Chasing Rainbows: Enter to Win!!!

my cousin and her husband are adopting two sweet babies from ukraine. these are special babies-- they both are HIV+. please take a look at their blog!

Chasing Rainbows: Enter to Win!!!: "We're counting down the days until we leave to go and meet our little ones- most likely in about 4 weeks! (We're still waiting on our travel..."

On Being Born... Again

in order to prove my identity, and my citizenship in this great nation, it has been requested that i send a copy of my birth certificate to the insurance company. i have looked at this particular document a few times throughout my 24 years; i remember asking my dad to pull it out, along with other "important papers," just so i could examine and wonder at the proclamation of my birth, as if it were some great historical treatise.

i still enjoy looking over my birth certificate, as it gives me a peek into the lives of my parents in a more youthful moment, as well as defines some of my familial structure. for instance, my mother was 28 years old at my birth. i was her fourth child, and in two years she would give birth to her fifth, my little brother. 30 years old with five children, three under the age of five. my mother is bionic, and the proof is on my birth certificate.

i also love to see my dad's handwriting. it is the handwriting of a scholar, of a time when penmanship mattered and humans strove to perfect it as an art form (although i think my dad really missed that era by about 50 years, he was influenced by his own father who, if anything, valued the art of education). this brings me to my mother. i would recognize my mom's handwriting even if i saw it come from another hand. it is loopy and slightly sloppy, and reflects perfectly her free-spirited nature.

out of all the peculiar little things to notice on my birth certificate, this is my favorite:

there is a box to check yes or no regarding whether "the blood of this child's mother was tested for syphilis;" my parents checked no. and another box that reads "if no test, state reason therefore," with my mother's wily response to modern medicine, in her loopy, sloppy, bohemian handwriting, being

no need

both parents Christians

WOW! it's been a while.

for anybody i haven't spoken with comprehensively in the past 3-4 months, here is clark and danielle's life, in bullets:

• clark ran some 5ks (in october), hurt his foot, can't run anymore (for a while)
• we got a dog--a stray--named her timber
• we closed on our house beginning of november, didn't move in until end of december because
• we dismembered the kitchen
• house needs lots of work (unending, as far as we can tell...)
• we got health insurance--woo hoo!
• i began a CNA course in november, finished beginning december
• CLARK FINISHED COLLEGE! (this has been a long time coming)
• i finally enrolled in a human anatomy course, start monday (tomorrow)
• some of our pipes froze/burst last night, flooded the garage
• we are now back at clark's parents' house, for a few days

of course to go along with this bullet list, are all the bullet lists of those near and dear to us, all weaving and intertwining so that the world is a net, with plenty of good, but right now a lot of stressful bad. i told clark that it feels like the world is ending, but he assures me it is just life.

ps.

• i just ate a whole bunch of whoppers malt balls, am wondering if they make minty malt balls because i think that would be quite tasty

Adventures in House-Buying Land, and Other Details

Once upon a time we tried to buy a house annnnd... it took a very long time. Apparently our seller doesn't actually have the title to the house? And he's in the hospital? So, we're waiting.

I recently had a job interview at the local hospital pharmacy. I was recommended by an employee, so it wasn't a job i had sought and prepared myself for, but I felt that the Lord was giving me an opportunity in one way or another, so I applied. As we are living out of boxes right now, I didn't have anything appropriate to wear, so I went shopping. Skinny girls like me rely on the breadth of shopping available in larger towns to find something that fits properly. There is no breadth here in A-town. There is Maurice's, Stage, little locally-owned cowgirl stores, and Wal-Mart. I ended up at Wal-Mart. In the children's department. I had to buy a pair of pants designed to fit a ten-year-old girl. Good news: I got a pair of suitable trousers. Bad news: I deprived a child of pants. Do note that these pants are about six inches too short and would be better labeled as "capris" on me.

"Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or even defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health insurance reform that will restore some of his clout and popularity.

But what has occurred -- irreversibly -- is this: He's become ordinary."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/03/AR2009090302859_pf.html