Nine Months Later.......

Obviously, it's been a while since I blogged, but I thought I would try again. I really need this outlet; I just need to get better at actually blogging!

So, what have the last nine months held? Well, obviously if you've been on Earth, you're aware there has been a pandemic going on, as well as riots over racial issues and political differences, but I'm not actually going to talk about those. Instead, I'll tell you what has happened for me personally. It's a lot!

First of all, in late February we had a call asking if we would mind if the two foster children we had living with us at that time were moved to another foster home that had just opened. I didn't have an objection to that, but did ask why. That's when I was told that there were 4 girls coming into care that it was felt we may want to take. The older two of these were our girls who had left in 2018! The younger two were their little sisters. Of course we said yes! That left us with our son, a foster daughter we already had living with us (the sibling set moved to another home), and the four girls. That's a lot of kids to quarantine with during a pandemic! But, we made it through! Eventually, I was able to start back to work and the girls all went to daycare.

The next huge bit of news is that I was offered and accepted a substantial promotion at work! It is in line with my degree and I love what I do. Now, I just do it in more than one building, across 4 counties! It's tiring, but very rewarding and I'm very happy to have the opportunity to work in my chosen field. In this time of many people being laid off from their jobs, for me to be able to not only continue doing what I love, but to receive a promotion to do so, is a wonderful blessing that I do not want to take for granted. I hope to continue serving my community long into the future!

Our news is not all happy, though. In July, our smallest foster daughter, whom we had had in care since she discharged from NICU at 2 weeks old, was moved to a relative placement. While we're happy she can now be with her older siblings, it doesn't take away the pain of missing her. Then, in September, after 6 months with us, our girls once again returned home. I am absolutely devestated, not because they left but because we are allowed no contact with them. I simply want to know they are doing well and being cared for and, unfortunately, these are things I have serious doubts about. Some days depression gets the best of me over this, but I'm trying to hold myself together for our son and my husband. I know there is always a time and a purpose to everything. There is no situation or instance in our life that isn't preordained to be the way it is, so I know that it will work out somehow. Our story isn't done yet. And I believe this to be so, no matter how a person feels about religion. Things just are to happen the way they're meant to happen.

In the meantime, we have some fun happening in our lives very soon! This weekend we are headed back to our happy place! While we know there are many restrictions in place, we are glad to follow those in order to once again experience our lovely Disney World. The smallest guy in my immediate life is pretty excited. To be honest, so is the larger guy in my life. And I'd be lying if I said I felt like anything other than a kid on Christmas! I'll try to be sure to post some pics from our trip, along with an update! Til then, I hope you have nothing but joy in your days!

Take Me Away On a Page

Books are kind of my thing. Well, that and yarn. But this post is about books. During the years I was working on my MLIS, I found it difficult to eke out the time to read for pleasure. That was a real loss for me because books have always been a comfort and something I really fell back on. However, since the completion of my degree, I have been attempting to catch up! Since May 2019 when I graduated, I've probably read somewhere in the vicinity of 30 to 40 books. Now, this may sound like a lot of books since I work full time, but - considering what I've applied to participate in for the next few years - that is just not going to cut it! You see, I completed an application to become a member of the Georgia Peach Awards Committee. What is the Georgia Peach Awards Committee? Well, it is a committee of school and public librarians from Georgia who work with teenagers and who spend their year reading through hundreds of books published within the last couple of years to find the best 20 titles which are then put forth to teens to vote on to choose the very best of the year. Each committee member will read more than 100 books per year. And it is a 3-year commitment. I am DYING to be selected for the committee!!! The deadline to apply isn't until February 15th, so it will be a while before I know if I've made it or not. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, I've joined a book club that will be reading a book each quarter of the year, chronicling the lifetime of females. The first quarter will focus on female as a young girl. The first book we've been assigned is Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. I've read the book before, but it was when I was a child. I'm eagerly looking forward to reading it again. I've also seen the movie, but it was a long time ago. I want to watch it again when I've finished the book. Anyone else want to join in?

Separately to that, I also have the book for the book club I run at my library. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate has a plot that is close to my heart, as it discusses adoption. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. I will give a more detailed review of it when I've completed it. It's an adult novel, so honestly not what I usually read. I'm more of a young adult book reader. But, I do occasionally enjoy reading more grown up books. After all, I am theoretically an adult! Anyway, in the future you can look forward to having more about books from me, including reviews and suggestions. I hope you'll continue stopping by and find something you'll enjoy reading yourself! Til next time!

525,600 Minutes.......

.....or 527,040 minutes for the coming year. Or 5,258,880 minutes for the last decade, whichever you prefer.

It's the first day of a new year and I thought I would get back to my roots somewhat and begin blogging again. I found in the past that blogging helped me with frustrations and depression. I hope to gain that space and clarity again.

To begin, I'll introduce myself to those who may not know me. My name is Lynn, I'm 41 years old, I'm married, and I'm the mom of one or many, depending how you look at it. I'm a librarian, I love to read, I love to crochet, I'm addicted to Facebook, and I hope to take more photos this year.

The last decade has been full of ups and downs for me and my family. In the past ten years:

• I had a D&C (2010)
• I lost my Dad (2011)
• We moved into a home not next door to or belonging to my Mom (2011)
• We became certified as foster parents (2012)
• We had a beautiful little boy placed with us (2012)!
• Hubby lost his job and started a new one (2012)
• Our little boy's birthmom met with us and asked us to adopt him and allow her to remain part of his life (2013)
• We fostered 2 more children and they then moved onto their forever home (2013)
• I had my tonsils removed (2013)
• I started a new job (2013)
• Our little boy became officially free for adoption and placed as an adoptive placement (2013)
• We finally adopted our amazing little guy! (2014)
• We were placed with a sibling group as a potential adoptive placement (2014)
• Our furbaby of 12 years, Isabel (terrier), passed away (2014)
• I left my job to become a stay-at-home mom (2014)
• Hubby had a major medical crisis, was hospitalized for a time period, and then was off work for several weeks (2014)
• Hubby returned to work following medical leave and was relieved of his duties. He began a new job several weeks later (2014)
• I had a moderate medical crisis with my ankle and was unable to bear weight on it for a couple of months (2015)
• We went to Walt Disney World for the first time! (2015)
• The potential adoptive placement disrupted and one of the siblings moved (2015)
• Hubby interviewed for and was hired for a fantastic new job closer to the one he had been employed in for several years before he emigrated to the United States from England (2015)
• Our little boy started school! (2015)
• We fostered 4 more children (2015)
• We were falsely accused of abusing our foster children and were investigated. All children moved during the investigation. We were eventually cleared of the allegations (2016)
• I began a new job in a library and realized I had found my place in the work world (2016)
• We had two wonderful, amazing, beautiful little girls placed with us and we were softly led to believe we would be adopting them (2016)
• I applied for admission to graduate school and was accepted! (2016)
• Hubby had another major medical crisis, was hospitalized, and had surgery to remove 7 feet of small intestines (2017)
• I completed my first full year of graduate school (2017)
• We lost another beloved pet (2018)
• We became Annual Passholders to Disney World for the first time! (2018)
• After two years, our girls were returned to their biological parents. Despite doing all we could to help their biological parents, contact was cut off with them and we grieved the loss of our beautiful girls (2018)
• We decided to take a break from fostering (2018)
• We got a cat (2018)
• We bought our first home (2018)
• After many months and a pep talk from our fabulous little boy, we decided to begin fostering again. We fostered 1 child before the end of the year (2018)
• We got a Chihuahua! (2019)
• I graduated with my Masters degree in Library and Information Sciences! (2019)
• I had two surgeries (2019)
• We fostered 7 more children, bringing our total so far to 20 total children fostered over 7 years (2019)

That's a lot of information for one post, so with that I'll leave you with the song from which this post gained it's title. Look to this spot for more soon from The Proverbial Gypsy!