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Well, This is Happening

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Well guys, I have some news. Let's rewind a year so we can start at the beginning.  Last summer Kyle and I started talking seriously about his next steps in ministry. At the time, he had been at our church, Heritage Park, for twelve years as the student pastor (now 13). We love our church and it hurts to think about leaving. However, Kyle was feeling like he was being called to lead the church in a different role than he currently had.  He has always been interested in planting a church from Heritage Park. Our church has always talked about planting, but there has never been a plan as to when that would happen. Also, I had zero interest in planting a church. Admittedly, I didn't know much about church planting, but what I did know was intimidating. There is the uncertainty of salary and you don't have a full staff. So, Kyle would be responsible for basically everything. Honestly, church planting seemed like a lot of work that was all out of my comfort zone...
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2018- A Year in Review

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Multiple people have asked me why I haven't written a blogpost lately. Well, it seems I mostly write when the bottom falls out of our lives. Fortunately, I am happy to report that all is going well in the Jackson house. Since it is the end of a year and the beginning of a new one, I figured I would do a year in review. In January we went on a cruise with three other couples and had a blast. We were supposed to actually go on this cruise in 2017, but Harvey messed that up. We went to Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman. It was so good to get away with our friends and relax with them. In February we celebrated Rowan's first birthday. It was a great day with a lot of our friends and family there to celebrate. Rowan had a little cold, and was pretty confused most of the time as to what was going on, as evidenced by the face she is making while we sang to her. March 7, 2018 we officially adopted Rowan into our family. It was such an exciting and emotional day....
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Is This Real Life?

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Kyle and I have had an exciting and busy past couple of months.  We were invited to a wedding in England, and decided to make a vacation out of it. We spent a few days in Paris before the wedding, and had a great time. I had been before in high school, but just for like a day and a half. Kyle had never been and I was happy to spend time with him in the city of love. I even got to meet John Krasinski We got back and immediately went from the airport to church camp. It was super busy and tiring, but so great. We didn't take the baby to Europe, and missed her so much. We were so excited to see her and had a great time at camp with her.  It has been a while since there has been an update on our foster journey, so here we go. We were scheduled to have the TPR (termination of parental rights) trial the week after camp. We have been counting down the days since it was scheduled back in March. The week before the trial I got a t...
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Round Two

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Well, well, well. Where do I even begin? Since I last wrote, we have become re-certified as foster parents. On Kyle's birthday I received a call from our agency saying we were official. The guy from our agency said he wanted to explain a couple of things to make sure we were on the same page, and then he wanted to ask me a question. Um...okay? The first thing he talked about was emergency placements. This is the way Mark came into our home. This is when a child comes into care initially or needs to move foster homes for whatever reason, and what most people think about when they think of foster care.  The other thing he wanted to talk to me about was  their foster-to-adopt program and what are called legal-risk broadcasts. This is when the judge is going to terminate the parent's rights (TPR), so they order a legal-risk broadcast. The CPS worker will then send out the child's profile to all the agencies in the state. Each agency can submit up to two home studies to be...
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Saying Goodbye

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Staying home from work this year has made the topic of fostering come up more in conversation with  people than I ever imagined. Here is a typical conversation: Me: My husband and I are foster parents.  Basically any stranger: OMG! That is so amazing! That is so great you are doing that for those kids. Me: Thank you. We are just doing what God has called us to do. Stranger: Oh, but it must be so sad when they leave! Me: Yeah, it is pretty sad. We are still upset about Mark, and he has been gone for a while. Stranger: Yeah, I could never do it because of that reason. I couldn't say goodbye once I loved that little kid. Nope. Just can't do it.  I get it. It is so hard. When Kyle and I were looking into foster care initially, we hoped that we would never have to say goodbye. However, we did. Today is the one year anniversary of Mark leaving us.  One year ago Kyle packed his clothes and toys (because I just couldn't) and we loaded Mark in our car for th...
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High Highs and Low Lows

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Q: What has been going on in our world?  A: A whole freaking lot Since I am not teaching, it was really easy to take a month-long vacation. We started by going to Germany to spend some time with our first foreign exchange student, Laura. It was great to see her again. She gave us a tour of Frankfurt and we loved it! We then headed over to Rome and spent a few days there. So. Cool. When people ask what my favorite part of the trip was, it was probably getting to go underneath the arena floor of the Colosseum. I also got to spend my birthday in this beautiful city. Talk about amazing.  After a few days in Rome, my friend Haley and her husband (whose name is also Kyle) met us and we went on a cruise. It was amazing.  The cruise ended in Athens and we spent a few days there exploring the city. On one of our last days there, I got a phone call from a friend of ours. I wasn't connected to wifi, so I didn't answer. Then, she called Kyle, so...
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