My Life is a Hallmark Movie

As promised a couple of weeks ago, I have a big announcement. No, I am not pregnant. And no, we have not found a church that will hire Aaron to be their music minister, yet. Ever since high school, I have been casually searching for my birth family online, mainly my mother and brother but I never came across anything. I talked about that in one of my blog-posts called "Passively Stalking." After I blogged that post, I decided to try searching for my aunts and uncles on my birth mother's side. I had that information because when I was born one of the nurses suspected I had Down-Syndrome; it was just an eye infection. I also knew my mother's last name because of that. I was searching on Facebook because there are nine siblings on my mother's side and chances are that one of them would have an account. I started with one of the brothers and saw that he has several Facebook friends with the same last name. I also noticed he had a mutual friend with me. I joked with Aaron that it would be funny if that mutual friend happened to be a relative. So I kept looking through different family members with the last name of "Wilder," or first names that were on my timeline. They all had the same mutual friend. I ended up on one of the sister's page and saw that her son was the mutual friend. The mutual friend was someone I knew from Hardin-Simmons. At this point,I knew that I had found my birth family. The family is too large for it to be a coincidence. I asked Aaron to message the mutual friend and ask him if he has an aunt named Charlotte (my birth mother). He replied yes and Aaron said to call him. They didn't talk for very long but the "mutual friend" confirmed that I looked a lot like his aunt. Through him, I have been able to talk to some of my "blood" family members. This December,I will even be able to meet a few of them, including my birth brother!

So it has been confirmed I was not picked from a "Cabbage Patch" Farm.

I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T do you know what that means??

Pre- Aaron, I have always been an independent girl/women. Even when I was a little girl I had to do everything by myself or I would get frustrated.

I'm still pretty independent but I now have a hard time opening doors, zipping up clothes, going to sleep, or even watching TV without my husband.

Any type of project (deep cleaning, cooking, or fixing things)are things I like to do on my own.

Pardon that awful sentence structure. Add developing coherent sentences to the list of things I can't do on my own.

Last week I cleaned all the windows (inside and out) and living in West Texas has made that quite the task. Aaron offered to help but I wouldn't let him. Maybe that is something I need to work on- sharing my projects.

The main reason I blogged today is to say that I have an announcement- and this is something I couldn't do without Aaron.

No! I'm not pregnant!!! I had you going, huh? Why is that the first thing people assume when a married woman declares she has an announcement?

Okay, we'll tune in in a couple of weeks- I promise it is a much better read than this lame post.

Passively Stalking

Two blogs in one night... Someone can't go to sleep.

I have been passively searching for my birth mother- mainly googling her name/ other birth relative's names. I found out what my last name is because someone forgot to blot it out in some of the many pieces of papers I have from my adoption. It also has a family tree on there.

I'm pretty sure I found my (now diseased) birth-grandfather. If your really curious, here is the link.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=28314395

There is an official way to find her but that would mean I would really have to go through with it. Maybe someday. For now, I'm a creepy stalker.

Waiting for the Gun Shot

Right now Aaron at I are at a waiting point in our lives. It feels like we are at the start of a race waiting for the gun to go off. We have heard back from the church in Hollis and they want us to come back for a second audition.

We didn't have much luck finding jobs in Arlington so we have put off going to seminary for now. Right now we are staying with my in-laws (which, by the way, is what they did in Biblical times so women could learn the way the family works). I'm being unintentionally biblical.

I feel like I can still be called a minister's wife even though neither of us are currently employed with a church. God called me to be a minister's wife so that is what I am, no matter where we are.

For the most part I am at peace with what is going on. I know that God's timing is divine and we gave up our lives whenever we became Christians and surrendered to the ministry. To be honest, this is my blog after all, I question why I can't serve anywhere right now! It's the same feeling I got whenever I realized God didn't call me to be a full time missionary in a foreign country. I was really disappointed in that.

I guess God is using this time to make my marriage with Aaron really strong. Not a lot of people get the blessing of starting off their marriages with no distractions. We have not spent any time away from each other since we got married.

Maybe he making us strong so He can use us in great ways later on.

This blog is a good therapy session.

How to Trick People Into Thinking You're Smart

It appears that people who are experts in certain fields are never satisfied with whatever new thing comes out. Well for those of you who don't have a vast array of knowledge in anything keep reading. For all of you experts out there, quit reading... I want nothing to do with you.

I guess I have a lot of knowledge in child development since that is what my degree is in; however, no one really wants to hear it. Seriously, experienced teachers or parents are not going to ask a non teacher/ non parent advice in what to do with their kids.

I digress.

To fake having knowledge in any field of your choice, there is a very basic formula. (Choose field+ some new development/ object) negative comment= impressed friends.*

Examples:
Music- Man, today's music doesn't require much thought.

Education- They aren't teaching these kids the way I was taught. Are they learning anything?

Medicine- Man, today's diseases aren't like they used to be.

Life- This world is just getting worse and worse. Kids didn't behave like this back in my day. (This is not for those who are in their twenties and younger)

So there you have it. A simple way to convince friends, relatives, and strangers that you are well rounded and knowledgable in the ways of the world. You can use this at any reunion, family or school, parties, bar mitzvahs, or lines at grocery stores/ banks. If there is a lull in the conversation, or people aren't annoyed with you enough, here is your formula.

*Please keep use of this formula to a minimum. Side effects may lead to few to no friends.