We Had a Vacation!

We went to the beach in October!

Sort of risky I know, the weather was predicted to be cold and windy.

It was...

but not THAT cold and not THAT windy.

I did something else we don't often do, I found a condo, online and went by the reviews 

and picked one that looked good. We were happy with it.

Shekinah had never been to see the ocean,

 but she loved  chasing the waves as much as her sisters did.

I loved the little kitchen, it was missing a few things,

like a toaster and a pancake flipper.

We managed to prep 5 pounds of shrimp and make them two different ways--

deep fried and oven- grilled (on skewers even!)

I had plenty of good help.

The water was still warmer than the air.

And the beach has few shells left on it...the rest are at home in my house! 

The living room area

The beach is right there! straight ahead. We had to drive a bit to get to the 

boardwalk. I figured these people who hadn't been to Ocean City before needed

to see the board walk.  They walked the whole three miles of it too.

Tracking my daughter wasn't hard.

There wasn't a lot of Jana and Ben time...there was a LOT of

Shekinah and Jana time tho'...We did take care of our own kids

some of the time and let the two of them have some time alone.

Really! the beach and winter coats, I was glad I insisted on packing them.

The remains of the shrimp

The sun over the bay

Good-by Beluka Halfmoon Condo. I hope we can manage another trip next year.

Tho next year I plan to actually put our bag of clothes IN the van and not beside the van in the garage. Thankfully the house had a washer and dryer and Jana had a dress along that fit me.

It did give DH and I reason to buy souvenir t-shirts. 

#NEAS2016 and My Runners

This past weekend DH and I attended the NorthEast Adoption Summit in Lancaster PA. While we were there, my niece watched the girls, Joe worked and Zeke had a quiet day on his own. The girls were able to attend a 2.1mile benefit run. It was a first for them. When I first told them about it, Faith asked if she HAS to run and Hope thought maybe she would walk it. I was a bit confused because one of these girls can be seen running in and out of the drive quite often and both of them can run like the wind during track and field. I decided it wasn't my worry, walking it would be just fine, the point was the fun and fund-raising part of it.

Well I got a text from my niece on Saturday afternoon--"Faith came in third for the girls" I figured it was an age-divided thing and she did well for her age group.  No-- she was the 3rd female to cross the finish line! Her time was 18 min and 21 seconds, Hope got side-stitches and made it in 20 min and 10 seconds. Shekinah trotted the whole route with no stops and made it in 28 minutes.

Along the route she and my niece would encourage each other with the phrase, "french fries and hamburgers and pizza"  (That was waiting at the finish line)  After awhile Shekinah said, "I'll just say it in my head now."

Had no trouble putting those girls to bed when we got home.


Now the conference--Enjoyed it of course, some big names were there--that is if you are constantly looking at information on "kids from hard places" and how to help the families.  Dr. David Cross, Mandy Howard, Heather Forbes seemed to be familiar friends because their faces show up so often on the videos I scour for information.
I was sort of disappointed that I couldn't go to more of the workshops, but there were only so many hours to the day.

We listened to Bishop Aaron Blake as he told the story how he and his wife became foster parents after they were empty-nesters. Not to the  tiny babies that needed homes, but to big 16 year old boys who needed a home because their current foster placement wasn't working out. Within a year of bringing home the first son, they had six boys in their home, all of them played on the highschool football team.  He challenged his church to stand with them and become foster parents. Their church with less than 200 members had around 75 foster children at one point. Hmmm

We heard a lot about the foster children of our state and nation, part of me was ready to rush into it and say "sure, we could do that!" Then thankfully, one of the speakers said, "not everyone needs to be a foster parent, nor SHOULD be a foster parent, but everyone should care and help in some capacity."

OK, got it.

One of the speakers mentioned that he would like to see "In this world you will have troubles--Jesus" needle-pointed on a pillow. I am so tempted to make one for him, but I think the other side of the pillow needs to say, "but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  I am trying not to be too down, this week, it seemed that 75% of my phone calls were hard stuff from the adoption world and yesterday I touched base with two moms that I haven't talked to in awhile and ...more stuff to add to my prayer list.

One "small" peeve I had with the conference was the volume of the "music". Sorry, I'm from an acapella singing church, I enjoy instrumental ACCOMPANIMENT not dominance. I had to think of the comment Karyn Purvis made on "The Sensory World" about pastors driving our sensory kids out of the church with the noise. I confess I had the urge to just scream loudly like Shekinah does when I run the blender, but I pulled up my big-girl undies and did deep breathing---hubby went for a walk.