Completely Random

I fear my little blog has lost some readers of late, for which I am very glad.  I realize it is becoming sort of a yawner.  My life is clipping along at a furious pace, leaving me very little time to sit down and think of anything interesting to say.

If you stopped by looking for adoption information, scroll down to the adoption label and check out those posts.  Things are going well for my Ethiopian children.  They are a joy.  I don't write about adoption much these days since they are doing well.  I probably should.  I will say, that living with HIV has proved to be "not a big deal."  I have spent more time dealing with food allergies, than HIV.  People in the community have been surprisingly gracious, and low key about the whole thing.  I don't advertise their status, but I have not had anyone say or do anything rude to us.  Martha is settling in well.  I think the hardest thing for her is figuring out how to be bi-cultural.  Spending time with Ethiopians is a treat for her, but it is making her uncomfortable.  She realizes that she is not as solidly Ethiopian as she was when she lived there.  I tried to explain to her that every other Ethiopian she meets is in the same situation.  They are Ethiopian, and American.  They have had to learn to live in two different cultures.  They know exactly how she feels, and what she struggles with.  She wants to avoid that feeling of conflict, so sometimes she will avoid interacting with other Ethiopians.  I push her to do it a much as I can.  I know that she needs that interaction, and that someday she will seek it out.  It is one of those things that I cannot fully appreciate, but I know it is important to keep her native culture as much as possible.  I will have to think about that more, feel free to comment if you like.

I was hoping I would have something inspiring to share this advent season.  But as usual it is flying by with us trying to come up with things that are joyful in our expectation, and sober in our preparation.  I would say we are doing a dismal job at best.  We are doing our advent readings, which are very edifying.  I did get out the advent calendar.  I spent the first two days explaining that it is about preparing to celebrate Jesus birth, not figuring out which is "our" day so that we can get chocolate.  Ah, the sin of man, gotta love it.  I found the advent wreath and two out of four candles.  Since we are only in week two that is really all we need right now.  Matches would be helpful, but hey, we might get there.

One major distraction is that we are considering selling our house.  It is a lovely house, particularly for families of five, or six.  Families of eleven have unique needs.  The thought of selling my house has kept me in it for the last four years.  The thought of selling it for less than we paid has kept Rick in it for the last four years.  We are getting to the point that we realize we really need something different.  The question is can we find it in our price range and location?  As I have started to pack some extraneous things away in hopes of making it look more presentable, I have made it sort of less comfortable to live in.  It is like tightening your belt to motivate yourself to lose some weight.  I am finding that it is making me crabby.  I am a decision maker.  I like to know what the verdict is, and to move on with that.  I think we are going to put our house on the market, but I'm still not sure, which is adding to my general anxiety level.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is a little deal.  Our house is just the thing that keeps the rain off of our heads and lets us have a place to sleep.  It is not my life.  The people that I share it with are my life, and I love them no matter what my house is like.  It is just one more comfort thing, that I need to let go of.  My house will not make me happy, it is just an external thing.  No matter where I live there will be ten people with me.