My Ebenezer

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Now that I’m officially up and running again with my new domain, it’s time to get back to blogging for bucks so I can support my ebay habit. You know already that I’m a big fan of Payperpost – I’ve already made almost $200 just by mentioning advertisers from time to time.

With Payperpost, you get to browse and choose which opportunities you want to take advantage of; this way, you aren’t “selling” anything you don’t want to. Anyway, they’ve made lots of recent improvements which include a new segmentation system which awards bloggers with high traffic blogs. You could even make $1000 for a single sponsored post! And this is another reason I’m asking you to link my site. It will help me support my habit.

Also…Did you know that PPP only charges a 35% service fee compared to ReviewMe that charges a 100% markup? ReviewMe takes half your money for every post but with payperpost, you can get high paying opps more often and put more money in your pocket!

PPP not only makes sense for high traffic blogs, but also for lower traffic blogs – and disclosure is required from all bloggers. This means you’ll always know when I’m advertising!

So, please, link to me on your site and I’ll return the favor. I promise I really am working on my blogroll!

I just heard another “bad report” on a foster family in our area and the agency monitoring them. It really ticks me off when I see a news report quoting violations and not giving ALL the information. I’m not saying the current situation is right or wrong, I don’t know because I don’t have all the facts. Here’s what I do know: A “violation” of standard care or whatever they call it can be anything from a non-working smoke detector in a bedroom to not reporting se#ual abuse. So saying there have been 17 violations really doesn’t tell me anything.

UGgh. It just ticks me off. It seems foster parents have a bad rap most of the time, anyway. What the news doesn’t report about are the thousands of children who are being loved and cared for in loving foster homes. In homes that help them heal. In homes that prepare them to return to their birthfamilies or move on to adoptive families. In homes where they are loved even when they falsely accuse their caregivers of abuse, steal from their caregivers, verbally and sometimes physcially attack their caregivers.

It’s true that some foster parents suck. Just like some parents suck. Just like some of every “type” of person sucks. But I think if you looked at all of them, you’d find that most are good homes. Most have good hearts. Most have pure motives.

It’s not easy to allow the state to invade the most private aspects of your life – and that’s what foster parents do every day. Are you a parent? Are there days when you just really don’t like your kids? Imagine being a foster parent whose goal is not adoption – imagine parenting a very difficult, very traumatized child or teen – how many days out of the week do you think you’d “feel love” for that child? And yet you continue. You continue, I guess, because you know that at that moment you are all the hope that child has.

And then here comes the local news station reporting on what a crappy job foster parents are doing. CPS is doing a crappy job – but I don’t believe it’s their fault. They are so seriously under-funded it’s not even funny. So whose fault is that? Who decides where the taxpayer’s money goes?

As long as I’m ranting here, let me branch off into another arena. While there aren’t enough of our tax dollars to give abused and neglected children the support and protection they really need – there seem to be plenty of our tax dollars to provide health care to drug addicts. I have nothing against free healthcare to people who truly need it – people who can’t work, people who really don’t have other options. But when I see drug addicts getting free medical care at hospitals it really pisses me off. I know addiction is a disease and I know people don’t really “choose” to become addicts – but they do choose to remain that way. IMO. And, evidently, if you have a job and lead a productive and socially responsible life you have to pay out the wazooo for deductibles, co-pays and premiums. Want to avoid all that hassle? Quit your job; claim some emotional problem to keep from getting another one and start shooting up and we’ll pay your medical bills for you.

Now that’s what I call a health plan.

As I’m changing his diaper – Carter’s bottom up in the air and his legs spread eagle while he reaches for his butthole with his fingers, saying, “Mommy! See dat big hole?” Me, trying not to laugh, Yes, Carter, I see the big hole. “is that where the poop lives, mommy?” Yes, Carter, that’s where the poop lives.

You gotta love ‘em.

Who doesn’t love a good rumor? C’mon, you know you do. Even when you try really hard not to gossip, it’s difficult to pass up the opportunity to listen to the latest rumors. I wish had some juicy news to share with you on Britney’s secret life or Anna Nicole’s baby – but I’ve been managing to keep my uncontrollable desire to buy those “tell-all” magazine’s under raps.

I stand in line at the grocery store and try to use my peripheal vision to read all the headlines – now that I’m a “responsible” mother and all, I feel I shouldn’t be reading all that trash – but I want to, really bad!

Anyway, I’m digressing. Payperpost does have something juicy to share but I’m not sure what it is yet. I’m they are about to announce that they will have a million dollar giveaway but it’s not likely. Maybe they are going to get Britney to advertise for them on her blog, or MAYBE they are going to send Patrick Dempsey to my house. But I doubt that’s it, either. Sigh. Patrick Dempsey is hot. (ofcourse, he isn’t anywhere near as hot as daddy-o) PPP is always coming up with something insane so I’m anxious to see what the newest press release will say. I’ll let you know as soon as I do. This is yet another reason why I’m inserting so many shameless plugs to increase site traffic on my blog. So give me some linky love, will ya?

Why is it that when I have time to write these days, I seem to have nothing to say? What happened to the whole question thing? Where did all my commenters go? Can you help me out. What burning questions do you have? Ok, what boring questions do you have? I’ll take anything. I need to write. I want to write. I have nothing to say.

PS. I need to get back on the payperpost bandwagon so I can build up my paypal account and do some shopping. Speaking of that, if you have me linked on your blog, please update the link to this new site so I can get a better google ranking. And if you don’t link to me on your blog, will you please add me? Oh, and I’m working on updating my blogroll as well.

I just watched something on tv that has me a little sick at my stomach. I won’t even tell you what it is because I refuse to give it any publicity whatsoever. Let’s just say that there are people out there who are desperate to believe in something – so desperate that they’ll believe anything.

It is beyond me how easy it is for people – for all of us, really – to believe anything that justifies our current lifestyle or situation. Although I am a born again Christian, I have always respected the rights of others to choose what they believe…..and then I see something like this. And it challenges what I believe, not because it makes me question my faith but because it makes me question someone else’s ability to choose theirs.

Okay, I can’t help it. There is some guy who is claiming to be JC and has quite a following. Personally, I think he favors Jim Jones much more than JC – he actually says “there is no such thing as sin.” Now don’t get me wrong – I know there are people who believe that and although I disagree, it’s your right to believe what you want. HOWEVER, the people who don’t believe in sin generally aren’t running around claiming to be the second coming of JC and taking people’s money in “support of the ministry”.

It’s sad. Just really, really sad. And it makes me angry – it’s so important to know the character of Christ so that you aren’t fooled by someone claiming to be him.

But forget all that. Let’s just talk intellectually for a minute, shall we? If you’ve been reading for any amount of time, you know where my heart is when it comes to God. I get that different people have different beliefs – it’s when those beliefs are so ridiculous and far-fetched that I get frustrated. So back to intillect. Which I apparently can’t even spell. So, JC came to earth first in the form of a human, a baby. He taught that He is “the way, the truth and the life” and that He and God are one. He told us to repent of our sins. He modeled the way He wanted us to live – dying to self and serving others. He lived without sin. I could go on and on here but you get the idea. I believe all this to be true, but looking at it from an intellectual standpoint, I think few would argue that JC did NOT claim/say these things. So it makes NO SENSE to me that “He” would come again (as He promised He would) in the form of an ex-con who encourages his followers to have the “sign of the devil” tattooed on their bodies to show his disdain for organized religion. That he would claim now that there is no such thing as sin. That he would drive a BMW and wear a Rolex. That you can live however you want, do whatever you want because the only consequences we have are those here on earth.

The ironic thing is that he has the children of his cult salute him by pointing two fingers at their brain – because he says their beliefs are all intellectual.

Are you following me here? And there are people buying this stuff. I’m going to leave you with a quote from this MAN. When asked, “Is it a sin to murder,” he responded with, “Murder is a crime, not a sin.”

WHATEVER

Alright, for the fourth post in a freakin’ row – to all of you lurkers who have yet to register….. I now have the site working properly and will be assigning a level to each post. Most will still be public, but all photos and other good and juicy stuff will be private and only available to registered readers. Why? I don’t know. Probably just because it makes me feel cool. Really, I guess it makes me feel safer about sharing information – but that’s really dumb because I still don’t know who you are based on just an email address. Oh well. Humor me, will ya? REGISTER for cryin’ out loud!

I’m glad to have it all behind me. The adoption, the baptism, the party – all of it. Now we can start just being a family. Being “normal” (whatever that means).

The end of a chapter and the beginning of our life together. But it doesn’t really feel like a “beginning” since we’ve had them so long. I think the courts just made legal on paper what has been “legal” in our hearts since we first brought them home. We are so blessed with those little ones – words can’t begin to describe it.

It’s funny how things don’t usually turn out the way we imagined they would. For instance, motherhood isn’t at all what I thought it would be – it’s much harder in some respects and much easier in others. There is a lot more to say on the subject but I’m still recovering from yesterday and I’m just exhausted.

So, until next time.

Alright, I know I’ve been a slacker lately but I’ve had lots on my mind.

The party and baptism yesterday were wonderful. When Carter was being baptized the preacher was holding him in his arms – when he was done, he just looked at Carter and all of the sudden Carter just reached out and gave him a huge hug and put his head on his shoulder. You could hear a collective “awwww” from the crowd. It was really sweet.

There were probably about 85 people in and out of here yesterday and Carter had a blast! We all did – it was so nice to see so many faces coming to share in our happiness. Everyone has been so supportive throughout this whole process, we are truly blessed with friends and family.

Now, it’s back to life.

There’s not much to say these days – we’re getting ready for the big shin dig on Sunday!

I got sworn in as a Child Advocate last night and am anxious to be assigned to my first case.

Until I have something more interesting to say, here are a few more pictures!

"Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer (Rock of Help), saying, This marks the place where GOD helped us."

1 Samuel 7:12 The Message

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