Those Moments that Remind Us

It's been quite a day. It started very early this morning when we got up and made it to the convention center by 7 a.m. As I mentioned, it was a great morning. If you'd like to see a lot of pictures of the event you can click here. The service, from the beginning to the end, had moments of tears for me. A powerful song from a choir of Minnesotans originally from Zimbabwe that spoke of their desire for the healing of their land brought the congregation to their feet; my husband telling our story from day one to present, him reading a note from his late grandmother that was in a book she gave him before she died... lots of emotional moments.

On the way back from St. Cloud, i heard a song that is now "Leon's song." Each of my children has a song that I determine, at some point in our journey, is "theirs." I don't decide until I know for sure it is the right one. Today I found Leon's and tonight I made it into a slide show for him. More tears.

Eighth grade graduation tonight (a reception, not a ceremony) for the three boys involved Tony pretty much avoiding us, Ricky walking around being cool but stopping by a couple times, and Leon sitting with us and having a wonderful conversation. The way Ricky and Leon are maturing delights me. They are amazing. You can see more pictures here.

And finally, tonight, Sadie had a Mother's Day Gift prepared for me. She has been mentioning it since mother's day -- saying that she had something special for me but that she was going to have to wait a while to give it to me. I had no idea what she was talking about and figured that it was just her needing time to get someone to take her shopping. But tonight she brought me a gift bag with a ceramic holder she had made at school. There was what appeared to be a note inside, but when I opened it to read it it was her first check from her first job. She only worked 8 hours but I didn't want to take it. She insisted that she wanted me to have it. I offered to just keep the stub, but she wouldn't budge. So our hug ended in more tears.

So even though i had a troubling conversation with John from jail and had to referee an argument between Salinda and her boyfriend who went with us to the conference, I have had powerful parenting moments today. Even though Dominyk's special needs were in high gear today and Tony nearly pushed me over the edge several times in the last two days, I have had those moments that made me very sure that we're doing the right thing. I love my kids. I love being part of their lives.

The Bishop asked the question this week from the story of the Good Samaritan, "Why did the United Methodist Cross the Road?" I'm not sure what her conclusion was, but today is a very clear answer to why THIS person named me crossed the road. Because there were children on the other side who needed me, but as my husband often says, "I adopted children because I wanted to save them. But in reality, they have saved me."

Today I know that to be true more than ever before. I'm so glad I crossed the road.