No, but I have a blog.

Many people raising children with FASD have a support group, personal care assistants or respite care. I don’t. When my Dad died and I didn’t want to pack my bag to go to the cities to plan his funeral, I wrote an entry on my blog instead. This past Christmas when I got depressed over not having my Haitian children home, I wrote all my feelings and frustrations out here.

Blogging can create an instant support system, especially at a time when you might not have the energy or resources to seek out people who’ve shared your experiences ~ Margaret Mason, Your blog can be group therapy

Blog therapy. Who knew?

In response to my recent post on the Trinity, Barbara wrote, “You can drown understanding in facts,” Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) God and the World. Truthfully, I did understand the Trinity until I started studying it. More truthfully, I could get so tangled trying to understand the Trinity that I fail to see how God is working in my life right now. Knowing about God isn’t the same thing as submitting to God. But, then I read James Ellis III, OnThaGrindCuzin and he taught me about the mysterium tremendum.

That really resonated with me, this notion that in all we do know about God there is and always will be so much about Him that we misunderstand, fail to understand, or at the very least are perplexed by, for He has said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are My ways your ways.” (Isaiah 55:8 – 9)

My readers and other blogs are my therapist, spiritual leaders, teachers and friends. Thanks! I wonder how much I would have to pay for that kind of support?

And now, a tag:

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
Let’s see in May, 1998: I was a foster mom to Michelle. I lived in a small home in Parkland, WA. I was a Major in the US Army; I taught a 16-week Critical Care Course. In May I was hospitalized; I experienced the ICU from the patient’s vantage. What a wonderful experience! I was a much better nurse after that experience. I had developed post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis. That is a very fancy diagnosis that means my kidneys went on vacation after a nasty experience with group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus, strep throat. I cannot believe how fast my body let me down. I was healthy. On Monday, I couldn’t finish a 2-mile run. Tuesday, I got out of breath taking the elevator down to get my daily latte! (Yes, I did used to live the kind of life where spending $4.00 a day on a cup of coffee made perfect sense.) I used to tell my students when they complained that the tests were too hard that they had to be that way. “If I am ever the one laying in that bed I don’t want to open my eyes see your face and think, ‘Not them! Anyone but them; they’re an idiot.’” I was kind of kidding, but every military nurse assigned to care for me was a current or previous student. And, they did a marvelous job.

2. What are five things on your to-do list today?
Marissa and I do childcare during the Women’s Bible Study every Friday morning. I had thought I would write objectives and have Marissa learn about child development and count it as a Family & Consumer Science Class but I haven’t. So, we just consider it job training. Then, Marissa has a chiropractor appointment. Oh, and I am a part of a Yahoo Group that is reading Robin Sampson’s The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach. Our thoughts on our reading assignment are due today. Friday is usually pizza night, but we did pizza last night because Marissa had a dentist appointment yesterday and 4:15. She wasn’t brought back until almost 5:00. She wasn’t done until 5:30. I stopped at Papa Murphy’s on the way home. So, I have to think of something to cook for dinner. Last, on Friday we always watch a movie from Time Magazine’s Top 100 Movies. We will either watch Raging Bull or The Man with a Camera because those are the movies that arrived from Netflix. (Don’t forget to go to Robin’s blog and leave her some encouragement. She has been quite ill.)

3. What snacks do you enjoy?
I am afraid I like fried, salty things. 

4. What would you do if you became a billionaire?
I would hire an attorney, an estate planner and a financial person. I can’t even think in those kind of numbers. Can I become a billionaire without anyone else knowing? I wouldn’t want money if I had to have the “junk” that goes with it: the need for excess security measures, people taking photos of me to show America how the rich and famous live, and wondering if the people in my life are only there because I have money. I think I would give it away.

5. What are your bad habits?
Well, right now I am blogging when I am supposed to be getting ready to go. I procrastinate.

6. What is a basic tenet you live by? God is good all the time; if you fail to plan, you plan to fail; I cannot control my situations, but I can control how I respond to my situations. Oh, and my parenting tenet, all members in our family get to have all the freedoms for which they can responsibly manage.

7. What are the five most interesting jobs you have had?
Let’s see: I was a soda jerk. I loved that job because I had a few widowed men that came in every day for breakfast and conversation. I could make their meals and pour their coffee before the doors even opened. I worked the closing sale at Woolco. I worked in a gourmet deli and became a coffee and cheese snob. My favorite job was a bedside nurse. My most challenging role was nurse manager of a critical care unit.