Update.................long summer

Summer was certainly long and wet, and is still ongoing at least for a few more weeks.  I seemed to grow kids, not veggies, this summer.  Too much rain for the garden which failed miserably after so much preparation and thought to what we manage to grow and what we manage to kill!  You think I am joking, but I am not.  Some things thrive even if I cannot tend to them diligently every day, and other plants are just too temperamental, need to much feeding and weeding.

Anyway, the kids survived in throngs around here, swimming even though it was raining, and eating me out of house and home.  It seemed there was at least a dozen every day, but in reality, it was probably only nine or ten!  The towel population was constant and wet, washing machines going constantly as much water was splashed in merriment.  Luckily, we heated the pool last summer because some days the temperatures were a lot less than they should have been.

But, through all the chaos, which is organized to some extent, there were many unexpected joys, and reunions.  Our two youngest sets of twins share the same birth mother, and I found her back in custody at the end of last year, started communicating again, and eventually meeting her with the children when she was released from custody in May, just after we began summer holidays.  Unfortunately, she slid back into her addict lifestyle within days of the meeting, but the children reconnected with their siblings and cousins along with their "Nana", who spent many years loving them from a distance.

They discovered another younger sister, and another set of twins.  All of this was a lot to take in, but, it being summer, we were able to take off with the children, their cousin and their eldest sister, to travel to North Carolina to meet their 18month old sister and brother.  What a wonderful time for all of them.  And God is good to enable the amazing set of circumstances that led up to us finding them, and meeting them within a couple of short weeks of knowing they existed.  So, now we have even more extended wonderful family surrounding all of the children.

On top of that, Isaiah has just done so remarkably well at Job Corps.  He went there last September, and of course comes home for a week-end here and there, well, at least when he's not going to six flags, or a Braves game, Dollywood, or whatever fun they have planned every week-end.  He was only somewhere between fourth and fifth grade, with some third grade thrown in when he arrived there.  He has now passed three out of five of his GED exams, is 65% through his trade, and has been offered Advanced Education.  He his planning out where he is going for that and would love to experience the West Coast or Florida.  I am so proud of him and his achievements.

On top of that my book "Finding Friday" was finally published and is available here.  You can get the hard copy or the E book at this link.  I am accepting speaking engagements with regards to the book and the journey that Isaiah has been on.  I quite frankly have given up on any justice for the circumstances that lead him here, but you DO reap what you sow.  Isaiah is proof of that.  He is reaping what he so disbelievingly sowed.  Those seeds have grown up in his life, and are real.  Positive proof of hope through worst situation you could find yourself in.

All is well, thank God!!