Weird Week of Ups and Downs

It has been a crazy, weird week around here with a lot of ups and downs.  I don't know what other adjectives to use.  So I will just list all the things we've had going on around here. 


Last Saturday my hubby came home from his week-long silent retreat.  It was a wonderful experience for him and I'm so grateful that he has such a strong prayer life.  I know that when I'm going through dry times in my spiritual life that I can rely on him to get me through.  We had a nice family weekend together since we had been apart - went to the pool, out to dinner, Mass, shopping and the park.  The Italian restuarant where we ate gives kids a little piece of pizza dough to play with and/or eat if they want.  It kept him very entertained while we waited for our meal!

That same day we received some really sad news:  my sister-in-law had a miscarriage and lost the baby.  I am so sad for her and my brother and pray that they will be blessed with new life again soon.  My sister-in-law was supposed to be in DC for a conference this week and was going to spend some time with us. but had to cancel the trip since she was recovering from surgery.  I pray that God will help them get through this difficult time together. 

Monday I had a long conversation with our adoption social worker.  I wanted to get clarification from her about a few things, including the out-of-state referrals she sent our way recently via an adoption facilitator.  It turns out that our agency is VERY slow these days and is not working with many birthmothers.  Considering that they have 72 families on the waiting list, this is a problem.  She suggested that we begin working with another agency/attorney/facilitator in addition to staying on our waiting list.  This was disappointing to say the least. We have already given them a lot of our time and money.

So I immediately started calling around to some other agencies/faciliators to get information about their programs.  It was so overwhelming.  These agencies are all over the country and each operates a little differently.  It's so frustrating to feel like we are starting completely over.  For a couple of days I spent all of my time making phone calls and sending emails.  My hubby and I talked about all the possibilities and tried to figure out how which direction to go.

Monday night I also received some amazing news from a friend.  Since my blog is public I cannot share the specifics, but I mention it because it was great news after an otherwise down day.  It filled me with great hope about God's timing and His plans.


Tommy and I made it to daily Mass on Tuesday.  He loves to run up to the altar when Mass is over and he usually says "hi" to the sisters.  (Three nuns live in the convent attached to the church.)  After Mass one of the sisters asked if Tommy wanted to visit the small convent chapel.  He was so excited and loved every minute - especially since she let him go up close to the altar.

Wednesday my hubby got us last-minute-discount tickets to see the musical "Memphis."  It was a fun and spontaneous night out.  We love to see shows whenever we can, especially at the Kennedy Center since that is where we got engaged.  :)  And the view from the terrace was absolutely gorgeous as the sun was setting - in this picture you can see the Potomac River and Georgetown.

We had a lot to discuss while we were out because we had heard from our social worker that day about another out-of-state birthmother.  She was relaying the information from another agency.  I immediately called them to say that we are interested.  But yet again, it's hard to know what will happen.  The agency is still working out some important details before moving forward.  We continue to hope and pray that God's will be done. 

Thursday evening my Women's Prayer Group met.  I just love these ladies!  My friend Susan planned the evening around St. Paul - since his feast day was Friday - and we are praying a novena together this week.  I'm so grateful for the love and support from these gals. 

Friday morning I went to a talk at church on the topic of St. Ignatius and the Discernment of Spirits.  It was great and I'm inspired to re-read the book on that topic.  It was perfect timing for me since I was feeling anxious and stressed this week.  I could use a little help with discernment right now.  It was great that they offered child-care, although I generally only leave Tommy with one friend or at the gym daycare.  Thankfully the kids were playing outside and I could see him through the window during the talk.  :) 

We had planned on going camping this weekend.  It was going to be our first time camping with Tommy and we were so excited.  My hubby and I enjoyed camping before he came along, and we recently bought a huge tent that would fit his pack n play.  But we ended up canceling since we had so much else going on and the weather has been crazy.  It's been super hot - over 100 degrees. 

Thankfully we didn't go camping because a wild storm came through here late Friday night and we lost power.  Even though this happens fairly often around here, this one was one of the worst we've seen.  We had hurricane-force winds and a ton of trees and power lines were down.  It was so loud that it woke us and since the power and AC were out we decided to all sleep downstairs where it was cooler.  Here are a few of the trees down in our neighborhood:

Saturday we decided to book a hotel room.  The power outage was really widespread and we were afraid that power wouldn't come back for awhile.  The majority of the traffic lights were out in our county and it was surreal to drive around with so much damage.  We had a nice afternoon swimming in the hotel pool and went out to dinner. 

Unfortunately Tommy didn't like sleeping in the hotel room.  He was up most of the night.  Ugh!  :(  We had an early breakfast at IHOP and noticed a lot of power trucks in the parking lot.  They had just arrived from New Jersey to help restore power in our area.  Crazy!

Thankfully the power was on when we returned home this morning.  We are so lucky because only the right half of our street has power.  Our neighbors immediately to the left still don't have it.  Thank you Lord that ours works!  Although our church didn't have power yet.  Mass only lasted 25 minutes since it was like an oven inside.  I'm heading to bed right now and hoping for a calmer week.

**Just noticed this is my 400th post.  Hard to believe!  :)