliction is apathy or laziness. However, orphans don't fit in that category and somehow God has used that small loophole in my "No whining, Git'r'Done" edict to bring a little compassion and Dexter into my life. I don't think there's any question that as Christians, we all share a role in the plight of orphans.

"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:17

Scripture doesn't have any qualifiers on this passage .... those are action verbs (learn, seek, defend, take up). They require action. Not everyone is called to be an adoptive parent. I didn't think I was. But, you can help support orphans and foster/adoptive families in so many other ways.

It was a year ago Friday that we returned home with Dex. I think it's really neat that our coming home date will always coincide with National Orphan Sunday. The National Christian Alliance has marked the first Sunday of November "Orphan Sunday" (visit orphansunday.org for more information). Now that I'm beginning to have my feet under me as an adoptive mom, I'd like to start planning for a local event for next year to raise awareness for the need for adoptive and foster parents for the world's 140 MILLION children without families. I encourage you to take action for an orphan somehow, in some way.