Knocking on Wood Does Not Work

Well, remember the other day? When I said things were going well? I should never have blogged that.

Last Thursday night someone broke into the church. We immediately assumed Mike because it had him written all over it. Broke into the church office, stole the safe, used the wheelchair to get the heavy safe out of the building, never did get it open, and dumped it out behind one of the schools in town. Today we find that there is a warrant out for his arrest.

And when I mentioned it to Salinda, she let it slip that he had called her to tell her where he was living. This violates the harassment order. I let her know that she needed to tell us or she was breaking the law. She's not saying a word. We will give her the option of letting us know so we can tell law enforcement, or we will simply call them and tell them to interview her if they want to. He has to go to court tomorrow, so we may just wait and see if he shows up then. I am not angry at Salinda -- this is a burden she should NOT have to carry, which is why we got the restraining order.

Meanwhile, money has been missing from the offering plate at church and of course, a couple of our children living at home are the main suspects. I got a confession out of on kid for some of it, which usually means he's taken much more. I'm going to be interviewing his suspected partner in crime soon.

And in the midst of all this stress, Rand is MIA after school. He's supposed to come straight home and help give rides, but he decided he needed to drive into the park and check the ice. He's stuck in a snowbank. i brought him JImmy and a shovel -- the park is only 2 blocks from here, but I did that much. I figure after all of the rules those guys are breaking lately, the two of them can figure out how to get the car out and if they can't they can walk home. I'm not feeling too sympathetic. He keeps calling and asking for my help, but I keep telling him that he can figure this one out.

This is a situation that affects us in many ways and makes us ask lots of questions. Will the church continue to be forgiving and not blame Bart? We think so. Will they realize that our children were damaged before we adopted them, and that possibly there is not a direct correlation between his spiritual leadership and their behavior? We believe that in this congregation they will understand. Will we be allowed to finalize the adoption of our new children when we have so many children involved in criminal behavior? We certainly hope so. But it puts us in such a bind.

And the cough and cold that has been going around our family since June of 07 is back on me again apparently. My head is pounding and I am seeing stars. I'm coughing and coughing. And, I can't exactly say that I've been eating healthily to ward off infection. But then, I never do that. My hands and feet are freezing, my brain is mush, my head is pounding, and i feel like I just might throw up.

The sad part is that I was actually having a really good day until about 3 p.m. One of my best in a while. But of course, that's kind of the way it always goes for me. When things are really going well, then they are likely to not go so well later. But I'm going to try to remember what I blogged this morning.

Wait for the LORD, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the LORD!