Adoption

I’m sure some of you have noticed that I’ve been a little bit less active than normal. There’s definitely a good reason for it.

Several months ago, my facility finally opened officially, and instead of sitting around, waiting for something to happen, we grew from two to seventeen in no time flat. During that time, it gave me a good chance to reevaluate my life’s goals, and the direction that I’m taking.

As my husband and I talked and pondered and prayed, we came to the decision that it’s time to expand our family. This decision wasn’t easy to make. Last year, we found out that chances of having kids is slim to almost none. We considered in-vitro, but even that doesn’t have the greatest projected outcome for us. Since I was young, I always said I would adopt, and now, we’re working on making that a reality.

We looked into both fostering and adoption. We would love to foster someday, but right now, we feel that adoption is the right path. So for the past 2-3 months, we’ve worked on all the preliminary papers: the home study, the reference forms, background checks, doctor’s physicals… and everything in between.

Earlier this month, we were finally approved to adopt. But that means that now we’re playing the waiting game. We’re waiting for someone to choose us to love their child. I can’t even imagine how difficult that decision would be.

We would love for you to spread the word for us. The more people who see our profile, the greater the chance we have of finding the right match, and the child who will make our family complete.

Here’s a link to our profile on adoption.com 

Thank you!

Halfway Through the Year!

Wow. At some point, June snuck in. I’m still signing everything with the date of May.

Halfway through, and time to double check how I’m doing with my goals.

1. Focus on publishing.

In January, I set up a query party, and it was amazing! There were six people from around the world that participated, and we roated queries every week so that we could have someone new critique it. I definitely learned a lot from all of them.

I actually just went through my query again this week, and after one or two more revisions, it’ll be ready to send out. (Though, that’s what I’ve been saying since January, so…)

2. Participate and win both Camp NaNoWriMos and the regular NaNoWriMo

April’s Camp NaNoWriMo was a little interesting. I made a completely different goal for myself to try and get pumped for November, and in a way it worked, in a way it didn’t. I did win, but halfway through the month, I decided to scrap that goal because it had started to frustrate me too much. I went back to revisions, and finished the month strong. I just signed on to the ML for this year’s NaNoWriMo, so I’ll be there cheering everyone on!

3. Read 52 books in the year of 2015

I’m on book number 13. Basically, I’m only about halfway to where I need to be. It’s been awesome though, to know that I need to be reading. Another amazing phenomenon is that I’m throwing books into my to-read shelf without paying as much attention as I might, and often, I’m very surprised by what I’m reading. Less research is actually making the process more interesting.

On the writing side, I’m halfway through my second revision of King’s Councilor. February and March, I took it and tore it apart, throwing in a new beginning, middle and end. Right now, I’m trying to make it a little cohesive before sending it to the betas to be torn apart again.

On a more personal note, my husband and I have been working toward a goal together, and today we made a major breakthrough! I still can’t talk about it yet, but I’m so excited I’ve got butterflies! I hope to tell you about it soon.

Book Review: Rosehead by Ksenia Anske

I don’t normally do this. I love reading books, but I’ve never actually written a true review. But this book blew my mind.

I met Ksenia online through Google +. When she first published Rosehead, I put it on my to-read list. I knew that she was a very dedicated and enthusiastic writer, and I was excited for her and her achievement. But as it always happens, things started to get busy. It took me way too long to get to it, but last week, I finally did.

Since I’ve put so many books on my to-read shelf, I usually forget what they’re about. When I started Rosehead, I had no idea what to expect. And of everything I thought this book could be, it wasn’t.

Let’s start with the main characters. Ksenia created a thirteen year old girl with a large vocabulary. She’s struggling to fit in, and in more ways than most kids. I won’t spoil the story, but let’s say, I had a hard time deciding whether or not her world was upside down, or if she was just a kid imagining it all. Part of it had to do with her talking dog, and the crazy rose garden.

I think what really amazed me about this book was that I never knew what to expect. Whatever I thought would be the logical next step, Ksenia threw it onto its head and did the opposite. Or not even the opposite. It’s like choosing between right and left and deciding on up. That’s how the story went.

And it was a fantastic ride. I’ve told everyone I’ve seen in the past three days about the book. My neighbors are sick of me talking about it.

It’s well worth the read.