Sarcasm in the Sanctuary

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...

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...

As stated in one of my previous posts, I'm not super into music. However, I am trying to like it more. I guess you could say I am making progress, but I did delete Spotify from my phone because I couldn't figure it out. I'll just stick with Pandora.  In May we had a court date and we hoped to get some visitation with Mark. We haven't seen him since he left in December, and haven't talked to him since January. We went into court thinking the judge would uphold what she originally said and would give us visitation. However, once again, we were wrong. She said we don't get anything. It just feels like our heart is continually being run over by an 18-wheeler.  A couple of months ago I heard a new song on the radio by Lauren Daigle. As I listened to the beginning of the song, I was relating to everything she was singing about. Letting go of every single dream I lay each one down at Your feet Every moment of my wandering Never changes what You s...

As much as I would like to say that Kyle and I thought through every aspect of fostering before we started...yeah, right. I know that I personally didn't think past our first placement. I was hoping it would be our only placement and we would be able to adopt. Obviously, this has not been the case and we are now in the position where we need to choose what is next for us.  Let me start by saying that Kyle and I both love our jobs. This summer will make ten years that he has been the student pastor at Heritage Park, and I am finishing my sixth year teaching. When we got Mark he was two and able to go to our church's pre-school program four days a week. Kyle has Fridays off, so he was able to stay home with him. Our church was so flexible last year and allowed him to work from home so Mark could nap after school. We definitely didn't plan it that way (go re-read the first sentence of this post), but God knew what He was doing. Looking back, I have no clue what would have ...

Here is a timeline of the past couple of weeks: Friday 12/11: We said goodbye to Mark Saturday 12/12: We stayed home and wallowed in our sorrows Sunday 12/13: I told Kyle we should go somewhere over Christmas break for a vacation Monday 12/14: We booked a cruise Friday 12/18: We flew to Miami Saturday 12/19: Bon voyage Saturday 12/26: Disembarked and flew back home "Spontaneous" is not really a word I would use to describe myself, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  Our cruise ship was aptly named the Norwegian Escape, and we did just that.  Our first port was in St. Thomas. I could say it was beautiful, but that would be an understatement. We did an excursion where we snorkeled and got to do these underwater scooter things. I had never even heard of these before, but this was what I was most excited to do.  The inside of the helmets were pressurized so once you put your head in, you brea...