Happy Dancing Again

Well, we're happy dancing around here again. We just got a phone call from our eldest foster son. He's not been speaking to us for about 1 1/2 years. And this was a pleasant phone call, so we're blessed. Of course the reason he called was he and his father have had another falling out resulting in father disowning eldest son....that hurts my heart. Torah (Bible) tells us to honor our father and mother. So it hurts my heart that this father and son can not seem to work out their differences.....but in fairness to this son, I've seen the story working out for 28 years and felt it would come to this eventually. Eldest son has a multitude of problems, many of them caused by his parents. His mother's death when he was 13 didn't help anything.....but his father's reaction and response to the boys (he has a younger brother that also lived with us for awhile, but will no longer even speak to us. Sigh.)when their mother died was nothing short of heartless. As eldest son grew up, step mom resented him being there, younger half brothers hated him, and father did nothing to try to alleviate the situation. Eldest son ran away from home numerous times, but father had issued a court order that we could do nothing to help the boy. Only after he hit 19 could we step in, and by then an enormous amount of damage had been done. He now serves in the United States Army...as a mechanic on the big machinery. He's also pretty good on smaller cars. ;-)

I told Dodi when he got mad at me over a year ago for telling him the truth about some of his actions that he'd be back next time his father got mad at him. As we talked, he asked why we always took him back even when he treated us badly. I told him that what family does. Even if we're angry with you, disagree with what you've done, or disapprove of your speech,....you're still our son and we love you. Bless his heart. He's heard that for most of his life from me. (And no, he's not my child....except from my heart.) But now that eldest son has his own child, he's beginning to understand where we've been coming from for the last 17 years of his live. So now there's hope we can help lead him to a closer walk with Papa. He's professed faith in Papa, but his actions don't show it. Perhaps we can be used by Papa to show him that Papa loves him more than we.....more than his father. And thru us perhaps, little creeper (his son-our grandson) will also be introduced to Papa. WOOHOOO! We could possibly impact their eternal lives!!! OH, the incredible responsibility of that just hit me. Wow, we could impact the eternal future of their lives. Hmmmm. Boy, gonna have to hit my knees on this one! I sure don't want to allow my red hair and unruly tongue to ruin everything......Well, I'll trust Papa to have this all under control. After all, He's the one who put this child into our lives so long ago, and keeps bringing him back to us. There has to be a reason for that! So as long as we stay out of the way, allow Papa to use us and listen carefully so we hear His voice, this could have a seriously happy ending!

And best of all, we're going to get new pictures of our grandson!!!!! We haven't seen him in over a year either... and he spent his first 6 weeks of live in our home without either of his parents. So in a way, he's another of our kids! I can hardly wait to cuddle that little creeper!!!!!!

So I hope you each listen for Papa's voice in your hearts....He's got big plans for each of you. And He's got people just dying to hear you tell them how much Papa loves them. So get to work! The Kingdom is at hand! Shalom, Spitfire

PS Things are a little more peaceful with Little Critter the last couple of days....he's trying to catch himself when he's being disrespectful (doesn't always make it, but you can see him trying. That's a big step towards growing up!) So while I know it's only the opening volleys in this war to grow up, I now feel more assured I haven't lost his heart. It's just hormones getting in the way! Sigh. But this too shall pass. And soon I'll see my little caterpillar turning into a wonderfully beautiful, G-dly young man. OK, now I've gotta go get a hankie, sniff, sniff. My baby's growing up!!!!!! WAAAAAAA. (giggle, giggle)

Regaining Consciousness

One of my sweet sisters sent this to me today. It's called the YaYa Sisters....in many ways (more than I really want to admit to) it describes life in our zoo this week. ....let me explain a little.

For several months now we've had increasing trouble with Little Critter and his attitude mostly towards me, but also towards several adults. It was most puzzling as he has wonderful manners....most the time. And when he chooses to use them, people are usually blown away by his maturity level. But lately, he's chosen to not use them with me and has been increasingly rude and disrespectful. No amount of fussing, paddling, taking away priveleges or times out have seemed to help alleviate the problem. I was not only hurt and sad about this, but also bumfuzzled. What in the world could have gotten into my sweet, loving, squirmy, wormy little boy?!?!?! I had this horrible thought one day, and asked the Dr. about it when we went in for Little Critter's annual checkup. But Dr. assured me he was far too young and we wouldn't have those problems for a couple more years.... Still there was a niggle in my mommy heart that something wasn't right. Hmmmm.

Well, the last three days have been miserable for both Dodi and I. Little Critter has been almost totally out of control....rude to both of us, disrespectful, nasty, hateful to others and downright mean to all living creatures. Today, as we were beginning the preps for Shabbat, it came to a head. He blew it with me, I lost my temper, paddled his backside, sent him to his room, and (sigh, I'm ashamed to say this........) I ran away from home. Yep, I gathered my things, took the car keys and told Dodi I was leaving and would be back sometime. When the poor man asked what happened, I snapped "Ask YOUR son! I'm sure he'll say it's all my fault!!!!" and then drove off. I'm not proud of my actions.....but I was about to do some serious harm to my child.....starting with yanking that nasty little tongue out of his mouth and wrapping it around his neck!!!!!!!

Fortunately, my parents (to whose house I ran) allowed me to vent my frustrations, offered their advice and after about an hour sent me back home. Sigh....now to apologize to my poor Dodi. I did, he understood and told me he loved me still. Feeling better now, I left Little Critter in his room while I prepared things for Shabbat. I knew I had to talk with him, but needed to allow Papa to rid me of my anger, sooth my hurt heart and talk some sense into me. He did. And before Shabbat started we'd both apologized, talked and spent some sweet time together with giggles, hugs and affirmations of our love for each other. Shabbat was a lovely time together as a family with a friend over.

As for the source of the problems.....well, I'm afraid I was right. Papa told me to trust my mommy heart. He speaks to it regularly! Little Critter is going into the male version of PMS....or puberty. He's only just turned 9, and this shouldn't be happening for a couple years. But it is. So for those of you with young boys.....cherish your cuddles and giggles while you can. And when they suddenly turn into Jeckel/Hyde, hit your knees!!!! Papa can and will give you all the patience (oh how I hate that P word!!!!), control and wisdom you need. Just hit your knees before you run away....grin. It's so undignified.....

May Papa bless each of you this Shabbat and may you each feel Papa's love for you. He loves you like crazy ya know. Heiveinu Shalom Aleichem. (May peace be on you) Spitfire

Scotty, I think Summer's here!

Well, my goodness. Has it really been over a week since I last wrote?! Whew. The time just flew past. Of course, the temps have sky rocketed too! It's now generally in the 90s with moderate to high humidity. Yuck. I wouldn't mind the heat so much if the humidity weren't so high. But 40%-70% humidity is a real killer of motivation to do much of anything!!!!! Even my poor little plants are not having fun out in the garden.

We've been busy harvesting and preparing more zucchini than I have figured out what to do with, green beans (8 quarts in the freezer so far....one more we ate tonight for dinner....boy were they good!), and about 1/2 a bushel of onions. We've been picking peppers, tomatoes and cilantro as they ripen. Hoping they'll start ripening together so we can make some salsa for Dodi. I've also got to cut all the bok choy and do something with it......any suggestions?!?! I don't think we can eat all 8 heads at once.

I hope you all had a blessed and wonderful Shavuot (Pentecost). We went to the new synagogue in Temple and joined. (Ahava, don't have a heart attack please. )But Dodi decided he was ready to join, so we're now Messianic Jews. We have been in our hearts for several years, but had no where close enough to make it feasible to join. Now we do. (Gayle, now it's your turn to NOT have a heart attack!!!! I'll explain to you later....) Our Shavuot service was incredible!!! I even got to hold the Torah Scroll as we "danced like David danced" during the service. The Torah scroll I got to carry and dance with is one that was smuggled out of Iraq just before the War started. It's got tiny bells all over the top of the two spools (?) holding the actual Torah. I was blown away when they handed it to me. It's priceless! But I did SO enjoy dancing with Papa while holding His love letter to me!!!! It was such a blessing. We also had taken some freshly gleaned wheat with us... yes Gayle, Little Critter and I went out early and gleaned some of your corner wheat...thank you for allowing us to do that. I'm so blessed to have friends in high places! We still may come do some more gleaning if I can figure out how to grind it.....probably would help if I had a grinder. But I don't. And I don't think I want to stand at the table and use my marble slab to grind wheat......hmmmm. Will have to continue to study this one.

After the service, we had a feast!!! Boy, if you left hungry it was your own fault!!!! The congregation is small (much like All Saints, Gayle) but there was more food than our home town could have eaten!!!!! All 5,000 of them!

Then Monday, we got to go pick up our baby chicks. Six of the little darlings. They are SO cute. I'll try to get a picture of them to post soon. We're now busy building a small pen for them so the big chicks don't hurt them. Eventually, they'll all be in the same pen. But for the next several months, the babies will have their own brand new pen. We're also trying to hatch a couple of the older hens eggs. I'll letcha know how that goes. We've hatched several quail, but they never live past 3 weeks. sigh. Hopefully this will work better.

Well, I reckon I've made up for being silent so long.....will try to post more often and shorter posts. I pray Papa has blessed each of you as we start this hot season of the year. shalom, Spitfire