The Great Adventures of Milly and Grandy Frank I

HOW ABOUT THEM BOYS???? Since this has become a woman's issue on the left and and abortion issue on the right, lets pause for a moment and consider something.  That girl that needed or wanted an abortion did not get pregnant because she was gay. She didn't have an immaculate conception, most likely...she was with a boy.... This idea that these are women's issues are insane. It takes two to make a baby. SOOO what about these boys, again I have raised boys and girls so I get it...  Boys especially teenage and young me like girls, like a lot, but they also usually are not as into the whole committed relationship idea.  Ask a teenage girl and she will tell you about how she wants a committed relationship, wedding plans....etc .... Ask a teenage boy and he will likely not quite be as excited about that idea.  Usually its more about sports gaming and yes...sex. So since we all want strong men of character, lets dig in...How many sermons, books... are all in on men and sexu...

 I haven't blogged in a long time, life got busy and changed.  No more school kids anymore as all are adulting.  Doubled the grandkids with much delight.  Made our first visit to Hawaii!  It was a beautiful adventure with my favorite guy!  Now we are about to visit Europe with stops in London and Paris to take in the Christmas lights and atmosphere! So you could say this second part of life as Milly and Grandy is starting off pretty .... well Grand! With growing older and life changing it has given me greater perspective. With each stage of life we gain or lose perspective.  What I have learned is perspective comes with experience and loss of perspective always comes from lack of experience.  Therefore I always feel like it is important to speak myself only of the things in which I have experienced.  For example as we are about to embark on a trip to a city we have never been it would be foolish for me to say it will be like this....because w...

Just some thoughts after seeing so many opinions on the student debt relief.   First, (disclosure) I will benefit from this...why?  Why didn't I work "hard enough" to pay off my student loans.  Being a person who got pregnant in college and choose to carry and raise my daughter and then marry her father keeping our family together I needed financial assitance with the idea that once I graduated I could work as a teacher. My husband working hard at an entry level IT job to provide for us. Both his mother and my mother passed away over the next few years and my mother had told me she really wanted me to finish my education and I honored that.  I started college in 1996 and it would take me until 2010 to actually finish that degree.  During this time we were led to adopt and instead of the 1 newborn we had planned on we ended up adopting 5 children because of our refusal to break up sibling groups, and our willingness to adopt older chldren.  I put my deg...

We are always taught to aim high, to reach for the stars and go big or go home....but how that translates into our current world which is ever changing has created an impossible situation and has created a lost generation.  A generation that can reach out in a moment and talk to anyone in the world, who can post a video or picture and be seen by hundreds or thousands of people is suffering from extreme loneliness.  Before this access, when I was growing up or my parents or grandparents, those mantras made sense because the only way to move up was to be a part of a smaller unit and make a difference.  For example, before we would have to engage in our school, neighborhood, community.... to move up to bigger things and through that making meaningful connections we found that we made a difference, was important....right where we were in our little corner of the world.  Now the ability of the internet, social media, reality tv, we see the very few skip that and rise to t...

 Before I was a Milly I was a Mom, which is usually how it goes.  We have raised many children from some hard places.  Most of the time we did have challenges, adjustment disorders, tantrums, rages.... all comes with the territory of healing.  But healing is the operative word, over time, hearts healed and the children and us developed bonds.  So when I call myself a RAD mom, I am not referring to the 80s rad...I am referring to a specific disorder Reactive Attachment Disorder.  Something that we have dealt with for the past 15 years.  It is far beyond the typical adjustment disorder, depression, anxiety that is to be expected in the course of an adoption.  As even the best adoption begins with the traumatic event of being separated from a birth parent.  The best way I can explain RAD's affect on a parent is a miscarriage of the heart. As I experienced an actual miscarriage, you carry a child and you dream and imagine all the things you will ...

 If you have had children in your life you have had this experience.  You find a gift for them, something perfect, something that suits them and you know they will love it.  You have the anticipation as you wrap it up and tie the bow.  You get so excited the day arrives and you give them this gift.  As they unwrap it they are wide eyed, mouth open or perhaps a shout of glee! They wrap their arms around you or give you that big smile and you know in that moment they know they are loved....keep that word in your mind...moment.....because if you know children that is how long the magic lasted.  In a matter of time, they still love the gift, but at times it will become the main source of their frustration, especially if its a video game...., It will become their biggest heartache, picture a lost teddy bear, or their forgotten item under a stack of other items when they are bored....  What happened.....what brought them excitement and joy has now fizzled to...

 This year was an unusual year for us.  It was the first year we didn't have two of our children home for Christmas.  It just happened to be our 2 biological children.  We did however have our son in law and granddaughter here for her first Christmas.  Christmas Eve I was singing as part of our worship team and looked down to see all 6 of our children whom came to us through adoption, my son in law and granddaughter.  It hit me that this entire Christmas was happening because Randy and I gave our plans to God in our 20s....We trusted in something bigger then ourselves when things around us were falling apart. So many times in that journey we said yes to God's plan when it seemed, crazy, hopeless, fearful, amazing.....  Without that walk.  This Christmas would have looked a lot different.  I know for a fact we would not know any of these wonderful people who now call us mom and dad, no grandbaby would be looking at her aunties and uncles with ...