Exhausted

When Steve found out he was going to be deployed for a signifigant period of time, we filed a hardship retirement waiver because we knew it would be very difficult for our children to handle.  We didnt realize how quickly things would start to go bad.  Unfortunately this past week, one of our more challenging sons started bullying and hurting his sisters and then when confronted with the fact that if he didnt stop he would be speaking with men from our church, he ran away into the woods for two days.  The woods behind our house consist of thousands of acres and so it was a very scary/exhausting couple of days for all of us, not knowing if he was truly lost, hurt or just being belligerent.  Turns out it was the last and he finally came back because he was very hungry.  Right now he is staying with some single men from church until we figure out the best place for him to be (or Steve comes home if the waiver is approved).

On another note, one of our adult daughters is visiting with her biological family for the next two weeks (family she hasnt seen for over ten years and from what we have been told haven't changed much since their children were removed).  She has gotten no sleep since she has been there, she said they were finally going to eat dinner sometime after ten p.m. last night (getting ice and beer was more important).  We are thankful during this time for technology as we can text back and forth to keep her spirits up and her strength in convictions renewed.  Her family has complained to her that she is too "white" and they have to bring back the "brown" in her, whatever that means.  Of course she is going to act like us, she has lived with us for 7 years.

Finally, my littlest girls are sick again, stress I believe is contributing some, so most of the crew will be heading to church this morning while I care for little ones.  Hope everyone out there in blogdom has a wonderful Lord's Day!