Patience.

Patience. There is something about that word that can elicit both excitement & dread. Ask for patience they say, it will be given they say. Ha. It will be given in the form of an opportunity to practice.

Oh my goodness, I feel like all I do all day is practice patience. There must have been some line I missed when signing up to be a teacher that I would would one day become an expert in patience with all of the practice that I am given. Sad to say, I am still in the beginning stages. Patience comes with the job, but also a whole lot of grace & prayer.

Patience is asking a student to stop talking, for the 10th time in 20 minutes.

Patience is putting a smile on and greeting the student who walks in your room early instead of going to morning care.

Patience is asking a student to not climb on the chairs, again. 

Patience is talking about what school appropriate means, for the 3rd time in a day. 

Patience is getting sneezed on. 

Patience is being asked the same question, over and over again. 

Patience is a pup who is sick with a UTI so you are mopping the floors, again.

Patience is waiting on an important reply.

Patience is sitting in traffic because you left work a few minutes later than usual.

Patience is being far away from your best friend.

Patience is.....you fill in the blank. It may just be one of those days that everything is trying your patience; from not being able to get the alarm to turn off , to getting to bed too late, and everything in between. Those days come and they go. You think that you are doing so well, and you haven't lost your cool at all, and then, that one things happens, and it's gone. All gone. You lose every ounce of patience that you had & you seem to explode like a bottle of champagne being popped. Then, from that moment on nothing seems to go your way, or everything rubs you the wrong way. 

I would love to live in a world where patience is bottled, and you can just take a quick drink when you need some. It would be a magical drink & should come to you at no cost.  Wouldn't that be a lovely world? A world where no one lost their patience? A world where waiting was no big deal? sounds like a dream! 

My patience these days seems to be thin, as all of my patience is idly being used. Used without my even thinking about it, but all the while my mind is racing, hoping, praying, and waiting. 

Patience is waiting for your phone to ring. 

Patience is waiting to get the call that someone may be looking at you.

Patience is waiting for the call that you have potentially been matched. 

Patience is finding out that you have been matched.

Patience is waiting. 

And let me tell you, waiting, waiting might just be the worst test of patience that there is out there. We are officially waiting. Waiting to be picked, to be the ones, to be matched. We have all of our i's dotted and our t's crossed. Background checks done, home study done, books turned in, flyers turned in. If it was on the list, we have done it. Now, we wait.

Now we wait, patiently. Patiently waiting for our world to be rocked and turned upside down. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/baby-brinker

Small Things...Great Love

I promised a post about us fostering sweet pups, so here you go!

First, we have to travel back in time to adopting the boy (Ferris or Ferryman). When we adopted him, and his Mama Karen explained to us how far he had come, we knew that rescue pups were worth their weight in gold. There is also no dog more loving than one who has been rescued and showed what love is. I may ask her to share his story one day, because I will never be able to do that story its justice. I knew that one day, we would begin to foster for Houston Collie Rescue.

While Shelby was originally my sister's, but I went and stayed with her a whole lot, we adopted her right before we got married. She is a gem. This dog only knows what it means to love and be loved. A little snapshot of her personality. Shelby is a goober. She loves everyone, but especially Grandpa (Jared's Dad), Grandma (Jared's Grandma who lived with us for 10 months after Hurricane Harvey), and this girl loves her vet, Dr. McIntrye and all those sweet people who work with her. The most recent instance of this love of her vet knowing no bounds. We have come home & the puppies smelling like the vets office & Shelby would go pout when we got home. Well, sweet pea decided to pull the I will not eat and I'm gonna puke all night stunt (This was the beginning of Ferris being very ill & mama don't play games now). That got her a trip to the vet the next day. They found nothing wrong, and when we picked her up, her tail was wagging and she had a huge smile on her face (yes, a smile...go look up golden retrievers smiling). While she pulls stunts like this, she is also very well mannered. She waits for her invitation to come and cuddle next to you on the couch, and each night, sits by the bed, waiting to be invited to claim her spot next to me & the fan. She is the Queen, and we would not have it any other way. We don't think that she would either.

 Shelby's true personality, while Ferris looks on wondering what he has gotten himself into. 

Shelby tolerating the puppies. 

This would be Shelby's "Mom, another picture?" face. 

Ferris, his story is coming. It's worth the wait. :-) 

Our first foster came to us about a week before Hurricane Harvey. She was a sweet senior girl, Lady. She was HW+ and going through treatment, and had a mass on her side that needed to be removed. She had lived her life outside in LA chained to a fence. Her hair was dry and sun bleached. She was an angel! She had the best manners, and was a joy to have around. When she came to us, she was so intrigued that Shelby & Ferris would get on the couch. Sweet girl couldn't quite figure out the jumping thing to get up there for several months. She spent her days lounging around on the dog beds & getting loving. When we went to bed at night, she slept in the same spot all night long, at the foot of the bed on her dog bed. But y'all, this chick figured out how to jump on the couch, and she was pleased as a peach with herself. We came home to her laying on the couch with the biggest smile one evening.  She had officially "made it" with the others. From then on, she wanted to be on the couch with someone and they had to be petting her. We didn't mind either. She was with us until Veteran's Day. I cried letting this sweet girl go. She is living the best life with lots of puppy brothers, but she is the princess! We see her at the reunion picnic & the dog show too. She comes right up with a smile and kisses! She was our first, and most certainly would not be our last. I was hooked. I'm not sure that Jared took the bait, or that he enjoys it as much as I do, but, well....we all know how this goes....

Next up, our Foster Success, as Houston Collie Rescue calls it! Miss Bella, #1 Diva. Bella and her sister Nala were an owner relinquish to HCR. Their owners were older and could not handle the demands of 2 puppies. Bella came to us for 2 reasons from her first foster. One, she need to be separated from her sister, Bella was too dominant. Second, Bella is way too interested in cats and does not understand when a cats hisses or swings a paw at you, that you should probably walk away. Well, low and behold, that is her little (massive) personality. When she arrived, she was quite large & was put on the "Daddy Diet". She is nice and lean now! Bella is the first to go and greet anyone or anything new. She has no fear....until it thunders or the fireworks go off. She will let you know that she is there, and wants the attention. Ferris was her best friend and best playmate. When he passed, she suffered from severe separation anxiety. While the medication helped, she was just not the same dog. Bella does not just lay around. She is like the energizer bunny...wakes up & goes all day till bed time.  This is when Micky came into play. Bella also has a "boyfriend". Mama Karen's Luke is her sweetie pie. They play & play & talk when they get together. 

Here is Bella when she arrived with us. We celebrated her 1st Birthday 2 days after she came. 

After Bella, we took over a year off from fostering. We had many things going on and knew that we would not be able to provide a foster with the love and care that they needed.

Then, the time was right and we opened our home again to a sweet pup, who a friend rescued on her own, along with all of his litter mates. He had a horrible case of mange and was full of worms. He was a sweet little dude, named Albus. He is now with his perfect forever home!

Then, came the puppies. We got 4 puppies from HCR right after I finished school. We are talking, I finished, and the next day I went & picked them up. We had four babies, Charlie (now Stryder), Max (now Teddy), Henry (still Henry) and Oreo (now Willy). These sweet babies will forever have a place in my heart. When they arrived, they were too young to really even be away from their mom. Rescue can be heart-breaking. They needed check ups & shots. Initially, all checked out A-Ok! Charlie and Max never did get ill, and grew like weeds! Sweet Henry was diagnosed with a heart mummer. He was the runt of the litter and needed a little kick start gaining weight. He is now almost 24 pounds, and the last time he went for a check up, they could not hear his mummer! Sweet baby!

Well, our troubles were far from over. About a week after we had all the babies, sweet Oreo became very ill. While he was still eating, he was not gaining weight. Then within hours on Saturday, he began to be very sleepy, and before going to bed, we noticed he might have been walking funky. We woke up the next morning, he was walking like a 'drunk' puppy. I called Mama Karen and she came over. Within minutes, we were on our way to an emergency clinic. We had a horrible experience. The sweet boy was diagnosed with severe anemia and needed a blood transfusion. He was also diagnosed with hook worms, which explained why he was not gaining any weight. So, he was dewormed again. He was still exhibiting neurological symptoms, so off to Dr. McIntyre we went.  She is a thorough neurological exam on him, and recommended that he go to see a neurologist.  In the meantime, they were going to run a Distemper test (which takes days to come back). So off we were to Gulf Coast Vet Specialists with the little bug. They wanted to run further tests, so at only 8 weeks old, sweet boy had an MRI and Spinal Tap done. The next day, I received the call that baby boy had Meningitis, and only minutes later I got the phone call that his Distemper was positive. My heart absolutely broke.  His prognosis was grim, and no one was certain that he would make it or fully recover. So what does one do?  You love that baby with all you got. He got all the cuddles, attention, and love that we could give.

His siblings were adopted, and he needed to continue to get better. Well, 2 months later, our boy is home with his furever family, who also adopted sweet Henry. He is thriving and doing well. He is truly a miracle baby!

We had a few days off, and I picked up our next foster. Sadie Mae is 9 years young. She has a lot of weight to lose and some minor medical issues to take care of before she can be adopted.

We will continue to foster till we receive a baby. It is something that brings joy & allows us to provide a sweet baby with the love and care they need to go on to live a happily ever after. 

One Day More....

All that I can hear playing right now is One Day More from Les Mis. If you have no clue what I am talking about (I will not judge nor gasp in disbelief....in front of you), go and check out this family casually singing the song that is on repeat in my brain. They are pretty good. 

https://www.today.com/parents/family-utah-sings-les-miserables-song-it-s-incredible-t126507

Now that we are all on the same page, let me explain to you why I can turn the song off. 

On Monday, I received an email back from the Social Worker in Houston that we will be working with for our home study and home checks and everything else that a social worker does within an adoption. She was ready to schedule our home study. We had 2 options. Option A: Wait until August. Y'all I'm a teacher, I hear the word August and my pulse begins to race and I break out in a minor sweat thinking about all of the craziness that comes with August. Also, August also brings the hubby usually traveling out of town for work. So I replied back, and said that August is a tad crazy at our house and hard for me to miss work so early in the year, then came our second option. I call this Option B for Brinkers be crazy. She was emailing me on Monday, offering to come do our Home Study on Friday morning. Yes, you did read that correct. A mere 4 days from scheduling to happening. 

Y'all, I said yes and took it. It was her last July date. I am thinking that it was meant to be.  I may be crazy being only 2 weeks post major surgery, still have a foster puppy in my house, and oh 3 other needy four-legged children who have appearances to make at the Dog Show this week for HCR.  

But here we are on Tuesday, rocking it! The hubby came home last night and finally updated our fire alarms, got the fire extinguisher, and baby proofing items. I may be waiting with a camera to watch him install these baby proofing items this evening. It has great potential to be comical. I have made a list, yes I am a teacher once again, what did you expect. I am taking on those pesky projects that I said I would do this summer in 4 days. In college, I worked well under pressure...let's see if that still holds up 

I went from regular school year, to teaching DECATS, to going to NOLA for my 30th Birthday, to home and major surgery. I haven't really had the time to tackle them, but no time like the present, right? Right. Hahaha...pass the Tylenol & let's get busy. 

The dogs and I are tackling a few rooms a day, and if all goes well, in between Micky wanting to play with the guinea pigs, Oreo having accidents in the house still, Bella thinking all the things are toys for her, and then Shelby who lays smack dab in the middle of the walkway, we will be ready with bells on Friday morning. 

In the meantime, if you need us, we'll be cleaning, organizing, scarf making, cleaning, dog show volunteering, organizing, and trying to resist Netflix over here. 

So if you could say some extra prayers for us on Friday morning, we would greatly appreciate it.  This gets us one major step closer to being on the waiting list. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/baby-brinker?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fb_dn_cpgnstaticsmall_r&fbclid=IwAR19syzxsPQudylnBzebTAElYQOEWwzn7_6cvhbCFVChqmZ9T_PffXmQWYs

Fort Worth or Bust!

I come to you tonight from the front seat of the truck as my sweet hubby drives us to Fort Worth. We are currently jamming....singing our respective parts to Marry Me by Bruno Mars...which has somehow made it's way onto my Showtunes Pandora station. Let is also be known that even if you think you are great at typing, try typing in the car going down HWY 6. It's not joke and should be some kind of sport. At least we aren't driving down the roads in Louisiana. 

I know that I have promised a post about fostering puppies, but that will have to wait until this batch of babies has gone to their final homes. If you wouldn't mind sending up some prayers for one, he is pretty sick. We left him with Mama Karen for the night. She aptly gets her name from being Ferris' foster mama, and we taught him, Shelby & Bella to get excited to go to Mama Karen's house for play-dates and sleepovers. She is Luke's mama....Bella's boyfriend. Hehehe. Although, the big puppies are with the Uncle Bryce tonight, enjoying a quiet house. 

So, where are we off to you ask? We are heading to Fort Worth to attend an adoption workshop that our agency is putting on. THEN, we have a meeting with Andrea to turn in our application. Man, just typing that makes it real, as if packing up & driving there is not real enough. Gotta shout it to the world too! We could not be more excited for this next step in the process. It feels like it has taken forever to get to this point. 

Last weekend, we took a day trip up to Plantersville to attend Mass with the priest who married us. He made one request, okay well 2, but the first one was that before we turned in our adoption paperwork and books about us, that he would be able to pray over them & bless them. Y'all. His prayer was beautiful. He gets it. The process is not just about us. There is a whole other family that is part of this. Not to mention all of the people who will be involved....lawyers, doctors, etc.. 

I snapped this quick picture, and I am so glad that I did. Sometimes a picture is worth more than a 1,000 words. 

The second part of this post if asking for help. Adoption is not only a long, and sometimes grueling process and we will need all the prayers that we can get. But y'all, its expensive. There is no way around that fact. A sweet friend of ours has set up a GoFundMe to help to off-set the expense of our adoption. If you feel called to donate, that is great. If you can't, please, please do not feel obligated to do so. We are welcoming all the prayers, excitement, and dreams joining with ours. So many of you have expressed being so excited for us to welcome a child into our family....from family members, co-workers, dear friends, our sweet vet and favorite vet tech, and so many more. The link is below if you would like to donate, but once again, there is no obligation.  Feel free to share. :-) 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/baby-brinker?member=2437982&utm_medium=email&utm_source=product&utm_campaign=p_email%2Binviteacceptedemailtoteammember

Hello June!

June has finally arrived & is such a welcome sight for weary eyes. I published our last post & dove head first into the craziness that is the last few weeks of school.  

There is nothing like end of the year teacher tired. We spent the weekend relaxing, which really means we were up working in my classroom getting ready for next year already. If you're a teacher, you get it. There is nothing like leaving a room that has finished one year & is ready to welcome a new group of students the next year. I've got a half day left to finish before summer really gets to start! 

We are starting our summer with a bang! I have taken a small job teaching, at DECATS, a program in Texas through private schools that caters to gifted and talented students, for a couple of weeks in June. This week, we will pick up our 2 newest fosters with Houston Collie Rescue...more to come on them! They are only 4 weeks old. 

AND, most importantly of all, we are turning in our application. It has been 6 months since we began, and last week we finalized Life Insurance...oh hey adulting! Jared also finished his autobiography....insert a huge gasp! I don't think I have bugged him about more in our marriage than this. Bless his heart, he is not a writer & was not at all thrilled about the task, but he finished! I was taken aback when he asked where the adoption binder was & I saw him putting his biography in. 

It has been a full time job putting everything together. I'll spend this week going through the list with a fine tooth comb making sure that we have dotted all our i's & crossed all of our t's. It seems surreal. Doesn't feel like this day would ever come that we would be done. A lot of sweat, a little blood (I'm a clumsy scrapbooker) & a whole lotta tears have gone into this application. 

Here is to be one big step closer! 

Growing up Brinker

I just want to start off by saying that if you have found your way here, thank you. I hope that you will join us in this journey & pray with us along the way. This journey that we are entering does not come with a firm deadline, or a one way ticket to easy street. It comes with loads of unknown, and with that we place our trust in God.






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We have chosen to only share our journey of infertility with our family and a few close friends. Therefore, that story will not be here, but if you are curious or looking for support in that area, we are open to talking with you! Here, you will find our journey to growing our family. Now, if you are my father-in-law, you hear "getting another dog" when we say growing our family. He loves our pack, but also loves to give me hell for it. I only bring up our sweet babies because you will hear about them here as they are just as much a part of our journey as we are. :-)






Ironically, our decision to close the chapter of fertility treatments came when we tragically lost our sweet Ferris.

















Ferris was my baby, as odd as it sounds, but I poured my heart & soul into this sweet rescue boy. He is the reason we will forever rescue and adopt with Houston Collie Rescue. (They have cute babies looking for furever homes....http://www.houstoncollierescue.org/index.html & be sure to check their Facebook page!)






Losing him was the reality that we needed to close the chapter we were in, and begin praying about what our next move would be. Life does not go on for forever & we can not be happy or content with how things are all the time. Sometimes its okay to begin to truly fight for what we want. While I know that he would have been the best puppy brother, he is running free of anxiety, catching all the squirrels & watching over us.



Several weeks after he passed, while laying in bed thinking about life and what would happen next for us, I randomly asked Jared what his thoughts were on adoption. He said that he had just been waiting for me to mention it. That was all we said about the topic, and we moved on. I was still mourning losing my sweet boy & dealing with Bella who no longer knew what to do without her brother. I was also mourning the chapter of life that we had just closed, trying to completely wrap my mind around the idea that any children we have, will more than likely never share our DNA, but instead be a child born in my heart.






My sweet Bella & I became attached at the side as I was walking down a path, trying to find my way & she was lost.






We had also been wrapped up in our jobs. I was falling in love with teaching again at my new school & loving every challenge that came my way; while also trying to make it the best year yet for my brave students. Jared, himself, was dealing with getting new management at his store & getting to know this new, wonderful family with whom he would be working with. To say the least, we were doing pretty good at filling the void in our lives & I was doing awesome at keeping myself busy!






Bella still struggled & our sweet vet gave us 2 options. We could either giver her anxiety meds every day (read as expensive) or we could rebuild her pack. So, when this dude came up on my news feed, I knew he was meant to be! I took a dear friend & the girls, off we went to meet Micky, already singing...Hey Micky, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey Micky....


It was love at first sight. Shelby said hello & was off to run & investigate the acres of land, but Bella stuck close to me & Micky glued to her. We knew that it was a match made in heaven within a few minutes.














Can you see the love birds swirling around??













Micky's adoption day!






Two weeks later, Micky was home. Bella fell in love & was happy to have a brother in her life. I did not know how much I needed this sweet boy in my life until he arrived.






While in the past coming home from work was a quick greeting from all & then outside time & winding down for the evening. This kid was different. Teaching in and of itself is stressful, but being at a school that is just beginning adds a whole other level to being stressed, think about that everything that happens within a school year, but it is all new. While I was loving my time, I was stressed, and quite frankly depressed from what had happened in August. Every evening, since day 1 with this boy, he has crawled into my lap & nuzzles me until he is comfy & I am stroking him. Well, strokes turned into tears and sobs (that I had only ever cried in the arms of my husband, and while holding my Ferris). It was a great emotional release that I did not know I needed. This continued for weeks; some nights there were rivers of tears, while other maybe one or two, but this boy never swayed in his devotion to me. He knew what I needed, and did his best to provide comfort. Dogs are good that way.






Adoption did not come up in our house again until over Thanksgiving Break. It was then we had out come to Jesus discussion about it, and decided that if this was the path that was meant for us, we needed to begin walking. We began our journey of discernment, appropriately, with the season of Advent. We entered into this time of anticipation and waiting with the prayer that if adoption was the correct way to go, we would do it.






During this season, we spent an evening with wonderful friends who have been through adoption themselves. They patiently and lovingly answered all of our questions, concerns and gave us so much more to think and pray about. I was so glad to have them as go to-s with all of my questions as I dove deeper into the world of adoption, which is not a bad place to be, but one that can be very overwhelming when you are not sure what you are doing.







Let me just say, adoption is scary and daunting. There is nothing short and simple about it. The first hard task, finding an agency that we felt was right for our family. This was no easy feat. There are so many agencies out there, and if you are just beginning to look…pick something that is important to you and narrow down your choices from there. What did we use to narrow down the ocean to a lake? Faith. It was that simple. We knew that finding a faith based, Christian adoption agency was important to us as a family. Next, after reading about domestic adoptions, we found the process to be “easier” if it took place in the same state that you lived. SO, I Googled “Christian Adoption Agencies in Texas.” Well, that took me from an ocean to a lake…a big lake. Turns out that is a pretty popular way for agencies to be founded, upon faith. So, into research mode I went. Every spare minute was spent reading every single thing that the agencies had posted on their websites to be read, finding reviews on them, and taking serious consideration into looking what we wanted from an agency.






We knew once we entered this journey that we not only wanted to be well taken care of as adoptive parents, but we also wanted the birth families, especially the mom, to be cared for, even after the adoption was finalized. Taking these things into mind, I was quickly able to cross off agencies as I went along, and within a few weeks, I had it narrowed down to a mere 5. Jared and I sat down, and we scoured those sites again & again. We both kept coming back to one agency up in the Fort Worth area again and again. I would mention something about them to him that I knew I wanted with an agency, and he would answer back with a list as well. We took the name of this agency to Mass with us the rest of Advent & prayed & prayed over the name.






It was the last Sunday of Advent and someone was jabbing my side after Communion. I was about to be quite annoyed until I remembered that I was not with my students, but Jared. He could not wait to tell me that this was it. We needed to go with this agency. He was going with them, and that was that. I quietly told him okay, and went back into prayer. On our way home, we discussed his decision, and I read through their testimonies one last time, and that was it. We were both sold.













This was the beginning of the next chapter. We had an agency to go with, and we have not looked back since. We set up a phone call with the owner, and spoke with her for over 3 hours. She kept saying many times how happy she was that Jared and I "spoke Jesus." And, boy, was I glad that she "spoke Jesus" too!



From there, we were sent everything that we would need to pull together, along with an application....



Here are just a FEW of the items...


* 28 page application


* 24 page family report


* individual autobiographies


* house floor plans


* financials


* Vet records for the pups


* birth & wedding certificates


* photo albums about us


......and the list goes on.



It has taken us from December, until now to work full time jobs, then come home and work another while we pulled all of the pieces together.



We have chosen to share our story with the "world" at this time because we have already mailed in fliers that will be at local pregnancy centers in the Fort Worth/SouthLake area. We officially have skin in the game.



We could not be more excited, or frankly more scared as we embark upon this journey.



Right now, we are asking for prayers. Prayers for our family, as well as the birth family & our future child, whoever they may be.



If you would like to join us in prayer, on the 5th of every month, we have been beginning the St. Joseph Novena. Below you will find the prayer, with a link to the daily devotions.



Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for reading this far (haha) and embarking upon this journey with us!



Lovingly,


Jared & Shannyn


Shelby, Bella & Micky :-)



















Novena to


St. Joseph



*NOVENA PRAYER






*(prayer to be said at the end of each day's devotion)










Saint Joseph, I, your unworthy child, greet you. You are the faithful protector and intercessor of all who love and venerate you. You know that I have special confidence in you and that, after Jesus and Mary, I place all my hope of salvation in you, for you are especially powerful with God and will never abandon your faithful servants. Therefore I humbly invoke you and commend myself, with all who are dear to me and all that belong to me, to your intercession. I beg of you, by your love for Jesus and Mary, not to abandon me during life and to assist me at the hour of my death.










Glorious Saint Joseph, spouse of the Immaculate Virgin, obtain for me a pure, humble, charitable mind, and perfect resignation to the divine Will. Be my guide, my father, and my model through life that I may merit to die as you did in the arms of Jesus and Mary.













Loving Saint Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, I raise my heart to you to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the Divine Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for my spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death, and the special grace I now implore:













(Mention your request).













Guardian of the Word Incarnate, I feel confident that your prayers in my behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God. Amen.





MEMORARERemember, most pure spouse of Mary, ever Virgin, my loving protector, Saint Joseph, that no one ever had recourse to your protection or asked for your aid without obtaining relief. Confiding, therefore, in your goodness, I come before you and humbly implore you. Despise not my petitions, foster-father of the Redeemer, but graciously receive them. Amen.















You can find the devotion for each day here: https://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/joseph.htm