Christmas 2012

 

 

     It is once again the Holiday season, that time to reflect on the year past but also look forward to the future.  This has been kind of an unusual year with us doing more traveling than we have in the past, but also blessed with pretty good health and opportunities to be there for others.

 

    We took three trips this year. One in March to Florida to see family and attend a Detroit Tigers spring training game.  We also saw some of the sights around where my brother, wife, nephew and family live, a good time.  In July we traveled up to Michigan to help my wonderful step-mother celebrate being the Grand Marshal of the local Fourth of July parade to honor her years of service to the community.  We were able to surprize her with our arrival with other family members. Finally we took a trip in October just to have some fun over to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  The Great Smokies were beautiful but I will have to work harder at being ready for some hiking.  It was great to get away without any family obligations or schedule. 

 

     We were busy as usual with church and other activies through the year. Part of the year has been helping build some rooms over at our son and daughter in laws home.  It has been an ongoing thing for several months, but is beginning to come to fruition. Ter also volunteered time working on some Habitat for Humanity houses being built not far from our home.

 

     The biggest news and blessing of the year was the completion of the adoption of the four Grandchildren.  It was a journey began over two years ago and we are blessed beyond measure now the Grandkids are in their forever home.  We have always loved them as family since we met them, but it is now extra special with the adoptions being finished just after Thanksgiving to bring extra joy for the season.  We thank God for each one of them!!

 

     Our prayer is this finds you doing well and enjoying all of God's richest blessings for the season and beyond. Above is a picture of the Grandkids and their Mommy enjoying some frozen yougurt at a wonderful little shop not far from here after a swim in the pool on Fathers day.   

What Is In A Life

I know this has been a subject of my blog before, but this is one time I feel I must speak out even though I don’t know the people involved. There was a post on Facebook concerning a young man who is in a wheelchair due to a medical condition. At a recent school choir concert this young man wheeled himself to the end of the risers where the choir he was a part of would be performing. The director got up and began the music selections while leaving this young man sitting at the end of the risers without acknowledgement or assistance to get up by the other music group members. The picture of him sitting by himself speaks volumes.
I have no idea what was going through the director’s mind during this time. I really don’t want to judge, but the perception of this cannot be mistaken. The young man seemed to be completely ignored by everyone involved, fellow students and the director. Why? We don’t know, but it is all too easy to think it was due to his disability. No statement about the situation has been made by the school district that I know of at this writing. The reaction on Facebook has been quick and fury at the actions of the director is pretty unanimous.
I am thankful that while I was growing up those around me saw me as just another person for the most part. Yes, I took a lot of stuff about my size with being short and always having a battle with my weight along with other things. Some days were far from easy and tears were shed. I am thankful in my day I could come home and pretty much get away from the teasing and stuff. Today it is worse with the “cyber” ways of keeping the attacks going at all times….Facebook, Twitter, texting, and other things make it extremely difficult to find a place of sanctuary. We all need our place to have quiet and kind of escape from the world. The things said seem to be meaner and really more personal.
The Bible tells us in numerous places we are all creations of God, His Handiwork. It doesn’t matter our size, whether we have physical or mental challenges, or whatever it happens to be. The fact remains He made us the way we are and we should all be treated like we are worth something. Teasing once in awhile isn’t wrong when done in love and in knowing it is joking. It is when it is mean spirited and meant to hurt it becomes wrong. We all have things we have to face in life, even those who seem to have what most would consider a “perfect” situation. Rather than putting labels on people or judging let us try and include them as much as possible. Try to understand them rather than separating from them. God does have a plan as He promises. Remember to be kind to those around you. You never know how those around you might impact your life so be open to those lessons.

Why Don't They Just Adopt?

In watching the reaction to the news of the Susan G. Komen Foundation cutting off some funding to Planned Parenthood several things come to mind. But the biggest one is the accusation that pro-lifers are not there after the mother has the child. Nothing could be further from the truth. The pregnancy centers around the country provide not only pre-natal services but are there with diapers, formula, clothing and other services after the child is born.
Another accusation is “Why don’t these people adopt these children if they are so pro life?” That is not true, either. They are willing to adopt these children but many roadblocks are put in their way. Please allow me to tell what has happened in my family regarding adoption.
In 1984 my husband and I decided to start our family. We first checked with the local adoption agencies to see about adopting an American child. I called three different agencies and was told we could not even get on the waiting list for an American infant. It is then we decided to go for a foreign adoption. We did some checking around and settled on Korea. We began the process and went on to our home study, which is where they determine your fitness to be a parent. Things were going well until near the end. We were then told someone had called the agency we were using anonymously, albeit the wrong division as they called the domestic part rather than the foreign, and thoroughly accused us of being child abusers. I have long thought I would have liked to meet this person who made the phone call. We didn’t even have a child then. This tore me apart. Thankfully the agency after investigating, even though they didn’t take the call very seriously for several reasons, finally approved us as parents after having the home study lengthened by several weeks. Not to mention the added stress. We did finally complete the paperwork, complicated by having to deal with two different governments, and pay all the fees (only six thousand dollars back then). Our son arrived in October of 1984 to his forever home.
Fast forward to about two years ago. My nephew and his wife began to look into adoption. They quickly determined it was going to be simply too hard to try and get an American child with everything they found. They finally decided on Moldova, a small Eastern European country, to adopt their child. They had to go through a lot more than we did in parenting classes and other things to prepare and show the agency they would be ready for a child. The costs had also gone up substantially. Thousands of dollars are now involved. They also had to make two trip to Moldova, each ten days long. The first to meet their daughter and start court proceedings, the second to bring her home after completing things in the Moldovan Courts. A lot of work and stress are involved in a foreign adoption.
Right now our son and daughter in law have four children in their home through the foster care system. They have been there approaching a year and a half. They would love to adopt all four of them, but the state will not release them for adoption. It is a difficult situation as the kids have really gotten used to being in their home. The children receive a lot of love and a stable home situation right now. They are all doing very well.
Suffice it to say, I would like to see a system where the children are protected, but there has to be a way of making adoption cheaper and easier. The process can be a nightmare. People having to go with foreign adoptions because of the difficulty of the process here is a shame. There are children waiting for their forever homes but red tape makes it so difficult. We need to get these children into homes.

We are three weeks into the new year and it has been full all ready. We had relatives from my side of the family over for Christmas. The weekend before we had celebrated Christmas with Pat, Myla and the foster grandkids. Having all of them over was a great afternoon of pizza, conversation, and everyone having a good time. Pat, Myla, and the foster grandkids were able to make it so we had a house full of people.Then the next day it was to the hospital to begin the procedures to have Ter’s kidney stones smashed which was a two day thing. It was two different
procedures on consecutive days. The stories along with that are for another time, suffice it to say there was little sleep and a lot of stress for three days.
The day of the second procedure Pat came to sit with me. I was really thankful as the first day had been a lot more than we had anticipated. The first thing when we met up was he told me we were leaving the building. I was a little hesitant as usually they want someone right there at all times while someone is in surgery. We did leave and he took me to the Nashville Farmers Market. It happens to be open year round and has a second building housing a very interesting food court. We stopped at one stand and ordered lunch. Pat ordered a large bowl of gumbo while I ordered a shrimp po’boy. The po’boy is a southern tradition being a sandwich made with plenty of filling. The best part was we had a wonderful time of conversation. I was really struck with the fact of how our son has matured in his twenty seven years. I am so proud of him and his wife for all they do in the community.
It has also been a time of reflecting on how life can be. Two family members were lost at the end of the year. First Ter’s sister’s father in law, Kelly Rewa, was lost in a horrendous fire the week before Christmas. Kelly was a very simple man who had great influence on those around him along with his wife, Bonnie. It was a great shock to all of us when he died. Then Ter’s Aunt Julie went into the hospital having trouble after a chemotherapy treatment. She went into a tailspin and died a few days later. She was a great woman of God and we will miss her greatly. We are still having a time wrapping our heads around the fact they are gone.
In all of this we are thankful we have our new church family around us. They are great support to us. We did officially join First Baptist Church of Fairview in early December. It is a good church home and we most likely will become more involved as time goes on. It was different for me to be sitting out in the congregation listening to the Christmas program rather than being involved after all these years.
The past year was full of many things and changes in our lives. Our move to Tennessee, and some revelations about my health. All of a sudden I was diagnosed with glaucoma, a huge surprise, and found my diabetes had progressed to where it needed treatment rather than just diet and exercise. There have been other health surprises, but all in all things are pretty good. We are getting active in Scouts again and have found some new friends in that area. The biggest change was selling the last part of the family farm and ending 120 years of family ownership of the property. There are mixed feelings about that and leaving friends and family back in the Great Lakes State. We will keep in contact, of course, and look forward to what God has for us in 2012.