Faith in the Details

I walked into my classroom this morning to find a gift on my desk.  Since it is Valentine's day I assumed that one of my students had brought it in before I arrived.

 I glanced at the gift quickly, but decided to wait to open it until the giver made their arrival in a few minutes.   It sat amongst other smaller gifts that I had already received this week from my little ones.

"Wow," I thought, "someone really put a lot of thought into this."

I quickly began to get ready for my day because my first graders would be arriving soon.  As the kids arrived I expected someone to proudly tell me that they had brought the beautiful gift on my desk.  No one did.  So a few minutes later I asked them who had given it to me.  They did not know.

At this point, I began to look at the gift a little more carefully.  I noticed the photograph collage with the word "faith," the jar of pink tulips (my favorite), a Sonic drink, and a Snickers (also my favorite). It was all tucked neatly inside a wooden crate.  I tasted the Sonic drink and realized it was cream Dr. Pepper, a new favorite that a friend I work with had introduced to me in the past year.

"Oh!  This is a gift from a friend who works with me! But which friend?"

There were a couple who knew the struggles of our past year... taking the scary step of faith to begin the adoption process, pregnancy, miscarriage, pause in the process...

I am now mentally trying to decide which friend had been so thoughtful to put this together.  Maybe a few of them?

You may be wondering, why I did not automatically assume this was from my husband...

It completely has his name written all over it, but he was out of town on a basketball trip for work and the few days before he left were filled with busyness, so I knew he did not have time to orchestrate this gift.

But then I saw it... tied neatly in the bow around the mouth of the mason jar was a jump drive.

Oh my! I covered my mouth and gasped... the tears began to flow.  Who had done this?!  I'm mentally trying to think who knew that I had carefully put away our adoption jump drive after the miscarriage?  I put it in a very safe place, a place so safe that we still have no recollection of the location!

I left my students with my student teacher and quickly ran (i.e  which translates to quick walking feet in an elementary school) to my friends' classrooms.

"Did you do it?"

Looks of confusion...

"Do what?"

Finally I found Libby.  "Did you do it?! How did you do it?"

She gives me a little grin.

"It wasn't me.  It was your husband."

Now I am so confused, but also thinking, "How ridiculous could I be?!  Of course it was him... but how?!"

She says, "I put it in your room, but you need to call him.  I don't want to give it away.  Let him tell you the details."

At this point, I am so overwhelmed with emotion and excitement.  I run to the phone and call him at his hotel in New Braunfels.  I wake him up... but he is happy to explain.

He tells me he thought of the idea the day before and had called the agency to explain our story.  He calls Margaret at Christian Homes and Family Services (our amazing adoption agency).  He spills the whole story about why we had misplaced the jump drive.  He tells how the Lord has been clearly telling us in the last few weeks that we need to step out in faith and trust Him in this.  Finally he asks if it would be possible to get a new jump drive.

 Margaret says, "Of course! But my assistant is out today and she is the one who loads all of the application files onto the jump drive."

DJ tells her not to worry about it today and says, he can just get it next week.  No problem.

But Margaret insists that she will see what she can do.

15 minutes later, Margaret calls back and tells him that she explained the whole story to her assistant and she said, "I love the Gilillands!  I want to take care of this today!"

Margaret tells him that he can come by after 2:00, so he runs across town to take care of this before he needs to leave with the team at 3:00.  Next he calls Libby's husband and asks for the favor.  He takes the jump drive to Ryan and then calls Libby to ask her to help him get the rest.

He explains he wants to recreate this song that we love called "Wal-Mart Flowers," but he needs a few things.  Libby selflessly goes to pick out the items and texts him pictures of the items she finds to get his final decision.

He decides on the faith collage since the Lord is clearly calling us to step out in faith.

As he speaks, I am in complete awe!  I am so in love with this sweet man the Lord has chosen for me, and also so excited that God is orchestrating our adoption story with each perfect detail.

I cannot wait to share these details one day with the precious one He has already chosen for us!

Stepping out in Faith

Wow... it has been a full year since I have been able to blog.

It has been a challenging year.  After our second miscarriage, I struggled for at least a few months to feel like myself again.  I think my husband was really worried.  I didn't know how much I struggled until now when I can look back upon the whole thing.

If I am honest, I haven't blogged this past year because I haven't known how to answer the questions about the pause in our adoption process.  I kept thinking we would get back to it soon.  We wanted to get back to it.  I think we both believed we would get back in the grove much sooner than this, but we both felt so much fear in the process.

Most of fear came from the fact that we had no idea how to pay the enormous expenses of adoption.  We know that most people fundraise to at least help pay for their adoption, and that has always been our plan... but somehow we have still held onto this almost unspeakable fear of asking people to help.

When I step outside of myself, it sounds silly even to me.  I am person who naturally trusts that God provides (this is not a compliment to me at all, but just part of my natural, God-given personality).  However, somehow stepping out in faith in this has felt really scary and awkward.

Where do we begin?  We still aren't completely sure...

I think we have some good ideas, but we still need to nail everything down.

But I can say that the Lord is doing a huge work in our hearts and it is really incredible to know He is working... and also a lot of fun. I am excited about the anticipation of it all.  I can't wait to see how His plan unfolds.

At this point, there are still a lot of unknowns but I just wanted to share a little bit of how you can pray for us right now.  We are planning to begin the fundraising process in the near future.  Right now we are researching and making some decisions about where to begin.

There are so MANY options!  Pray that God would guide us through these scary and humbling decisions.  Pray that we would be willing to step out in faith wherever He leads.

There are so many reasons to wait... but we desire to be obedient.  So please pray that we would not wait any longer than He wants us to and that fear would not be an issue.

My hope is that we will have some fundraising news soon.

We know that God doesn't call everyone to adopt but he does call us all to care for the orphans.  One way you can do this is by praying for us as we begin this process (again).

This morning my Bible study just happened to be over this verse (don't believe for one second that I thought this was a coincidence):

Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.  James 1:27

He is doing BIG things and I can't wait to share more of it with you later.

Update: Some Highs and Lows

The past month has held some of our highest highs and lowest lows; Although, I can say that the Lord is faithful through the good and the bad.  

As many of you know, we started the adoption process in January. I can't even describe the excitment we felt. Then a few days later we found out that we were pregnant.  I was amazed. My blood work came back with glowing reports from our doctor, which was really exciting since I had a miscarriage about 2 years ago. I felt beyond blessed.  

One month ago, we found out about this precious little life growing inside me.  Later that same week we began to have complications with the pregnancy. My super-great hormone levels dropped about 20 points.  That may not sound like a big deal, but it is. Our doctor explained that when your levels decline -even a little- it means the baby is not thriving. However, my doctor was not ready to give up or believe the pregnancy was ending, so he wanted to check my levels again on Monday.  That was one of the longest, most desperate weekends of my life. Our levels should have been doubling, not declining. But we were hopeful, we began to pray fervently for a miracle.  At first I felt pretty hopeless, but then God began to restore my hope. By Monday I believed that our baby would live.  I began to let myself think again about how our life would change sometime in September.  Monday I received some amazing news.  My levels had almost tripled! It was a miracle! My doctor could attribute it to nothing less. We knew the power of prayer had made the difference. 

On Wednesday, my doctor had me come back in to check my levels again. This time my levels did not double.  They went from about 520 to 720. My doctor said it wasn't enough. He said we were having a miscarriage. I was not ready to hear this. My doctor was ready to do a D&C because he was a concerned that my pregnancy was ectopic, which could obviously be dangerous for me. I was not ready to do the D&C because my levels were still rising a little However, my comfort lied in the fact that my doctor is also a believer, so I knew that he would save my baby at all costs. We soon learned that just wasn't possible. 

The following day we arrived at his office to have an ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed that there was no sac growing in my uterus.  It was still a little to early to actually see the baby, but my doctor said we would be able to see the sac if the baby were developing properly. There was no sac.  We discussed our options and risks.  We decided to do one more blood test the following morning and if my levels had stopped rising, then I would have the D&C on Friday.  We went home Thursday night and prayed that our numbers would be conclusive in the morning. 

Later that night, we went out to eat and I began to have cramps.  As we arrived home my pain became much worse, so DJ called the dr. He sent us to the ER (Still concerned with the possibility of a tubal pregnancy).

 That night my doctor decided it would be best if I checked into the hospital.  They did another ultrasound revealing again that the baby was not growing properly.  In the morning, we found out that my pregnancy hormone levels had stopped rising.  These were the conclusive results we needed to help us make our decision.  Later that day, I underwent anesthesia and had the D&C.  The last time we went through this, I cane out of anesthesia easily and went home only a few hours after the surgery; however this time, when I awoke I had some trouble coming out of the anesthesia.   They required me to hold down some food before I would be allowed to go home and that just wasn't happening.  Finally at 9 pm I was able to finish my meal, prove that I could walk without dizziness, and we were allowed to go home. 

I spent the next few days in bed recovering both emotionally and physically, although the emotional healing will take much longer.  Finally on Tuesday, I knew that I needed to make my way back to work and attempt a "normal" day.  I do did not want to get out of bed that day, but I forced myself to head to school because I knew I needed it.  I was so right.  That day when I got home, my sweet husband had relief on his face. He said that I had my coloring back and also my smile. There is something about 22 eight year olds that can remind me that God still has a purpose for my life.

At this moment, we are just taking it day by day. We know that we will continue the adoption process (probably soon) but at this moment we just aren't ready to work on the paperwork. I know that God is mending our hearts and we are just trusting Him through this. I knew that I needed to post this because so many people are asking about how the process is going and I never really know how to respond. A few times I have just said that we haven't finished the paperwork yet, and other times I share our story, but that can be a little awkward for the person who doesn't know what to say. People often look like a deer in the headlights when I tell them what happened. I'm not intending to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but I also want to be real and transparent about what the Lord is doing in our lives. When people ask how I'm doing I really don't know what to say. Somedays I say "good" and other days I say "ok." But if I'm honest, I would say this is really hard and we are grieving; although that is not to say that we aren't ok. We are completely blessed and we know that God has big plans for our lives. Thanks for praying for us as we grieve, rejoice, and heal. He will bring us through. I will keep you posted when we get back to truckloads of adoption paperwork.

Blessings,
Andrea

Our Exciting New Adventure!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵he predestined usfor adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3-6


We have begun an exciting journey and I can't wait to share it with you!  This weekend we attended our adoption orientation with Christian Homes.  I cannot even describe what an incredible experience this was.  The weekend was spent learning all the details of adoption (and wow! There are a lot of details!).  We went home after day number 1 a little overwhelmed by the details and especially the cost, but also so excited.  


I was fascinated to learn about a newer trend in open adoption. They told us that many people may offer us many opinions about why they don't think open adoption is good idea.  However, we learned how open adoption is actually the best possible scenario.  Through open adoption the birth mother actually chooses us. She chooses us because she loves her baby so much that she wants to give him what she knows she cannot and because she chose us she would never consider trying to steal her baby back (as some might think would be a risk of open adoption).  We learned that open adoption is now the most "normal" and common practice within adoption. 


On day 2 we were able to participate in a question and answer time with adoptees, birth moms, and adoptive parents.  The  time spent with the adoptive parents gave us such a peace and allowed us to walk away knowing the Lord would provide.  The couples were so open and honest and shared their fears during the whole process.  This spoke so much to our hearts because we shared so many of the same fears.  The best part was as one couple shared about the financial aspect of adoption. They told us how they wondered how they could ever adopt after they learned of the huge costs involved (which is one of our huge fears).  But then they shared how their friends and family were more than excited to support them through this process.  They said that in the end, they had to say, "we have enough, we don't need any more."  How incredible is that?!  I shared this with my father and I think he was overwhelmed by the whole cost.  I'm not sure that he is confident that fundraising portion will work out well, but I have such a peace about it and I cannot wait to share with him about the Lord's faithfulness.  I am confident that he will provide.  


I felt so much peace when they shared how it's in our human nature to think we must "pay" for our baby by ourselves, but then he told us how allowing others to walk along side of us through this process is a blessing to them.  We heard time and time again how we need to allow others to give and how this is what they want to do.  This calmed my heart so much.  


We are now working on our 100 page application on the iadopt jump drive.  We each have to write our own autobiographies and then together we will create our birth mother letter, and finally our photo album for the birthmothers to use as they make their choices.  Tomorrow is my first class as a college instructor and I have a few things to finish for my first class, but all I want to do is work on our application! We are so excited!  The most exciting part was when they told us that the average family is able to meet their baby in LESS THAN A YEAR!!!  That is wild!  This time next year life could be very different!  We will keep you updated on the process.  Thanks for joining us in prayer as we walk this exciting journey! 

The Big Reveal

We went back to Aggieland for the football game this weekend and we had the opportunity to take our friends' 12-year-old son. We had a great time and even got to meet A&M's Heisman winner, John David Crow! He was so gracious!

At some point, DJ asks Jacob if he has any idea what he wants to be when he grows up. Jacob has no idea, but this started us on the conversation of "what did you think you wanted to be when you were 12?" DJ's answer was an aeronautical engineer graduating from A&M. My answer was a teacher.   

This started us talking about how I always heard that I would change my mind by the time I got to college and maybe even multiple times while I was there, but I never did. In fact, my dad especially always said I needed to be a principal or professor. This always frustrated me and I would tell him that it's okay if I don't make a lot of money, I'm going to do what God has called me to do. I was and still am passionate about kids, so that was that! 

My dad also said I needed to get my Master's degree, but I always said that I was done with school after I finished my first degree at Texas A&M. It's funny how things change and sometimes your parents are right.  

I now have 2 Masters Degrees and dream to finish my doctorate possibly at some point. It's funny how God works. :) 

This brings me to my big news I have been waiting to share. I apologize for leaving you hanging for so long. I thought I was going to be allowed to share sooner.  

I have been asked to teach a class (as an adjunct instructor) at Hardin-Simmons University! (I know crazy!!!) I will begin teaching an undergraduate class in Early Childhood Education. It is an evening class once a week, so I will continue to teach 3rd grade during the day.  

I am honestly so humbled and honored by this opportunity. It has been a little crazy to be the one choosing a textbook and writing a syllabus, but I am so excited.  Thanks for being excited with me as I start this new chapter.  

Fun Randomness

I still can't share my big news publicly yet... sorry to leave you hanging, I thought I would be "allowed" to share by now.

So instead this week I will share some of my favorite pictures on pinterest lately.

Built in dog bed 

I love the large A and I have been wanting to redo our home office.  This would be fun.  

I really like the lantern and vintage mailbox.  via holly mathis interiors

We (along with others) are bringing breakfast for our college students during Sunday school this week.  This sounds good...

We need to redo a couple of bathrooms... we will probably do something a little more functional, but wouldn't this be fun? 

And lastly, I love this dresser and the fun fall pumpkins and gourds that have been painted, but my only question is... how  long do painted pumpkins last?  Someone told me that painted pumpkins get rotten much faster than regular ones.  True?  Anyone know?

One more thing... we went to see the new movie Courageous this week and I have to tell you it was life changing!  It is an amazing movie that everyone needs to see.  We also saw Seven Days in Utopia recently, which was also a movie I would highly recommend.  The fun thing about the second movie is that it was filmed in the small town of Utopia, Texas (and Fredericksburg).  Utopia is about an hour from where my mom lived when I was in college, Medina Lake (just outside San Antonio).  I drove through Utpoia many times on my way to or from Garner State Park or Laity Lodge Youth Camp (where I worked for 5 summers).  It is so fun to watch a movie completely set in location where I spent a lot of time as I was growing up.  It is also incredible to see movies that clearly use Scripture and have story lines so glorifying to the Lord.

Both movies would be great for the whole family.

Have a great weekend y'all! 

Formating Issues!

Sorry about the formating issues in my blog lately! I promise that I actually have paragraphs and what-not, but for some reason these are not showing up once I publish. I will work on this problem! I know that it makes it very difficult to read. :(

Life as we know it...

It has been a busy time in this Gililland household, but some might say, "Isn't it always?!?"
It may take a few blog posts to get you updated...we'll see... or I will just give you the super short synopsis.

These past few weeks have been difficult and exciting in many different ways. Some of the reasons I cannot share just yet, but I promise to share soon.

Here is the synopsis of what I CAN tell you...
In the past month or so...

DJ's dad was placed in ICU due to sepsis (a blood infection). He is now in a long term hospital recovering from this serious infection, making lots of improvements and ready to head home in the near future.

I have spent 2 weekends in San Antonio for various reasons. My time there has been filled with drama and difficulties, but this time also makes me so thankful for my husband and his leadership. It makes me realize how thankful I am that Christ is the center of our marriage because without Him, we would be lost.

Last weekend I was in charge of the Love Out Loud conference at our church, for which I have been making preparations for about 6 months. Our church provided the host site for about 300 ladies from all over Texas. The SBTC brought in many great speakers and we were truly blessed by what the Lord did throughout the weekend.

We were responsible for organizing/preparing food, greeters, registration etc. I took off half a day last Thursday and all day Friday. I spent Thursday and Friday getting last minute preparations finished and then welcomed the ladies Friday evening. The event began with a dinner for the speakers. Our dinner team did an amazing job preparing an fabulous meal and the ladies said that they were truly spoiled. While the speakers enjoyed supper, the registration team and greeters took their places welcoming the rest of the ladies as they arrived. The snack team did a fantastic job providing all kinds of hospitality to the ladies throughout the weekend. The room set-up team made sure all of the break-out sessions were in order and the Saturday lunch team took care of serving boxed lunches to the ladies that day. It was such a neat opportunity to see the body of Christ at work.

Overall the conference, was a huge success, but not because of me. Just before the event began, many of my preparations were sent into a frenzy with last minute changes. I felt a little overwhelmed by the chaos this caused (mostly only in my mind) but the Lord showed me that it is not about me at all. Instead, He received all the Glory, even when I might have seemed slightly like a chicken-with-my-head-cut-off (hopefully not). However, despite the last minute changes, the Lord did a major work in the hearts of many women and He even let me have a small glimpse of what He did through the weekend.

On Thursday, just as my sub arrived so that I could leave for the conference, a camera crew arrived with balloons and another 3 foot check. I had received another STAR Teacher Grant from the Abilene Education Foundation. Two years ago I was blessed to receive a grant to add some much-needed technology to my classroom. This year, AEF blessed my students again by providing another grant so that I could add a document camera to the classroom technology. It should arrive this week, and I am super excited. Another exciting opportunity presented itself this week and I will share about this soon!

What to do When You've Ruined the Laundry by Washing a Crayon

Tonight I went to remove the clothes from the dryer and found out that I had ruined the whole load because I had a green crayon in the pocket of my jeans. Right now you are probably thinking one of three things:

1. Why in the world did you have a green crayon in your pocket?!?! You don't even have kids!!!
2. Oh man... I've done that!
OR
3. Oh no! Did you get all the stains out of your clothes?

Here's how the drama played out...

We have one of our college students staying with us this week and she needed to do a little laundry. I went to empty the dryer so she could put her load in and found a little surprise. As I pulled each piece of clothing from the dryer, I quickly realized that our entire load was probably ruined. The crayon had melted onto each and every article of clothing leaving greasy, green freckles everywhere.

We quickly relinquished the idea of ever salvaging the laundry. I was pretty frustrated with myself, but also knew that I had to get the dryer clean because I could handle ruining our clothes, but I had to make sure the green crayon would not ruin our college student's clothes too. I became engrossed in removing all the debris from the dryer. If you haven't ever had this problem, you would be amazed at the the way a crayon gets into every nook and cranny inside the dryer and leaves stains all over the drum of the dryer.

I began trying to wipe down the inside of the dryer. First I tried Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Counter Top Spray, and then I tried vinegar. So far very little results.

Our next thought was to google the problem. We found many suggestions, including WD-40, Dawn, Shout Advanced, and dish detergent. One post particularly convinced us we need to try Dawn Power Dissolver. Google quickly told us that Wal-Mart carries this but none of the Wal-Marts in our area had any in stock. All other searches revealed that this product is often difficult to find in many stores. I could order it online, but didn't want to wait that long. So off we went to HEB, knowing this would probably be the only other place we had any chance of finding this product in Abilene.

As I walked down the cleaning aisle I picked up some Oxi-Clean Max Force and Shout Advanced, just in case. Then I went to look for the Dawn Power Dissolver. Once again, my local HEB saved the day! (I love HEB, but that's a post for another day.)

Finally, we headed home to begin the investigation. DJ set to work using the Dawn Power Dissolver on the dryer and it worked magically! It only left a little discoloration on the back of the dryer, but we think this was from our jeans and had nothing to do with the crayon at all.

I began testing the laundry with the 3 products and soon discovered that Oxi- Clean Max Force has amazing powers. All three products were able to remove some of the stains, but the Oxi-Clean seemed to have the strongest power to remove the biggest, deepest stains. I let the stain remover set on the stain for a few minutes and then scrubbed the stains by hand using hot water. Most of the stains came completely out. Finally, I put all the laundry back into the washing machine for another wash and I was amazed to find that all of the stains had disappeared!

The moral of this story?
1. Check your pockets EVERY TIME before you do laundry.
2. Don't allow green crayons to end up in your dryer.
3. But if you do, Dawn Power Dissolver, Oxi-Clean Max Force (and HEB) can save the day!!!

Pinterest

If you haven't heard of Pinterest yet I have to share it with you; However, I have to warn you that it can be addictive.

Pinterest is a way to organize things you find on the internet, especially images. I used to find myself bookmarking different blog posts that I wanted to remember or go back to later, but Pinterest creates an easy way for me to organize all of my ideas in one place. It allows me to create boards categorizing all of my different pins so that I easily find it when I need it.

The possibilities are endless... I have boards with recipe ideas, tips for my home, decorating ideas, products I love, teaching inspiration etc. etc. You can make it whatever you want.

I am planning to redo one of our guest bedrooms into a home office with a daybed for guests, but I want it to be organized and still feel welcoming to guests. So I created a board where I keep ideas of things I want to remember as I recreate this room.

This image is from home-designing.com and when I click on the picture it will take me back to the original website where I borrowed the image.

Here is a pallet daybed idea I also liked for the room.

When you first go to Pinterest, you will need to request an invite. After a few days you will receive an email and you can start pinning.

You can also follow other people, so you get ideas from them too!

You can see my boards here!

Happy Pinning!

I wish I spent more time blogging about my students so that I could document it forever to look back and remember sweet anecdotes & funny moments. Instead I worry about confidentiality and laws and such. This is my attempt to do better without revealing the "who" of my stories.

My school holds the Newcomer Center for my district. Abilene is one location where the International Rescue Comittee relocates refugees from mostly war-torn countries. I've had students walk into my classroom shortly after leaving refugee camps where they witnessed horrific things, like the murder of their own father. These students show up in my room (usually part-way through the year) and I have the distinct privledge of helping them learn to speak English and learn to read among many other things. Today I held the joy of explaining chocolate syrup and sprinkles and watching them take their first bite of ice cream topped with these mysterious substances. So fun!

I also adored my time teaching 2 students to play aggravation (which is very similar to "sorry"). I laughed so hard as one boy, with thick African accent, told another boy, "I send you home! Wait _____ (insert name) I send you home!!!" I can't do this story justice, but just imagine us cracking up as they learn the game and then master the concept of sending their opponent back to start... with a vengeance!

I also had the privilege of heading to the ballpark to watch the bats crack against the ball.

What a privilege it is to take part in their lives. I love watching these kids grow up and pray daily for their future stories. It has been a great school year and I'm not quite ready to let this group go.

But just as I feel this way, I sit in the ballpark talking to kiddos and parents who told me they are excited to possibly have me next year. Praise the Lord for opportunities to see Him at work and get a glimpse of excitement for a new year.
Happy Summer y'all!

(p.s. I wrote all this from the tiny keyboard of my phone so hopefully I was able to make sense! ;) if not please ignore this post!)

Is it Friday yet?

What a week it has been so far ... and it's only Monday!
On Saturday night, after our garage sale, we had the college students over for BBQ. The house started feeling really hot, but we thought it was because we had been in and out all day and our house was full of people. We realized when everyone left that the AC was not working. So we went to bed with the windows open and tried to get some sleep. Around 3:30, I woke up sick as a dog, whatever that means. After it was all over I was completely dehydrated, achy, and had fever for another 24 plus hours. Dr. Munton called in a prescription of phenergan and the nausea finally went away. Sunday was the fourth Mother's Day without my sweet Mama and one full year after the miscarriage of our first baby. I spent the day sleeping in a hot, hot house. On Monday, I was supposed to take my class on field trip to the zoo, but realized that was not going to be possible. Thankfully I found a sub at the last possible hour and spent another day in bed with a terrible dehydration headache. Around 3:00 DJ called Dr. Munton again and he had me come in to his office. Instead of going to my graduation rehearsal, I spent the afternoon getting IV fluids, but oh how much better I feel! The AC man came tonight and $75 dollars later replaced the fuse on the unit. Seriously!? Now we are just waiting to hear from our insurance about our roof. The roofers already came and said the hail demolished it, so we'll just find out what insurance says. We are taking it one day at time, trusting the Lord, and finding the joy in the many blessings we do have. The trials make the good times so much sweeter.

The TRUE meaning of Easter

My friend, Amanda, just shared this video (along with a few others) and I thought it was too good not to share.

I having trouble embeding it so just click on the word video and it will take you directly to the website or you can go to Amanda's blog where the video is embeded already.

Hope you are having a blessed Easter weekend!

The Waiting Game

Well, it's official... I have finished my second Masters degree! Yesterday I had Orals, which is a culmination of everything I have learned. It is definitely a little intimidating to walk into a room of your professors knowing that they have 45 minutes or so to ask you questions about everything you've learned. I finished my Reading Specialist Masters this time last year and I had almost enough classes to finish both degrees, so I did. A few of the classes overlapped, but I wasn't sure if they were going to ask me questions from any of the overlap classes or not. It would have been nice to know that I did not need to study those classes again! Oh well! When I arrived they decided to only ask me questions from my gifted ed. classes (and not to repeat Reading or Research questions), so that cut my orals down to 30 minutes. The 30 minutes flew by very quickly and before I knew it I was done. I felt like I had done well, but the scary part is when they send you out of the room to talk about you and decide whether or not you passed. Last year this part took less than 5 minutes. This year I waited, and waited, and waited. At first I was confident, then I thought I must have failed, then I wanted to cry, and then I waited and waited some more. After 20 minutes, the guy who had Orals after me showed up and we chatted for another 10 minutes or so. Finally, one of my professors came out to see if HE was ready to start his Orals. At that moment I said, "Um... are you going to tell me if I passed or not???" At that moment I could see the realization on her face that they had forgotten about me! She swept me up in a big hug, apologized profusely, and told me that I PASSED! Praise the Lord! They said that when I walked out they all said that I passed and they signed all my paper work, but forgot to call me back into the room. Then they started chatting and simply forgot me. I told them not to worry because it was a great story. I am just relieved to be FINISHED!!! WHOOP!!!

Busy Time

I have so much to be doing, so naturally I am blogging instead! However, I have been absent from my blog for so long I thought I would tell you where I have been. I have spent the last few months diligently working on a literature review about ability grouping (that sounds like great reading doesn't it?!) After I finished 25 pages of research I completed an article on the same topic that I am actually submitting for publication to a real journal! (TEMPO is the official peer-reviewed journal of the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT). If it actually gets published I will definitely let you know!

After that I have been working on preparing for Orals for my 2nd Masters degree (I know I am crazy! I'm really not an over-achiever, it just somehow worked out that I had almost enough credits for 2 masters when I finished the 1st. So I thought, why not?) For this degree, my professor requires that I prepare a gargantuan binder (the binder by itself cost $30!).


The binder has all the competencies for gifted ed, with lots of info on each and then I had to write a 3 page synthesis for each competency. I finally finished that last night and now I have exactly one week to prepare for Orals! On that note, I better go study, but I plan to be back after April 7 showing you pictures of how I refinished my kitchen table.