discouragement with unemployment

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 

Romans 12:12-13

I know this is a crazy thought, but I did not think it would be this difficult after dropping out of college. I did not think I would be sitting around applying to as many jobs as I can and doing absolutely nothing for a whole month. Many would think this is like a vacation. I get to sleep in, and do whatever I want during the day. I have no job and no schoolwork. I am not worried about my next assignment or exam. 

This is no vacation. I do not like sitting around. I liked knowing that when I wake up in the morning I have some kind of purpose and a place to be just like everyone else. However, I do not. My only purpose is looking for a job that would be a great fit for me. I have applied to many. I have talked with two people. The first person told me I would know by the end of the week whether or not I got the job. It has been almost two weeks since she said that, and I was left on read. The second lady I talked with asked me many questions,and told me she/her spouse would be home most of the time. I usually babysit when the parent are not around. It is hard to picture forming a bond with a child clinging on to their parent while the parent is working. 

It is hard to not get frustrated with God. It is hard to stay patient. It is hard to not think about all the "what ifs." "What if I am still unemployed for another month?" "What if I am still unemployed by 2019?" These kind of thoughts haunt me. I lay awake late at night freaking out. I wonder if there was something I did horribly wrong during the first interview. I constantly am repeating the conversations I had with the people I have talked to about getting a job. 

Enough complaining, this is just real life. This is not easy. This is stressful. People forget to check on me, because being out of school sounds like a dream. It gets lonely, and at times, I relate with no one. I am here to say that I am not giving up. I refuse to believe that I made the wrong choice when I left college. God has a purpose for me, and whether I like it or not, it requires me to wait. There is a reason it is taking time. There is a reason I am put in certain situations. No matter how alone I feel on Earth... I am never alone. 

I encourage you to reach out to a friend this week. Check on them. We are all going through something even if it does not appear that way. Even if their life appears to be fantastic, it never hurts to check on them. Pray for each other. Everyone deserves to be prayed for... even your enemies. 

Let's talk! I love hearing your own stories and opinions! If you have any questions / comments / concerns that you would rather not comment down below, direct message me or email me!

Instagram : Newkindofliving

Email : Newkindofliving@gmail.com  

PEACE OUT UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!

adoption - sister's view (pt. 2)

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all are destitute.

Proverbs 31:8

I do have updates about my life as a college dropout. However, I am still waiting on a few more things before I spill all the beans to you all. Also, I want to thank everyone who is reading and keeping up with my blog. I appreciate every single one of you. This is truly something I love doing, and I am so happy people are actually taking the time to read it. 

Anyways, it is time for part 2. As I mentioned in the last blog. I was a very stubborn kid, and I wanted more siblings. Those five years with my new sisters were great, but I was not 100% satisfied. So naturally being the annoying and persistent kid I was, I begged my parents to adopt once more. 

Finally one day, my parents decided to go through with another Ukraine adoption. We were going to adopt my brother, Dennis. He was eleven at the time. It was not a little baby/toddler again, but I was still happy. At the time of this adoption, I was thirteen. One thing to note is, adoption is not easy. It costs a lot of money, and can be extremely stressful. Not to mention, my parents had to go over there while Ukraine was becoming a war zone and protests were happening all around them. Now, that's comforting. 

Of course, I still was persistent on getting a toddler. I knew I was crazy, but I was having vivid visions and dreams. I told my mom about it, and explained I would do whatever it took to help bring another child home. I had this conversation while my dad was over in Ukraine finalizing Dennis's adoption. (A total of three trips were taken for his adoption. My mom and dad went the first time together. My dad went the other two times alone.)

Yeah, you are thinking, "Goodness, Grace! Give your parents a break lol." Turns out during the first trip there, our social worker showed them a picture of a little girl (two at the time). She asked if they would like to adopt her. Obviously, they said yes. They began a third adoption while finishing the second. So, if you have met my family and thought we were crazy, you were right. When I found out, I was freaking out. Four kids/three adoptions later, I was finally getting a little sibling. 

Remember my promise I made to my mom? Yeah, I lived up to it pretty well I would say. I renamed her, Lily Faith. (Her Ukrainian name was too similar to Kristen's, my older sister.) Lily Faith was three at the time she was brought home, and is now seven. To this day, I share a room with her and have gotten her ready for bed the past four years. My parents are the craziest and bravest people I know. I am who I am today because of the crazy journey of adoption we went through.

Side stories: My dad was at a store before they went to Ukraine for Dennis's adoption. At that time, my dad had feelings about adopting another child before he knew about Lily Faith. He told a man about Dennis's adoption. He never spoke a word about a second. The man asked if he could pray for my dad. A quote from the random man's prayer was, "... and maybe they can bring home a second." I don't know about you guys, but if someone told me they were adopting a child, my thought would not be, "Eh. One is not enough." My whole family believes God was speaking through that man. 

The last story is short and sweet, but the biggest miracle I have ever heard. As mentioned before, the time my parents went over to Ukraine, parts of the country were volatile. My parents were leaving in a plane to go to a different part of Ukraine with Lily Faith. Three days later, the airport they left from... was bombed and destroyed. 

Many adoptions were denied because of all this. We were approved for not one but two. God did crazy stuff throughout that journey. It would take many blogs to share all the miracles. My family is now the size it is supposed to be. It comes with challenges, but for the most part, we are one happy family. 

Let's talk! I love hearing your own stories and opinions! If you have any questions / comments / concerns that you would rather not comment down below, direct message me or email me!

Instagram : Newkindofliving

Email : Newkindofliving@gmail.com  

PEACE OUT UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!

adoption - sister's view (pt. 1)

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

Currently, I have no updates. I am still looking, applying, and praying for the perfect job. Since I want to post weekly, I decided it would be a good time to discuss what is most important in my life... FAMILY! 

As I mentioned before, I have a huge family. There is always someone to laugh with, cry with, argue with, and talk with. It is definitely crazy at times. It has its stressful moments. It has always been rewarding though. Here is one thing to note... we were not always a big family. Up until I was eight, we were only a family of five. It was just my parents, my older sister (Kristen), my older brother (Adam), and me. So what changed all of a sudden? How did we go from an average sized family to a family of nine?

Well, let me tell you. All my life I begged my parents for more siblings (preferably a baby LOL). I always told them we should adopt. Crazy enough, the day came where my parents decided we would. We were researching tons of places. We thought we were going to adopt from Africa. By this point, I had just turned nine. One day our agency called us, they had two girls from Ukraine on there way to America. They needed a home for three weeks. How could my parents say no? 

The girls arrived. Anastasia was ten. Dariya was nine. I was so excited, because to me, it was going to be like a prolonged sleepover. Those girls fit right in. We lived it up those three weeks. The dreaded day came when it was time for them to go back home to Ukraine. I had never cried so hard in my life. It was very late at night when we dropped the girls off with the agency. My mom stayed up with me till about four or five in the morning. I sobbed till I fell into unrestful sleep. I thought I would never see those girls who I had grown so close with. 

Ha, yeah right! A couple weeks go by, my mom sits me down to talk. Either we adopt the girls or we continue with Africa. This was about my best friends. So obviously, we continued the adoption with the girls, and the Africa adoption fell through. A couple months later, my whole family travels to Ukraine during Christmas, and the girls legally become part of our family. 

So now, I have two more sisters. Well, that only makes us a family of six. For five years, we were a family of six. I still wanted more siblings, but I always thought it would stop there. I never really lost hope... No matter how many times my parents told me no. (I have always been stubborn LOL.) 

Well, the time came when God finally decided that my parents were not going to listen to me, and He shared with my parents that our family was still a little to small. Stay tuned to find out major plot twists, and how my parents ended up with not just one more but two more. The story only gets crazier... 

Let's talk! I love hearing your own stories and opinions! If you have any questions / comments / concerns that you would rather not comment down below, direct message me or email me!

Instagram : Newkindofliving

Email : Newkindofliving@gmail.com  

PEACE OUT UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!

why did i drop out in the first place

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

Jeremiah 29:11

Let me introduce myself a little. I am Grace. I love working with little kids. I have been in a relationship since I was 14. My boyfriend and I bought a dog together when I was 16, and it is my most prized possession lol. I have a huge family. There is a total of nine of us. I will break it down quickly. (I will probably make a blog post later specifically on the adoptions of each of my four siblings.)

1. My Dad
2. My Mom 
3. Kristen (sister, age 26)
4. Adam (brother, age 25)
5. Anastasia (sister, adopted, age 19)
6. Dariya (sister, adopted, age 18)
7. Me (age 18)
8. Dennis (brother, adopted, age 16)
9. Lily Faith (sister, adopted, age 7)

I have always been a good kid. I never got into a lot of trouble at home or at school. I got good grades. I had a total of 24 college credit hours by the time I graduated high school. I longed to be a preschool teacher. It was a strong passion of mine. I did two different internships at two different schools (elementary and preschool) during my time in high school. I had interned for a little over 90 hours. I loved interning at schools, but leading up to graduation, teaching just did not feel right anymore. I decided I would become a certified sonographer. 

All my life college always seemed to be a definite thing for me. I enrolled in my classes for the fall and bought my books. Still, I did not feel right. I prayed a lot. Leading up to my first week, I felt like God was really trying to guide me down a completely different path. I had told my family I did not want to go, and they just told me, "No one really wants to start." They assured me I was doing the right thing. As much as I wanted to believe I was doing the right thing, I just did not feel right. I could not picture myself a month into college. I could not picture myself becoming a sonographer. School started, and I went to class for a week. 

Kristen, my oldest sister, pulled me aside that Saturday afternoon to talk, and I told her I hated college. I told her I did not feel like I was doing what God wanted for me. She took me so seriously and understood why I felt that way. It was a shock to me, because I was literally in college for only a week. I was surprised that she did not tell me to wait it out. Later that Saturday evening, I talked to my boyfriend, and eventually, he also came to understand where I was coming from. Next, it was my parents. All my life I did everything I could to make them proud, and now, I had to tell them I wanted to drop out. I prayed. If God really wanted me to do this, my parents would support me and be totally cool with it. Late Sunday afternoon, I told them, and they supported me 110%. They even were listing off ideas of things I could do instead of going to college. By Tuesday, I was officially a dropout. 

Fast forward two weeks, I am now living happily. I am currently looking at being a full-time nanny or working at a daycare. I am waiting patiently for a job I know I will love and enjoy fully. God didn't bring me to this point to abandon me. This is only the beginning. For all my readers, please follow my journey. I will post updates, encouraging thoughts, and so much more. By the end of this year, I will be able to answer the question... Was it worth it? 

Let's talk! I love hearing your own stories and opinions! If you have any questions / comments / concerns that you would rather not comment down below, direct message me or email me!

Instagram : Newkindofliving

Email : Newkindofliving@gmail.com  

PEACE OUT UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!