Life is good.

I love that I get to be a stay-at-home-mom. I love that I can let my boys play for a while in their room after they wake up, like they are now. I can hear them giggling with each other on the monitor as I type this post, and I'm so glad for them and for myself that I don't have to interrupt that (I mentioned once to my friend, Mitch, that these are special times for my boys to bond, and he told me that boys don't have "special times". He insisted that I call them "manly moments". Whatever.) I love that in a few minutes I will go get them, and we will all eat breakfast together in our pajamas, because we are not in a hurry to go anywhere. I love that we will all eventually get dressed, but I can't be sure when and it doesn't matter. I love that we will spend our day reading books, putting puzzles together, crawling around on the floor, stacking blocks, and watching 'Max and Ruby'.

Something else I love about being a stay-at-home-mom is that it allows me to do other fun things that when I worked (outside the home), I could never do. Like Vacation Bible School. I love that every once in awhile, we get to break from our routine at home and spend a week doing something different. It's a nice break for me and it's fun for the boys. Last week we got to do just that.

I got the privilege of being a crew leader to five 4th graders as we took "A Wild Ride through God's Word". We spent the week singing songs, taking a trip back to Jericho (via our drama team), playing games, making crafts, eating very nutritious snacks (in case you're unfamiliar with VBS...that was sarcasm), and getting to know each other. On one particular day, when we were learning that "God is Strong!!!" (Wa-Hoo!), we had the kids sit with their crews and tell their leaders one thing they were having a hard time with that they needed God's strength to help them with. We were going to write them on index cards and then tape them to boxes stacked in the sanctuary. At the end of the day, the boxes were used to represent the walls of Jericho and God knocked them down, just like He could knock down the problems on those cards. As I expected, the first boy asked for prayer for his Tae Kwon Do class. It was more difficult than he thought it would be. Another little girl asked for prayer for her new daycare that she was having to spend the summer at. She didn't like it very much. These were the kind of prayer requests I anticipated from my 4th graders. It was the kind of "life is still pretty easy" stuff you would think a 10 year old would be worried about.

Then it was Johnny's turn (Johnny is not his real name). Johnny was a sweet boy with a good heart who had spent the whole week bouncing off the walls. I won't lie to you that he was my biggest challenge. Keeping him in line was a struggle. So when he blurted out his prayer request, it knocked the wind out of me: "My mom died. She had a sickness in her heart." The way he said it made me assume this was something that must have happened when he was much younger, but it happened just last November. On top of that, Johnny told me that his dad's new girlfriend is mean. The next little girl, Jane (again, not her real name) told me that her parents had been fighting really loudly at home and she was worried that they would split up. When I walked up to the stage in the sanctuary to tape our "brick" to the wall of Jericho, I saw other crews cards, written with things like "Dad drunk a lot, acting up all the time". I was truly moved and have been praying for these things ever since. And I will continue to.

While my boys and I sit in our home today, playing, eating and laughing, there are so many kids burdened with things way beyond their age. Some of it is out of any one's hands. Some of it is being put upon them by the adults in their lives. Either way, these children don't have the luxury of feeling secure the way my children do and I pray that their little hearts will be protected from the scars. It also makes me so grateful for what I am blessed with. My boys' mommy is right here, and their parents are very happy with each other. Those are things that I know I take for granted every day, and yet they are the things that those kids from VBS want most in the world.

Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of my children, and the blessing for a safe, secure and happy home for them. May my husband and I never take that for granted, and may we always be actively working on keeping it that way. Amen.