Mother to the Next Level

Mother to the Next Level - That's how my friend Jennifer labeled my last twenty-four hours earlier today. And she isn't aware of the continuing saga tonight.

Three adopted girls, 15, 12, 9; two are from the foster care system, with the 9 year old having lived with us for only 11 months. I forget! My bad! I forgot that it can take years to feel safe and secure; as it seems to Mark and I that all our children have been with us from the beginning of their lives.

Last night we served a "family" search warrant on the room shared by two of them. We found what we had named in the search warrant along with some other "borrowed" items. I had forgotten briefly that our behavioral specialist says that we live in the Land of Perjury, and that I had specified in the Den of Thieves. Well, after serving the search warrant, our living location had been confirmed. Once we got everything returned to their rightful owner, it was time for the jury trial. Tried and found guilty. Sentencing was completed by 11:15 PM; she will have to do the chores of the victim for the next four Saturdays under their supervision.

I thought the drama was over. My bad for thinking. Tonight we discovered that our web safety program wasn't set with the correct settings for one our children. They had viewed some very disturbing web sites in a manner of 10 minutes last night while I was tending to another one of the children. Now, before you point fingers, our computer is in the main family room and we do have a great family safe web program. That is, if the settings are set correctly. We had recently added this family member and evidently copied over the wrong profile's safety settings. So, back to the Land of Perjury in the Den of Thieves we go. However, the trial and subsequent sentencing were over by 9:40 PM, so we made some progress (however, we also started much earlier tonight than last night).

So, for all of you who are wondering, yes, I still have my sanity. Yes, I shed quite a few tears these past 23 hours. Yes, my knees are sore from praying so much. And Yes, God is Enough! He gave me a little glimpse into how damaged one of our children really is from having been exposed to some not so nice things before coming into our lives. We have a lot of work to do in trying to help this little one heal and learn to trust. I am so thankful for this little glimpse tonight. And it opened up a door for me to share something with her that I had been longing to tell her about her biological mom, but I never found the right time and tonight, God provided it.