WAKE UP!!!!

I know I'm just as bad as everyone else for not posting. I check the board at least once daily...no new posts and off I go to the OFF board. Sooo...lets wake this forum up??? Who's game??? Gala What's New for Everyone else??? I'll start okay!!

What's New for me... I'm enjoying the teasing and taunting of the O.F.F Secret Santa person that I have. My dh is going back to work this week full time at the YMCA. My job is going good...well for the most part. Stressful moments coming ahead as our facility is going from being in a "hotel pool" and my office of a "closet" to being in a REAL Aquatic facility of our own!! We are moving fwd since the termination of our parental rights to Corry. The timing was good and bad. With in a month time we had the TPR, anniversary of his placement with us and then I had to have a hysterectomy. What is positive out of this is we have decided to take our knowledge from adopting him. The negative and the positive. Learn from the mistakes from everyone involved. And process that into something positive. We've prayed and fasted over the last few months. We feel very strongly that there is a special spirit waiting for us somewhere. Were we don't know 100%. If it is truly in our Father in Heaven's plan for us we will adopt again. What we have learned first and foremost is even though there are millions and millions of 'older children' who need forever families - we will not adopt a child over the age of 2.5-3 yrs of age. We are doing research. Saving pennies in a penny jar (litteraly). And when the time is right the financial piece of this hole process...which is the only thing holding us back from moving forward...we don't have $20,000 laying around. We don't own our home we rent so refinancing a home isn't an option. And therefore we need to just go a $1 saved at a time. (you get the drift). This is what I do know....there is a little girl somewhere whether it is in Haiti, Ethiopia or Ghana (just a few of the countries we are researching). She may not have her physical body yet - but she will join our family if it is meant to be. I had a fight w/the stairs on Friday morning and the stairs one. I fractured my tail bone, bruised a few ribs and am very sore. And I also pulled muscles in my right arm on my way down the stairs. My neck has a bump/swollen part in it. At 305 lbs my recovery would have been a TON slower!! I'm feeling pretty darn good and can sit fairly good w/o the pillow I bought (I didn't get a donut I got a memory foam long bendable neck pillow). I may just take the pillow back because I've used it all of about 5 times and can sit more comfortable on my foot than the pillow. BUT..>I'm healing much bette rthan I would have ever done pre-op. SOO...that is what is new with us. What about you? Gala

Gala, I was thinking the same thing. We need to get the dust off this Forum and get moving. We tend to bring our greatest stresses and spiritual challenges to our Gospel Sisters, and forget to bring also our progress. You and I keep up with each other on another board, so have some contact there, but with our sisters on this forum, well we don't touch base nearly as often. I am interested in how fasting has worked since WLS surgery, I haven't tried it yet, as going without food at regular intervals has tended to really mess me up. Will this work better for me further out from surgery? And will I be able to fast withou****er, which was the way I always fasted in my prior life before WLS. I am down 69 pounds since surgery on July 18. Lots of sizes, and not measured inches, but that will be done at Dr.s on the 22 of Dec. I actually feel like the surgery has helped me from a spiritual point of view, as well as emotionally and physically. My Dear Husband will be having WLS soon, I am more anxious about how he will handle it than I was about myself. He is a very stubborn and resistant man (that's the new term my 'Shrink' uses 'resistant' to describe my husband). But we have agreed to see a therapist together starting very soon, my 'Shrink' picked the woman and says she is Tuff enough for us. This particular Shrink knows my husband from way back. Since surgery, I found the courage to tell my husband how I felt about the 'Spiritual abuse' he has inflicted on me over the last several years of his being totally inactive in the Church. Even at times ridiculing and making fun of me. I apparently found the right opportunity to approach the subject, as we have seen a great improvement in our home having cleared the air so to speak. I also told him, I was not going to sit down and do nothing for the rest of my life, had I wanted to do that, I would have just stayed fat and used that as an excuse to do less and less. The current lifestyle was not what we planned when we were younger and so much in love and looking forward to a future together. I will be going to Europe for the month of April, as my dear eldest daughter has already purchased my ticket, and will be taking me to all the places I want to see, particularly to England. I read the old English Parish Registers for many years during the days of the old Genealogical Society, and have lived in Germany when a young wife, but never got to go to England. Husband being an old retired soldier has no desire to even get on an airplane any more. In fact he is phobic about flying. This is a man that used to fly to DC and back sometimes twice a week. I still have the same calling in my Branch that I have had for the past few years, I teach the Fourth Sunday RS lessons, but I have a feeling after Dec. that might change. Not sure, just that feeling you get when you are going to be making a new adjustment to a new calling. Blessing to you Gala and all of my Sisters on this Forum, Linda W.

Gala, guilty, guilty, guilty. I've been in a kind of a slump recently when it comes to the boards. I'm guilty of not even checking it every day which is pretty obvious since I haven't responded to your post before today. I was checking the posts everyday but stopped when there was no activity for such a long time. What's new with me. Life continues and nothing seems worth talking about. I found myself falling back into the habit of being a chocoholic. I saw a 5 pound weight gain on the scales. That was the limit I gave myself to gain before I really got back into the program and watched what I was eating. I still had my beloved chocolate but I increased my protein and found that in two days I was back at my weight of 120 lbs. It seems like my body wants to stay at 120 lbs and not go any lower than that. Some would say that 120 lbs was pretty darn good and I should be content. I have such a tremendous amount of loose flabby skin that my young children remind me everyday when I shower or get dressed that I am "Fat". So I guess that I have that mind set to deal with. On to better news. I belong to the Deseret Book Time out for Women reading club. I've read a couple books recently that have made a lasting impression on me. One of them is "The Healers Art". What I got out of this book was that some people are healed and some people are cured. Being healed is more of a spiritual process and being cured is more of a physical occurance. I have a firm testimony that with my MS I have been "healed" because I know my Savior and I have a testimony of the gospel but I will probably never be "cured" in this life time. The other book I really enjoyed was "The Nativity". It talks about the birth of the Savior and the cir****tances surrounding his birth. It talks about the misconceptions we have come to believe such as Christ being born in a stable. No - he was probably born in a cave. Also I learned the identity of the angel Gabriel. Gabriel was the one who told Mary of her pregnancy. We know Gabriel as Noah - as in Noah from Noah'a ark. Noah is a choice spirit. He is second in line to Michael (or Adam). I didn't know that and was pleased to learn that. Merry Christmas all. I'll try to be better about posting on this forum. Love to all, Melody