Christmas Time!

I love Christmas time!! I love the whole season! It's such a happy time, full of joy and childish wonder and suspense. . . I LOVE it!

Because we have such a huge family, we don't have just one Christmas. We have several. We have a Christmas with my brothers and sisters, one with my parents, one with our close family friends, one with Sal's adoptive parents, one with my dad's mom, and one with my mom's parents, plus our own here at home. So we literally have seven days of Christmas. . . we're working on 12, LOL! I'm sure we'll get there soon!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!

A lesson in humility

I just so totally had my behind handed to me on a platter - and by a kid!
Here's the thing. Some punk kid spit on Nick at the playground. I have recently had a HUGE problem with other kids being mean to my kids and encouraging them to do things that are clearly wrong (i.e. one kid told my sons "I hate your mom and I want to slap the s**t out of her"). Not the same kid that spit on Nick, but anyway.... so I lost my temper when they came busting through the door telling me that some kid spit on Nick.
I threw my shoes on and stomped out there. He was on the basketball court with several other boys, one of them a young teenager. I started yelling and screaming at him that he better not ever spit on one of my kids again and so on. All I was really accomplishing was making myself look like a hysterical fool. The teenager finally came up to me and said, "Uh, Ma'am, I don't mean to get in your business or anything, but you really shouldn't be talking to a little kid like that."
I told him, "Well, thank you for your opinion but you can just stay out of this!"
I stalked off after making sure that the kid was clear on what I had said.
But even as I walked away, I felt overwhelming conviction that what I had done was very wrong. At first I tried to justify to myself why it was okay, but I knew that I had lost control, and made a mockery of Christ's Name, which I carry. I came home, cried, prayed, read my Bible, and asked forgiveness. Sal called and asked how close dinner was to being ready, that he was very hungry. So I began immediately preparing dinner in a mad flurry, but I couldn't dismiss the feeling that I needed to seek forgiveness.
I couldn't leave the house with the stove on and in the middle of dinner preparations, so, even though I felt cowardly by not going over there myself, I finally decided to just send Mercy over there with a message, because I didn't want to "let the sun go down" on my anger. I told her to tell them that I was sorry not to come in person, that they were welcome to walk over to my house if they wanted to so I could talk to them in person, but if they didn't want to, that Mercy could tell them what I wanted to say.
They didn't come, so she told them that I wanted to say that the young man was right in what he said, and that I was sincerely sorry for having lost my temper and said things out of anger. And I told her to say to the young man that I think it was a very honorable thing for him to be able to stand up for a kid to an adult that he doesn't even know.
Do you know what his response was? He told Mercy to tell me, "You are forgiven. And may Jesus bless you."
Can you imagine how foolish and childish I felt? That I was proven to be a child, and he was proven to be a man of God, and he had to be the example that I should have been....
I feel so humiliated, and very humbled.
Not to say that I'm thankful for having lost my temper and acted like a moron, because I most certainly am not. I am ashamed of my behavior, but I do thank God for this opportunity to be humbled, because I know that He opposes the proud, but that He gives grace to the humble.

I definitely am in need of some of that grace.

On Our Nation

I want to make it clear to everyone out there reading this: I truly have mixed emotions about our most recent election. Make no mistake about it, I supported McCain/Palin, and I still wish they had won. But I want to also make a point about something that still weighs on my heart. I am honestly glad that we have come to a place in our country where we can elect a person of color as the president. In all truthfulness, I wondered many times as a child and teenager why all the presidents were white men, why no black man ever ran for president. And I can say with every fiber in my being that I am so happy to see that we elected somebody of color. I truly hope that now, once and for all, people can stop focusing on racism and we can really come together as one nation under God, no matter what our differences are. That being said, I must clarify one thing: I do not believe that BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA is black. His mother is as white as me, and his father is (or was) a muslim radical from Kenya, and that does not imply that his father was a native of Kenya, it just means that's where he lived. And yet Mr. Obama claims to have made history as the first "black" president. Of course, that claim isn't true, which means that he resorted to using "race" falsely as a means to get a vote. I don't think any man should be elected as president if he can't first and foremost be HONEST!!
So, as I said, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I don't think he was the best choice for president, but I am truly so happy that we have finally come to the point as a nation of including all races in the race for the White House.

True Joy

I feel so happy right now.... I just posted the funniest video in the world. My son tried to catch a roach and put it in a gatorade bottle. I heard what he was trying to do so I grabbed the camera. I guess some people would be put off by something like that, but, for me, I'm just so happy to have my kids doing "normal" kid stuff, as goofy as that sounds. I'm just happy to have some regular drama. This very same son, three nights ago, opened up to Sal and I about the memories that still plague him from before they came to us. He remembered seeing his mother nearly choked to death by her boyfriend. He remembered being called names by this same man. He remembered hearing the sounds of his mother being beaten in the next room countless times. But most of all, he remembers being left at home alone, day after day after day, with his 11 year old sister, with no dinner, and no provisions for dinner, while they worked until well after dark. Today, I saw him smiling and happy and doing normal boy things, and it warmed my heart to no end. I thank God repeatedly for saving my son. After we had talked to Daniel and finally got him in bed, I suddenly heard the sound of soft sobbing. I went in the room, and found that it was Nick. He had heard Daniel talking and crying over these memories. His heart was broken over what his beloved big brother had endured. He climbed up into Daniel's bed and was just holding him and crying over and over, "It's just so terrible that you had to go through that. It's just so terrible!" Daniel and Nick forged a bond that night that I presume will never be broken.
Today, they caught a roach together.
I couldn't be happier.

HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!!!!!!

I FINALLY got my old, newer computer back..... meaning I don't have to deal with that old dinosaur that Sal has insisted on keeping for no apparent reason, which in turn means that it's not taking me the usual 10 minutes just to get on this page!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm very excited to just be able to click and ..... WHOOSH.... it's ALREADY THERE!!!! This is so exciting, you know, technological advances and stuff; who would have believed back in the 90's that it would be possible to pull up hundreds of pictures and web sites without bogging your computer down so bad that it would freeze and you'd have to restart it?!?!? THIS IS SOOOOOOO COOL!!!!!!! I feel like a giddy teenager squealing over some new purchase or something novel and yet stupid like that.... I don't know. I'm just happy to have my computer back. A million thanks to Nate for fixing it for me!!

SHOCKER!!!!!

We received a random call from a friend..... she knows a guy who is trying to sell his auto shop, and she thought Sal might be interested... just for "kicks and grins" we called the guy, and he made it very clear that he wants to sell it to someone who will be honest and take good care of his customers. He said he was willing to work with us, and even owner-finance most of it (he would ask for part of it up front) if we needed him to. He's almost 60 years old, and is ready to retire. The business brings in almost 200,000 a year. The only thing is, it's about two hours west of here, past Bandera. We'd be leaving everything behind. We don't know anyone except that one couple, and they are actually my parents' friends. This town is very, very, very small; in fact, the graduating class last May was 8 people. It's something to think about, that's for dang sure.... anyone reading this, please pray that God would give us wisdom to make the right choice.

Patience: The Bane Of My Existence

I am so not a patient person.... patience is the one thing that I struggle with more than anything else. *sigh* I hate this struggle. Why is it my tendency to just snap and jump to conclusions, instead of being predisposed to hear the reason why a certain thing was done?? Patience is the one thing I want that seems to be completely unattainable. I know in reality, it is attainable, but I'm not patient enough to want to go through all the work to get it! *another sigh* I know, I'm hopeless....