Shelton Shenanigans

I started out my last post by stating that one of my goals for this blog was to always be honest and open about where we are in our adoption journey.  That has not changed, although I have been struggling to find the words to start this entry.  Hang on with me, this one may be a little more up and down than usual. December is two days away.  Christmas will be here in under a month.  My plans for this month were to push the book hard, everywhere we could.  We also have Christmas cards that need to be marketed, and I annually do a Christmas concert at a little country church nearby that is on the National Historic Registry which has become one of my favorite places to sing.  I intended to sing my way through this month and raise adoption dollars from generous folks who like to give to charitable causes at Christmas.  Thus were my plans. As it turns out, life has taken a different twist.  My December calendar now revolves around two dates, Christmas, of course, and December 6, the date

One of my goals with this blog is to always be honest and open about where we are in our adoption journey.  We are, after all, regular people, subject to emotion and weakness, and along with the highlights that are fun to write about, there are struggles of all kinds.  And over all of it is a really big God who isn't surprised or intimidated by any of it.  He is our source of balance.  So, with that in mind, allow me to tell you about the ups and downs of this week. Sunday, November 11 was a whirlwind day.  We were triple booked with events we weren't going to miss!  Our church had a special Veteran's Day Service, in which the choir played a prominent roll, and in which I was to sing a pretty rangy rendition of our national anthem.  Following that, we were off to a chili cook-off/silent auction fundraiser for friends of ours who are adopting.  That event was about an hour and ten minutes from our home.  From there, we went another three quarters of an hour to my grandma

     We are in an Avengers state of mind in the Shelton household.  The boys' imaginations have been captured by this colorful cast of super heroes.   On any given day, you can find our boys, along with a bunch of other neighborhood kids, running up and down the block, protecting the earth in epic battles with their shields, hammers, and of course the all powerful "Hulk smash!"  They have defended us from countless villains and thwarted many an evil plan, and we are all better off for it!     For the girls who are reading this who, like me, have never ever cracked open a comic book and couldn't explain the difference between a DC and a Marvel super hero if their life depended on it, let me explain the Avengers' appeal.  The Avengers are an unlikely team of super heroes who come together when the earth is in grave danger from an extra terrestrial bad guy who is too powerful to be defeated by just one of them.  They join forces as a team, laying aside their differe