Welcome to my blog

I've decided to start blogging again. In the past, I've used LiveJournal and Xanga, and always enjoyed having doing so. But somewhere along the line life got busy, and I graduated college, got married, moved, started a new job (and then another) and just fell off the map.
As this now seems to be the "blog of choice" I will start afresh.  Also, it didn't seem to make much sense to continue something that had such massive gaps of time missing.
I'm not sure yet which direction this blog will take, whether it will be more "newsy" with information about what's going on in my (and James') life, more personal observations and ponderings, funny stories I wish to share, or a combination of all the above. We'll have to just wait and see.
Whatever the case, I welcome you all to share in the journey of life with me, and to comment whenever you wish to.  I do know that my life will contain a few very big changes in the upcoming months and years, and that this blog might be a good place to connect them all.
I cannot promise how often I will update, or that any of these entries will be worth reading to anyone  other than me.  If you find anything I post boring, offensive, or disagreeable, then either say something or stop reading. I know that I hold some pretty strong opinions, but I do not consider myself a closed-minded person; and while I certainly am a peace-maker and very non-confrontational, I think debate is healthy.

Just PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't take something I say on here so serious that it would cause you to judge me in any certain way, because I have the tendency to rant while blogging. Along with the tendency to blog while either up really late or in a particular emotional high/low. So I may say something I don't mean or exaggerate what I'm feeling at the moment.

I will warn you up front of the following:
-I'm a pretty liberal person, and have little tolerance for closed-minded people of any variety
-I have little compassion for people who don't care about others
-My life revolves around welcoming new people into this country on a weekly basis, so if you have a problem with that, move on.
-I want to adopt all my children and have no desire whatsoever to ever have children of my own. But I think pregnancy is a miracle and have compassion for anyone who longs for that themselves. I can't speak for the future but as of now I do not ever plan to have my own children. For a number of good reasons and personal convictions.
-I am a Christian but rarely go to church. Not because I don't like church, but just because I'm lazy and and have a hard time getting out of bed on Sunday mornings.  I do disagree with many things happening in many (not all) Christian churches today, but think that church is important.
-I absolutely adore my cat Griffin and though I've never been much of a cat person, I am obsessed with him. So you'll probably see way too many pictures of him and stories about him. Just deal with it.
-I'm also obsessed with dogs and watch dog shows on tv with great joy. I love Animal Planet and I'm not afraid to admit that I am a HUGE nerd.
-I think the number one duty of a Christian is to love your neighbor.  This means caring for the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, and the stranger.  I align myself with political figures whom I think are most focused on these issues (typically Democrats in a two-party system). This does not mean that I support abortion.
-I do support gay marriage and I will never change my mind on that. I think that political freedoms need to remain separate from religious beliefs.
-My number one goal in life is to love others. I don't care if I die without a dollar in my pocket, as long as I gave of myself.  Mother Theresa is one of my biggest heroes.

All that being said,

thanks for reading!