Adopting in Ashburn

Did you ever want something so badly you could taste it? This isn't chocolate cake or weight loss, a boyfriend or a promotion. It isn't technology, travel, or even hugs (which I love). It's nothing shy of the first step on the gravel path that leads to the road that takes me to my biggest dream. I'm as close as I can get to the real thing - all the right people say so. I've done 98% of everything I can do, and the other 2% has already been done once and is on tonight's to-do list to do again. But I can't taste it yet. Heck, I can barely talk about it yet. I'm going to work until I get it, and hope that my best is good enough. Also, I could use some patience for the waiting, which could be months still. If you're the praying kind, I could really use a little intercession right now. Love always, ~Heather

Since October, I've been paired up with a 6th grade girl through a city-wide community service program called SOHO - A Space of Her Own. We've been meeting up on Wednesdays to eat dinner, hang out, and work on art projects. Those projects form the design base of the room renovation I'll be doing for her (Trading Spaces-style) in just nine days. And I'm crazy nervous. I'm nervous because I still have a lot of things to get, I'm not sure it will all work out according to plan, and I desperately want to not have to make too many trips back to my house or out to the store for supplies. I'm sure the end result will be lovely. RJ assures me that she will be ecstatic. And I can't convince myself that this girl - so different from the sweet, angelic child I met 9 months ago - will like it. It's only been a school year, and yet I can see the changes. She's always tired now. More reserved than ever. Desperately trying to be cool. And I find myself losing p