Randomness

Boy hate I steroids. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, but taking a round of oral steroids just adds to the chatter in my head. The fact that I cannot focus on a single topic longer than a couple of minutes while they are in my system, added to the fact that it seems as if I can’t get my mind to shut-off, and throw-in all the things that have been on my mind lately…boy, that makes for some “fun.” Thus the title of this post… I just have to get some of my thoughts out, even though I know this will probably turn out to be a lot of disjointed, rambling thoughts; maybe it will give me some perspective on things at some point later on.
 
Location…location…location…

What’s more important – opportunities for your children or family? Is it more important to raise your children near family and build those close bonds or raise them in an area that you feel provides them with more opportunities? A couple of years ago, we were leaning towards opportunities, but now we’re changing our minds on that. We are starting to decide if there’s an area that might offer some middle-ground. We don’t like how we see certain communities taking a down-hill slide, but we think there are enough larger, surrounding communities that might still offer options, although none of the closer ones offer as many opportunities as we have available at our current location. Man, how I am praying we follow His will and guidance on this decision. I'm welcome to your thoughts and input. Maybe it will shed some light on an aspect we haven't focused on or an aspect we're struggling with.

Conception or adoption/foster

We know we want to welcome at least one more child into our home. Lately, it seems like God might be leading us into a ‘different’ direction. Besides our last pregnancy being considered high-risk, there are no signs to say that we could not conceive another child. However, for some reason, the ideas of foster care and adoption are staying at the front of our minds. 

Pure, unstained religion, according to God our Father, is to take care of orphans and widows when they suffer and to remain uncorrupted by this world. James 1:27 GWT

What are your thoughts on choosing to foster or adopt when you could still potentially conceive? It might just be out society, but it seems as if adoption is usually an option taken after one has exhausted efforts trying to conceive. That may be why it feels a little strange to be led down a different path. I’m still praying for God’s guidance on this to make sure we are listening to Him and following His will.

Family

Feeling the desire to be closer to family makes this next topic a little harder. Oh, how I want my daughter to grow-up near our extended families and have a very close relationship with them, just as I had when I was younger. However, there are certain things that aggravate me. You know those family members who always expect something? Ugh! My husband is still getting “guilt-trips” over the fact that we didn’t send anything back to our families for Christmas. Ok, excuse me, the end of last year was rough for us in more ways than one! I have my on-going health issues; plus, we started trying to live by more of a budget. I really wanted to send out a “family letter,” and I even bought all the stationary and hoped to get one created and mailed by year’s end. Needless-to-say, that didn’t happen. Now, all my husband hears is how upset they were because we didn’t send them anything for Christmas. That’s not the only incident of this ever occurring, either. More-and-more, it seems like all they are interested in is what we can do for them. I don’t mind trying to help out when we can, but when money, gifts, etc. are all that seem to be important to them, I start getting aggravated.