New photos are forthcoming, really...........

There is no doubt about it, new photos are long overdue and so are timely updates. I will do my best to correct the error of my ways this week.

As I had alluded to in a previous post, we have had a lot of things in limbo as of late. Not that long ago, United announced they would be now grounding 100 airplanes in the fall. As many of you are aware, in 2003, Colin had been furloughed in the aftermath of 9/11 and was only recalled just over two years ago. Even before the numbers were announced, a feeling of familiarity and dread swept over us. We have been down this road before and it was pretty easy to recognize the warning signs. When the furlough numbers were finally announced, our worst fears were confirmed. 950 to be furloughed, Colin is in the 700 group. Since then, we were waiting for a furlough mitigation agreement to be announced to see where he stood. At present, there is no way of knowing if Colin's furlough will be mitigated, it really could go either way. No matter what the outcome, one thing is certain, the 950 pilots who are on the chopping block do not deserve this, and for nearly 800 of them, this will be the second time they been laid off from United.

Much of our energy has been invested in figuring out what is next. The U.S. airline industry is in shambles and globally, it is not much better. There are opportunities in the Middle East and Asia and we have been exploring all of our options. Our main objective is to keep our family together and provide for our children. To put it mildly, this has been a stressful time.

In the meantime, we had been in contact with our foster agency to let them know we were in flux. They assured us they were in desperate need of families so they wanted us to proceed with our foster son. We had made the commitment, so we forged ahead, despite our uncertainty. And we waited for his arrival information. 9 weeks went by and we were still wondering when he would be arriving. I made numerous calls to determine the cause of the delay. Several weeks of the run around and then suddenly the curve ball, our agency informs us that they had discovered our foster son was accidentally simultaneously referred to another family in Phoenix and the paperwork had already been processed by the agency above them. Deep breath and then the question, "now what?" We were immediately offered another referral and we were leaning toward accepting it.

Colin had the common sense to verbalize a question I had been asking myself, "is this really the right time to take on this responsibility? Were we in the best position to take on a foreign exchange student who arrives in 3 weeks AND, in addition, a teenager who has been traumatized and speaks no English?" The answer seemed pretty obvious when I was truly honest with myself. While my emotional side wants to help, the logical, rational part of me realizes that I am closer to my limit that I would like to be, than I NEED to be for this challenge. What really sealed the deal was the flooding sense of relief I had once we had made the decision. For me, that spoke volumes. So we will be welcoming our foreign exchange student in three weeks but have deferred any foster referrals for the time being.

Without a doubt, we still want to become foster parents but believe it is in everyone's best interest to take on this task without a known Damocles sword hanging over our heads.

Verbal vomit over. Lots of great photos forthcoming. Photos of Sophia's 3rd birthday, amazing shots that Colin took on his recent Paris and London trips and some fun in the sprinkler. I promise they will lighten the current mood of our blog.