Up before the chickens

I'm having a very proud moment...I am actually awake before our chickens! Sorry, it is silly I know, but in 6 months they are always up before me, I just wonder how the little ladies do it! (I do have an advantage now that it is still black outside at 6am and not 4am.)

I think it is good for the soul to get up extra early some days, good for the body to sleep in other days! I have lots of work to do, so I got up drove through Coffee Corral, said hi to Kris, very sweet lady, got my coffee, and now time to work!

Here are a few pics for the day....


Currently drinking; Hot Americano, little Irish Cream, and a splash of Half and Half...mmmmmmm.



A few days ago my sister Lianna and her beautiful baby girl, Lydia came to say hello!


After a very long day at the computer, I got a little silly and thought I should document how I was feeling about being up so late, and still editing pictures! Some days I get cranky when I sit, staring at the computer monitor sorting and editing pictures, then other days I just get plain silly!


Have a great day! Thanks for reading!

The Cost to Consider

*This has been sitting on my browser open for two days now, unpublished. I've been busy, and not sure this whole thing makes any sense. Sorry.

We've been driving through life in the fast lane it seems. The Henry house hold is always on the go, and if we aren't on the go, then I am busy brewing up something around the house. We are trying to eat all the wonderful veggies out of the garden before the frost hits which means lots of good dinners, but alot of time being spent in the kitchen as well. I love cooking, I just don't like to clean up after. I've also been busy, busy with Senior Portraits, but it is just a seasonal thing, so it won't last forever. (Check out www.alyssahenry.blogspot.com if you'd like to see what I've been working on.)

I go back and forth about being so busy. In many ways I don't mind it at all. I'm being productive and active, meeting lots of people. When I go to bed at night I fall asleep very fast. Plus it seems at times to help all the waiting with the adoption process to go quickly. Yet that is just it; we have no idea how long we will be waiting, so how do I know if being busy helps the time pass?

I was feeling pretty discouraged today about the whole adoption process. Sometimes it just feels like we are constantly waiting for something that we have no idea how long it will take. Then it seems exciting when you submit your home-study for a child, and yet sad at the same time because you don't know if you will even be considered. I know I am kind of complaining, I'm processing also. I think the tough part is knowing how many children are waiting and not knowing when we will be matched with our child. The other piece of this roller coaster is that you have to actually imagine yourself parenting the child(ren) that you apply for. So to mentally and emotionally put yourself out there long enough to see it being something you can do, sets you up potentially to be disappointed and discouraged every time you aren't called back.

I was slightly sulking today when I read "But the path ahead still demands walking in trust, risk, and various degrees of darkness. Henceforth, you will remember in the darkness what you once experienced in the light. But the path ahead will always be a necessary mixture of darkness and light." I have to remember this, not only about the adoption process, but about life in general. When things that we "see" for ourselves don't happen in our timing, there is nothing we can do but remember things work out. I don't have major philosophical answers, but really just a small sliver of hope. Faith, not necessarily in knowing I'll get what I want, but a faith that there is purpose in all of this. I'm unsure in what that is, and I'm not even saying everything happens for a reason, but rather, we can find purpose once we've gone through something. "Faith is often clarified and joy-filled hindsight—after we have experienced our experiences"

Anyway I'll stop my ramblings...for now.

I thought I would share a clip that I watched on www.crazyforkids.blogspot.com . It made some of the seemingly endless waiting feel like it is worth something, someday.

The World is Waiting

"Don't just go through life, grow through life. Don't just be good, be good for something and someone. Goodness heightens beauty. Become who you are, who you were meant to be. Seek out knowledge and experience, the more we see,the more we are capable of seeing. The more we do, the more we are capable of doing.

If you want chance, begin it. If you want love, give it. If you want hope, embody it. Start immediately and do it flamboyantly. Once you've begun, don't turn back. Change and growth can be painful and challenging at times, but as Lauren Bond said, "Every flower has to go through a lot of dirt."

Life is about choices, growth and taking chances. It is about pushing through and moving forward. It is about loving courageously and not holding back. It is about finding a brighter, better way. You owe it to yourself and to the world to make the most out of the stuff that's in you.

Bloom into your incredibly, gloriously, brilliantly beautiful self. The world is waiting. "


I'll admit, I wish I had written this. I borrowed it out of a book my sister had on her coffee table. Though I didn't write it, it spoke into words, feelings I had hiding deep inside of myself. The world is full of sadness, and mediocrity (the condition of being mediocre). This is LIFE! It must be lived to the full, for the health of ourselves and our fellow kind.

I don't believe in a world of confusion and chaos. Though both are present, I believe in an order created by love, a love greater then we allow ourselves to experience most days. It certainly cannot be felt through our actions of pride or blowing our own horn. This love is not present when we demand our own way or when we keep track of all the times that some has offended us or irritated us. There is no trace of this love when we find satisfaction in someone else shortcoming or in their failures, nor is it found when injustice is present. This ordering around love is very foreign to our own self-furthering desires. It is also very absent when we look at the governments around our world, none order themselves around this kind of policy. No wonder our world is full of people only willing to go halfway in life. I believe "half" is easy to live because it only includes ME. A full life would be one that includes the "other" within their life. Does this make sense?

IF we dared to live beyond ourselves, we may get hurt. We might bleed, weep or be misunderstood. But, we might feel. We may experience deep compassion, great joy and even this unexplainable love. "A love that never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."
The world is waiting.




-I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. Mother Teresa