Lately.

Hey friends -- it's been a minute, huh?

Remember that 80's song, "Video Killed the Radio Star"? Randomly enough, it often comes to mind when I post to Instagram.  The ease of sharing paused moments of time, paired with a few quick thoughts, is slowly sucking the life out of the good 'ol blog.

But... I realize not everyone has succumbed to the lure of photo filters and Facebook sharing (good for you!), and I really do want this blog to remain a space that declares God's big story through our little family.  So, here I am.

We've had a fun spring so far, marked by beautiful North Carolina weather and lots of family time.  It's been a good thing for all three of us! The end of the winter season was a weary time for me -- I was consistently tired and overwhelmed and discouraged -- but the sense of new life that comes with spring has been renewed inside of me as well. 

Of course, that's not to say every day is a mixture of rainbows and unicorns.  It takes rain to make a rainbow and I bet even unicorns poop.  The challenge is not allowing the messiness of day-to-day life ruin the joy of living life at all.  Some days come with many opportunities to choose joy and some of those days I fail miserably; other days, joy comes easily, despite whatever chaos may be happening around me.  I'm learning a lot about the difference between happiness and joy, and I'm certain I want to live that grace-filled, joy-filled life.  Praise God he's given me a little boy that knows a thing or two about that!

In other news, we found out last week that our foster-to-adopt application has been approved! We will begin our MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) training in July and should be licensed foster parents by the beginning of 2015! This is a very exciting time for our family and I cannot wait to see what God is going to do with all of this.

Ethan finishes up his last year of preschool this week, then we'll be gearing up for kindergarten! I could cry (and probably will) as I spend time reflecting on the years leading up to this moment.  We've had many challenging days with him lately and I've doubted everything from our parenting skills to his ability to understand.  Time after time, though, God reminds me that he is good and faithful.  He has seen us this far, through much harder days, and I'm confident that He's equipping us to be the parents Ethan needs us to be (and holding Ethan close through it all).  Next month brings another check of his heart and we're trusting God will make those next steps crystal clear.

Thank you for checking in and continuing to pray for us -- your love is so encouraging! Have a joyful week!