Who are you tonight?

John has watched a good bit of Dr. Who with us and so when Mark came across this little weird looking flashlight he gave it to John and told him that it was his own sonic screwdriver. John was cracking us up this night reading with his sonic screwdriver. Other nights he has out the wand that Mark carved for him and is cursing the dog as Harry Potter and still other nights he is dashing through the house looking for stuff with his sword, he's Link. Gotta love that imagination.

Happy Birthday to My Beloved

In February Mark celebrated his 42 birthday, he gets more amazing each year.



I'm thinking this birthday apron is a little more manly than him wearing mine and I just love it when we cook together. I love you sweetheart, it's been wonderful sharing your birthday with you and we look forward to sharing many many more!

Look No Hands

John's chair was broken for almost 2 weeks. A few days before the chair broke he flat refused to walk in blue (the walker in the picture), but true to his good nature the moment the chair was obviously broken he asked to be taken to blue and when I asked him what he was going to do to get around while his chair was being repaired he told me he'd walk in blue, like duh mom, what else. Each day we saw him get strong and walk further, this was taken a few days before the chair was back and the day before the chair was back he walked further and better than we had to this point ever seen him do.

I was worried that when the chair came back home that he would refuse to walk in blue. I am only willing to choose so many battles and while this is one that I was willing to engage in, I didn't want to have to do that. So we told him that since he was sick, little uti, and wasn't feeling well that he could wait and walk in blue when his fever had broken and he was feeling better. The second day the chair was home, still running a fever he showed me that he could park his chair and put himself in blue if I would hold the back of it so it wouldn't move and gladly walked with it into the living room to nap because after all he is sick. He amazes me constantly.

Snakes on a Pole

In the readings for last Sunday was a passage that used to take me by surprise somewhat, Moses putting a snake on the pole at God's command for the people to look at while they were being bitten by poisonous snakes so that they would live and not die from the snake bite. In the view of the world this is just nuts, first off if there is a snake in the room I am definitely not taking my eyes off of it and secondly if I get bit by said snake my first instinct is to kill the thing and then second is to call 911. Okay so Moses and the Israelites didn't have 911, but still, it's hard to imagine someones dad or mom telling the little kid that just got bit to look at the snake on the pole and it will all be better. It's even harder to imagine the little kid being able to look away from the thing that hurts so bad, it's hard to imagine a mom or dad being able to look away from their child's wound or their own.

Mark's sermon this past Sunday equated the snakes to the problems that go on around us and in the end used a stanza from St. Patrick's Breastplate, in my head these go together perfectly and look like this:

Sometimes this world is scary
Christ be with me,

The thoughts whirl in my head of how much bad can happen
Christ within me,

The things in my past come back to haunt me,
Christ behind me,

The future is uncertain,
Christ before me,

Sometimes I'm lonely,
Christ beside me,

Even those closest to me don't always understand the hurts,
Christ to comfort and restore me,

I'm scared to fall into the pit of despair,
Christ beneath me,

The world is so huge, sometimes I feel lost and insignificant,
Christ above me,

In the still of the night the nagging worries can over take me,
Christ in quiet,

I'm scared,
Christ in danger,

I need to hear from someone that I know and trust that Christ forgiveness is real,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,

I need to know that I'm not alone in this world.
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

Pushing the Cart

With his chair broken John got lots of practice walking, this was the very first time he walked a cart out of the store, Sam's no less, that's a lot of walking, and he did it beautifully. I'm walking with him and never could quite let go of the cart, other than to step over to get the balloon that the service desk ladies wanted him to have, but I wasn't pushing the cart neither was I actually keeping it from running away from him. These little things are the most amazing!

Expect Mistakes from Good Kids Too

One of our favorite quotes from Pastor Harrison's Little Book on Joy is

The Gospel of free forgiveness in Christ frees us to expect mistakes, forgive them, and to find the humor in them after the fact.

I remember as a kid that my parents would always tell people that my sister and I were good kids but we were kids. This was often said when we were out somewhere and showed off by displaying our good manners. My dad told us early on that if we had to be spanked by our teachers, aunts, or other adults then we would get twice as much spanking when we got home. We were always good in public, no matter whether we were actually good at home in the between times or not.

As a kid I never really understood this saying of theirs, after all I knew what my sister and I were like at home but as an adult it makes perfect sense to me. It is another of those things where I hear my mom and dad coming out of my mouth, especially in regards to John. So many people see this cute, adorable little boy with his muscle weaknesses and his inability to speak and think that he is a perfectly adorable little angel, or too mentally slow to actually create trouble. He is most certainly cute and adorable, he is however extremely smart and capable of finding and even inventing trouble when he is of a mind to do so. In the end he is a kid, a good kid, my favorite kid in all the world, but a kid, so I expect him to make mistakes.

When we taught John to sign 'sorry' we also taught him to sign 'forgive'. Many times he has signed 'sorry' and we have told him that we forgive him and signed it to him also. Many times we have told him and signed to him that we were sorry and he has signed 'forgive' for us. We expect him to make mistakes, I'm not sure he expects that of us yet, but he will in time and for now he forgives us when we do, so that's ok. We have learned over the years to expect others to make mistakes too, friends, family and people from church and community are human and everyone needs to know that just because someone is in general a 'good kid' doesn't mean that they won't make mistakes and they in turn need to learn to expect that others will make mistakes also.

If in his cuteness and adorable nature John is able to teach others anything at all it is my prayer, as his mother, that he teaches them and me forgiveness, for nothing this side of heaven is more important to have or to share. So many people have misunderestimated John and while that's an expectable mistake I hope at some time they realize that this little guy is one heck of a great teacher when it comes to forgiveness, compassion and love, not to mention that whole humor thing, John has humor down pat!

Three of My Favorite Guys!

We loved to get to see Papa this spring...



...absolutely loved it. John had so much to show off for Papa and even was able to kiss and hug him each night and say with his mouth 'papa'. We cherished our time together and can't wait to get to visit again. We love you Papa!