Exercising Together

My husband is quite amazing. I am sure this won't be the last time I type this. John and I tried to get the most from our Spring Break. 

Monday of Spring break I went to church with him, because truthfully I never get as much work as I think I will done in my pajamas, so I figured the church library would be a great place to go. I got over half of the paperwork I needed to get finished completed which was lovely. Then John and I headed to our first kickboxing class. I have done this before many many many years ago and loved it. We know we need to exercise and try to make it something we enjoy so we tried a kickboxing studio close to our house. The classes are more expensive than I would like, but the schedule is amazing. This is pretty much how my first hour went for me:

5:30 (warm-up)- "Okay I think I can do this. This isn't so bad"

 5:40 (warm-up)- "I wonder if this is still the warm-up. This sure doesn't seem like a warm-up. We must have started the workout."

5:45- Instructor informs us we are done with the warm-up. It was at that point I was sure I wasn't going to make it. "What kind of warm-up was that. My instructor is a crazy person"

5:50- When is this fool going to let me get some water? I think I am dying. I am destined to be out of shape the rest of my life. This is longest work-out I have ever done. 

5:55 - Instructor says get water. I think lying down is a better option, but know if I get down on the floor I am not getting up. 

6:00- I think I hear John say something encouraging, but I am just starting to see fuzzy everywhere. This is crazy. There is no way I am making it the full hour. 

6:10-"That's it, I am dying. I don't have the will to survive."

6:15- Instructor says to get water and then we will do the abs. I think, "Excuse me sir, abs? I thought that was included in what I had already been doing. What kind of Abs and whose abs? Blondie, over there. She looks like she has time and energy for abs. Even if I had abs they couldn't be seen right now. I have bigger fish to fry." The instructor then says if you need to, you can put your feet under the bag for support but try not to when doing your sit-up. Again I think, "Sit-up. I haven't done one in awhile. I will be shocked if I make it all the way up." 

6:20- I do in fact manage some complete sit-ups. I am having a victory party in my mind which is immediately brought to a crashing halt when I informed we still have 10 minutes of abs. 

6:30- I am red in the face, can't breathe, can't walk, burning chest, and just mad. When the super fit, very kind woman from the front desk approaches me, "Ready to join?" It was at that moment I should have said, "No way," but she was so nice and John was so excited, and I am so out of shape I said okay. 

2 weeks into this kickboxing thing I don't loathe it. I am not delusional enough to say that I look forward to it or it is the best thing ever, but there are worse things. 

One rather fit looking lady approached me half way through the last workout and said, "What is he going to make us do now?"  I realize I should have been encouraging, but this woman, upon walking in at the beginning of class, informed another woman she had worked out before and was familiar with this kind of thing. I assumed she would do well while making many of us look bad. But when she approached me looking like she might not survive the next 5 minutes let alone the next 30 minutes (which I looked the same by the way) .....I said, "It is always worse. I always think it can't get worse and then the instructor says something worse." Needless to say she didn't look amused when I told her. 

A good example of this was about a week ago. The instructor had us do a series of things I was less than pleased about, but just when I think I don't want to watch him step on a lego he says, "Okay now Bear Crawls." I loose my .......... I was mad. Why, why oh why are terrible elementary school gym class techniques considered a good idea. For those of us that were not athletic in school (me) this Bear Crawl thing brings horrible flash backs. 

So 5 minutes of bear crawls later and the bell sounds off. No joke, I think "Sweet wonderful Jesus I am done, the rest of the workout will be great, only to hear that what I assume to be the devil yelling, "Okay reverse Bear Crawl!" 

No sir! Not happening! I am going to cover your house in the tiniest and pointiest of legos I can find. I hate you sir. I didn't say any of it because he could smash me without even trying, but I thought it. Fiercely. I watched the very fit man next me struggle through this amazing gym class maneuver and decided I was, in fact, in hell. 

Surprisingly I did not quit my membership after that workout, but let's just say I don't look forward to seeing that madman instructor again. Maybe someday when I can outrun someone chasing me I might think of him fondly, but today is not that day. 

Foster Care Here We Come

This is an insanely long story, but here it goes. John and I decided to officially start the process to become foster parents. 

John and I have always wanted to adopt. [That story is really a whole other story which we will get into later.] Last year about this time John and I decided we would spend the year doing research and making a financial plan for international adoption. We said by summer 2014 we would be filling out applications and hopefully have an agency selected and our plan mapped out. Well, as you can imagine, life happens. The events of that summer had nothing to do with any single part of our carefully laid plans. John started a new job, we survived a challenging house hunt and move, I started a new job, we started with a new church. Life really took a left turn on us. By Summer's end we realized little had been done or researched.  I remember heading to the bookstore before a long bus trip back to DFW in August. I grabbed an array of international adoption books. By the end of October dust had settled on the books and we were looking at each other as if to say "we better figure something out stat." We both felt the urge but had little to no information and ultimately no plan.  We started looking at our fiances to see how we were going to come up with $30,000-$50,000. 

My dad had come for a visit and I decided to break the news to him. I told him we were really getting serious about international adoption.  Dad got quiet then asked, "Why not domestic adoption? Why are you so focused on international adoption?" Sadly my response was something like this..... "uhhhhhhh, well ummmm". Yeah. Not really a great reason. So I did what any good wife would do and said, "Hey husband, why international adoption?" John's reasons (which ultimately were the same as mine) can be summed up into 2 things: 
      1. We thought international adoption would make things less tricky with biological parents. 
      2. International families are super cool. For real.
 It didn't take us long to figure out that the Holy Spirit probably didn't move us in that direction, and if it had, it certainly was not for those reasons. So then we asked ourselves the hard question: Why not domestic adoption, specifically older children (toddlers to school age). We prayed a lot and talked constantly. Both of us were really troubled because it felt like we might actually be called to something we had never even considered in the first place. Something that intimidated and scared us. 

John and I started to research foster to adopt. I was reading a friend's incredible blog and she mentioned the Orphan Care Conference she was going to. It took me about 10 seconds to text her and tell her I wanted to go. She was so encouraging and helpful. I registered John and myself and away we drove, all the way over to Tyler, TX. We went to the conference and experienced one of the most intense emotional weekends I have ever had. It was amazing. The conference speakers didn't say anything about fostering and adoption being easy or sell us some bill of goods. It was honest, loving, Christian brothers and sisters who shared their stories with us. The day was a whirlwind of motion and emotion, and totally unforgettable. John and I cried and laughed on our 2 hour car trip home. We decided to each take time to pray and decide what we wanted to do independently. Neither of us of wanted to be responsible for convincing the other of something, so we took the week. Friday night we had a dinner date. I tend to be pushy so I asked John to tell me first because I wanted to make sure I didn't bulldoze his thoughts or feelings with my ideas. We found we both wanted the same thing: to be foster parents. That was at the beginning of February. 

In the last couple of quick weeks, we prayed, did some homework on agencies and DFPS, met with other foster parents who are friends of ours, prayed a bit more, and here we are.  This week we had orientation with Methodist Children's Home and have officially begun the process. We plan on submitting the application this week, sending home pictures next week, making some various home repairs next week, and so on. We met the amazing social worker who will be our case manager and asked her thousands of questions which she patiently and eagerly answered. 

The road is long and full of lots of training, paperwork, interviews, and appointments. Our case manager's goal (and ours) is to be licensed by June. Quite a tall order, but a challenge we couldn't be more excited about. I really cannot think of a better way start our Lenten season. While part of me is completely flabbergasted at the short time it has taken us to get this far, I can honestly say it must be divine intervention, or inspiration at the very least. I cannot think of a choice John and I have ever made this easily and decisively. Something about it just feels like we are in the right place. Now this doesn't mean we aren't terrified. We are, in fact, incredibly nervous and anxious. This is not what we had originally planned for, but as a wise friend once told me, "If you want to see God laugh, make your own plans." 

We hope you will pray for us and with us, and also pray for children we may have in our home one day. I'm not sure we will ever be ready, but we are willing to provide a loving Christian home and we are certain God will honor our efforts.

Being Social

Saturday night our church had the "kickoff" for supper club. From what I learned, supper club is a time to get to know people within the church that you might not ordinarily get the chance to interact with. Groups are supposed to be shuffled every 6 months or so. There are three kinds of groups. Groups that meet at each others houses, groups that meet at each others houses and add games to the mix, and groups that meet at restaurants. Tonight everyone got together and had dinner before we are broken up into smaller groups.

Everyone just gathered in the "big room" as we call it, mingled, got to know one another, ate, and had a wonderful time. It was exciting to see people gathered together, chatting, laughing, just having fun. 

John is very extroverted [Husband edit: I can't help it that people find me likeable]. He loves people, he loves talking to people, he loves being around big groups of people. Truthfully I don't think I have ever seen the man shy or any kind of situation that he would call uncomfortable. Somehow no matter how big or small the crowd is, my husband just floats in the room. I can't imagine what a social setting would have to look like for him to be uncomfortable[Husband edit 2: Meeting Nathan Fillion]. I suppose it is one of the many gifts God gave him that will undoubtedly be helpful in being a pastor. 

I, on the other hand, would call myself an introvert. I don't like large groups of people and in fact can be quite uncomfortable with large groups, especially when in tighter places. I did great during a train situation on Saturday but that is a story for a different time. I prefer my groups small. I am not a fan of loud places either.  This lovely trait is something I have been quite nervous about. I knew when John said he had the call to be a pastor that it meant I better get used to big crowds. 

Tonight was great. I got to interact with people in a smaller setting than the normal Sunday sized group. It made me feel at home in our church. I am really getting to know people and people are starting to get to know us. This supper club experience is just one of the many reasons I feel super blessed to be a part of our church.