[ Really? ]

Okay... this post may sound like the 80's valley girl... REALLY?! I mean... Really. C'mon already! You've been warned....

First, thank you Katie for taking my boys to the fall festival in Jamesport Tuesday night. I think even Tyler enjoyed himself even if he was probably one of the oldest kids there. His pumpkin was awesome (my favorite) I just wish I could have seen the pink ribbon before it rolled in your car and smeared it all off. :s Sorry. After you left the house when you dropped the boys off Tanner opened up a bit more and shared about the costume contest. My cute little Chief's fan sporting his entire football uniform, helmet ball and all only got 2nd place. REALLY?! C'mon already! He's the cutest terd I know! The judges must have been biased. It's not our fault the Chief's stink this year. He deserved first place! lol :) (Not Katie's fault by the way...she wasn't a judge.)

Last night my oldest son had his first basketball game and I loved it!! Every minute of it!!! (even if they did lose....) The girls did great! Smoked 'em! But we've never had a really great boys team and they lost big time. But my son was high scorer with 9 points and I think he did an awesome job. However, you boys really need to step up your game! REALLY! C'mon already! You've been doing this for how many years and you're still making bad passes like you did in grade school! Hellow! (my son included....don't for a second think I'm one of those mom's who thinks her kid does no wrong. My son probably gets yelled at as much or more than the other kids. If they didn't know me so well, I wouldn't yell at them all!) lol :) But, we've got a lot of potential and I know the boys will work harder next game. I'll still be there with my pencil in hand keeping the score book (it's the only thing that keeps my mouth in check sometimes....must be quiet at the 'official' table. I have to seem unbiased you know.) ;)

And the final spoiler to the day: the girls and I had our first 'official' presentation to the community. (for those who don't know what we're doing you can check out Joint Heirs Adoption Ministry--we're advocating for adoption and care of the orphan) We attended the Ministerial Alliance Meeting and I have to say it surprised me that out of the 40+ churches in our community only a handful of representatives/pastors were there. What's up with that? REALLY!?

The girls and I got together before the meeting for a few minutes just to cover our bases and make sure we knew what we were going to say (not like it was planned....we're great at flying by the seat of our pants!). We said a quick prayer and off we went! I think we even surprised ourselves at how easily it came to us. We presented our information and how we would like our local churches to become involved and waited....and the silence will kill you! So we said a few more words....and waited. Finally someone ask what we wanted them to do. Ummm... wasn't everyone listening? We would like the churches to step up, on Orphan Sunday (Nov 8th) commit to having your service involve our cause. Adoption is very close to God's heart, we shared links with information and resources for sermon notes and bulletin inserts.

And still no response. Joy's pastor attended the meeting and ask if we would come to their service on that Sunday and share our information/stories with their congregation. He would give us a 15 minute window of opportunity and would love to have us speak. Yeah God! This could help, wasn't exactly what we expected but hey.... flying by the seat of our pants! :) I'm still looking forward to it anyway. I think my biggest disappointment from the whole meeting was the fact that there were so few people there. I ask my own pastor if he planned to attend the meeting and he's never even been invited. Our churches need to step up their game! How do we work and become strong in a community when they don't recognize the need to work together in our community. Check out our local paper sometime... they publish a page listing all of the churches in our area and it's an ENTIRE newspaper page. Where were these people yesterday? I realize that things come up, sometimes we have other conflicting obligations but REALLY! C'mon! My prayer request for the day would be to bring our churches together. Bring awareness to our pastors, make the Ministerial Alliance a stronger organization itself. Anyway..... off my soapbox now. Onto better things....

Our first meeting was successful because we did it. Regardless of the response or our feeling of disappointment it was a success because we are stepping out and speaking up. (It must be important! I wore a dress! *GASP*) lol :) Thanks girls for advocating with me.

After the meeting I headed home and before I got to the edge of town I decided I wasn't going down without accomplishing something positive in it all. I turned my car around and headed to city hall to speak to the mayor. :) Cathie took a few minutes from her schedule to sit and visit with me as I shared our vision and plans for the upcoming weeks. She was very excited and looking forward to working with us and helping in any way she can. Not just supporting, but advocating with us. :) Thank you Cathie! Our mayor used to work at the juvenile office for years when I worked for Family Services so we've known one another for YEARS (not to mention the fact my husband was the teacher's pet when her husband was the teacher for vo-tech and helped my hubby get a scholarship program in college). They always said it's not what you know but who you know and it pays to make friends with everyone. ;) But I'm sure Cathie would be willing to help even if she didn't know me because she has always been a huge advocate for children, adoption and the foster care system. We're looking forward to working with her. REALLY!