Life

No good adoption news. Are you surprised? We seem to hit every possible problem. I guess most of our file is good except for one paper. It is still stuck in Parquet while the rest of the file is in the lawyer's hands. I think. It will all still have to go through MOJ to get stamped. Please, please pray for us and for this file. We've already lost one and went so far backward that we haven't caught up to where we once were. We're at 37 months of waiting. It's just so hard.

The old, ugly 5th wheel belongs to my brother. He hired my children to clean it up for him. I must say that it looks about 90% better. We're hoping that his wife gives it the thumbs up so it can be hauled off of our property and onto his. He's planning on putting it on his back 40 so SIL won't even have to look at it. And I won't either. Sounds like a plan to me.

I mentioned a long time ago about needing to start coloring my hair and that I would do that after I turned 40. I turned 40 back in Jan. I was plucking gray for a long time but it got to the point that I either needed to color or get a wig because the grays were overtaking my head. I recently tried a temporary color at first to see if I liked it. It was a liquid. I got that mess everywhere. I decided that if I continued coloring it might be worth the money to have someone do it for me so that I wouldn't ruin everything in my bathroom. The color was okay but I got drips of brown liquid all over. Not a good thing when you have a white shower curtain and rug. My friend talked me into trying it again and gave me some pointers. I tried a cream this time and it went much better. The color matched my natural color, sans gray, well enough that I'm sure I just surprised some people who read this who know me in person. If you're thinking about coloring I have one word for you. Cream.

I've been camping out in Eph for the past few weeks. Yeah, it's a little detour from the Psalms. It's really been impressed on me that our struggle to bring J home is a fight that is much more about the spiritual than the physical. I've read Eph. 6 over and over and in multiple translations. My favorite is the Living Bible, which is the "old" paraphrase and not a literal translation but I love the way it's worded in there. Eph. 6:10-16 "Last of all I want to remind you that your strength must come from the Lord's mighty power (I'm so glad it doesn't have to come from me!) within you. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand safe against all strategies and tricks of satan (oh, he's a sneaky one). For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies-the evil rulers of the unseen world; and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world (it sure feels like we're fighting against flesh and blood sometimes but it ain't so). So use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy whenever he attacks, and when it is all over, you will still be standing up (I love it! Someday we will come to the end of this adoption process battle and we will still be standing up. That's good stuff!). But to do this, you will need the strong belt of truth and the breastplate of God's approval. Wear shoes that are able to speed you on as you preach the Good News of peace with God. In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by satan." And he throws oh so many fiery arrows. And sometimes my faith shield is oh so lacking. Pray for us, please.

I think a thankful list would be good here. It's been a while since I've done one. I'm thankful for the rain we've had in the last couple of weeks. I'm thankful for my hubby and children. And for our pets. I'm thankful for my church family. I'm thankful for music.