Rundown

I've been a bad blogger this last week... we'll blame it on sickness. Ever since coming back from our trip, Jacob and I can't seem to get the upper hand. We've now just about run the gamut -- sinus infections, stomach bug, food poisoning, laryngitis, and a cold. Fun stuff. Just what you wanted to come to our blog and read about... blech.

But - tomorrow is a new morning! Hopefully symptom-free!! :)

In other news...

• Our 3 little pre-surgery kiddos are not yet scheduled for surgery. Cora still needs an angiogram, and so she's still in the hospital waiting for that, but the others are back home waiting on the tests to be processed and reviewed.
• But Ethan and Sadie are both up for surgery soon -- Ethan will be having hypospadias surgery and Sadie will be having her spina bifida corrected. Both are in the hospital waiting for surgery now.
• Elizabeth moved in with a new foster family. She's so happy. It's precious to see the joy. Sad that she's no longer our neighbor, but happy for her.
• Two Lindsays arrived recently! One of them is new this summer, and she learned about our foster home from her aunt who is a blog friend of ours. And the other Lindsay was here last summer and fell in love with Julia. You may remember her super-funny Julia videos, if you've been a long-time blog reader. For Jacob and me, it's really cool to have the opportunity to see others get involved in this kind of work through some personal connection with us. It just makes us feel good. :)
• On that note, I got the coolest letter from a woman named Tara who found our blog. She shared how God used some of my stories about the children to bust up her fears about adopting a child with a serious heart defect! That was super-encouraging, and like the above point, just made us feel good. :)
• So we're gearing up for a trip home. We'll be stateside Aug 1-27, with a good chunk of that time being spent with our families. But, we're planning a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area sometime the week of Aug. 17 or so.
• Which brings me to the next question... I can see blog visitor stats, and I know that a good chunk of our loyal readers live in the DFW area. So I'm toying with the idea of having some sort of mini-gathering while we're in the city. We'd love to share with you in person and just get to know you better. So, if you'd be interested in meeting up with us while we're there, I'd love to hear from you! While we'd love to have lunch with each of you personally, there probably isn't the time for that, so maybe we can do some sort of group thing. If you'd like to meet, any ideas about where to meet would also be appreciated. It's August. In Dallas. Indoors might be best. :) But, we have no idea about a place where we could get together. I hope I get some e-mails! (jacobandcarrie@gmail.com)
• Also, a couple of months ago, I mentioned wanting to use some of the time we're home to meet with new churches and people interested in getting more involved in our work. We don't have any firm plans set in that department yet, and we're only home about once every 8 months, so it would be good to use this trip to make some new connections. To be honest, for the most part, we've done this work independent of any churches. If we're going to be doing this kind of work for the foreseeable future, we need to form some new partnerships. This is another thing you can e-mail us about.
• In other fun blog stat news -- someone landed on our blog after googling "windy skirt." I'm not sure what post I made about windy skirts, but I can't help but wonder if the person found what they were looking for on my blog. Probably not.
• Last thing - Does anyone have a really, really yummy sugar cookie recipe? I've been wanting to make some, and I want guaranteed success.