We got our notification Tuesday that we passed our background check and will be starting our training classes for foster care next Thursday!  We're supposed to get some sort of "invitation" from the training center letting us know when and where and all those important details.  I may be attending this first class by myself, though.  Mike is out of town next week on Thursday, but can make up the class the following week, they say.  I'm really looking forward to getting started on the classes.  It just makes it seem a bit more real.

We've been looking at the possibilities of adopting through foster care from other states as well.  In Arkansas, there aren't many children under the age of 10 even that are ready for adoption from the foster system, but that's not always the case in other states.  Most of the time, when a young child (infant/toddler/etc) goes into foster care, typically their foster parents have the first option of adoption if/when that child is able to be adopted.  Therefore, most of the little kids are adopted by foster parents.  We're interested to see, though, what other states options are.  Some states you have to be a resident for a particular period of time before being able to be a foster parent, so we're trying to figure out what our boundaries are where that's concerned.  We're just praying for wisdom right now in our decision.

I'm loving reading through the Old Testament.  Now, I'm sure my tune will change a bit once I hit Numbers and all that mess with the geneologies and the begats, but for now, I'm enjoying my reading.  My questions have just increased by about a thousand percent, though.  Gina, I'm coming after your OT knowledge sometime soon!!

Speaking of Bible reading, Mike and I had a GREAT, long converstaion with Tanner tonight about the Bible, church, and just God in general.  I love when we have talks like that!  It's SO awesome to see her grow not only physically, but also spiritually and intellectually.  She has such a sweet and tender heart and I just know God is going to use her big time.

And let me just go ahead and say that there is not much more that makes my husband more attractive to me than when he's "into God".  Since the fast, I can tell God has done a MAJOR change in Mike's attitude about several things.  It's just awesome to see how God's working in his life... and how Mike is LETTING God work!  He's just being so...open.  He's been in the Word a ton.  He's switched some podcast listening from sports stuff and general talk radio things to a couple different pastors - that he's begging me to listen to as well.  And we even had a quite lengthy conversation last night about the stuff God was teaching us in our quiet times.  Not that we never talked about that sort of stuff, but it's just different.  There's an excitement there for both of us individually that hasn't been there like this before.  I am going to be in daily prayer that we keep this going and that it only gets better.

On the prayer front, I got a book that I started today called "Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference" by Phillip Yancy.  It was recommended by my friend Jennifer the other day at Bible study after our discussion.  I'm really looking forward to getting into it and reading what he has to say.  That is part of my "quest" to be a Godly woman is to have a more effective and meaningful prayer life.  And girls, if you're reading this, your comments really stuck with me and I appreciate them so much!

There are some matters that I'm in deep prayer about lately.  I'm looking forward to being able to share some of those things at a later time and especially when I see how God answers those prayers.  On a couple things, it seems like the answer is "wait".  I do believe that is my least favorite thing about what God says to me.  I can handle a "no" much better than I can deal with "yes, but you have to wait."  Nope.  Don't like that one at all.  But, God is developing perserverance during our wait, which is a certain testing of MY faith, making us mature and complete, lacking nothing.

An ice store is upon us tonight.  School is cancelled tomorrow.  The kids and I will be chillin at the hizzay!  But Lord Jesus, please oh please, spare our power and keep it going!!

Y'all stay warm and cozy!