Breaking the Ice

Hey, Y'all!!!

"Why-u-take-my-pic-right-now?" face

I am going to Blissdom '12.

"Really-u-gonna-take-my-pic-NOW?" face

I feel very fortunate to be attending.  I really never thought my dream of attending such a conference would come true this soon.  I am, understandably, I think, a little apprehensive about remembering all the details, arriving on my own and not looking as out of place as a milk bucket under a bull.  Fortunately, there is an fb page for Blissdom Newcomers.  The action on such a page is fast and furious, as the women are wickedly plugged in.

"Sneak-and-take-it-while-she-isn't-looking," shot.

Many are writing an ice breaker post.  So we can all get to know one another.

This seems like an assignment I can handle.

Before I learned to use the photo editing software.

Hey, New Friends and Awesome Ladies!!!  I mean you're both. New and Awesome; Friends and Ladies.

I have been blogging for two years, and this is my third blog.  The first on had to do with our adoption.  Everyone had an adoption blog and I thought I should try it out.  A friend or two should mentioned I should have a blog.  I figured that this would be a good start.  By the time we got home from China, blogging had captured me.

My favorite posts over there are:


The Real Cost of Adoption

and

I Win. Again.

Well, things didn't have that airbrushed and pastel quality, that people are generally going for when they add a new member to the family.  So when I got back from China, I stewed a moment and decided to try an anonymous blog.  I am pretty angry when I am anonymous.  Inadvertently, I also chose a name with less SEO than Kim Kardashian or Bigger Breasts or Weight loss.

A Recipe for Thanksgiving

Anonymity didn't work.  I found myself back at blogger and trying to stay out of the way of the cyberstalker person who made me decide not to continue at the other blog.

This looks friendlier in color.

Somehow, I have been here a year and a minute.  Some things are different.  I haven't really been able to embrace the difference.  And now I have another child.  A smaller one.  And less time to gnaw over what I am trying to actually say.

A quick description of our life:

One marriage, 20 years.

Three children...14yo identical twin girls(adopted locally as infants) and a 7 yo boy(adopted from China in 2010).  All are adopted.  None look like me or my husband.  We consider it a call from God to parent children.  We don't feel proficient.  It isn't the same.

He is an architect.  His a very, very, very, very, good one.

I studied education, taught two years.  Homeschool the people now.

We bought an older home hoping to be able to renovate.  5.5 years and quite a number of unfulfilled predictions (by others) later.  It hasn't happened.

Two dogs and an commitment phobic outdoor cat.
 

The girls started high school this year, and are attending their first co-ops.  Homeschool co-op is the best thing ever in the universe.  Imagine, if you will, just happening to walk by when some hairy-legged junior boy is walking up to try and charm your freshman girl.  Imagine.  Making friends with his mom. (cue evil laugh)

The thing is, in this life, things have been hard, in some ways.  I am tired of persevering, and sometimes, I talk to God on the blog.  Sometimes, I swear.  Sometimes, I am unafraid to be critical of the status quo in the institutional church.  As such, I have not invited many IRL friends to the blog.  Mainly, unbeknownst to most of my real life relationships, my blog friends have been the ones to see me through these tough times.

Jesus knows.  He knows all I need and who I am on the inside.  I am so grateful for what blogging and blog friendships have added to my life.

I know that I am going to Blissdom for a reason and because He saw fit to arrange the circumstances.  He is actively re-arranging everything.  I am running everywhere I go.  I am out of breath and dropping balls as I go.  My posts have slowed to one a week-ish, because news happens to fast to know if it will change tomorrow and I have no time to enjoy a good laugh.

I have forgotten how to be funny.  Although I almost had it once or twice.

I think that is a good start new sisters...  Don't be afraid to share your ice breaker, too.