admin, Author at Foster2Forever

12:03 pm by admin

FUNNY FRIDAY

PHONES IN CHURCH

A man in Topeka, Kansas decided to write a book about churches around the country. He started by flying to San Francisco and started working east from there.

Going to a very large church, he began taking photographs and making notes.

He spotted a golden telephone on the vestibule wall and was intrigued with a sign, which read “Calls: $10,000 a minute.”

Seeking out the pastor he asked about the phone and the sign. The pastor answered that this golden phone is, in fact, a direct line to heaven and if he pays the price he can talk directly to GOD.

The man thanked the pastor and continued on his way. As he continued to visit churches in Seattle, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver, Oklahoma City, and around the United States, he found more phones, with the same sign, and the same answer from each pastor.

Finally, he arrived in Texas, upon entering a church in Houston, Texas – BEHOLD – he saw the usual golden telephone. But THIS time, the sign read “Calls: 35 cents.”

Fascinated, he asked to talk to the pastor, “Reverend, I have been in cities all across the country and in each church I have found this golden telephone and have been told it is a direct line to Heaven and that I could talk to GOD, but in the other churches the cost was $10,000 a minute. Your sign reads only 35 cents a call.

Why?”

I love this part……………

The pastor, smiling benignly, replied,
“Son, you’re in Texas now …
You’re in God’s Country, It’s a local call.”

American by Birth – A Texan by the Grace of God!

Have a great weekend with your family.
Hugs to y’all!
~penny
http://txpenelope.blogspot.com

10:13 pm by admin

UPDATE ON LIL BIT (Part 4) – Another Hospital Visit

Thanks to an obstinate dairyman, I had a meeting scheduled out-of-town at 4 pm on Good Friday. Making lemonade out of lemons, my family traveled out of town with me on our way up to the Metroplex to visit cousins during the Easter holiday weekend.

That night, Lil Bit began coughing a horrible cough throughout the night. I called the local hospital to see if he could get RSV again (he was hospitalized with it for 4 days in February). “Yes!” was the reply. At 4 o’clock in the morning I dressed and headed to the small-town ER with Lil Bit coughing the entire way.

My thoughts were racing – if Lil Bit needs to be hospitalized:

Can I take him to the hospital back home or would they want him to stay here?
Would he have to ride in an ambulance as Stinkpot did last time he was hospitalized?
How long would we have to stay in this small-town hospital?
Would he need to spend another 4 days in the hospital like the last time he had RSV?

I arrived at the ER and the doctors were quick to examine him. The doctor’s thought was that with his throat being so red that he may have strep throat. The nurses came in and tested him for strep & RSV.
The tests results came back quickly: No strep, no RSV, just a common cold. YEAH! We can leave!
When I got back to the hotel, everyone was up & ready for breakfast. Ready for an Easter egg hunt!
A funny thing did happen in this small-town hotel though. I thought it only happened in the movies, but….
the elevator broke down with my kids inside!!!
After that fiasco, we finally were able to head to my sister’s house & the cousins had such a good time together on their Easter egg hunt. They were so proud of their findings!!

Have a great week with your family!
Hugs to y’all!

10:48 pm by admin

THEN & NOW – A Forever Friendship

Here is a scrapbook page I created after I discovered that I was sitting with my friends from first grade in our class picture many, many years ago. This is the first scrapbook page I created digitally using Photoshop & it shows.

The journaling reads:

“It’s impossible to believe that Deanna, Shannon, Ann & I have been friends for over 30 years!

We became friends in first grade and grew up together. We’ve shared many firsts together: reading our first book, losing our first tooth, going on our first field trip, having our first crush, and plying our first “Truth or Dare”.

Unbeknownst to them, these girls became my rock, my escape, and, in essence, my extended family when my own family broke apart during my parents’ divorce. Our private lunches behind the curtains on the cafeteria stage comforted me through that tumultuous time.

When we graduated together in 1983, we were the last class of CSHS to attend first through twelfth grades at the same campus.

Even with me living away from Waco for nearly 20 years, we’ve kept in touch, and I have always felt like I could come “home”.

Deanna, Shannon, & Ann have become family to me and are a part of my heritage.”

I entered this in a fun photography challenge on the IHeartFaces website for the theme “Then & Now.”

Do you have childhood friends with which you still keep in touch?

Have a great week!

Hugs to y’all!
~penny

4:11 pm by admin

FUNNY FRIDAY – A Dying Man’s Last Wish

A very old man lay dying in his bed. In death’s doorway, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookie wafting up the stairs.

He gathered his remaining strength and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with even greater effort forced himself down the stairs, gripping the railing with both hands.

With labored breath, he leaned against the door frame, gazing into the kitchen. Were it not for death’s agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven.

There, spread out on newspapers on the kitchen table were literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies.

Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?

Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself toward the table. The aged and withered hand, shaking, made its way to a cookie at the edge of the table, when he was suddenly smacked with a spatula by his wife.

“Stay out of those,” she said. “They’re for the funeral.”

Have a great week!

Hugs to y’all!

5:34 am by admin

EASTER RESURRECTION COOKIES RECIPE

These cookies are to be made the evening before Easter to demonstrate the story of Christ’s resurrection. Our family will be making these together for the first time this year.

You will need:

1c. whole pecans,
1 tsp. vinegar,
3 egg whites,
pinch salt,
1c. sugar,
zipper baggie,
wooden spoon,
tape,
Bible

Preheat oven to 300 BEFORE BEGINNING.

Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces.
Explain that after Jesus was arrested He was beaten by the Roman soldiers.
Read John 19:1-3.

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl.
Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink.
Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life.
Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.
Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child’s hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl.
Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus’ followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.
Read Luke 23:27.

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing.

Add 1 c. sugar.
Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know this and how to belong to Him.
Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed.
Explain that the color white represents the purity in God’s eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet.
Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus’ body was laid.
Read Matt. 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF.

Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door.
Explain that Jesus’ tomb was sealed.
Read Matt.27:65-66.

GO TO BED!
Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight Jesus’ followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed.
Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie.

Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow!
On the first Easter, Jesus’ followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty!
Read Matt. 28:1-9

Enjoy!
Have a great weekend celebrating the resurrection of Christ!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

11:43 am by admin

Running the Race with Asthma

Last October, upon leaving the doctor’s office after a routine visit, I was given a flu shot (not H1N1). After a bout with the flu in 1993, I do my best to get vaccinated. However, the next evening, after dinner, my lip swelled up & I broke out in hives! I was a polka-dotted Angelina Jolie!

After a series of tests, the allergist diagnosed me as allergic to, not only the flu vaccine, but ragweed, cats, mold, and elm trees! After another test, I was diagnosed with asthma. How can that be? Isn’t that a childhood disease that they can possibly outgrow? I’m nearly 45 years old!

My allergist informed me that I have adult-onset asthma. What? The diagnosis of asthma actually explained a number of concerns in regard to my health. The persistent cough I had struggled with for the last few years. The tightness in my chest that, at times, could become somewhat painful. All indications of asthma that I never considered.

There is no cure for asthma, only control. The doctor put me on a daily regimen of Singulair, Flonase, and Advair that have helped control my symptoms.

During my asthma test, I noticed a poster of Olympic swimmer, Amy Van Dyken. It stated that she had asthma since childhood. An Olympic champion? With asthma? Since forever? Wow!

I asked my doctor about exercising with asthma, and she suggested that exercise would, in fact, help build my lung capacity. I had been a long-distance runner in high school. I had also trained for the 2004 Houston Marathon, until a back injury at the 7-mile training mark sidelined me from completing the training program. I now made a goal of running a 5K.

Last year, the Komen Foundation gave a $50,000 grant to the Community Cancer Association to provide medicine & supplies to breast cancer patients in my area. (I am on the Board of Directors of this incredible organization.) The Komen Race for the Cure was scheduled for April 24, 2010. Five months should be plenty of time to train!

In November, I began training on the treadmill. I would jog 30 seconds, then walk for a minute & a half. I couldn’t believe how difficult this was. I was winded after a 30 second jog! It took a solid month of this before I ever felt that I could breathe without difficulty.

A person with asthma has to build up exercising slowly. Overdoing it could have very serious consequences. I learned this hard way a few Fridays ago. The weather was just beautiful, and I went outside for a long run. I wanted to run most of the course. I was jogging 1 & a half minutes at a time, and had run 2 miles on the treadmill the day before. I was ready! Or so I thought…

On a treadmill, I would run a set speed; however, once outside, I just ran. Probably too fast. I also had hill & wind outside that I didn’t have on a treadmill. I ran about 2 & a half miles that day. I was so sick the next day and throughout the weekend! It took me nearly a week before I felt recovered enough to get back on the treadmill. But I did.

I’ve since built up to 2-minute jogs and may stay at this level for a while. I am coughing a little more than usual now. Maybe from overdoing, or maybe from all the pollen in the air. My original goal of jogging the entire 5K has been obliverated with concerns over my health. It may take months or even years, or I may never be able to jog a 5K in its entirety.

My goal now is just to finish! Without killing myself!

And that’s OKAY!!!

Have a great week reaching your goals!

4:26 pm by admin

UPDATE ON LIL BIT (Part 3) – ANOTHER DAY IN COURT

This morning we went to court again for a placement hearing on our 6-month-old foster baby that we have nicknamed Lil Bit.

Our day in court began at 9am; however, with a full docket, our case was, of course, heard LAST after the 5 other cases (one was from 2001)!

Tic tock, tic tock…
More attorney fees.
In fact, we actually had TWO attorneys representing us in court today!

When our case finally was called, it was after 11am.
TWO hours of attorney fees to listen to other cases!

First, the mother’s attorney called up the foster dad that has 5 of the mother’s other children. (The mother wants Lil Bit with her other children.)

The baby’s ad litem attorney jumped up adamantly objecting.
“He has no standing!”
“No relevance now!”
“He hasn’t even met the child!”

The judge said he would briefly allow this testimony. This testimony was mainly regarding how he currently cares for the mother’s other children.

Then the cross-fire, I mean, cross-examination from the baby’s ad litem attorney shot out. She asked some very tough questions.

“If the other children are failing in school, how can you care for another child?” He wasn’t able to answer the question.

“The last home study completed when you adopted the mother’s last child stated that you were to not have any more children in your home, correct?”

The CPS caseworker was the next witness. The CPS attorney and the baby’s ad litem attorney focused on how Lil Bit should be with his great-aunt. Our attorneys focused questions so that she would say that Lil Bit would be safest with us.

Then the baby’s ad litem attorney called Lil Bit’s mother onto the stand. She began by asking detailed questions about her relationship with the father, where she conceived the baby, when the father moved to Mexico, when she moved to Mexico, when and where she gave birth to Lil Bit.

(Later, our attorney told us that those questions were to confirm that the U.S. and Texas have jurisdiction over Lil Bit’s case and not Mexico where he was born.)

Then I was called to testify on the stand. I was so nervous, nearly to tears. So much on the line here. Our attorney asked me questions to reiterate to the court that Lil Bit would be safest in our home, since we have no contact with the violent members of his birth family.

Leave it to me that when he asked me questions in the negative like attorneys sometimes do, I messed up my answer & he would have to repeat it & I would have to correct myself.
(All these expensive meetings & he didn’t prepare me for THAT!)

No other attorneys questioned me (another good sign).

My husband testified so diplomatically when asked who the baby preferred. “When both of us are in the room, the baby prefers my wife!” (His calm diplomacy is one of the characteristics that drew me to marry him.)

To our advantage today, the great-aunt wasn’t in court to testify. It was optimistically believed that CPS didn’t inform her of the new court date since it had been postponed twice.

The judge ordered a brief recess to review the great-aunt’s home study and call the attorneys into his chambers.

The judge then issued his ruling…
THE BABY WOULD STAY WITH US UNTIL ANOTHER PERMANENCY HEARING ON MAY 25TH!!!!

So – HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!
But by May 25th, Lil Bit will be in our home as a member of our family for 6 months of his 9 months of life! Two-thirds of his life with us!
That will be to our benefit at the next hearing….

A HUGE THANK YOU for all your prayers!

Have a great week cherishing your loved ones!

Hugs to you all!

7:36 am by admin

SNOW – An Act of God!

What an AMAZING day of snow in Texas!

Over THREE inches! WOW!

As Texans, we become frozen with enchantment of a winter wonderland.

Schools close.
Businesses close.
Snowmen line our streets.
Snowball fights ensue.

The anomaly of snow here in Texas brings out the kid in all of us!

In Texas, any amount of snow necessitates a winter weather advisory.
But 3 inches of snow in Texas is an Act of God!

An Act of God is a legal term used in contracts & other legal documents to describe events outside of human control, such as storms & natural disasters.

Not that the 3 inches of snow here could ever be described as a disaster,
but it is an Act of God!
A blessing!

And the timing of God’s blessings can show us all that He is in control of EVERYTHING!

Psalm 107:25 – “For He commands & raises the stormy wind,
which lifts up the waves of the sea.”

We were richly blessed by the snow this week, not only for the joy it brought into our lives, but in that our custody hearing for our foster baby was postponed another week!

Another week to enjoy & love this angelic baby as part of our family!
Another week to PRAY!