Thoughts on Easter

I think Easter may be one of my favorite holidays. Christmas gets a lot of hype, all the holiday parties and music I think contribute to this. But Easter is so beautiful. The idea that Sunday comes, and everything is new. It's spring, so the grass is (hopefully) green, trees are (hopefully) blooming, and the weather is (usually) nice...not to hot, not to cold. This year, with my sister having a little one, we had an Easter egg hunt for the first time in years at my Grandma's. It was so sweet watching Claire tottle around the yard picking up one egg after another. It was so sweet the way she'd pick it up, and promptly hand it over to my sister, her mother.

Now, of course I know my niece hunting eggs is not what Easter is all about. But I do think that perhaps there is some symbolism in the way society has commercialized Easter. You see, as humans, we are constantly hunting for eggs to fill us. Hunting for shiny eggs, bright eggs, big eggs...well, you get the idea. And Easter is a time for us to refocus and see that the ultimate egg is all of these things in one... It's Christ. It's the one who we sing about and celebrate at Christmas, we mourn and remember on Good Friday and we rejoice and revel in on Easter Sunday.  Yes the Blood it is my Victory!! 

My husband and I were talking on Friday about why the cross is the emblem of Christianity that has been through the ages.  I mean, the Blood IS my victory, and I'm sooo thankful for the blood of Jesus. But the story DOESN'T END THERE!! It's not just the blood that's my victory. What about the rest of the story? What about the empty tomb? The stone that was rolled away? The RISEN SAVIOR? That empty tomb, I believe, is also my Victory. On Sunday morning in church, we sang a hymn that I had never heard before, but it has quickly become a favorite of mine!

Thank you Savior for dying, for rising, and for living again!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!!

Love, Mrs. M.

Thoughts on nighttime photography

So, last night, my husband and I went and took some photos around town with our o so cool camera. He is soo stinking talented. Check it out!

Love, Mrs. M.

Thoughts on the beauty of my "job"

In North Texas last night, apparently, a large, destructive storm blew through. It knocked out power to many and left most without having to go to school. My agency was without power and therefore closed for the day. However, I had already planned to be in Cleburne all day celebrating the wonderful gift of adoption with one my families. Because of this, I did not have the day "off" as many of my co-workers did. I did, however not have to go at 8am. When I set my alarm, knowing I didn't need to leave my house until 9:30, I, geniusly, set my alarm, for 9:30. Oops. So, instead of leaving at 9:30 I left at 9:50 (post shower, blow dry, dressed, AND jewelry!). By the time I arrived at the office, to say I was frazzled is pretty much an understatement. I had to pick up an intern and all the items for the adoption ceremony and had to be in Cleburne at 11am. By God's grace, I made it with a little time to spare. After court, it was time to finish preparing for the ceremony that was to start at 4pm. At this point, I would like to share with you how much I love my job. Today, I was able to literally witness the creation of a new family. I saw three people who'd been living under the same roof for that past year and ahalf become a bona fide, legally bonded, Godly covenanted family.  It makes me tear up a little just thinking about the things I was allowed to witness today. I saw  a young lady, surrounded by people who love her, tell a judge "Yes, I want to be adopted" and "Yes, I want that to be my new name". I got to see this same little girls face literally light up when she saw her cake that had her new name on it. I was there when she called her adoptive father "dad" and say "Dad, carry me". It was absolutely beautiful.   During the adoption ceremony, we do two different activities. One, is to honor those who played a role in the adoption process (this is the candle lighting ceremony" and one, is used to show the creation of the new family (the water ceremony).


In the candle lighting ceremony, (seen here)

we light a candle to honor various members of the adoption process. It starts with the adoptive parents lighting a candle for the birth parents, then a candle is lit for the adoptive child, the adoptive family, any professionals the family wishes in include, and finally it finishes with a candle being lit honoring all the children who continue to wait for their forever family. This is a beautiful way to honor so many who worked so selflessly and nobeling for this child to have a forever family. 

In the water ceremony, (seen here)

we combine colored water for members of the adoption triad. In this ceremony, the yellow represented the birth family, the orange (it was pink in person) represented the adopted child, the purple represented the adoptive mother, and the green represented to adoptive father. I poured for the birth family, and each of the other members poured their own. At the end, it created a new color. A beautiful new color that was completely intricate with the other colors. No matter how you try, you can not separate the colors from each other. How beautiful  is that imagine in an adoption.

I love my "job". Even though, technically, today, I should have been "closed for business", I was able to be apart of a beautiful, moving, special, wonderful, and many other positive adjectives about my day. A big congrats to my family who completed their adoption today! My prayers will continue to follow you onto this next journey...parenting a pre-teen!!!!
 
Love, Mrs. M.

Thoughts on Spring in Texas

The hubs and I got a snow cone and took bluebonnet pictures today. I love being married. And I love Texas in the spring. Did you know bluebonnets had a fragrance?? I didn't till today!

Love, Mrs. M.

Thoughts on long drives

Today, I drove to Abilene. From Dallas. And, I drove back. In all, I was gone from my house for 12 1/2 hours. It was a lllllllllllllooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggg drive and a lllooonnnggg day. I went for a meeting for work. It was an OK meeting, and the meeting itself wasn't that long. It was supposed to go from 10am until 4pm. We went from 10-11:45ish and took lunch from 11:45ish to 1:15ish  and then we were done by about 3:15. But still, it was a very long day.

So, about long drives.  Why can't cars have that auto pilot feature like air planes do. The drive from Dallas to Abilene is pretty much straight (ok ok a couple of hills and curves are in there). But if we can have the GPS systems for the car, why can't they create the auto pilot thing? Typically I'm against the advancement of technology. Quite honestly, I'm afraid that they either will or have created something technologically that will wind up being the death of us. I mean, do we really need a robotic maid? I mean, look at Rosie, do we really want that roaming around, taking care of kids???

But even though I am generally against technological advances, I do think an auto pilot care thingy should be created. I could really have used it today to get a little rest/sleep. On my way out there today, the Dallas radio stations stopped working just on the other side of Weatherford. My sweet husband let me take his iPod with me, but the battery on it died before I made it to Abilene this morning. Then on the way back, from about Cisco to Weatherford, I had to listen to some right wing conservative grip and complain about the state of  US politics. Now, I'm definitely no liberal, but I'm also no conservative. I have views in both camps (thanks to good ol Mrs. Sneed).  At times, this nonintelligent man made me laugh, and other times I was disgusted at some of his "everyman for himself views" (I am a Social Worker you know). That hour and a half was a very low point in my life. I wound up just turing it all off and prayed for a while (which, let's be honest, is what I should have done in the first place).

So, in summary, I hate long drives, I think they should create an Automotive Auto Pilot, and I don't want Rosie raising any children.

Love, Mrs. M.