Goodbye to 2011

Another year is about to enter the books and personally, it has been a momentous year.

• We hosted out first foreign exchange student-from Denmark.
• We vacationed in Florida and Washington DC
• My mother turned 80
• We hosted our second foreign exchange student-this one from Germany
• My stepmother passed away
• I met my daughter who I had given up for adoption when I was 17
• I graduated from college 
• I got a piece of the Berlin Wall for Christmas (how cool is that for a poli sci and history grad?)

Of course there are many other things that happened during the course of 2011, but these were my most memorable moments.

The newsworthy moments I will take with me are:

• The earthquake and tsunami in Japan
• Liz Taylor and Andy Rooney's deaths
• a black man running for President on the REPUBLICAN ticket
• The ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks
• Bin Laden IS DEAD!
• Obama sucks.

Yes I said it.  I respect the office, but he is so completely out of touch and wanting to push his own agenda that he can't get ANYthing done for Congress and his OWN democratic Senate fighting his radical push.

The world is on the verge of economic collapse and he just wants to tax more and spend on things we can't afford.  Hell, we don't even have a budget for last year!  There hasn't been a budget for since he's been in office!.  What is he thinking?

Well, so long 2011.  May 2012 be an even better year!

Reveal

Reveal
by Joyful and Contented © 2011
 

Blood and death

Pain and sacrifice

All for a God we cannot see

Right or wrong

War or peace

Where is this God we seek

From high above

Untouched He stands

Does He even see our need

Why on earth

Must man be pawns

And at His bidding bleed

Religion

Began

The death

Man against man

For who is right

Who is wrong

Whose God is real

Whose god is false

Only One claims a path

To be the only one

But why

Why did He start it all?

What purpose is there

In one man

killing another

Over what some prophet states

Do You watch us

And laugh as we fight

For what we believe is You?

It is said

God does not strive long with man

But how long must man strive with God

Or perhaps the better question

Is how long must man strive

Without God

Back to my blogspurts

I already have several posts in mind.  I must first get it straight about just who I am writing to.  I am writing to me.  I mean, after all, who would read this?  Posting it on the internet is just my vanity thing.  Plus the fact that it is so easy to keep up with.

So, here I am.  A senior.  Not just a senior in the sense that I have completed so many hours of college.  I've been THAT for YEARS.  No, I am a "graduating in...oh wow I just realized this...exactly one month" senior.  WOW!  I hadn't even thought of that till I was typing it!  It hasn't begun to sink in.  I mean it doesn't even seem real.  It's not like I've been working on this dang degree on and looooong off for almost 30 years!

Now I am student teaching.  It has been a blast!  High school was okay, but I am teaching middle school for this half of the semester.  I was scared to DEATH of middle schoolers coming into it.  Last week, we were packing up to leave the computer lab at school and one of the kids said, "Mrs. M, you are going to be an AWESOME teacher!  I wish you'd stay at our school so I could have you again!"  I walked out of the computer lab, looked at my cooperating teacher and flatly declared, "I am a middle school teacher!"  She laughed at me.

I am now sweating out the wait for a job.  Student loans are looming.  But this is NOT a good time in Tennessee to be looking into teaching!  Oh it is bleak-the job prospect as well as the lack of job security for those who DO teach.  When did the country turn on teachers?  It used to be a noble profession.  And my Republican party has so dissappointed me in this dept.  As conservatives, we should be figuring out ways to go after the national union without dismantling the support for the most thankless job in the country.  It isn't the local unions and the teachers we should be going after.  It's the national union, the lobyists, and the top heavy structure of education that we should be dismantling.  Come on my Republicans.  You don't shoot the messenger for delivering a bad message, you find the composer of the bad message and take issue with them.  Teachers WANT to teach.  Our hands are so tied by the rules and regulations that all we can do is prepare the kids for tests!  I really should just make myself write letters.  I am so sick of the current state congress messing with things they have no clue about and making it so much worse than it's ever been.  Way to make Republicans look stupid guys.  Might want to consult someone who knows a little bit about it before making drastic, idiotic changes to something and REALLY screwing it up!  Thanks!  Especially to you, Debra Maggart.  I voted for you, but never again.  You have lost ALL of my respect.  Oh okay, maybe I am writing to an audience...just this once.

Anyway.  Even though I am Christian.  I question God sometimes.  Bear with me.  This isn't sacrilege.  It's just trying to grasp at understanding.  God forgive me if I've crossed a line, but You know I ask You this all the time.  Gonna post it in the next  post

Sleepless in Nashvile

Winter time.  Every year, I want to sleep all day and then I can't sleep at night.  Once again, I am up in the wee hours of the morning.  I think hormone issues make it worse.  At 45, I can't ignore the possibility that I am nearing menopause.  Along with the fact that I can't sleep, now when I try to get back to sleep, I feel panicky and think too much about my breathing.  Not that I am having trouble breathing, I just think about it too much and end up feeling like I need more air.  I have always had "loud" thoughts at night about things like the fireplace being safe or that the kids are upstairs and how can I get to them in an emergency, but this year, those thoughts are not just "loud" but are screaming! 

It's funny to me that these things don't bother me in the summer.  I sleep great in the summer.  I am beginning to think that the fan I run all night in the summer.  Certainly the silence during the night in these winter months makes it much easier to hear myself breathe and get all paranoid about it.  I can also hear every creak and groan the house makes.  So it makes sense that the white noise of a fan would keep the silence from being so loud.  But I really think that the darker days add to the anxiety levels.  I really think it is a winter thing.

So, I am off to try to read Machiavelli, because it always puts me to sleep. 

Joy

About 5 years ago, I was contacted by a man in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who had been reading my previous blog.  After much suspicion on my part and much assurances on his part, we developed an e-mail friendship based on our shared love of God.  Over the years we have included our families in this relationship and continue to email and chat with each other on a weekly (or as close to weekly as we can with my being back in school) basis. 

Shortly after we began corresponding, my friend's wife became pregnant with her fourth child.  She had a difficult pregnancy and we joined together in prayer for her on many occasions.  How surprised I was when, four years ago today, the child was born and my friend named her after me!  I did not, nor do I now, feel that I did anything to deserve this honor, but I am DEEPLY honored by this.  It has also given me bragging rights in that I don't know anyone who can say they have a child named after them...in the Congo.  Little Joy did not have an easy beginning.  We had to continue our prayers for her as she struggled with illness and hospitalization during her first few weeks of life.  From what my friend tells me, she is now a bundle of energy.

So, Happy Fourth Birthday, little Joy!  I love you!

Christmas Miracle

On Friday, Dec. 17, 2010, we found out that a friend of our son, a foreign exchange student from Denmark, was having trouble with her host family.  It's a long story, but I'll just say that the chemistry with her hosts just wasn't there.  The real issue was that a 16-year-old girl from a foreign country was about to be without a home.  She was to stay in a temporary home for Christmas and a new home would be found for her after Christmas which would most likely mean she would have to change schools.  She had been to our home many times and our son and her seemed to be good friends.  We already knew that she was delightful and she seemed to be comfortable at our house.

Immediately our hearts went out to her.  We told our son to let her know that she always had a home with us and we would do whatever we needed to do for her to come stay with us.  We didn't know if it would be a reality or not, but we have always wanted to keep our doors open to kids who needed a place to stay and have sheltered a few over the years as things were sorting themselves out in their own homes.  It just seemed to be perfect timing for us to have a place for her with only 2 kids still living at home.

On Monday, we got the call from her liason to see if we were serious about taking her.  We told them that we would really like to have her over for Christmas at the very least, but we were more than happy to open our home to her for the rest of her stay in the U.S.  From the sound of the process, Christmas was out of the question.  We would have to first fill out an application, then send pictures of our house, have an in-home interview and have background checks on everyone in our household.

On Tuesday we began the process.  The application was not short.  It took me all afternoon to fill it out, get people to send references (which was another blessing to us in that we had such great support from our friends who rushed to send reports in for us) and get pictures in of the house, but it had become my mission that if we couldn't get her for Christmas, she was at least going to know we wanted her.  Little did we know that a miracle was being worked on the other end.  They kept saying not to hold our breath, but we were determined to let that girl know that there was someone who really cared about her.  And we prayed.  I remember at one point just saying to God, "If there is any way to get her here for Christmas, please work that miracle."  So Tuesday we did all the paperwork.  Wednesday the regional guy called and set up an appt. for the in-home interview for THAT evening.  At that same time we were working on the background checks for 5 of us (my elderly mother included) and we had an on-line orientation to do on Thursday morning which took a couple of hours.  All of that was on our end, but the people with AFS were feverishly working on her behalf as well.  We didn't realize it, but there were numerous phone calls between Nashville and Maryland as they were also rushing to make it happen.  Thursday, as we were doing the orientation, we got a call that she could come that day!  Very shortly after that call, her liason called and asked if noon would be a good time for her to come!  It was happening!  We were getting her not only for Christmas, but 2 days before!  We were amazed and so grateful to the AFS people for giving up their time, so close to Christmas to get her into a home rather than have her in temporary homes and moving her to another school.

It has been every bit as amazing, if not more so, than we expected.  She is very much like a member of our family.  And having her has indeed been our Christmas miracle.  I don't know if she saw it that way or not, but it sure blessed us.  The process was pushed through in 3 days!  THREE DAYS! 

When she arrived on Thursday at noon,  She was all smiles and seemed so happy.  Our family was so excited to have her.  It was a wonderful moment.  Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were very different for her compared to her own traditions, but she was with a family and settled into her own room.  To top it off, it snowed on Christmas Day.  This is the home I grew up in and it was my first white Christmas here.  It was like God was saying, "Beloved, this is going to be THE Christmas to remember." 

We had gifts for our new daughter, and she had one for us.  To a family that has always bought and collected Christmas ornaments to commemorate life events for that year, she gave us an ornament with each of our family members names on it-including hers.  She couldn't have chosen a better gift and we already considered her our Christmas miracle.