Slurping Life

Taking Care of the Present

will be back soon...

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present.

God has given me no control over the moment following.

~~Mohandas Gandhi

❧

"Show up every day and try your best."

Her voice quivered as she whispered those words and thought,

some days just the showing up feels impossible.

Quietly she peeled back the covers, put her feet on the floor

and breathed.

❧

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SOOC Saturday ~ Irrelevant to Dirty Laundry

I Wanna Crawl I Wanna Crawl NOW! from Melody S on Vimeo

~~~

Laundry Facts You Do Not Really Care About

One 15 year old boy, who has been away for nearly eight months, brings home 27.5 months worth of dirty laundry.

One 12.5 year old boy, who has been at camp for one week, brings home 13.75 weeks worth of dirty laundry.

One 13 year old (in a month) boy, who was the only child at home for a few days, has no clean clothing because his mom forgot about laundry during the past week.

A certain husband may be wearing dirty underwear.

A certain woman may not be wearing any underwear.

I may be overloading the washing machine in an attempt to finish laundry.

You may have already clicked out of this post.

If you did not, we're hoping you will share a SOOC image.

My SOOC image (video) is irrelevant to laundry; however,

video of a baby with chubby legs who wants to crawl and has not mastered it is way cuter than shots of dirty laundry.

SOOC Saturday [and Sunday]

(Very short SOOC video permitted this week because, well, I posted one.)

~~~

Happy, happy weekend to you.

Yes, it is the three of them again plus baby most days,

and our house is a wild, happy place which explains why this post is off-the-wall.

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SOOC Saturday ~ Caption This

...but note you do not win anything for doing so.

What is your caption for this image of my three youngest boys?

The photograph was taken September 2006 while on a tractor-pulled wagon ride to the apple orchard.

Lee on the left;

Wil, center, in hard casts up to his knees after one of his ump-teen surgeries...it was fun;

Mac on the right.

✔

Current family events...

Sunday - Drop Wil off at an awesome camp

Wednesday - Pick Lee up from seven and one-half months of residential treatment

All the while - Deal with a disgruntled Mac because nothing special is happening for him. His expression this weekend is pretty much like the one up there, except on a chiseled teen boy face.

Please share this SOOC Saturday [and Sunday].

✔

pssst...Thank you for your support through comments and emails during these past months.

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Attached Forever

Once you see into someone's soul, you are attached forever.

~unknown

Wordless Wednesday

❤

pretend this is wordless

Sunday we are taking Wil to a fabulous, secure, loving camp for children living with traumatic brain injury

where he will not be embraced by a mooshy mom he is my baby hug every night.

People, that has never happened since he was placed in my arms.

Wil is good with it.

Me...guess how I am coping.

hint: does not deal well with her child being away from home

❤

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Three Is Not A Crowd

from the weekend visit

 Three is not a crowd.

Saturday after dinner our family went for an evening swim, except I never dove into the pool.

Sitting on deck, watching was far more refreshing because moments of the three of them have been few and far between.

Placing our fifteen year old son in residential treatment due to his bipolar disorder was devastating to our family. I have been emotionally unable to share much about my inner hell of the past seven months. Any choice of words seems too dramatic, whiny in the light of his hell...too ungrateful of our family's blessings.

I do not believe it appropriate to write publicly about my teen son's specific struggles without his permission...without his input. He is simply not ready for such a big step. It is a step that will be taken...he wants me to help him write a book. He wants to help other teens (children) who fight the moment to moment battles of bipolar disorder...the battles of being perceived as broken.

People ask me, "If you had been able to foresee the struggles of and with your three younger sons, would you still have made the decision to adopt them?"

My four sons fill my heart...together, entwined. There is not a separate piece of heart nor a different love for each of them...they are my sons. My sons are loved beyond measure or compare.

My sons are loved unconditionally...

...and always.

 And I am so weary of crying for them to be together...at home.

We believe that Lee is ready to come home. Doctors, therapists and counselors agree.

We are making plans for the transition, and our eyes are wide open to the reality of challenges Lee and our family are yet to face. His two younger brothers fight their own battles associated with cerebral palsy, autism and more. Stir the usual male teen hormones and issues into the mix and, well, who knows what's to come.

Our life has never been simple. No one's life is.

Our life is our normal...

...and we will always be a family joined in respect and love for one another.

 While Lee desperately wants to be home, it is terrifying for him to think of leaving a place where every moment of life is planned and supervised...oddly secure. No matter the hell of residential treatment, he is so frightened to leave...unable to fully trust himself.

I'm a bit scared, too.

Our family would be blessed by your support and prayers for Lee and for us, his brothers and parents.

Courage is fear that has said its prayers. ~~ Dorothy Bernard

Amen

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