God Heals Hearts

(photo: Joy's adoption) You know how when you are supposed to be somewhere first thing in the morning, you wake up and hope your alarm was set for the right time? This morning was one of those mornings. We decided that we wanted to be a part of Joy's adoption, like we were Bobby & Cindy's. So we got up early (8am) so that we could leave (8:30am) and get down to the Skagit County Courthouse for the adoption (9am).

There was a serious accident here locally about 7am this morning, apparently it caused the lawyer to arrive late. There were quite a few adoptions to be done today, so when he finally did arrive we all went in. Funny, how long it takes to get the paperwork filed to actually adopt through foster care - and when you are in the courtroom, it takes only about 10 minutes for the lawyer to review the info, change the child's name and sign papers.

(photo: Joy & Julia) Julia seriously wanted to play with this dog that Joy had received today as an adoption gift. Joy did not want to let her play with it. They are so cute together! Joy told Julia something like, "Julia when you get adopted, you will get your own dog." It was interesting, to think that Joy believes that all kids are adopted. I guess, really, she's right - we all can be adopted into God's family!

Afterwards we went to McDonalds with the Souths for breakfast. We haven't eaten out in SO LONG that it was a big treat for all of us. The little ones got to play on the slides and us big kids got to sit and talk. I gave my socks to Jed so he could go in the play area and Rod gave his to Jaden. The others, had socks on. We didn't realize that they didn't have socks on and when we left home, McDonalds playland wasn't in the plans.

We came home, I chatted with my parents on the phone. Checked email. We found out that someone knows someone who's selling grass fed beef for $2.09/#. So we ordered half a beef to split with my parents. Thank goodness for tax returns! (ours was accepted today! whoohoo!) My parents used to do that when I was a kid, and we haven't done it in years. I know though, that it's going to be nice to have all that beef in the freezer.


(at courthouse this morning. Julia's sitting on an old fashioned safe.) Went in and worked on the Friday school catalog with the girls and Brit. That was fun. We always chat and try to have a good time while creating about 125 catalogs and stuff them. For some reason, the paper was seriously static-y and so all of the paper was sticking together. I blamed Brit :D but I don't really know why it was doing it. Afterwards I finally got the newsletter printed. Came home, finished the mailing part and got it mailed.

The boys had Christian over to play for a few hours this afternoon.

We are still trying to decide whether or not our teen group is committed enough to go on a Mexico Missions trip. Two teens today in person asked me about our trip. One of them just looked devestated when I told her that I didn't know if we would be able to go. That tugged on my heart! The second teen, I told her that she needs to help get people excited or it will not move forward. I think she knows that I'm serious.

There are so many issues with this though. Rod's not working - what if his new boss won't let him go? There aren't enough leaders for him NOT to go! Although, if it's to be, I know the Lord is bigger than the issues I see at hand.

I sent a bunch of info out to our teen leaders google group about the trip. I also send out info on ice skating. And info on rafting as well as Dare to Share. I'm really hoping that this year we can do an all day rafting trip over in Leavenworth with YD Adventures.

Tonight I had a spazz attack. I have almost all of the kid's baby keepsakes, each in their own labeled box on a shelf in Julia's room. I went in her room tonight to find something, only to find her box, half stepped on and everything strewn across the floor. Josiah has a bunk bed in her room, and he was supposed to clean up the room... well then I find her baby stuff all over. I got extremely upset. I dug through their mess and found all of the items that were supposed to be in the box except one baby shoe. I was pretty determined that they weren't going to bed til that shoe was found! Yah, I wasn't thinking clearly at that point.

Clearly, when I had yelled at Josiah I had really hurt his feelings. I seriously dislike hurting him, he has such a loving spirit. I prayed for the Lord to help us find the shoe, so that this would not be a bigger deal than it really was. Rod a few minutes later finds the shoe. Then I had a flashback of Tina asking me if I felt the earthquake at 5 this morning. Uh, oh. I bet the box fell off the shelf in the earthquake!

Josiah shortly thereafter came up to me for a hug. He was so sorry he had disappointed me. My Josiah. He gave me the biggest hug, you know how he hugs, and asked me to forgive him for his messy room and for losing Julia's things. I said yes, of course, I forgive you. But it is me that needs forgiveness! Then I told him about remembering about the earthquake, and that's how I bet that the keepsake box got onto the floor - I had wrongly accused him - and I had to ask HIM to forgive ME. And he did. Love you Jos! With all of my heart!

When we first had kids, I knew I had had issues with forgiveness. I didn't know how to forgive really or how to ask forgiveness. So when Josiah was young and old enough to talk, even though he didn't know what he was saying... We trained him to ask for forgiveness when he'd done something wrong. "Will you forgive me?" are powerful words. And then we trained him to answer that specific question with: "Yes, I forgive you." There are NO variances on the question or the answer.

As we had more kids - we've taught them, one by one (and we're still working on this!) how to ask for forgiveness and how to say that you forgive someone. When one hurts the other or does something that may need forgiving, they know that they are expected to ask for/give forgiveness. All the time though, we have to say, Josiah, you need to ask Jedediah for forgiveness or the other way around. Somehow, through those simple phrases, God heals hearts.

Just a short time after the baby shoe incident, Josiah and I were standing in the laundry room. I told him that I was very sorry, and I acted badly. Thank you for your forgiveness. I also told him, "You are worth more to me, than any old shoe!" Which is true. I may not have acted like it. That little box was very special to me, represented when Julia was born and took me quite a bit of effort to put together. That was probably the "why" of why I acted so poorly.

I am so thankful for my family, for forgiveness. Everyday I realize a little more of my children causing me to grow up even more. I love them all with my whole heart. And I'm so thankful that Rod and I chose to have kids. They really do mean the world to me!