Little Abby has been on my heart and mind daily and so I have frequently visited their site. Through it, I have discovered some things about joy that I have simply forgotten. One thing that struck me hard was a day that they call "laughter lives Tuesday" and Hi/Lo Thursday. THey post specific things on those days. The first thing I discovered about myself is that I don't laugh enough. I tried to post something that day about something that made me laugh. Oh, there are lots of things that make me smile, but few things that make me laugh. I was sad that day when I sat down to post something and couldn't come up with anything in the week that had made me laugh. Next, was Hi/Lo Thursday. I sat down to post my Hi and had a difficult time figuring it out and a difficult time figuring out my Lo. Again, it made me think. I started to realize that I had let life grab ahold again and was only going through the emotions. Since then, I have begun to notice the things that are "Hi" for me and the things that are "Lo" and even more... the things that make me laugh.

Today, I found myself laughing out loud in my closet. It caught me totally off guard. I had been listening to Elizabeth tell stories about "Alan" to her Daddy. I think she chose the name Alan after her Uncle. Daddy had been telling her stories of his childhood. She thought that was cool, and so she began telling him stories. Her stories went on and on and on. She began them in the kitchen, followed her Daddy upstairs, sat on the bathroom counter and was still continuing the story (almost without a breath of air in between thoughts). It made me chuckle inside. I was smiling at her creativity. But.. not laughing out loud. But, there I was in the closet with the door shut... listening to her continous story. I heard Daddy say "I have a story for you". Without pausing a beat, she said to him... "Ok, let me pause it". I laughed out loud so hard. I couldn't believe she had just said let me pause it. I then discovered that she actually took her finger and pushed the "Pause button" in the air. I laughed and laughed. And then.. a half hour later, Ri realized that we were going to church again. He asked me "Mom, are we going to church again". I told him yes. He then sighed a heavy sigh and proceeded uttering "eye-yi-yi". It was hilarious. I have no clue where in the world he has ever heard the expression "eye-yi-yi". Too funny!

So, I am looking to add some expression to my life and hoping to be able to share many more laughter moments with you.

We did go to church tonight and enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship and a chili cook-off (Jacob's dream come true). We had the joy of sharing a table with 2 very precious people. They are the "salt of the earth" type of people. They have 4 children and are so thrilled to have 11 grandchildren. You can tell that they love every one and truly believe it is a blessing to spend any moment with them. They both have very humble, meek, gentle spirits and embrace children with love. The gentleman began interacting with Ri. Ri adn Elizabeth and I went to get a drink. When we came back, Ri insisted that we go get his new friend a drink. So we did. When it was time to eat, this gentleman grabbed Ri's hand and walked with him to get his chili. He helped Ri pick it out and then talked with him all through dinner. At one point, he got up and left the table. Ri turned to his Daddy and said "where's my friend going?" At another point in the evening, he said "I love my friend". It was so sweet to see how quickly he was able to warm up to him. God has been so faithful. It has been such a joy to watch our son growing and developoing. He is learning to trust.

On another note, I was reading to Elizabeth and Ri. We are at the story in the bible where Jesus turns the water into wine. I started out sharing with the little ones that Jesus was at a wedding. Elizabeth asked a few questions about a wedding. I explained that DAddy and I loved each other and were married but Mike and Emily were not married. SHe asked why they weren't. I tried to explain that they were too young. She still didn't understand. I then told her that if Mike still loved Jesus and Emily still loved Jesus and they loved each other that when they got older, they could get married. Elizabeth then asked me if Mike loved Jesus. I told her that he does, very much. Then she asked me if he had trusted Jesus. I was a little stunned at the question. I really hadn't thought of her making a connection with loving Jesus and trusting Jesus. It was cool to hear her ask if he had trusted Jesus.

On a completely different note, God seems to be molding our family right now. If you have ever read about the potter and the clay, and if you have ever seen a real potter working on his clay, you will know that in order for the "pot" to become the vessel that the potter desires, he has to apply pressure to it as it turns on the wheel. At some points, he applies more pressure while at other points he lets up and lets the wheel spin with very little pressure on the pot. Well, right now, I think God is beginning to apply some heavier pressure on the "pot" He is molding in each of us. There are a few major things going on in our life right now that are beginning to make us feel the pressure and really beginning to test our faith. God's word says that trials are to make us more like Christ. So.. I am beginning to praise Him for what He is doing. I am not saying that I like it, nor that I will pass any of the "tests" of trials He chooses, but I am learning to be at peace and rest in His arms.

Right now, I won't share all of the trials that we are beginning to face. But, I will share one precious one over the weekend. We have been dealing with water problems for some time now.... maybe over a year or so. At a certain time of the day, we run out of water. We thought it might be a pump issue. We finally called someone over a month ago. They said we may need our well bailed or have a new well dug... but for now, he felt we should just continue adjusting our life so that when the water ran out, we should shut the pump off and let the water refill. When you run a dishwasher 3 times a day, do 3-4 loads of laundry, have at least 8 showers a day and flush the toilet COUNTLESS times.... it is hard to adjust your life around a well that keeps running out. The guy who first came to check it out was going to cost us $400.00 just to change some piping on our pressure tank and fix a small leak on the timing unit of our softner. He said that to bail it it would cost us another 6-700. And it could be thousands to drill a new well. At the time, it made most sense to take his advice and adjust our life. We needed to replace the piping and the leak in the timing unti. We told him that we would do that part. But... he has not come back, not called, not checked on us or anything. So, when we ran out of water again on Friday and began to have a whistling sound in the hot water tank and a clicking sound in our softner, we debated what to do. We opted to call someone else for a second opinion. That person felt that bailing out our well was the smartest choice. He fee was only $300. Sometimes, you just don't know who to trust. So we faced a dilemma. Who do we believe and is the price reflective of someones' work? He also said that he could change the piping for less then $50.00. That was a huge difference! We chose to have him do both. I am praising God that the gentleman came when Mark was here and even more that he did the bailing of the water when Mark was here. He pulled out the piping and the pump to check out the pump. It was working just fine (praise God!). But... the he highly recommended new piping because the other was corroding (or something like that). That would be an additional $350. Oh no! Doesn't it always seem like when you ok something, once they get into it they seem to always add on??? I felt like I was dealing with a mechanic who has just inspected a simple problem in my van and all of a sudden I am replacing the transmission! Ugh! So, Mark and I talked about it and opted to replace the piping as well. Not sure if we are being swindled or if it is legit or not... but gullable and trusting. So, he bails the well out. Mark said it looked horrible (I can only imagine!). Pretty soon, I get a phone call (I had been in Coshocton at Sam's game) and Mark didn't sound too good. His only words were "we've got problems... we are worse off then we started". My heart sank. Then he told me we had NO water. The guy had bailed it all out and told Mark that our vein had run dry. Then he gave him instructions on what to do and left.... with a check for the services that he provided. He assured Mark that we would have water in the morning.

Now you have to understand the mannerism of this gentlemen. He is an older, very rough, very much an 'ole country boy. He talks rough, says it like it is, is thoughtless and simply refuses to tell you what it is because he doesn't know for sure. In many ways, that is a good thing. I would rather someone tell me nothing then make up something just to appease me. Well, needless to say, we were pretty shook up. No water.. how on earth would we manage a house with 8 people with no water??? And how on earth were we going to manage a new drill dug on top of the cost we had for baling out the well and the new piping?

So... we took it to prayer. The only thing I could think of is that God had us in for a trial and we needed to choose how to handle it. All we could do was trust Him and know that there is a reason. So I shared it with Sam and Emily and had them pray. Mark shared it with Jacob and Erin. And... a few hours later, Mark did what the guy told him to do and we had water! We expected some horrible situation. The guy had said that there would be lots of mud and dirt at first and make sure we ran it all out before we turned on the water to the house. Scarey stuff!! Mark said it didn't take that long before it was clear. And when we got up this morning we had wonderful, clear water! And... we haven't run out all day. So, I am praising God for His faithfulness and mercy.