It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks! But we are finally here and settling in at our new home.
The ranch is so beautiful and peaceful. I keep saying to Cliff, "can you believe this is where we live now?"
Tonight the sky was lit up in the most beautiful sunset I have seen in a very long time. You almost forget after years living further east in MS and LA how much the tall pines obstruct the horizon line. But in TX they have a saying that goes, "nothing to obstruct the view but a barbed wire fence" and that is so true here! Even Cliff said the other day that I wasn't crazy when I kept telling him that the skies were bigger in Texas. I pray we never grow so used to this beauty that it becomes something we take for granted.
So far we have just begun our training, but we are loving every minute of it! We seriously can't believe we are going to get paid to do this! I know there will be times when this job is very hard, but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are where God has placed us and that this is the job for us! Every piece of the puzzle that we learn just excites us more and we can't wait to officially get started in a few weeks.
They told us that we are essentially being trained to be professional parents and that really is true. It's a wonderful and at the same time scary thought!
It's neat though because the teaching model we are learning to use was first created in Lawrence, KS where Cliff was born and the method was used first as a training program at Kansas University, where Cliff's dad graduated from. I joked with Cliff that when we complete our training for the model and have the little graduation from it, he can tell his dad that he, too, is a grad of KU!
Kind of silly, but also kind of a God thing to me for there to be this connection.
We also have met other houseparents who lived and worked in the Atlanta are a where Cliff's family did, ones who lived in Little Rock the same time period that my family did and perhaps the best connection so far is that Cliff has found another houseparent who is also a Premier League Soccer fan like he is. All of these things we know are no surprise to God and are just more pieces to the puzzle that help us feel that we do fit in and have a place here.
We don't know much yet for sure about where our placing will be for the more long term, but in the meantime during training,in addition to learning the teaching model, we are getting to spend some time in various cottages. This means that we will get to know boys and girls, older and younger ages. (The kids who come here can be as young as 5 or as old as 18 and they usually try to put like ages together in cottages.)
Our biggest prayer requests so far are:
For us to be able to absorb all that we are learning and effectively apply it
For us to find the energy to adapt to this non traditional schedule of being a professional parent which is definitely not a 9-5 gig (sometimes its more like 5am-midnight or after)
For us to get through the next few days without our precious Campbell Bug who is with his Neano and Daddy-O until this weekend
And for us to be able to try to maintain a healthy eating plan while going through training (we were dieting and doing well this last few months, but its become harder here in training when others are feeding us rather than us cooking for ourselves)
Thank you so much for your continued prayers for us. We will definitely keep you updated on all our goings-on here on the ranch and hopefully soon I can add some pics of our new surroundings!
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