A Year of Firsts

Tonight as I finished up
Putting up Christmas lights
On the front of my house
For the first time in my life,
I started to think of all the
FIRSTS
I've had in 2012.

And the fact that
Honestly
In the year 2011
This was just a seed growing in my mind
As placed on me by God
And now
Here I am.

Now - usually this is the kind of blog post
You'd see on December 31st
But
Alas
It's on my heart
Swirling in my head now
So
Too bad.
Got to deal with it now.

The list is random
The list is incomplete
The list is kind of surreal
But then again
It's been a surreal year
But a blessed one.
A thankful one.
A life-changing one.

• First Christmas Tree
• First Christmas Lights
• First Christmas not going home to Michigan
• First Birthday not home in Michigan
• First Cooking of Thanksgiving Dinner
• First Time Buying a Car without my Dad's assistance
• First Time Not Being a Classroom Teacher
• First Time Flying with Two Kids
• First Time Telling Someone I was going to become a Foster Parent
• First Time Being a Parent, and a Single-Parent at that
• First Time Attending Parent Teacher Conferences as the Parent, Not the Teacher
• First Time Sitting Next to a Child as she Confesses her Belief in God and His Son, Jesus.
• First Time My Refrigerator is Full of Fruits and Veggies
• First Time I Trim Little Girls' Toe Nails 
• First Time I Teach a Young Girl How to Shave her Legs
• First Time I Join a Support Group (two in fact!)
• First Time I Go Through a Jar of Pickles and a Gallon of Milk in a Week
• First Time I Cry Out When I Step on Barbie Shoes and Lego Pieces as I Go to Bed
• First Time I Hug the Mother of the Children I am Caring For
• First Time I Meet a Foster Daughter

(The good news is that I was able to take down the painters' tape on the side of the wall after I added a few more nails to hold down the strip of snowflake lights across my front porch.  The bad news is that we couldn't remember how many bushes were out front of the condo, so we went with two boxes of net lights.  Go figure - there are three bushes and we went back to Target today and they are totally out.  Oy.)

Praise Reports:
The girls are funny.  They make me laugh. I love hearing them together making each other laugh.

Prayer Requests:
This month's CFT is supposed to take place on Thursday evening.  I'm annoyed before even going into it because I know nothing has been done, nothing has changed, and no services have been established for either of the girls since we meet six weeks ago.  Please pray I speak boldly in defense of the defenseless girls, but that I speak with wisdom, and love, and with a tongue of mercy.