Changes

A lot of changes are heading our way.  Two weeks ago I found Sarah crying.  She is lonely.  After leaving high school because of bullying Sarah has struggled to find friends.  She may be 19 years old but on the surface she looks so much younger. It is not unusual for her to be given children's menus at restaurants.  She doesn't wear lots of make-up and dress in any fancy way.  However, she has a huge heart.  She has been there to help when I was completing school.  Last semester when I was student teaching she took online classes so that she was available. 

I decided that it was time for Sarah to leave home.  I want for her to have an opportunity to get out of our small town and to a place where she can meet some people with similar interests.  I scoured the internet to find a university in our state that had a late enrollment cut-off and where she could live on campus.  I suggested Coastal Carolina University to her.  Within two weeks she had submitted everything and was accepted.  Naturally after she was accepted I had a moment of panic as to how we are going to afford this!  It wasn't really in our financial plans.  However, we move forward.  Deposits have been made and Sarah already has a room assignment.  She has been texting with her future roommates.  On July 19th she will attend orientation.

Sarah is both excited and nervous to go away to school.  I feel the same way!  We expected her to be home for a few more years while she attended the local community college.  I pray that she is able to find some friends and avoid those who enjoy bullying her. 

Next year I am going to be homeschooling Larissa.  With the addition of Sarah's school expenses and my school loans I must find some type of income.  I have given myself the goal of starting an Etsy shop by time school starts back up.  I am still in the investigation stage, but something will happen.  I don't expect to make much, but a little will help.  We had no idea that John would be unemployed 15 months after leaving his last job.  We also had no idea that in spite of the loss of his income we would be able to stretch his retirement income to meet our needs.  It is really amazing how that has happened.  For the curious, we do not receive any type of unemployment or food stamps. 

I am not sure what the next year will bring.  Our teen turned 18 over the weekend and she now believes that she is an adult.  She took off for several days and really wasn't making good choices for herself.  She does not have a job and hasn't finished school.  She really is not ready to go out into the world.  However, I can't have her using us as her crash pad either.  Her leaving had a strong impact on the little ones and is not a behavior that I want the little ones to learn.  Hopefully she will learn to make better choices for herself.  We are pushing the job aspect because she needs to learn some responsibility.  Hopefully we can get her back into school next year so that she can finish her high school diploma.  Say a prayer for her as she ventures into adulthood. (and for us too as we struggle with it as well!)

We are also in the process of updating our homestudy.  Our foster care license has been updated until 2014, a fire inspection is scheduled for July and Kassi needs to get fingerprinted since she is now 18.  Hopefully it won't take too long.  After that the wait will begin again for a possible placement....our last placement.  This will be our last adoption.