Seven thoughts, just because it worked out that way

1. It's Friday again, and super warm outside but, unfortunately, also raining. ON FRIDAY!! So, as you can imagine, it is very loud and crazy in my house. I am coping by ignoring the loud children and blogging. Don't judge.

2. This week I did my taxes, paid some taxes, and paid a whopping bill from Olivia's tonsillectomy. And even though we are still financially tight, I feel like we are caught up. Like I can pay bills when they come in instead of waiting for pay day. Which is a good feeling.

3. We got our March newsletter from the Agency today, which basically indicated that the tables have completely turned there. When we signed on late last Summer, they were requiring adoptive families to be open to a whole lot of things that some families aren't necessarily open to...open adoption, more racial diversity, drug exposure, etc. This was because they were trying to limit their adoptive families because they were heavy on families and light on birthparents. Now it is opposite. They are easing up on requirements of adoptive parent openness and allowing them to be more specific about their preferences just to get more families to sign on. They are now heavy on birthparents and light on adoptive parents. We would be pretty open about birthparent situations and racial mixes regardless of the rules. And yet, we still don't have a single match. I am baffled by this. I'm wondering if we are secretly ugly and no one is bothering to tell us.

4. Olivia fell on the playground on Monday and busted her chin open. She is sporting a chin full of surgical glue and a waterproof band-aid. She says it itches (and I'm sure it does) but so far she has been healing well and hasn't messed with it much. She had to miss swimming lessons this week because of it. Luckily, the warm weather and DST have made evenings more fun even without lessons to occupy our time.

5. We inherited a basketball goal from some neighbors who moved and didn't want to take it along. It's one of those rolling things that we move out onto the center of the driveway in the evening so Joe and Olivia can play. I took a walk the other night while they played on the driveway and caught a glimpse of them enjoying themselves as I was walking back home. It seemed a perfect tableau of suburban America...father and child shooting some hoops on the driveway. Or maybe that's just Indiana. Anyway, it made for a sweet portrait of our life right now.

6. March has been super busy. We are involved in some ministries that are...intense right now. Meetings and recruitments and motivating people and such. It's a lot of work, but we keep plugging on. When we are NOT busy with ministries, we are busy with the house. Spring projects kind of snuck up on us, what with the weather turning warm a full six weeks early. Need to think about painting our outside doors soon...before it gets hot.

7. This weekend, my family is gathering for a local niece's first birthday. I am very excited to hang out with my far-away family...especially the young cousins Olivia loves so much. I have birthday gifts to give to the twins, who had their far-away party last week, and an advance first-communion gift to give to our goddaughter. The boys' gifts were hand-made by me...tool belts with their initials. Molly is getting some hand-made (but not by me) first-communion jewelry. I love giving gifts!