Light the World

If you haven’t heard of this movement I challenge you to look it up! It’s amazing, uplifting, inspiring, and beautiful.

Last year the Mormon church challenged others to #LightTheWorld with simple daily acts of service. Being a member of the Mormon faith, or LDS, we took this challenge on as a family. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would my kids think it was lame? Would the whine and complain about every service we would provide for others? Can I really find ways to serve for 25 days?! I was a little apprehensive but wanted to give it my all with the hope that we would find a deeper and more spiritual meaning to Christmas.

I was touched by the results of trying to #LightTheWorld. My kids were looking everyday for ways that they could help others. They reminded me to watch the sweet videos that were posted online every day. (https://www.mormon.org/christmas/25-ways-25-days) Any time one of them helped someone else in the family, we would hear their sweet and excited voices cheerfully yell, “You are lighting the world!” We began to have deeper conversations of the true meaning of Christmas. We discussed why Christ’s birth was a miracle, how Mary must have felt being Jesus’ mom, what the wise men must have sacrificed to travel so far to worship him, who in this world needs Christ, and so many other beautiful topics. We were able to spend meaningful time together as a family, despite the hustle and bustle of preparing for the holidays. Lighting the world has been by far my favorite service project we have done as a family.

We have been touched by the goodness of others during Christmas time in the past. We have seen and been a part of miracles. I love service! I love to watch others light up and see a burden lifted when we help. It can be a simple, small act or something requiring a little more sacrifice, but the results are always the same. I feel more love from my Heavenly Father and a deeper peace.  

Even if you are not a member of the LDS faith, you can still participate in this challenge because, let’s be honest, who doesn’t need some cheering up?! Serving others will lift you and the ones you are serving up! Guaranteed! We need a little more good in this world, so now is the time.

I found a few calendars both on lds.org and a few other blog sites. This one from A Year of FHE was cute! They have ones for teens and children! Brilliant! I thought this one was really sweet and interactive from the Friend Magazine. They help give ideas of ways you can serve each day. Alter them to your liking! The point is that you are doing something wonderful for others every day.

If you are struggling with some ideas here are a few we have done and/or are planning on doing this year!

* Bake cookies and take them to neighbors

* Shovel sidewalks

* Sing Christmas carols to a nursing home

* Create cards and send them to family members

* Write letters to missionaries

* Pay for someone's meal in a restaurant or in the drive thru behind you

* Deliver flowers to strangers in the grocery store (and watch and love their reactions)

* Take a meal to someone who has been sick or has recently had surgery or someone having a rough time

* Forgive someone who doesn't necessarily deserve it

* Say "I'm sorry" first

* Give out cups of hot chocolate to the homeless

* Donate gently used items to Deseret Industries or Goodwill

* Have a family over for dinner

* Pray for someone 

* Be slow to anger 

* Visit a lonely friend

* Hold open the door

* Give someone a compliment

* Write love notes to everyone in your family 

If you do take this on (Please do. You won’t regret it) I would love to hear your results and ideas!

Let’s remember the beautiful reason for this season and Him who gave His life for us. Merry Christmas to you all! I hope it’s a blessed one for each of you!

I Didn't Want To Do Foster Care...

I am asked frequently why Scott and I decided to become foster parents. Many times it is asked with scowling faces, turned up noses, and people looking at us as if they could catch a disease. Other times it is from genuinely interested people who have caring souls, loving hearts, and open minds. I love to talk to these people because they get it. They understand that there is such a bigger picture to this, foster care, and to us than just the surface picture. If you are this type of person, please continue reading because you will understand and I feel like I can talk to you as if we are friends already. If you are one who is afraid to catch a disease or thinks less of us because of our choice to foster, I suggest you turn to a different blog. I say that lovingly, of course.

Before Scott and I even became pregnant with our first child, we had discussed eventually adopting. I come from a family where we learned that family is first. We were dedicated to each other. My life was family. I had close friends who were a bigger addition to my family. Family and love and deep relationships is who I am. Ask anybody. I love love. I love family. My husband came from a big family. Lots of kids and lots of work. Between the two of us, we realized so many important things about family. It requires dedication, love, work, compromise, stability, values, faith…We realize that not all children grow up in such privileged homes as we did and we loved the idea of being able to welcome children into our family that may not have the greatest opportunities in life.

Fast forward several years. We had two children and had just purchased our first home. Life was playing out perfectly for us! It felt (and continues to feel) like a dream. We loved our children but kept asking ourselves if there was something, or someone, more for us. This idea we believe to be Divinely guided. As we continued to ponder on this idea of adding someone into our family, we turned to prayer, which eventually led to Google. ;-) We typed in “Adoption in Idaho” and for some reason we ended up on the foster care website. This was a word, an idea, we were extremely unfamiliar with. I will be honest here, I had negative connotations with foster care. Looking back, I realize how unfair and uneducated I was on the subject. I did not understand its purpose or goals. I had no knowledge of what it was really about. Somewhere in the process we clicked a button that said “Receive more information.” Little did we know that button was going to change the course of our life.

After researching for a while about foster care, we ended up putting the idea aside. It was around Thanksgiving time and we became distracted from all of the holiday shenanigans. God and the state of Idaho had different plans for us. We received a phone call from a wonderful lady who was Resource Peer Mentor (or RPM). An RPM is a person who has done foster care for several years and is, what I would call, “seasoned” in the ways of fostering. They are here to guide us newbies, or prospective newbies, through classes, trainings, and even late night phone calls about what to do with {insert whatever crazy situation you can think of here}. They kind of turn into your mom for advice on foster care. They are wonderful and we love them all! This lady received our information from that little button we pushed (tricky little thing!) and wanted to know what questions we had. We talked for a long while, asking her the hardest parts, the coolest parts, if she loves it or hates it, why she chose to be a foster parent, etc. It was a great conversation. She then told us she would send us some more information. This information ended up being an application to foster.

As Scott and I continued learning about foster care, it became such an exciting, fun, and daunting thought. Again, we turned to prayer. Our application had been turned in and we were now waiting for the next step, still unsure of what we were doing. We received a phone call from who is now our licensing worker, Kathy. We completely adore her. If ever I have a question about anything, I call Kathy. She has a great big heart, a warm disposition, and a friendly face. Our family felt very comfortable letting her be a part of our lives. Over the next several months, Kathy and we became very close. Part of the foster care application is a home study and home inspection, which Kathy did both for us. She was in our home for hours talking with us about our past, our dreams, our families, thoughts, ideas, etc. We were then informed that we needed to take a class in order to become officially licensed. This was a lot of time for us. With our small children, we needed to find a babysitter twice a week in the evenings. We were lucky enough to have wonderful friends who stepped up to help (Thanks, Dave and Jen!).

We finished our class after five weeks, signed our license with Kathy there to guide us through everything, and very literally the next morning we received our first phone call to be a foster parent for a little boy. It was exhilarating.

During our five week class, Scott and I often talked how although we are not a perfect family, we have worked hard to establish those values that we hold so dear to us: love, stability, work, fun, laughter…all things good. We knew, and still know, that we would be the rock and stability and love that these children may have been missing. We can provide something sure for these littles as their parents get healthy and learn how to parent. Our whole marriage was designed to set us up for foster care. Everything about it! Our experiences in our past have brought us to this point. So when we are asked what made us want to do foster care, it is a little tricky to answer because truthfully we didn’t ever want to do it. Heavenly Father wanted us to and therefore prepared us to do it. Sometimes that is all I have to hold on to when times get really tough. We are doing a great work and God is on our side. And now that we are here, being foster parents, I can’t imagine doing anything else!

New!

I have been asked several times by many different people to start a blog about our adventures as a family. We have been asked to write about our foster care experiences, homeschooling, trials we have been through, and so much more! I have been hesitant to put my thoughts, ideas, and life out to the public due to fear of being judged or not being accepted. It's a real fear! But as I have been pondering how to educate people about these different subjects that are so important to me I have realized that I have personally learned from others with their writings! I hope that as you follow along our journey, you will be inspired in whatever way is needed! I will not be trying to convince you to homeschool or become a foster parent or even have your own children! I will simply be sharing my experiences and I hope that somewhere along the way someone will be inspired to do some good in the world we live in.

So here I am. I am starting this blog (that actually started about 100 years ago)! It's new. This whole experience is new! And I hope you will be patient as I learn how to navigate all of this.

With this all said, I "mustache" you a question. What are some things you would like to know about us??