And Just Like That She Was Gone

We said goodbye to our 14 year old foster child this past weekend. We’ve had her for nearly a year. It was rough.

When I tell people I do foster care many of them say “I’d love to do that, but I couldn’t deal with letting a child go.” I’ll tell ya, me either. It was hard to say goodbye to such a great kid. She had been with us for nearly a year and was part of the family. But, she has her own family, and she’s where she belongs.

One of the coolest moments about saying goodbye was when her Mom gave my wife a hug and said “thank you”. That doesn’t happen a lot in foster care and it was pretty cool to see and was , well, gratifying.

During our foster care support group one of the new foster parents said “how do you let a child go that’s been with you for a long time.” A veteran foster parent (I believe she’s had 65+ kids come and go in her home) said “you grieve…and then you pray that God prepares your heart for the next child.”

So, we’re grieving…and preparing. God has a plan and he knows what’s coming next, and that’s what we’re trusting.

How big is your pad in heaven?

I sat through a talk yesterday from a woman who had adopted 11 foster kids. That’s not counting the 3 she birthed herself. And the 11 foster kids were the ‘worst of the worst’. Meaning the kids no one else would take.

The first thing that popped in my head was “man she has a huge reward coming her way when she gets to heaven”. I imagined her walking into the pearly gates and God saying “Well done. Here’s is your reward.” And then points to a spread that would make Bill Gates’ house look like a doghouse.

I know a lot of people who say, “hey I just want to get IN, I don’t care if they put me in a tool shed, at least I’ll be there.” Ok, I guess. But how many of us in life live to “just stay alive”? Where’s the motivation for “more”? And not being greedy, but think about it. The God of the universe who created you and me has rewards for us. I don’t think God’s sitting up there with iPads to pass out, he’s got something special up his sleeve. Me, well, I don’t want to miss out on ANYTHING God has to offer.

Life After MMABuzz

The site known as MMABuzz.com is closed.

Mixed feelings from me, but overall I think it’s time for me to move on.

The site’s been good to me. I’ve met a ton of friends through the site (and the sport). Got to see a lot of shows, ringside, for free. And well, I learned a lot about web design and web marketing through it.

Now that the site is done for me I have some time to do, well, not sure.

Here’s my short list:

Blog
I like to blog. Blogging helps me think things through a bit. And always nice to come back to a post later and reflect a bit.

Family
With our every growing family I’ll be able to focus a bit more on them. So much we want to do as a family, camp, parks, home projects, I’m sure they’ll keep me busy.

Other Sites
I own quite a few domain names. One I’ve flirted with is coloradochristian.com. I may revisit that one. Lots of good ideas for it. We shall see.

Fishing
Nuff said.

Reading
I enjoy reading. Fiction, non-ficiton, Christian, non-Christian, my Bible. If it’s a good book I’m willing to give it a try.

XBOX 360
I love to game. And recently we got an XBOX 360. So that will take up some time.

Writing
I have some ideas for books, ebooks, whatever. Some funny, some informational, some, well, you’ll see.

Looking forward to the future.

CHEERS!