Silence and Solitude

As I celebrate my birthday, Christmas with my family, and the New Year looming ahead I reflect back on 2009. What I would love to say each year, at around this time, is that I am closer more intimate with God and my Family. I have mixed feelings about my efforts in that regard. Especially after reading this wonderful series on Silence and Solitude by Mark Driscoll. I was super convicted after reading it that I have allowed so many things to crowd my life. I am in the process of repentance now.

Here's the series in case you are interested.

Part 1: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/11/12/organizing-a-silence-and-solitude-day-part-1-of-5/

Part 2: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/11/16/organizing-a-silence-and-solitude-day-part-2-of-5/

Part 3: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/11/18/organizing-a-silence-and-solitude-day-part-3-of-5/

Part 4: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/11/24/organizing-a-silence-and-solitude-day-part-4-of-5/

Part 5: http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2009/11/26/organizing-a-silence-and-solitude-day-part-5-of-5/

Merry Christmas and my next year bring you and me closer and more intimate with God and our Families! God bless!

JE III: We're Certifiable!

This is Journal Entry 3 in the series Adoption: The Wild Goose Chase. You can find the other entries in the left hand menu bar.

Yesterday 12/22/2009 I received a call from the FCNI recruiter Janaan. She said, "Congratulations Patrick and Linda you are now officially certifiable as Fost/Adopt Parents." She actually did use the word certifiable, even though I know she meant certified. It felt Freudian for sure!

As you can see, I haven't written anything in almost a year. Here's a recap:

February - May 2009: Pulled Josh out of school to do Home Study through our local school district. This pretty much put all Fost/Adopt stuff on hold for us.

Summer 2009: We were recovering from homeschooling Josh (this is a whole 'nother story), trust us we needed it.

Fall 2009: We got back on the ball and started doing stuff for Fost/Adopt, much to the delight of our recruiter. We thought we had everything in by November, but found out we had one more thing to do and it involved the DMV...so yeah needless to say we weren't too enthused by that.

A couple of weeks ago: I finally went in to the DMV, which is down the street from FCNI, got what we needed and dropped that off.

December 22, 2009: See above.

We are super happy, excited, scared to see what God has in store for us (mostly excited).

Short and sweet. Next up, meeting with the Placement Supervisor to discuss placement scenarios. We expect to meet with her around the first week of January.