You can imagine how this stopped me in my tracks. I looked around, searching for another grown up whose eye I could catch. But only my kids were there. When I peaked at Zechariah, he burst out laughing and so I joined him, pain growing on my side, pee-in my pants, laughing. What did Seth want? Sparkling grape juice. HAH!
Then on Saturday, in one of my more brilliant moves, I decided I could move a full length couch from one finished room of the basement to the other finished room. Alone. Except for when it got stuck 4 feet off the ground on the "turn" and remained lodged in the doorway until Joel arrived.
Or that time that I attempted to put up our Christmas tree and nearly chucked it through my front window for all the frustration {and cursing}. Joel rescued that mess too.
But in the midst of all of this, there were sweet moments. At church, the kids were in adult church because it was a 5th Sunday. The sermon was entitled, "Hold On" and was based on the scripture in Isaiah 2 that speaks to the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace who is coming. In part of the message, Derrick addressed the recent murders in Chicago and the fact that a young man mentored by GRIP was shot in the neck and paralyzed. Seth heard this and had a million questions. In the van on the way home, I explained:
A boy was shot in the neck with a gun while sitting outside his home. He was not killed but he can no longer use his arms or his legs. He is paralyzed. There are some parts of Chicago that are very violent and lots of shootings are happening. This year alone -- in 2015 -- there have been over 500 murders from guns in Chicago. It is so, so sad.
Seth didn't take but a moment to respond: It's a good thing God doesn't leave us alone, Momma.
Ah, precious son of my heart. I love him.
Later that night, after Joel rescued us from all of the Steiner Mayhem of the weekend, Leah came running to me, taking a break from playing Wii, to tell me that last week, she spent a lot of time telling Oliver (the current bestie) about Jesus. She said she told him God is good and He loves him. She said Satan is bad. Satan sometimes whispers things in your ears and you have to ignore him and tell him to go away. We need to listen to God all the time. Then she asked him if he believes in God and Oliver changed his mind (apparently first having said he did not) and said YES. Leah was so excited to tell me all about this and repeated it again at bedtime with the boys. Such a sweetheart of a daughter who wants to do right and loves Jesus with her whole heart. I adore her.
One of the best parts about Leah's story was listening to her tell me in a fluid, coherent manner. Often that's an issue for her little cloudy brain, but on this day, at this time, she rocked it.
I'm thankful for our messy, loving, crazy existence. My kids rock.
