More good news!!!

I know it's been a while since I posted last but I have been so busy with work, I haven't even had the energy or time to write. We have been short staffed at the pre-school so I've been working morning and afternoon shifts. A double shift in a pre-school/daycare is not the same as a double shift in say, retail work where you actually work two 8 hour shifts. A double shift at our school means about 9 hours of work since the morning shift works 7:30-2:30 and the afternoon is 2:15-5:30. When you work all day you get a break for lunch. But let me tell you, those nine hours are long, hard hours, especially when you are in a two or three year old classroom as I am often placed. Especially when there are 12-15 students in each class.

I am very thankful for the money however. Working so many extra hours has really helped us out this month. Financial Aid does not arrive until the end of the month when school starts. And even then it may not because I was selected for verification this year. Joy upon joy. Whatever they can throw at me, they will. Right now my aid status says "you are in the verification process, check back in one to two weeks." That's an automated message and usually it's less time than they say. That's what I'm praying for anyway because school begins on the 25th! Sigh...I'm always down to the wire with these kinds of things.

Ok, I did title this post as "good news" and there really is some extraordinary news! My sister Paula and her husband Mark have decided to adopt a baby girl! It is so very exciting!!!! They were inspired by my cousin Angela and what was born inside of them was a desire for a little girl of their own. They have put in their application, been accepted, signed their contract and have finished their autobiographies for the case workers. Today they were attending a workshop for adopting families. They are so extremely happy, as are the rest of us! They have decided to name their baby Emma Mei. Emma is a family name on our mother's side of the family and Mae is our grandmother's middle name. They decided on the Chinese spelling so that she will have a tie to her biological nationality and because the name means "beautiful" in Chinese. They have decided to call her "Mei-Mei" since everyone tends to have nicknames in our family (I've been Moongold or a derivative of the name since I was 4 years old) and because Mei-Mei means "little sister." Isn't that just too sweet for words?! Please pray for them as this is a long process, as well as continuous prayers for my sweet cousin Angela. Finally a niece that Aunt Manda can play Barbies with!!!! Not that my nephews haven't been tons of fun. I was just thinking yesterday about when Zachary was learning about lightning and he called it "Ewectristery." He wasn't probably more than two years old. Smart boy. Those are precious moments that survive in memory of the heart alone.

Paula and Mark have a blog to follow their progress, which I have posted under "Blogs I Read" in case you would like to check it out.

In another arena but I guess related in a way, lately, I've been feeling renewed life. For about five years there have been so many tumultuous life changing events that the seas of life have often been tormentingly choppy. Our family has been through a great deal of heartache and suffered blows that no one knew how to deal with. No one person was effected the same way which means that no one has healed the same way or to the same extent. People have surprised me both positively and negatively which has caused me to lose faith in the things that I thought I knew.

But now, at least for today, I feel differently. Today is the kind of day where love and compassion replace anger and hurt. I'm thinking I should take a step that I've been afraid to take for fear of rejection, embarrassment, more hurt, more anger. However, today I realize that the blessing is in the release of my anger and pain, and in it's place, love. God reveals blessings in ways I will never understand. Today I feel the blessing is in the giving, not in what I'm getting.

I know this doesn't make a lot of sense but I need to put it somewhere. :)