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Have you ever been in one of those moods that just make it impossible for you to enjoy anyone or anything? I have felt so blah lately that I am sure that David and Caleb both want to strangle me. I don't even really know why I am in this funk. Maybe all I need is the vacation that we have coming up to get me back to my normal self.

Vacation Week Coming SOON!!!!

The coming week will be busy. While I do not have to work or attend any training sessions I have a ton to do prior to vacation week. Caleb is going to Scout Camp for a week and David and I are going to Tybee Island. I have been looking forward to this trip for some time. We just need some time to do nothing but relax. I really do not know how we did it all when we had foster children. How did we ever relax or have a minute to ourselves?

Caleb loved camp last year, hopefully he will enjoy it as much this year. He has started getting his things together, but we will need to double check and then go shopping for a few new items that he will need this year.

Caleb is 12

Yesterday Caleb turned 12. Boy do I feel old. David took Caleb to a Braves game, while I was at my training sessions. The Braves won. Which is good. Caleb takes it personally when he goes to a game and they don't win. We went out for a family dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. All in all Caleb had a good B-day.

Earlier in the week he had a party with other family members while he was in FL. He enjoyed being able to share his b-day with his cousins.

I just wish that Caleb did not have the attitude of a 12 year old. Gotta love the middle school aged child.

Long Week

David is finally home from London. He had a good trip. He had a lot of work to do but did have a chance to see the city and many points of interest. He was even in town on the queen's b-day, and got a few photos of her in her annual b-day parade. We will post pictures in a few days when we get a chance.

I have completed 1 week of training and have another week to go. I have learned a lot and am feeling more comfortable about my new job. I just wish I did not have to spend so much time in a hot media center sitting on a hard chair. One would think that they could make these training sessions a little more comfortable.

David left just a few minutes ago to go to FL to pick Caleb up from his grandparents. He has been there for two weeks and is starting to get a little homesick, however, he will not admit that he is homesick. He is having his 12th b-day party with family this afternoon. On his actual b-day which is Thursday, David and I will do something special for him. I just wonder where has the time gone, my baby is now 12.

Tomorrow night when I get home from class we will no longer be scattered. We will once again be all together, as it should be.

Scattered

It has been a busy week for us. The family is scattered, I am home in GA, Caleb is in FL and David is still in London. I really do not like this arrangement. I like it much better when we are all together as a family.

I have been busy this week, attending training sessions for my new job. Caleb has been having fun with his grandparents, aunts uncles and cousins. David has had some time to see the sights of London but has been worked more than he would have liked too.

The house is lonely when I am here by myself, I am sure that David feels the same why when he gets to his hotel at night. I am looking forward to Friday- that is when David returns. We are not sure when we will go to FL to pick Caleb up, we are going to play that by ear, since I have training everyday next week.

Being scattered is not fun.

Vacation- Sort of....

Caleb and I are in Milton/Pensacola FL. visiting with family. David is in London working and playing.

We went to the beach the other night and everyone got stung by Jellyfish so we are going to try to go again today, maybe it will be a better trip.

On Saturday, I will travel home, Caleb and Piglet will stay here. I need to attend training for my new job so Caleb will be staying with his Grandparents.

Vacation Plans

We have decided to go on a cruise around Christmas time. We have a found a cruise leaving from Mobile, AL. The trip includes stops at Cozumel and Progreso, Mexico. We will still get to spend time with other family members since the ship returns to port early Christmas morning.

David and I got our passports a few years ago, when we went on an anniversary trip. Today I took Caleb to the passport office and applied for his passport. It should arrive in about 4 weeks. He is very excited about going on this trip.

Long two weeks!!!

I just arrived home from dropping David off at the airport. He will be gone for two weeks. This will be the longest amount of time that we have been apart since we have been married. I miss him already.

London

David is all packed and ready to leave for London for two weeks. He is not real excited about the trip because it will be mostly work with very little time for leisure. I will be taking him to the airport tonight. He will fly out around 10:30 and fly non-stop. It is a long flight and I am sure it will be trying and uncomfortable.

I wish I could go, it would be great to see the sights while he is busy working, but I have to attend some training for my new job. The training starts next week.

Hopefully when David returns we will have a few photos to post of some of the fun time he was able to squeeze into the trip.

Disappointment

On Wednesday we received a phone call about a baby that was born on Sunday in AZ. We were asked if we would take this baby since the adoptive parents that were chosen walked away. We were surprised and even excited about this prospect. We had given up hope of adopting and thought this was a miracle. We agreed to adopt this baby girl.

In the meantime the BMom left the baby at the hospital. The hospital had to call CPS, since there were no named parents. The case went to family court on Friday to determine who should get custody, CPS or the Adoption Agency. The court decided that CPS should get custody. So now this baby can not be placed for adoption until all family resources are exhausted, once placed for adoption, it will most likely go to a family living in AZ.


It is just so hard to move on, but our time in Baby Wish Land is over. Yes, we have said that before, we just can not deal with the hurt, heartache and disappointmentshopes up only to have them dashed again. So now we once again are DONE for good. The past few days our stress level went through the roof. The disappointment when we were told of the courts decision was unbearable. All we want to do is love another child, but that seems impossible.

Waiting

Why is it so hard to wait. For the past couple of days it seems like all I do is wait. I had to wait for my car to get repaired. I had to wait for David's clients to finalize his trip plans so I could make my own plans, and now I am waiting for a phone call. Why is it so hard for people to wait. I find myself consumed with trying to get information that I just have to wait for. Maybe one day I will learn how to wait without becoming stressed out.

Why won't the phone ring????

Busy Days

What ever happened to the lazy days of summer? I have been on the run since summer break started. Too much to do. David is going to London for 2 weeks, Caleb is going to FL. for 2 weeks and I have 2 weeks of training for my new job. Trying to get everything ready for all us is wearing us all out.

The good thing, my training location has changed so I will not have to stay in motels and eat out for 2 weeks. Our trips are also staggered, so we will not all be gone for two full weeks at the same time, so at least we will get to see each other a little during the month of June. Maybe we will get a few days to rest at the end of June and in July. Guess we will see.

Tithing

So I missed church on Sunday due to illness. During Davids recap of the service I really felt like I needed to write or email about our experience with tithing. So here goes. Close friends and family may find parts of this hard to believe.

I am so glad that tithing will NEVER be an issue in our house. During the past year the only thing that has changed is that we now tithe and we did not do so before. We have seen first hand the benefits of obeying God in this area of our lives.

In 2006 we basically stopped going to church (hard to believe). It was too hard with all of the foster kids. Once we stopped going to church we also stopped tithing. Thats when things began to get a little rough. Paying the bills became a nightmare. There was never enough money and stuff always got paid late. There was never money for extras and our budget needed a budget. I would get sick just thinking about paying the bills.

Then in July of 2007- our house was empty (no foster kids). We saw a sign for a church in a movie theatre and we decided to attend. Needless to say we really liked it, so we continued to go. We wrote a tithe check during our second visit to the church.

Since then we have been faithful with not only paying our tithes but giving extra. God has blessed us in many ways since we became faithful with tithing. I believe that I am a giver, but I never had anything to give until now. Through our faithfulness God has allowed us to bless others and he has blessed us. Look what GOD has done through us obeying him in giving of tithes: (I am only listing a few).

1. Revoluntary Love Christmas: We were blessed and were able to give more than I thought we could give. It felt wonderful to put the gift cards in the basket and know we were making a difference. This was a large gift and we look forward to doing it again next Christmas.
   
2. Must Thanksgiving: We were able to provide dinner for more than 1 family.
3. Single Mom : We were able to provide her first and last months rent to move into a better place.
   
4. We were able to give a "wad" of cash to some very deserving people we were told by God to do so and we did even though it seemed strange to us.

Prior to our tithing we would not have been able to give anything to any of these people.

Were we tested? YES. In Jan. of 2007, my pay got cut by $1000.00 per month. But we still were faithful and paid our tithes. A few weeks later David needed to hire another contractor, which increased his pay, almost the exact amount that mine got cut.

Has God blessed us? YES. Not only can we give to others but this past year we have been able to give to ourselves. Tithing has made our lives better. Through our tithes we bless our church, and the church is able to bless others. Through tithing we have been blessed and have been able to bless others. We will continue to be faithful in tithing and know that God will continue to bless us.

Adoption

Most of you know that for the past three years we have been trying to adopt a child. We dealt with DFACS for about two years, and are coming up on the 1 year anniversary of working with a private agency. I am writing this to let everyone know that we have officially given up on adopting a child. We have spent countless hours in training, completing paperwork and in meetings and are still at square 1. We have also spent a ton of money on home studies and agency fees. Our paperwork expires at the start of July and we have no prospects of any children and in order to continue the adoption process we will have to redo our home study and pay more fees.

During the past year we have only been presented to 5 birth mothers. Two of these women, went MIA, 1 decided to use a agency that would give her more money, one really did not want to put the child up for adoption and with the most recent case the adoption agency never called us back, so we can only assume that the BMom choose another set of parents.

We both feel that if this was really meant to be we would not still be at step one. We have had all that we can take emotionally and need to move on with our lives. We have been stuck in "baby wish land" for far too long and need to figure out what the real plan for our life is.

Revolution Church

Check out the link to Revolution Church. We do not have a building so we meet in the local movie theatre. The seats are comfortable, but it takes hours to set everything up each and every week. We have been attending Revolution since last July. David and Caleb both work on the sound crew and the setup and tear down crew. Caleb hates to miss church, so much that we have to make him go on scout camping trips. I love that he loves church, but I want him to know that it is alright to miss a service once in a while.

I work in Planet Shakers, which is our Sunday School and with the tear down crew. I normally work with the second graders. It is fun, but loud and busy. Our Sunday's are long and we usually end up napping the afternoon away.

Time to enter the 21st Century

OK-- So I am going to blog, I guess it is time for me to make it into the 21st Century.

Most of you will find the Lloyd Life Uneventful. But we will post often to keep friends and family in the loop of what is going on in our lives.