Balance

Jasmine's first ride around the block without training wheels. It's moments like this that make it all worthwhile.  If only it didn't all go by so fast.  Here's to growing up at the speed of light.

Yellow Jackets

As I was standing in their garage, asking our (former) beekeeper neighbors to borrow this bee suit, I have to admit... I was thinking blog entry the whole time. Ha ha. Now, on to the story.

Every now and then I like to play Paul Bunyan; and so when I came across a dead branch on a dogwood tree by the house, I was happy to go grab an axe.

Swoosh. The axe hit the tree, and the branch hit the ground with a thud.  And less than 2 seconds later, Justin and I learned (the hard way) that yellow jackets build their nests underground.  In this case, underground meant in the exact spot where the branch happened to hit the ground.  We may have well hit a switch that said Attack Mode. I heard the buzzing sound, but I never thought to look down; and they swarmed so fast that I never saw it coming.

I got stung on the eyelid.  A half centimeter up, and it would've been a bull's-eye to the pupil. Strike one.  Justin turned and ran, but he still caught one in the back of the head, right where the neck meets the back of the ear.  Strike two. But I hereby declare, there shall be no strike three. 

Big's

Farewell

In a word, foster care is sacrifice. That sounds reasonable (and perhaps obvious) on the surface, but over the past 1 year, 2 months, and 4 days; I gained a much deeper understanding and appreciation for that word (sacrifice). During that time, we loved, gave, laughed, cried, taught, grew, smiled, embraced, trained, served, and modeled the love of Christ to the best of our ability. Lord knows it was hard at times; often hard enough to make us question if we were even in His will for our family at all. But in the end it was obvious that we were. No one said ministry was easy, and at some point it clicked for us that that's exactly what this is (a ministry). Reunification between our foster child and her bio mom was always the goal, and so we celebrate that for sure. Chances are, we will have plenty more opportunities to pour into the lives of our little miss sunshine, her family, and who knows how many more foster or adoptive placements to come. But for now, I'm over-the-moon excited about taking time to refocus on ourselves, our home, and our relationships as a family of 5.