A Look into Wendy's Playbook.

A few years ago, my sweet friend was watching the news while hanging out at home. they asked some random trivia question, to which she knew the answer- so she called in and won a WHOLE YEAR'S WORTH OF FREE ICE CREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the coolest contest any of my friends or loved ones had ever won.

UNTIL last week.

So, as you all know, I really did totally and truly win the Wendyslookbook + Marissa Webb + Banana Republic contest. And I really did have a truly exceptionally awesomely wonderful time.

On Wednesday afternoon I flew from Phoenix to New York (ok ok. I flew into New Jersey. That does not sound as glamorous! But Banana Republic did arrange to have a very nice Black SUV pick me up and drive me to my hotel in Greenwich Village. There we go, the glamour is back.) I had 4 and a half hours to myself on an airplane. So I picked up the latest copy of InStyle and devoured it in between taking a nap, and drinking copious amounts of coke and water. Getting to the pages of who is where and leads which fashion brand read like a press release after a trade dead line. It was riveting. Peter Copping at Oscar De La Renta after years at Louis Vuitton and Nina Ricci, Julien Dossena at Paco Rabanne who came from Balenciaga, Nadege Vanhee-Cybulski at Hermes who came from the Row and Celine.

Then on the way home, I read 'The American Way', the free magazine they had in my back seat pocket. And I devoured that as well. It helped that Marshawn Lynch was on the cover, and he's my boy cause he helped me to win 2nd place in my fantasy football pool last year which made me a 12,500 cents richer at the end of the season. In the rare interview with Mr. Beast Mode himself, they described Lynch as "a model for how the game should be played: passionately, fiercely, unrelentingly." (Jan Hubbard) I saw that this week in New York watching Wendy Nguyen and Marissa Webb working their magic at fashion week!

Maybe you already know Wendy and are a part of her massive online following. She has over 400,000 Facebook friends, 700,000 Instagram followers, thousands of YouTube subscribers, and I have no idea what her numbers are on Twitter and SnapChat cause I refuse to join those communities. I have kids who need me to pay attention to them too people. Gotta limit my social media community and screen time. Anyway, if you don't know her- Wendy is in this elusive club of being a legitimately amazing fashion blogger. I follow her on Instagram as she posts pictures of herself in perfectly tailored outfits, toe numbingly high heels, fluttering her thick, gorgeous, albeit fake, lashes. But her lashes are the only thing that are fake about her.

I was SOoOoO excited to meet Wendy, but i wasn't sure what it would be like to actually hang out with her. All Weekend Long. But it was like visiting an old friend. We talked, we laughed, we ate brussel sprouts EVERY time they were on the menu, we shared food, and stories about our lives, and marveled at the points that intersected, as well as the points that were on polar opposite ends of the spectrum.

Wendy gets free clothes and shoes for making them look amazing. Which is not hard to do when you have size four feet because you are four feet and 11 3/4 inches 'tall' and you have the face of a beautifully sculpted doll. I, on the other hand, am going to start getting free formula from WIC for our foster baby. But this was not as isolating a point as one might think. Wendy has been in the foster system and she knows what it's like to live without parents whose main purpose it is to take care of their children and love them and cherish them, as most of the 18,000 kids in Arizona's Foster system can relate to. But that's not a stumbling block for her. It's not an excuse she uses to prevent her from succeeding.  It's one of the many forces that has driven her to the success that she is presently enjoying. Yes Wendy has a YouTube channel and is all over social media, but what you may not know about her is that she has a non-profit organization reaching out to girls in the system, and she wants to encourage and empower them. She also has a t-shirt line that she is trying to grow that will be both fiscally and environmentally responsible. And also adorable. Successful, gorgeous, creative, smart, and environmentally friendly?!?!? She even drives a Prius for the love! It would be so easy to hate her, but only if you didn't actually know her.

 My preconceived notions that fashion bloggers are narcissists with amazing clothes and a serious knack for taking great selfies was crushed this weekend. Watching Wendy and a few of her close fashion blogging friends brooklynblonde and 9to5chic talk about which cameras and lenses and editing programs they use, was fascinating. I had NO IDEA what they were talking about, but they spoke with such knowledge and enthusiasm, and were sharing ideas instead of hoarding information so they could all improve (community over competition!!!!! I don't know if showit.com started that hashtag, but I know the showiteers use it a lot and it's so great!).

I also got to meet Nina, who works with Wendy as her graphic designer, and photographer, and who knows what else. Nina (who also has a blog: citizensrunway) is from Toronto of all places, and we share a serious love for the same greasy Chinese food restaurants. Less than 6 degrees of separation from Rol San! I watched Nina and Wendy take pictures for their blog, and it was eye opening to see how hard they work to come up with the beautiful images that I (and probably you too) take for granted on my Instagram feed.

I feel so very privileged to have also been able to meet Marissa and shake her hand and hug her and even do spicy tequila shots with her this weekend. She went from having her Spring/Summer '16 runway show on Thursday, to having to get ready for Banana Republic's presentation (like a runway show- only the models stand in place and don't really move for an hour) for Saturday. Needless to say- she was VERY busy. but I loved watching her interact with her team at runway show, as well as at Banana Republic. This woman is a fierce leader who knows how to get things done! And done with style and swagger! I wanted to talk to her more about her having been adopted, and about her time at J Crew, and about bacon cheeseburgers, and her fiancé, and her family. but then she would have been scared by how much I already knew about her from stalking her on Google. so I tried to just smile and not look too crazy...

ALL these women that I met this weekend, much like my Marshawn, are truly passionate, fierce, and unrelenting in their fashion, and blogging businesses!

I'll write more about my trip in the next post, but I just wanted to dedicate this one to Wendy who made #jihaedoesnewyork so very much more than just a quick weekend getaway, but an experience that I will remember (and TALK ABOUT VERY OFTEN) for the rest of my life!

#jihaedoesnewyork day half

today was such a s fantastic day!

1. i went to the phyisical therapist today and they are getting me started on not having a janky back! (Cindy's word. not mine. cause im not white.) but while i was there, i got a text from Wendy!!!! it was like getting a text from a unicorn or something equally magical and almost unbelievable (you like how i said almost? i watch a lot of princess movies so i am beginning to think that they must exist.)
2. my precious hubby took me, mia, and our sweet 3 year old nephew who stayed the night last night, out for brunch. (and after i left, chris handled having 4 kids like a rockstar. he is such a stud!)
3. he dropped me off at the airport and i wasn't late or at the wrong terminal, things that normally happen to me when i travel.
4. today was no ads on pandora day! so i was able to stand in a very long security line, listening to my Jay-Z  pandora station with no interruptions!
5. i took a nap on the plane! cause i was flying BY MYSELF! i didn't have to take care of anyone! it was glorious! and then i read over 500 pages of the fall fashion issue of InStyle magazine- cause no one wanted to talk to me and no one needed any fruit snacks or to be taken to the potty.
6. i arrived in new jersey and got picked up in a pimpin black Yukon by the nicest driver ever. we chatted about his two little girls and his family back in pakistan. gotta admit i was a little afraid of being abducted but was very happy to arrive at my hotel safely AND quickly!
7. my hotel room is ADORABLE! and i got to watch Jimmy Fallon and Ellen Degeneres lip sync battle while being in the same city as them! FUN!
8. there was an envelope waiting for me when i got here and it was a lovely gift card from Banana Republic, giving me some spending money for food and travel while i'm here. do these people know how to put a contest together or what?!?!?!?!?

I LOVE YOU BANANA REPUBLIC! AND WENDYSLOOKBOOK! AND MARISSA WEBB!

praising Jesus for this ridiculously amazing time!

it's 1:30am here. so i am going to sleep now. cause there's a strong chance tomorrow is going to be EVEN MORE FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

see ya laters

two weeks and three days ago, we brought J to her new permanent home. back with her brothers and sister and a kinship placement that we feel is pretty safe. we dropped off our girl with suitcases, bags, and bins of stuff and said our "see ya laters". and then we went and had Korean food. and it was all so good. and anti climactic.

some might call me stoic, others may see it as heartless- but i'm not a crier. when chris and I were dating in korea and he left me to come back to Arizona, I didn't cry at the airport. he and I said our "see ya laters" in front of a bunch of our friends and my sister, and chris caught his plane and the rest of us got back into jon sim's car and went home. and the talk of the town after that was that people thought I liked chris a lot, but after seeing my coolness in action at the airport, thought otherwise. but even though I didn't cry, my heart was absolutely, undeniably, utterly broken.

so needless to say- I didn't cry when I left our little girl, who we had loved and tolerated for over a year, with her family. I was scared for her. I have worried about her and thought about her daily. but I have not cried for her.

tonight, after not seeing her for two weeks and three days, the longest period of time that we have gone without seeing J in over a year, we got to take her out for dinner and ice cream.

it was amazing.

and strange and crazy.

and I even cried a bit.

I don't remember going on a second date with chris, but driving to pick J up today felt a lot like a second date, where you aren't entirely sure if the first date went well or not. did I make a good first impression? was there a connection there? would the other person be happy to see me or not? I had no idea what to expect. which is the truest tagline for foster parents if ever there was one.

so, we drove up to J's house. I could already hear some hustling and bustling behind the screen door. J's guardian opened the door, we hugged, said our hellos, and there was J, standing there, so shy, so pretty, and slowly she said: "mommy!"

I scooped her up in my arms even though it felt like she had punched me in the gut. I actually think I would have preferred for her to say: "hey you asshole! where have you been for the last two weeks?" so, she still thinks I am her mom, and that chris is her dad, and that we've left her at this other house, with these people she knows, but has- in her mind, never lived with before. I felt like such a negligent parent, even though I know in my right mind that I am not.

the power also went out at her house due to last night's crazy storm. J's guardian told me they haven't had electricity since 7pm yesterday. yes it's September, but it's still SO HOT here. the thought of J sleeping in this HOT house, through absolutely no fault of her guardian's, broke my heart. it made me so sad for her. everything makes me so sad for her.

things got worse at dinner. we had pizza and wings and were having a great time. as we were winding down and waiting for topher to finish his chicken wing, that he was practically making out with, J sat on chris' lap and said: "dad. go home." sucker punch number two. that wasn't a "dad, why don't you go home. get out of here" statement. it was a "dad. take me home." statement. it was heavy. and chris, being the awesome man that he is, said: "let's go have ice cream at mc donalds!"

this foster game is so strange. and I realize it's not a game. it's children's lives. but it feels like a game sometimes. a game that has no rules and lots and lots of moving parts and chutes and ladders and winners and far too many losers.

we survived our first year in the foster care system. it was a glorious, and very taxing one. my kids were absolute rock stars during the whole thing and they, like me, did not cry when we dropped little J off that day. but it's probably cause we tried to explain the rules of this game to them early on: children will come, we will love them, and there will come a time when they will go. and that's what happened with J. but since she has left, mia has asked about her everyday, and at bed time or dinner when we talk about our favorite thing and our not-favorite thing from the day, she has said that she misses J. every day. for the last 17 days. lily has told her aunt elisa that when she sees pictures of J or sees her name written somewhere (topher had a math problem with J's name in it! pretty amazing cause her name is not very common) that she gets choked up and misses J and sometimes even cries a bit. topher says he misses J on occasion. he's a true dude. he doesn't talk about his feelings much.

so, maybe none of us watsons are criers. but it doesn't mean we aren't feelers. we get all the feels. when we dropped J off at home after our night out, I was afraid she was going to cry, and cause a scene, and want to come home with us. but her family was just coming home and there was much excitement and talking, and she was back in her guardian's loving arms, and we said our "see ya laters", and got in the car and drove back home with dry, stoic eyes.

the verdict is in

I love foster care!...

there is truly never a dull moment. every story is different, and every situation is so very very unique. our cousins who have been fostering a little elementary age girl for a year and a half, have been in the midst of a transition plan for months on end, with no actual end in sight. transition plans are ideal, but certainly not mandatory.

we went to court yesterday. twice actually. well, we thought we went to the right courthouse first, but fortunately we got there really early, and found out that they changed judges, and therefore courthouses. so chris and I jumped back in the car and drove 15 minutes away to the correct courthouse. we made it with time to spare- because they started late- which is understandable when you have about five different lawyers representing this one family. our case worker from Christian Family Care Agency came as well, and it was so perfect having her there. she is the best. I love our licensing agency with all my heart. they take such phenomenally good care of us. if I haven't completely scared you off of wanting to become a foster family, you should look into being licensed with them!!!! but back to court: it started, and the more people were talking- the more it sounded like J was going to be with us until the next court date, which probably would have been in December. when I was anxious about the unknown last week, I had the burden of not knowing whether or not we would be a family of 6 or 5 by the end of the week, but to be completely transparent, I was very VERY afraid that J would be staying with us for longer.

I don't know if you have picked up what i've been putting down about her this last year- but J and I are not kindred spirits. instead of being the apple of my eye, she was more like an eyelash in my eye, under my contact lens. this has had so very much more to do with the fact that she is a toddler, and that I too am a growing, developing, selfish being, and pretty much nothing to do with the fact that she is a 'foster child'. but nonetheless, I have struggled with dealing with this toddler that I have not been able to connect, and bond with. I have been her caregiver and provider for over a year, but I do not at all feel deserving of the title 'mommy', as she has been calling me, because, you know, I think she thinks i'm her mom... the whole thing. it's insane. it's maddening. it's why I am insane. did I mention that I love foster care?...

BACK TO COURT: after all 87 of the lawyers said their piece yesterday, the judge proclaimed that J would in fact return to her other four siblings, this weekend. it was the absolute best case scenario that we could have hoped for. had the judge told us to return her home that day, it would have been a rushed and unfinished mess of unsaid good byes. instead we get to really enjoy, cherish, and bless this little girl for a few more days, and then send her back to her family that has greatly been anticipating this reunion. I cried some sincere tears of sadness, but I cried some serious tears of joy and RELIEF. a HUGE burden had been taken off of my shoulders. it's a burden that I have put on myself- the burden of feeling like I HAVE had to love this kid as if I conceived her, and held her in my womb for nine months, and birthed her and got to know her and THEN had to deal with the terrors of being two. I don't know why I put this burden on myself. but I did. daily. and the guilt, and the feeling of falling short for the last year was crippling at times. so even if it makes me sound very heartless- I am glad to see J go.

I feel like I need to defend what I just now said. but i'm going to leave it there.

for now.

this is not my last post about J, because I have a lot to say about our first foster placement experience. but I have a ton of things I need to do to get this little girl ready to leave our home.

we really REALLY appreciate all the prayers and support we have gotten, especially this last week as we waited to find out J's fate, and in turn our own. keep on praying, especially for J, as she is being thrown into the deep end of life back with her family (transition plans are for chumps!) pray for her to somehow understand in her innocent mind, that we didn't abandon her, and that we did what we were supposed to do as her foster family. pray for her family to be ready for life with a toddler (good luck suckers! just kidding!!!! no I'm not.). and pray for us as we take a month off to rejuvenate and relax and enjoy some much needed calm before the next storm...

next week

I absolutely realize that no one knows what will happen on any given day. sometimes the best things happen- like you run into an old friend you haven't seen in forever. or you find a $100 bill in your back pocket (that's never happened to me before, but I can only imagine how happy I would be if that did happen. actually, when I was in Toronto there really was a $100 bill AND a $5 in the washing machine and I almost pooped my pants with excitement. but then I bragged about finding it and my mom took it from me cause she 'claimed' it was hers. she let me keep the fiver though and I still felt like a lottery winner.) but on the flip side- terrible things can happen without any warning. I don't have to give examples of this because people are all too familiar with tragedy and pain.

but, as much as I can- I like to plan ahead. I have a big dry erase calendar in our dining room that has all the events of the month on there. I check it often, add things, occasionally erase things, and if it doesn't make it on the board- it doesn't exist. I have almost forgotten to show up somewhere for lunch more than once because it didn't make the calendar.

there is an event next week that is in bright green- which signifies all the things that have to do with J. the event is a court date. the last two court dates- one in January, the next in May- J's siblings were all returned to a kinship placement. J's siblings are all older than her, and so at present the kinship placement is just a 'guardianship'. in other words- they're still foster kids living in a foster home. so as soon as J's siblings went home in may (maybe it was april...) chris and I started mentally preparing ourselves for J to go home at the next court date- which is next week. BUT there are a bunch of things that are supposed to get done before J goes home, and I honestly have NO IDEA whether or not they've been done yet. NO IDEA. and no one has any answers for me. so, even though I am aware that we have to take it one day at a time, and we shouldn't be anxious about anything (phil 4:6), and that each day has enough troubles of it's own (matt 6:34)- I DON'T KNOW WHAT MY FAMILY WILL LOOK LIKE NEXT WEEK. it's very strange.

now mind you- we've been here before. J is our first foster babe, and she has lived with us for a year and a month. 43% of her life. before we got her- we were in this limbo of not knowing when we would get our foster baby and what they would be like and how long we would have her for. foster care is living in limbo. for foster kids, and for foster families. it's not normal. but nothing in this whole picture is. but we've generally known what to expect with J and her family situation. until the last few weeks when we were finding out things weren't really happening, but there was still a chance that they could get done. so we are operating as if J probably maybe isn't leaving, but also trying to be prepared for if she surprisingly perhaps by chance does... it's enough to cause a person to jump out of a moving vehicle. again.

Shasho On A Fesh

a few weeks ago we were driving home from our friend's house. J is two years old, and she LOVES to repeat herself. I don't know if she thinks we can't hear her, or if she just loves the sound of her voice, but she repeats herself to the extent that I often want to eject myself out of a moving vehicle.

J: "mom! mia has shasho on a fesh"
Me: "i'm sorry, what did you say?"
J: "mommy! mia shasho on a fesh!"
Me: "i don't know what you are saying sweetheart."
J: "mom!! mia has SHASHO ona fesh!"
Me: "OH! Mia has chocolate on her face. yes, I see that now. that's fine."
J: "mom! mom! Mia shasho on a fesh."
Me: "i know. thank you."
No Joke- she tells me about five more times. shasho on a fesh. shasho on a fesh. shasho on a fesh. shasho on a fesh. SHASHO ON A FESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: "Ok J. Please stop telling me that Mia has chocolate on her face. I know that she does. and its not a big deal. but if you tell me that she has shasho on a fesh one more time I am going to lose my mind. do you understand?"
J: "mom?"
Me: "yes J?"
J: "mia shasho on a fesh."
Mia: "mom! did you just lose your mind?"
Me: unbuckling my seatbelt and preparing to jump out into oncoming traffic. cause yes, I have in fact lost my mind.

candor found in camping and canada

June was a whirlwind. we went camping for three days. then we came home. and then we went to Toronto for 9 days. and chris and I managed to go on a secret getaway for three days without any children to celebrate our ten year anniversary a little bit early. and Robert and Lindsay and their kids watched J that WHOLE time (with some help from Charles and Grace, and Barb and Jerry!) and now we are back to real life and 110+ degree days. and everything is so very great and wonderful.

except when it's not.

we are 11 days away from celebrating J being with us for a year. a whole year. 365 days. 40% of her whole life- she has spent with us.

admittedly, our honeymoon period with her lasted a pretty long time. and I am SOOOOOO very thankful for that. but man- when the honeymoon ended- about six months ago. it was a slap in the face.

speaking of slaps in the face, there is a story in the Bible that makes me so uncomfortable every time I read it. it's from Mark 10, starting at verse 35:

"And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus and said to him,
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?"
And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory." "

who do these guys think they are??? and more importantly- who do they think Jesus is? a freaking genie? "do for us whatever we ask of you." ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? that's ballsy!

it wasn't until I read that verse pretty recently that I felt uncomfortable for a different reason. I used to feel embarrassed for James and John for presenting/demanding such a ridiculous and presumptuous and vain request. I suddenly felt embarrassed because I have been just as presumptuous and pompous and vain when praying to the Lord. and I don't want to sit at Jesus' right hand. I don't need fame and acclaim. I want ease and permission to be lazy and QUIETNESS. and I feel like I deserve it. cause i'm a foster parent. and cause Jesus- can't you see how hard I am working over here, and how much I am giving to this little child who just takes and takes and screams and then takes some more?

chris took 17 days off of work to make our vacation marathon happen this month. it was so fantastic. I was SO excited to vacation. we went camping with chris' mom and step dad, and brothers, and their families. J came too. we camped with 4 kids. well, there were nine altogether, but I was responsible for four of them. and then I was SOOOO excited to go back to Canada to see my side of the family, and meet my newest nephew, Jordan, and eat, and be merry. and I was so happy to be with chris for our getaway. that guy is seriously my favorite.

but, here is a list of things that went wrong over the 17 days of our vacation:
-chris had an eye infection. it was like pink eye- only worse. he had to see an eye doctor in the middle of our camping trip because he was so uncomfortable and in pain. this infection lasted for a whole week.
-it rained so much during our four day camping trip that we had to cut it down to three days. and we were camping IN ARIZONA. the desert. you know- where it never rains...
-when going on our anniversary getaway, we realized that as a Canadian citizen, you MUST travel with your permanent resident card. failure to do so results in a $585 fine. FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FIVE DOLLARS. fortunately they waived the fee because it was my first offense. BUT, our getaway was only three days and we were coming back to canada, and then would be coming back to the states again. so, I had to get my INCREDIBLE neighbor to look for my card and FedEx it to my parents' house and that cost $75.
-my period was two weeks late so I thought I was pregnant, even though I took four (negative!)pregnancy tests and chris got a vasectomy last month. my period showed up 14 days late.
-trying to get back to phoenix- we missed our connecting flight in dallas and had to sleep in the airport with our three kids. and mia peed her pants while she was sleeping and we threw her clothes in the garbage.
-Robert and Lindsay's daughter had salmonella and had to go to the ER while they were watching J! 
-when we got back to Arizona our new (to us) minivan had to go directly to the shop and get thousands of dollars of work done to it over a span of four days.

it was a lot. and every time something bad happened, and I prayed that it would stop, or that we would get some help, nothing happened. or at least nothing good happened. or at least, what I was expecting to have happen didn't happen.

but here is the silver lining to the bad things that happened and just some other great stuff that happened:

-coming home early from camping gave us plenty of time to do five loads of laundry and pack for our trip to Canada.
-I will never travel without my permanent resident card ever again. and paying $75 for FedEx is a lot less than paying $585 to the people who are always trying to deport me.
-I have the best next door neighbor in the universe.
-i'm not pregnant! but that two weeks led to lots of different conversations, and chris and I are glad to still be foster parents, and one day there will be tiny foster babies in our arms, but for now we need to be thankful for the big baby that kind of runs our home.
-chris bought a warranty for our van so we paid ZERO dollars for all the repairs that went into it. the warranty has already paid for itself, and then some.
-we were able to see a friend of ours while in Toronto, who I thought was going to lose his life to cancer last year. fortunately he is in remission and we were able to hang out with him and his wife and two kids.
-my nephew is tooooooo cute! we got to see him every day that we were in town. my sister-in-law is a wonderful new mama, but she is a phenomenal wife and I praise Jesus that my brother found her and married her!
-my younger brothers took great care of my kids while we were away, and the kids loved hanging out with their Samchoons.
-while at a mall in toronto one day, I was standing around with our family and before me stood one of my dearest friends in the universe. we went to high school and university together. she was supposed to be one of my bridesmaids but was in the middle of exams at MIT and couldn't make it. she lives in Beijing with her hubby and one year old son. it was the most unexpected and beautiful blessing to run into her and spend a few hours catching up.
-J did so great while at Tia Blanca (white aunt if your Spanish is no Bueno) and Tio Roberto's house. She slept through about half the nights she was there which was a major source of stress and anxiety for me (on Lindsay's behalf!) she had lots of fun hanging out with Barb and Jerry, and also Charles and Grace, and we are so blessed that our friends and family love on J so well.
-Robert and Lindsay are the best for watching J for ten days and not flinching when we were delayed an extra half a day.

it is so very very easy for me to get caught up in all that is bad, and hard, and exhausting. and when I am being a giant Ass, it's so easy for me to feel like I don't deserve any of these terrible things, because I am SO good and I am doing something SO GOOD.

this weekend, my brother in law preached a fantastic sermon about adding 'SO' into our prayers. (you can watch it here. it's pretty great!)
he gave examples of how to add 'So' and why we should do it:
"i want my kids to be good...SO... I don't have to parent them." that one hit me in the gut. there are some 'So's I have to remove from my vocabulary, while adding them to my prayers instead.

"But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." -Mark 10:43-45

Thank you Lord for being SO GOOD. thank you for not always answering my prayers, and thank you for blessing me SOOO much even though I don't deserve it at all. I pray that you would make me a better Christian, and a better mom, but especially a better, and more humble foster mom SO that all the kids who live in our home now, and in the future, would come to know you and accept you as their personal Saviour. we aren't a foster family so that we will have more blessings and riches in heaven, we know we will be in heaven because of You. we are doing this SO that these foster kids will be singing your praises up there with us.