My family belongs to a fabulous, but large, church in our community. We joined when there were about 400 people, over 13 years ago. We missed it desperately when we were in Illinois, and we are so glad to be back here. Now there are over 15,000 in worship at one of the five services each weekend.


It just so happens that two of the senior pastors are neighbors … not bad considering there are only 14 lots in our neighborhood! Actually the senior senior pastor was the one who conceived of and developed our large lot subdivision. He’s quite a talented guy.


The other neighbor, Pastor Clayton, was kind enough to stop by our home tonight at my request, and Stephanie, Beth, Clayton and I prayed for our upcoming journey this weekend. We also prayed for my daughter-in-law’s dad who began treatment for cancer today.


We prayed that God would give us the gift of discernment to know what to say, what to do, what to look for and how to best meet the needs of this child and the family. We prayed for a safe trip, both for Stephanie’s drive back to school tomorrow (she’s feeling MUCH better) and for our flights on Friday. We prayed that God would continue to do what He has done all along … continue to open doors, or place barriers in the way so we would know what His will regarding this child would be.


We prayed for Beth, that she would be able to flex and bend around the inevitable family changes.


And we prayed for health, recovery and support for Marie’s dad … a really awesome guy who is a mere 3 months older than me.


I am emotionally spent tonight. I think it is relief that Stephanie doesn’t have Mono, relief that we are finally on the eve of moving forward in our assessment of this child, relief that Beth appears to be settling into school quite well, and perhaps even some “let down” that comes with allowing myself to not do ATN work 25 hours a day, but instead to sew and relax and take a bit of a break. I have a tradition of making my kids’ names in fabric letters and hanging them on the wall. Beth’s last set was purple and didn’t match her new room at all. We’ve been in this house for nearly a year. I decided I would make that a priority. So her new set of denim letters is nearly done, and for the first time I used my embroidery machine to sew designs on the fabric … matching the western/horsey theme of her room. What do you think?


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