Little Bro

I really should be studying economics but this is pressing.

For those of you that do not know, my family has taken up a serious responsibility in foster care. I was a little skeptical at first but some people in our church were fostering kids and it was a joy to watch and so I slowly caught on to the idea. 

A couple of weeks ago we took in our first child. An 18 month old precious little boy. Mom calls him "blue eyes" on facebook and he is just the cutest little dude. I come home from school in the evenings and give him a big kiss everyday and he usually lunges away from whoever is holding him to come hang out with me. He is pretty awesome. He loves to throw things, has a massive temper, is always out and about, and I love him to death. 

Right now I am babysitting and he is starring at me playing peek-a-boo from his crib. He is my little bro. 

The thought hit me tonight, how temporary this could be. Who knows what the next court date could bring and where he could be tomorrow? God does. But I don't. 

That is the hardest thing for me to grasp. The fact that someone didn't love him enough to put out the effort to be there for him and care for him, suddenly wants to take him back. Yeah we are supposed to be in the business of restoring families and if all goes well this is SUPPOSED to be temporary... but why did it happen? Everything that the mom has done so far shows a half hearted effort at best to get him back. The Dad is no better. It has been weeks since my little buddy has been in our care and the Dad is JUST NOW trying to make it for a court date. He has some excuse of not having enough money, but I have only been with this kid for a few weeks and already I would walk across the freakin state to go pick him up if that was what needed to happen. 

The thought of giving him back to someone that doesn't care is wrong. Is the mother thinking about him right now the way I miss him when I'm at school and haven't seen him in a few days cause I get home when he is asleep? What could be so important in her life to have chosen that over this little guy? Nothing. 

It's not right. None of it is. It hurts to think about. He is lying in bed babbling on and saying, "mama, mama, mama, mama..." over and over and over again while he goes to sleep, and I can't help but think that the person he is talking about didn't care enough about him to take care of him. The person he thinks he is talking about, if he really understands the meaning of the word, is my mom, a person that does love him, does care about him, and wants the best for him like a real mother should.

Lord help me through whatever happens next. 

15 days till Christmas!

Thats right people, you only have 15 more days to get all of your shopping done! HURRY!
Fortunately, I'm done.

We had quite the winter storm this past week. It started raining, and the temperature started dropping and pretty soon everything had about an inch and a half of ice on it. During the night all our trees broke and we got about 6 inches of snow. We enjoyed the snow, but not the ice. The power went out for a day and we barely survived on our meager supply of firewood. All in all, it was pretty fun.

Everyone went to town yesterday except me because I had to go to football practice at 2:30. They left at about 9:30 and didn't come home until 4:30! As it turned out, I couldn't go to football because my car battery was dead. So I was at home all day by myself. IT WAS QUIET! I didn't really know what to do with nobody home so I cleaned up the house, did school, and then shot the dog with a blowgun.
It was a pretty good day.

Charleston Tigers update:
Last weeks game was moved to this week because of the ice hurricane. The State game has been moved to the 21st.

Hello Again

The Charleston Tiger play on! We just beat the #1 ranked team in the state. Harding Academy was undefeated until they played the awesome Charleston Tigers! Final score 48-21. Great game all around.

This week we play Earl. I don't know if that's how its spelled but it sounds right... This is the semi-final game and am hyped!
Did everyone have a good thanksgiving? I certainly did! We ate waffles and sausage and bacon and biscuts and gravy and pretty much every breakfast food I can think of. It was a feast.
The Rileys came over and we played the Logo board game till about 10:30. Fun times.

School today and football practice.
I am almost done Christmas shopping! BTW, only 23 more days.

Big Day

Last Friday was one of the most nerve racking days of my life. I'm sure that you saw in my last post that I had a scholarship interview coming up. Talk about stressful! There's like $50,000 on the line and it all depends on whether I make a good impression on these people. It turned out to be a little easier than I thought. The people interviewing me weren't vampires and the questions were pretty simple. I went to a prep class to get an idea of how it would be, and that lady asked questions like, "What is your favorite color and how does it reflect in your personality?" I have to think about that! The questions they really asked were more along the lines of, "Why did you choose UAFS?" Not quite as hard. I still don't know if I got the scholarship or not.

That friday was also the Charleston Tigers first playoff game. We killed em, 42-0 but we didn't play very well... They just weren't a very good team. I even missed an extra point...

The start of this week has been pretty good, nothing much happening except school

The Charleston Tigers have made it to the playoffs! We have been undefeated so far and it has been a blast. I am so glad we got involved in football. It has been a great experience for me and I hope I have presented myself well for the whole homeschool community. The school has been so nice in trying to keep me involved in their activities. Friday nights are so much fun! I have a total of 63 points so far.
Josh also played for the 7th grade team and really loved it.

General Update-
Lane got a new job at CV's in the bakery (Hallelujah) She likes the shorter drive and the hours are better too. She makes donuts.
I have a scholarship interview this friday, PLEASE PRAY FOR ME! There is a lot of money on the line here. It will be my first interview of any kind.

I am so excited about Christmas! I have already done quite a bit of shopping. I love it.

I'm sorry I haven't posted in over 2 weeks. I have been very busy! How?
Thanks for asking! I'll tell you.

I worked the growing kids sale for a week and had football practice so that pretty much took all day every day. I worked the sale in the morning and went to practice in the afternoons. Actually, I had to skip two practices cause I worked the sale all day. The sale was tough this year. Not because it was any harder than usual but because I was sick all week. It is fairly annoying to be sneezing continuously while trying to direct traffic...  I also had my first football game that week against Clarksville. We won 42-13 and I had 4 points. I missed one field goal and had one extra point blocked. It was good to get on the board though.

We had another game against Gentry which we won... barely. The score was 23-15 and I had 5 points. 2 extra points and a field goal. A slightly better performance. I still missed one extra point.
Josh has played two games. He won his first game and lost the second. He played better in the second game though, and he got a tackle! That was cool to see.

I officiated my first soccer games last Saturday. It was the fall Kelloggs cup. It went well and there were some exciting games! Fun money!

I have a game tomorrow, I'll let you know how it goes.

Football

I had my first football scrimmage on monday against Boonville. I was SUPER nervous, I had a butterfly battle going on in my stomach. I missed my first field goal. Yeah, missed. That was embarrassing! But I made my second one. Overall, not a good performance! Josh had a scrimmage to but I didn't get to watch his so I don't know how he did...
I enjoyed it and I'm really excited about our first HOME game! It's good to start with a home game.

I have practice at 2:30 today and youth later tonight.

Right now:
Korrie is outside barking at something.
Mayf and Z and Mal are playing chess and bionicles at the same time.
I'm posting on my blog.
Lane is at work.
Mom took Jess to piano lessons. (He has a talent show coming up)

Our chickens are starting to get more consistent with egg production. It's nice to see a fresh egg or two every day.