ICE!

Today we went with some of the family to ICE! at Gaylord Palms in Orlando.  It is 2 million pounds of carved ice, kept at a temperature of 9 degrees, all for your viewing and walking through pleasure.  They give you a parka to wear and, of course, long pants and closed toe shoes are required.  It was very well done and the slide near the end was fun, but I was also ready to be back to the FL weather as it's NINE DEGREES! 

Back to the homeland

On Sunday, December 27th, Michael and I went to Sanford to spend the day.  We met up with Steve and Janet for breakfast before heading over to Westview for church.  Afterwards I went out to Fort Mellon Park (which looks nothing like it did when I lived there) to meet up with some friends from high school.  It was great that people were home and off of work for the holidays to spend time catching up.  I've always been grateful for the friendships I have where we can pick up as if we had never left.

The Sperrys and Me

Charlene, who gave me some of the best practical advice a girl can get.  "You'll know when it's time to stop wearing shorts."  :-)

Erin and Brooke

Kim and Stefany

Some Christmas Pictures

Girls Cottage

The Girls Cottage the day before we are leaving to go to FL for Christmas.  We're excited to see what it looks like in 3 weeks when we return,

Falling in Love

We have officially became Mississippi residents today as we went and got a Mississippi drivers license.  The DMV buiding was back in an industrial park and the place had the look of a mobile home built on the ground.  Inside was your typical DMV set up of a "take a number" machine and waiting chairs.  We were fortunate to only be there for approximately 30 minutes and $42 later we walked out with new ID's.

Last night we visited Macedonia Baptist Church in Petal where Michael Garrett (Homes of Hope Executive Director) was the guest speaker.  He told his story and shared with the church where the ministry was at and his continued vision.  Afterwards the pastor got up and made some closing remarks.  He quoted James 1: 27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." and told the story of how he became familiar with a child in foster care when he volunteered with the school system.  The other night at a Christmas parade he saw this boy walking with only a short sleeve plastic coat that looked to be from a Halloween costume, short pants, and flip flops.  The temperature outside was 30 degrees.  The story was sad and broke your heart but it also inspired another feeling in me.  I've heard pregnant people talk about loving someone they haven't met yet.  Last night, I understood what they were talking about. 

I know that the task in front of us is huge.  It's going to be hard and overwhelming.  There are going to be struggles and frustrations and through them all I hope I can look back and remember how I felt last night.  I'm so excited to meet the girls that will be in our cottage and show them the love of Christ and the love of a family. 

Girls Cottage

Upon our arrival back from Ohio
12/3/2009

An early Christmas gift

We have arrived back in our old stomping grounds- Baltimore! There are no direct flights from Ohio to Mississippi on Southwest so our travels include a 2 hour layover. We were going to see if some people might join us for a late lunch and then I got sick with a cold so that didn't seem like the best idea. But when we arrived at the food court area of the airport we saw a sign that said "Free Wi-Fi, A Holiday Gift from Google". Many a trips I've taken from BWI and every time I'm baffled by the fact they don't provide free wi-fi. But today, Google has come through. I will not switch my internet searching to Bing. I will stay with the search engine that is helping me through our 2 hour layover. Thanks Google!