Bradley and Jessica.

This is my very very best friend together with Bradley Wilson.

I love them both so much, and am thankful they found eachother.

This is Adalynn Nicole Rispler(I think I spelled her name correctly). She is 6 weeks old and this was her very first time with a baby sitter. This is also one of the very first times I have seen her smile, for she is coming out of a very dark time in her life, full of sorrow, wailing, kicking and screaming. I was able to capture her at a very rare and beautiful moment, when she was actually very happy to be alive. Someday she will be smiling more often, and realize how blessed she is to be so loved by such wonderful parents. I think I love her too.

Today is the 26th day of October. I have been away from my home-town for 1 year and 7 months. I am amazed and perplexed at my adventure across the great continant we call the United States of America.

I remember flight here. I met a couple on the plane who were on their way to Hawaii. They were the types of people who would wear over sized hawaian shirts and dye their hair in un-natural shades of blondish color. Their goal was to have fun. After chatting with them a bit, I came to realize that their entire life goal was to have fun. They couldn't understand why I would just hop on a plane to go away from everyone I knew to serve in a Ministry.

I couldn't understand how someone couldn't feel so very empty inside with that being their life goal in mind.

Anyway, all that being said, I am here in another place that is so far from home, yet so at home. I am so far from the mark of my original purpose here. But my

Mush

Today is Tuesday, October 16th, 2007. Rain, slush mushy bog. That is my world right now, except for the moments that I am spending in the library.

Messy Kitchen

I don't want to clean the kitchen.

A friend of ours gave us some unnatural sized zucchini, which prompted us to create a sauteed zucchini and tomato pasta dish (with dill) and several large batches of zucchini bread. We were living in heaven.

But now the kitchen is messy. I don't really want to clean it. Oddly, its not because laziness or anything of that sort.

I look around me at opened cook books and flour sprawn out all over the counter. I see my beautiful wooden cutting board laying there on with just a few remenants of crumbs of our bread and I just think about what a beautiful picture this is of a homey kitchen that is well used and loved to make people happy and welcomed.

So, that's why I don't want to clean the kitchen. That plus, I am tired.

Married life

Every day I get a phone call in the middle of the day. "Jo Anna, did you make me black beans?" My head hangs a little low to the ground. "No, not today dear."

Isaiah thinks about black beans all day long. I believe he dreams about them in his sleep. As a new wife, it's difficult to keep up with all the demands that a man needs. I am learning every day that my life now consists of another's goals and dreams, and I cannot just think about my own needs.

So, instead of going to Jessica's house to re-edit lots of photographs that I will eventually put in a website, so that I can advocate my photography and make lots and lots of money for us and our starving family of 11 adopted children in 10 years, I am going to go home and make black beans for Isaiah.

We will have a delightful evening together, eating black beans and swinging on the swing. I can't wait:)

Howdy. Just seeing how this thing works, and trying to make sense of it all. Maybe I will be able to write something profound. But i'll wait.