random stuff

it has certainly been a busy season for us over the last few months, and i think it's safe to say that life may be starting to get back to "normal" - whatever that is. one of those chunks of the calendar where you can understand the need and manage over the short term, but you definitely wouldn't want to do for long.

some random updates...

- personal stuff: i kicked off the new year by joining some peeps at the church in trying to read through the bible in 2010. i've never done good at those plans...quite frankly i've never been able to do it in one year. so far i'm on target though, and i'm really thankful for the social networking component of this particular plan that we're using that interestingly really is helping me stay on task.

- adoption stuff: because we've been so busy and life has been so cluttered lately, we still are sitting on paperwork to get filled out before we can move on to the next step. hopefully we can make more progress in the next week or so. the entire journey has been so amazing and to see God provide in the ways that He has and all the people who are journeying with us. it's amazing and truly overwhelming. was talking to the students a few weeks ago about our church's values, one of them being racial reconciliation...and the adoption came up. didn't realize how deep within my heart this has rooted itself, but we're both growing more and more excited as the days move forward.

- ministry stuff: just came off of a weekend away at snowcamp. for the first time yet shanna didn't go with me on this particular retreat. we ended up scaling way back as sign ups lagged this year - we canceled the bus and did a caravan of cars, cut the # of adult leaders in half, and tried to save in other areas. great weekend though, and some really great discussions and decisions made by some of the students that went. i actually really liked the size of the group and the intimacy within it. really tight group.

- mariska stuff: she's back from boot camp! picked her up on monday (neither of us thought we'd miss her as much as we did). she has definitely made progress and is more responsive to us, but it'll probably be another couple months before she's really where we want her. there's more training that we will continue here at home as well as follow up visits with the trainer. there is hope for her yet...