Live.Love.Pray.: Where has Tara been???

So the fact of the matter is that you all have gotten together a whole lot of times, and as I can remember I haven’t made it to one. No, I’m not avoiding you, I haven’t committed some heinous crime that I’m now on the run for under a new identity (although I flee across the border for 10 days…), and I’m not dead yet. But I AM a YOUTH PASTOR, aaaaahhhhhhh! Which, in my specific postion, has meant usually 3 evenings per week set aside for regular youth meetings of each age group, and many Saturdays and Sundays reserved for things like retreats, special events, service projects, special services for morning worship, and on and on. So the odds have just been that everytime ya’ll have something planned, you can bet I already have some staff meeting, or youth campout, or children’s ministry event that I”m already committed to. But I gave Tiff the tentative go-ahead that I pretty much have most September weekends looking clear right now, and she promised that you all would be trying to come up with a date that would work for others to have a get-together while you were out having Mongolian BBQ without me….so I’m still waiting on the results of that! :o)

So an overview update for now, because I have no idea how far behind I actually am in catching some of you up: In the picture I posted is my husband Denver, with whom I will be celebrating 2 years anniversary in about a month! (and actually, that was probably the last time I saw some of you, at my wedding!). And then Emily, my sister, who is now 11 years old. My portion of the adoption was finished last October after a VERY long process…if any of you are ever interested in adopting, whew, you can ask questions and vent frustrations to me, there are a LOT of hoops to jump through! Then this spring Denver completed his requirements for a Step-parent adoption, so now both of us have complete full rights as parents. (Actually, it’s really weird, because the way adoption works, you get a completely new birth certificate, with your names inserted as the actual birth parent. So her birth certificate now lists me as the mother at age 15, and Denver as the father at age 16!).

The vacation to Cancun was planned as a celebration of the finalization of all the adoption stuff, sort of a reward to Em for getting through it all. Denver’s sister and brother-in-law came with us, and we all had a great time together—and we just really needed to get away from “life” and work, at least I did!

Last summer we purchased a sort of mini Amish farm, 3.6 acres, between Kidron and Orrville where we live now. The house was Swartzentruber Amish (the most conservative level), so completley bare, no wiring or plumbing (but a very nice 2-seater outhouse), very small and plain. Our plans are to use that house as a start and do some pretty heavy addition and remodeling, so we have a builder who is working on our plans and hopefully they will be finalized this week and we can apply for our loan and get things moving. It’s been a long drawn-out process. But there are some nice perks to the place we’ve been enjoying already, like a nice grapevine I’ve canned juice and jelly from, raspberry and black raspberry bushes that produced enough this year to also make jam from, and we started a garden that has given us lots of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers so far, and we planted a strawberry patch that will start producing next summer. So yeah, call me Farmer Tara, I really enjoy the feeling of being able to produce some of our own food for our family! Oh, and there’s a big barn and fenced-in pasture that will be horse-worthy once we move in, that’s a big plus!

So that covers some of the biggest things that some of you might have missed out on since it’s been so long. And I might have other things that I should save so there’s still something to talk about if we do get together in the next month (just to keep the carrot out there so you still have a reason to want to set a date that works for me!). So yeah, that’s life :o) Love ya’ll, even if I’ve been absent!