Thursday, July 24, 2014

beautiful in His time

It's always nice when there's a good ending to a story. In the beginning of 2013 our home was reopened to foster. One Tuesday in early January, with just a couple of hours notice, we were brought a toddler boy. He was a sweet little guy. He celebrated Daniel's 6th birthday with us, and we grew to love him.

He was not here for too long before DHS gave us less than an hour's notice that they were moving him to a non-relative kinship placement. It was a surprise, so we had to scramble to gather his things and say goodbye to him, as strangers came to pick him up in our living room.

Within a few months I was shocked to see this story on this news, because this toddler was that little boy:

http://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news/angela-cicone-arrested-after-toddler-son-suffers-repeated-injuries

I wept when I read this story and wondered if there was more we could have done to prevent this from happening. But by this time we had another little one in our home.

Just a few weeks ago my mom contacted the kinship foster mother who had taken this little guy from our home. He had been placed back in their home after this news story came out, and the happy news was that they will be adopting him. She emailed several pictures and we were thrilled to see how much he had grown in 1.5 years, and we were so happy to hear that he is doing well.

It was a comfort to see that God does make things beautiful in His timing. I will always remember the happy days we spent with that little guy. I will never regret loving him (though it hurt to say goodbye.) And I am so glad that life has turned out well for him.

Monday, July 7, 2014

why i will never be a plumber

I've learned to do a few basic home repairs and use some different tools. I've managed to fix a toilet, a leaky bathtub, a leaky sink, and replaced a sensor in my SUV. But I really don't enjoy it! My personality is such that if something needs to be done I'll usually watch a few youtube videos or read some how-to articles online and then give it try (and probably end up in tears before it's all done.)

It's been several years since there's been a leaky faucet in the house, but recently the kitchen sink started a slow drip. and then the slow drip became a faster drip. And the other day I finally decided the drip was getting pretty costly. So I figured it was time to refresh myself on how to fix the faucet.

I read several how-to articles online and got the courage to take the handles apart and pull out the inside thingy. I can't remember the technical names of the plumbing parts to they all become "thingys." Normally I take the parts to a plumbing supply store and they just give me what I need, since I don't know what to look for or ask for. This time though I was in a hurry to get the job done so we went to a close by hardware store instead.

Daniel came along with me to Sutherlands. When we finally found the right aisle, I was facing a whole wall of "thingys" and had no idea how to match the correct one. We pressed the call-for-help button and a store clerk came shortly and after a quick glance, told me that they didn't have the correct part. I would need to go to the plumbing supply store. So much for doing this quickly.

We drove to the plumbing supply store only to find that it was closed, I guess for the holiday weekend. Sigh. So I googled plumbing supply stores on my phone and found that the other one relatively close by had closed 26 minutes earlier!

I hadn't even gotten to fixing the faucet and I was nearly in tears! So we went to the pet store instead to get crickets to feed Allan's new frog. The day was going totally different than what I had planned.

Arriving home, I put the old parts back in until another day when I would start the process all over again and hopefully find the plumbing supply store open! (this time I'll call first)

But...oops. After putting it all back together I somehow put it together backwards so that the hot water handle turns on and off the opposite way. Two days later I haven't mustered up the interest to put it back the right way so it is driving my mom crazy. And that is why I am not a plumber.

Here's a pic from probably the last time we fixed a faucet....