How to commit virtual suicide or attack of the irate 'pet parents?'

I found this article rather fascinating, now before you stone me for linking to it or the author for writing it, take a few minutes and process what he is trying to say, it is an intriguing look into an issue that says much about our self-obsessed modern culture.  I work in the industry and the swift transition from 'pet' to 'child' has been rather concerning to me though everyone else seems to just think it is cute and harmless (and a boon to my profession); I find this fuzzing of the edges of what is and is not a person rather disturbing, especially as an adoptive parent (try searching 'adoption' on Pinterest and see what comes up: scads and scads of dogs!).  This article is a timely and incisive look into the topic and is well worth the read, even if you are scandalized that some people still believe that a dog is still just a dog.

'...for the days are evil'

'Redeem the time,' is how the titular phrase starts out and it's been on my heart lately.  We just finalized our second adoption, after nearly eight years of paperwork, waiting, and emotional rollercoasters, I still haven't quite realized that we are done.  We're just another family now, no more waiting, no more social workers or paper work, no more wondering, hoping, yearning, doubt and despair, angst and frustration.  I can leave the state without permission; I don't have to check in monthly with anybody; there is no more paperwork to update.  Weird!

If I could change one thing about the process, at least of those things over which I have control as the cost, bureaucracy, frustration, ungainliness are quite beyond my means to rectify, it would be to wait gracefully.  The days will pass whether I am frustrated or content, anxious or at peace, despairing or hopeful.  However long it takes, it is undoubtedly a long process, a full quarter of my life!, and wasting the time in angst is not helpful to anyone, most especially myself and my family nor does it help the process in the least.  Why can't I just have faith, be content and hopeful that things will work out as they will, and even if they don't work out as I hope, I must still live with that reality so I might as well get used to the idea.  Perhaps I have finally learned that lesson, albeit too late to help in either of my previous adoptions, but perhaps it will help in future endeavors?

They say marriage is an excellent discipleship tool and I will certainly add parenting to that list, but being waitlisted during the adoption process certainly has its own character honing aspects too.  Even when it seemed like I was like to wait forever and futilely at that, even if we had not been successful, the wait would not have been in vain.  'Faith is the substance of things hoped for, a belief in things unseen,' so why can't I just wait in faith?  As what can be more hoped for or unseen than waiting for an adoption to go through?  But it is not completely unseen, my Father has seen it, or not, if it is not to be, He has been there (is there, will be there?, what is the proper tense for an eternal perspective?) and all He asks is that I trust Him to know how things will turn out and that He'll take care of the details in the interim.  That is Faith.  That is what this waiting is all about, molding me, making me more like Him; to be content in the present for He knows and will provide for the future, whatever betide.  This is so much easier to say in retrospect!  I wonder if one day we will all look back on all the needless fuss and bother we experienced on a daily basis and laugh at ourselves as I do now at my fruitless anxiety during our adoption wait.  Wise is she who learns to wait in peace ere the wait is over!

An amazing way to bake bread!

I thought it might be possible, but couldn't find much out about it online (therefore it must not be possible, right?).  I've lately had a dubious flirtation with cast iron and lately have acquired a dutch oven (5 quart cast iron pot with lid).  I found plenty of articles on bread in the crockpot or no-knead recipes for the dutch oven, but what about a regular yeast bread recipe?  I finally found this article, that actually made it sound possible so I gave it a chance.  I followed the directions using an oatmeal honey bread I haven't made in quite awhile, plopped the dough straight from the bread machine into the preheated dutch oven, put the lid back on and tossed it in the super hot over for 30 minutes.  It sure didn't look like much when that sorry little blob of dough sort of oozed/globbed into the pot, but I hoped for the best.  The results were amazing!  I tend to make French loaves when I make loaf type bread as I can never get it cooked on the inside without over browning the crust, or the crust looks great but it is still doughy in the middle, ugh!  This rectifies that little problem beautifully, besides for that, the crust is crunchy, the loaf is beautifully artisan, and the bread itself is super soft and moist.  I love it!

Can you change a tire and other dangerous logic

I'm getting tired of those advertisements on the radio about adopting kids out of foster care, don't get me wrong, they are funny, catchy, memorable and certainly get your attention: truly a successful ad campaign.  What rubs me the wrong way is the message that if you can change a tire or bake a cake or have any other basic life skills, then you too have what it takes to adopt and parent a teen out of the foster system.  It is a grand and noble sentiment, truly, and I love getting the idea out there, perhaps to people who have never considered it and might make great foster parents, and these kids certainly do deserve loving, stable homes and families, none of that is wrong or bad.  What I abhor is the suggestion that anybody can do it, everybody is ready, it's easy as getting out of bed in the morning.  There are ad campaigns urging folks not to buy puppies as spontaneous Christmas gifts because dogs are a serious commitment, how much more so a child, especially one who has literally lived through Hell and has serious emotional damage.  But anybody can do it!  No, they can't.  It will destroy both the parent and the child if the parent goes into this thinking it will be easy as pie when it is all out war, war against the rage, frustration, abuse, abandonment, neglect, fear, shame, hatred that have been aimed at that child since he first was aware of anything.  Normal parenting is often difficult, these kids take it to a whole new level.

I am not saying it cannot be done, that it is impossible, that it isn't worthwhile, that it isn't necessary, but it is hard, very hard, and people need to know that before getting involved.  The commercial makes it sound so easy, easier than a puppy even (already housebroken!), but in reality it is the hardest thing you'll ever do, probably the most worthwhile, but also the most heartbreaking and frustrating, for progress will come slowly and there are some things that will haunt these kids (and their parents) for the rest of their lives.  You don't send a soldier out thinking he's going to have a squirt gun fight on a sunny afternoon and then he can be home for tea when in truth you send him into the trenches for months, if not years, and think he'll make it, why then do they sugar coat this issue?  It isn't fair or healthy to either the kids or the parents, because both are soldiers in a lifelong war against the horrors that led to them being in this situation in the first place and they need to know that going in, not thinking it will be a walk in the park, a piece of cake.  Worthwhile?, absolutely, easy?, absolutely not.  Certainly consider it, by all means, but know what you are getting yourself and that child into before you take the plunge.  The system itself is broken, they are doing the best they can, I understand that, but lying about how easy it is to parent these equally broken kids isn't going to help anybody, most especially the kids.