My Day--The Bad, The Good, The Tough Parental Issues, and The Possibilities

Today was a good day. Aside from the fact that I couldn't find my keys this morning and was subsequently five minutes late for work. I despise being late. Being late makes me feel all rushed and panicky.

The infant room went smoothly today. I love my job. Sure, there are stressful moments, but how cool is it that I work with eight babies who all love me and want to snuggle me all the time?! It's a little hard when they all want to snuggle at once, but we make do. I also work with some pretty cool people. Not that any of us is perfect, but overall we have a pretty good work environment. I get two ten minute breaks and one half hour break per day. I know this sounds like what everyone gets, but that is because I didn't mention yet that all of my breaks are PAID. Praise the Lord!

After work I came home and took a nearly two hour nap. It was fabulous. You should try it sometime.

After said nap, I woke up and had cereal and pop-tarts for supper. Really I was supposed to fast because I was having an appointment with my pastor and we are encouraged to fast so that we can be more spiritually receptive. I should have fasted lunch instead. I decided that I was so hungry that I was afraid that I would be way to distracted by hunger to concentrate on what Pastor Clements was saying. I reasoned that what I was meeting with him about was more of a practical issue than a spiritual one anyway. It's way too easy to reason ourselves out of doing things we should do but don't really feel like doing, don't you think?

My appointment with Pastor was great. I talked with him about two different things.

First, my son has been asking about his father quite a bit recently. I have no contact with his father, and recently found out that he is in prison again in a different state for a drug offense. To be honest, much of the time I am glad that his father is not at all involved in his life. I feel badly saying that, but without going into detail, his father just isn't a good role model at all. I do not hate his father, and I sincerely hope that one day he gets his life together. Ian has been asking questions about when he will see him, if it will be while he is still a kid or not until he is an adult, and if I will take him to see him. It is hard to know how to best answer his questions. He does not know that his dad is in prison. I have told him that his father had a difficult life growing up, and that I thought he just really didn't know how to be a father, but that he has a Heavenly Father who will never leave him or forsake him.

Pastor had some good things to share with me. He said to simply and carefully tell Ian that his father moved away, lives in another state, and that he is not a part of my life and that I do not have any contact with him. Also that I do not know when he will be able to see his father, but that it would probably be when he is an adult, and at that point we could possibly try to locate him. Pastor also encouraged me to have him in a lot of team sports and other activities where he can play with other boys and have interaction with coaches. When he is a little older he can attend the Men's Breakfast and workdays at church. He shared with me that he still remembers those kinds of significant male figures from his own life and that they had a great impact on him when his father was a traveling businessman. This was encouraging because Pastor Clements is one of the men that I respect and admire most.

We also talked about the possibility of me buying a house. Originally my plan was to pay all of my debt off and then look at buying a house next year. With the market conditions, the federal incentive, and other local options for first time home buyer assistance available to me I thought it might be a good idea to look at getting a house this year and paying my student loan off next year. This sounds like a very wise thing to me, but I also know that sometimes when you really want to do something--and it's a BIG something--it's just a good idea to ask someone who might tell you that you shouldn't do it. He said to first find out if I would be approved for everything and how much I would be approved for, then I can go back and talk to him again. Yay! I have been waiting to do anything until I talked to him about this because I wanted a little assurance from an objective point of view that this might be a good idea and not a bad one. Keep checking back for updates on the house hunting situation!

All in all, today was a good day!