when i grow up

Jason asked a great question. He peaked my interest in part because a friend of the family is expected to pass away in the next few days. She is 27, dying of cancer, and leaving behind two small children. I am profoundly sad for her - the thought of leaving your babies! - and for her children - the thought of losing your mom! - and priorities have been a topic of conversation for Brian and I as a result. (Priorities, and the HPV vaccine. I approach all vaccines cautiously, so I understand the hesitation in exposing a child to another new vaccination. Even so, death is too high a price to pay for the decisions you make when you're sixteen. But I digress.) So what do I want to do when I grow up? Well -

Raise my babies.
Adopt.
Drink coffee and sit on back porches with Brian forevermore amen.
See my children grow up to love God back.
Live closer to the mountains.
Hike the Appalachian trail (pieces in weeks will do).
Adopt.
Finish a master's program (and if I had nine lives, one of them would be spent as a professor. I love higher learning deep in my soul, but am not willing to devote the time necessary to achieve that goal at this point in my life).
(Continue to) work helping children.
Go on a silent retreat.
Share with my children the things I love (like being outside and the goodness of God).
Adopt.
Spend a little time in the Pacific Northwest.
Live in a house with a really good back porch (the better to sit on, my dear) and really good view. Also, with a finished basement, so that Brian's music equipment has its own place in the world.

What are yours?