Things to look forward to...

• Letters from sponsor kids are coming in more and more quickly. I just got one today that was dated 10/28, which is pretty amazing. 
• It's shoebox collection week for Operation Christmas Child. and Thursday when we get paid I'll be making my donation for the shipping and getting my tracking codes. I can't wait to learn where our boxes are headed. We were able to put together four of them this year! 
• Brandon should get another bonus after the holidays, and I think we will be paying off another student loan with it. That will make four loans paid since he got his promotion last year. 
• I know I'm on the list for a few more correspondents, since some of our kids will be graduating over the next few months. 
• We are going to the movies Friday. I love superhero movies. And while it will be weird to hear an American accent coming out of Sherlock's mouth (we're seeing Dr Strange) I am looking forward to seeing it. All my friends have said it's great! 
• The weather is FINALLY cooling off where I live. We still have springtime temperatures late in the afternoon, but it's getting chilly enough that we broke out the space heater and will be adding extra blankets to the bed soon. 
• Soon it will be Thanksgiving, which means Christmas is just around the corner. I don't like decorating until after Thanksgiving, and sometimes early decorators annoy me because I feel like we are putting the feeling of Christmas miles ahead of the actual meaning of Christmas. But yesterday I was a little bummed out and I found that lighting a peppermint candle and listening to just two Christmas songs on Pandora made me feel a little better. 
• Tonight's my last night working my second job for a while, and while I love the kids and my coworkers, I haven't been able to spend much time with my friends recently because of work. So I'm looking forward to freeing up a bit of my schedule. 
• Speaking of schedules, mine is a bit up in the air right now because a full time position will be opening up at my branch in a few weeks. I will be applying for it. I'm nervous about whether or not I will get it- I've been doing this job for almost twelve years now, and it would be nice to be able to get more done and have more income (and feel like a productive member of my own house.) But the fact that I have a decent shot at it is exciting, and we are also looking forward to some stress relief at work when this job opens up. 
• And speaking of work, I'm hosting the Christmas gathering for my work friends this year. I had a lot of fun last year, and I love having parties and feeding people and all that. I was able to set the date this week, so I can get started on planning. I love that kind of stuff!! 
• And speaking of planning, Brandon and I attended our first adoption class last week. We filled out some preliminary paperwork and are now in the state computers as potential adoptive parents from the foster care system. Those credentials are valid for one year. The next step is to schedule our parenting classes, which include 15 hours of learning and training. We did not go ahead and sign up for the next classes at the beginning of 2017, because of my schedule being up in the air and not knowing about my work status. But once we find out about that (especially if I get the job) we can see which schedule works best for Brandon (whether we need to do the Saturday classes and take some days off work, or the weeknight classes and arrange to leave work early) and get signed up. From the time we start those classes, the social worker who presented our informational/initial meeting said that the current timeline is about 4-6 months before a referral. We may add to that time based on the fact that we are looking at adoption and not fostering (and therefore will be requesting a child or children who are legally free for adoption or are in the process of becoming legally free), but at the same time we may not wait quite as long because we are not requesting an infant and are open to special needs adoptions and sibling groups. This is the biggest thing I've had to look forward to in quite a while, and I'd appreciate your prayers for us during this time. I'm anxious to get things going and Brandon is looking at financials and other practical, level-headed things. But we are moving forward, and I'm ecstatic. I hadn't planned on telling people what we were up to until we were at least beginning our parenting classes, but many of us are in need of good news and happy things today. Talking about this makes me feel happier. And maybe you will get excited about it and then that will make me excited, too!