Day 16 Summer 2008 Father's Day

When we woke up this morning, I presented Larry with his Father's Day gift from me.  I took three pictures of him baptising each of our kids & framed them in matching frames for his office.  With the pictures, I presented him with this Scripture:

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  Matthew 19:14 (NIV)

He loved it!  Here is a picture of the 3 frames in his office.  The kids & I took the liberty of putting them in a spot where they'd get lots of views.

And just to give you a vision of where Larry spends his weekdays, this is his office.  (Mind you, Samuel took the 2nd picture & it's definately not Larry at his desk, but you can see his office.)

We went onto Sunday School & the worship service after these pictures were taken.  I never expected to get emotional today.  After all, I typically reserve that for MOTHER'S DAY, not Father's Day.  I'm a mom & all, ya know.  Anyway, when our pastor spoke about his son's life and the changes they've seen in him the past couple of years, it hit home.  Without going into a lot of detail, their son was adopted & had lived a tough life before coming into their home and as a result, he had a lot of the same issues we had with Andrew.  Our pastor talked about how much he felt like a failure as a parent when he realized that there were issues with this child that he couldn't handle....and how dark a time it was when they realized that he had to go live somewhere else.  That was much harder to listen to than I had anticipated.  His wife & I have talked a lot and swapped stories of life with a Reactive Attachment Disorder child, but hearing him talk about it in such an emotional way was very difficult.  I guess it's always hard to hear a Daddy talk with great passion & emotion about a crisis with his child(ren).  Larry & I both shed some tears, but it was OK.  You see, our pastor's son has been in a residential treatment center for 2 1/2 years now and God is changing him.  Pastor talked about how different their son is now, how much change they can see in him, how much healing has happened since he moved.  We're thrilled for them and are so encouraged by God's mercy for their family.  But it's always hard to hear about another family who's struggled & lived through the agony & pain of RAD.  And recognizing the emotion involved in having to move a child out of your home because you can't love them enough to "fix" them......ouch.  It hit very close to home.  Anyway, church was good, but highly emotional for both of us.

After church, we came home to rest a while, then loaded up & went to my parents house to hang out & eat dinner with them and see my Dad for Father's Day.  We took him a coconut cake (a favorite of his) and a card.  He was tickled with the cake---me, too.  It was one of these.  YUM!

While we were there, the kids took a couple of rolling toys (think big Tonka trucks) outside to "ride" them down the driveway.  Now, mom & dad's driveway is pretty sloped, but it's not really steep.  Anyway, they've done this a gazillion times over the years without a problem, but tonight was the night that Samuel decided to do a face plant into the concrete driveway.  ouch!!  Poor baby!  This is how he looked by the time we got home an hour or so afterward.

He really is NOT as pitiful as he looks in these pictures...but he wouldn't smile or even just look NORMAL for the pictures.  He wanted to look really sad & pathetic.  LOL  He really is feeling OK, although I'm sure he'll be bruised up & sore for a few days.  The initial 15 minutes or so after he did this, he was hurting & crying but he's been OK since.

One funny thing about this---while we were holding an icepack on his head & applying Neosporin, my mom asked him if he thought icecream might make him feel better.  He looked at her funny & said "do I put it on my wounds?".  LOL!!!

After the great injury of Father's Day 2008, we headed home & put the kids to bed.  Savannah has an 8am doctor's appointment tomorrow and then we're meeting some friends from out of town for lunch a little later.  It ought to be a great day!