Call to Action: Families For Orphans Act!

I received the news item below and want to encourage everyone to sign the petition available via a link at the JCICS web site at http://www.jcics.org/ and to contact your senators and representatives to encourage them to pass the act. There are currently 291 signers as of this moment...let's get that to 1000 quickly! Then 10,000!!

We all know it would be best of there were no orphans, if children could remain with biological families and within their birth culture. But the fact is that for the forseeable future this will be impossible on a global scale. Institutions are not the answer, lingering foster care is not the answer...permanent families of any color, race or culture IS the only "next best" answer. Please support this Act!

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CALL TO ACTION: Families For Orphans Act


Dear Friends and Families,

Anshula has recently come into an orphanage. She is four years old and alone. Where should she spend her childhood? In an orphanage? In temporary foster care? Or in a permanent and loving family?

The answer should be obvious: a safe, permanent and loving family. Unfortunately, the U.S. government and many aide organizations do not seem to agree. In fact, the U.S. sometimes spends millions of dollars, ensuring just the opposite. And while beloved organizations such as UNICEF keep millions of children alive, many believe it is better for children to live in temporary foster care than in a permanent family. The children of our world need your help to make a change. They need your help to live in a permanent family.

As a founding member of the Families For Orphans Coalition, Joint Council is proud to announce that the first step in making this much-needed change is upon us. In a bi-partisan effort, landmark legislation was introduced into Congress, which will ensure that U.S. government programs, policies and funding are directed towards a singular goal: a permanent family for every child.

The Families For Orphans Act (Senate Bill 1458 and House Bill 3070), sponsored by Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and James Inhofe (R-OK) along with Representatives Diana Watson (D-CA) and John Boozman (R-AR) demonstrates our collective commitment to the millions of children living outside of permanent parental care and proactively addresses a global gap in the most basic of human rights - the right to a permanent family.

While the introduction of the legislation is an important first step, there is much more to be done. Now we must ensure that the Families For Orphans Act becomes the law of the United States. To do this, your voice is needed. Speak for those to cannot speak for themselves by supporting the Families For Orphans Act and joining our Call To Action.

What can you do?

Sign the Families For Orphans petition, make three simple phone calls, and get the word out! Here are the details...

1. Sign our Petition!
Sign the Joint Council Families for Orphans Petition
The Petition will be delivered to the U.S. Congress
2. Call Congress!
On July 28th, 29th, and 30th, call your three Members of Congress (two in the Senate and one in the House of Representatives).
You can find your Representative at http://www.house.gov/
You can find you Senators' at http://www.senate.gov/
Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff
For maximum effect, we are asking you to make these calls within this 72-hour window!
3. Get the word out!
Send this email to friends and family. Post to your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blog or website
What should you say or write to your Members of Congress?
This is an issue that is critical to children in need, so speak from your heart. Tell them why ensuring more children living in families is so important to you!
Ask your Senators and Representatives to become a Co-Sponsor of the Families for Orphans Act.
Please feel free to use the following text as a guideline when speaking with your Members of Congress.
"As a constituent of we are requesting that you support the Families For Orphans Act by becoming a Co-Sponsor of the legislation. For information on becoming a Co-Sponsor, please contact Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator James Inhofe, Representative Diane Watson or Representative John Boozman. Thank you for representing your constituents by becoming a Co-Sponsor of the Families For Orphans Act (Senate Bill 1458 and House Bill 3070)."
More Information

For detailed information on the Families For Orphans Act visit:
The Joint Council website (www.jcics.org)
For minute-by-minute updates, see Joint Council's page on Facebook


Rebecca Harris
Government Relations and Communications Manager

The Families For Orphans Coalition

Emotions Run Rampant

It has been an emotional weekend at Casa de LaJoy. Josh and I had our first counseling session Friday morning which was very enlightening for me. We met together with Joan, then at her suggestion after he was comfortable I left for a short period of time. While I was present, it was so interesting to watch Josh, to see the emotions play across his face...to see him try so hard to think about things that were uncomfortable and to offer real answers. There were long pauses as he considered what it was he was really feeling, and times when he honestly couldn't express it. It's asking a lot of a 6 year old to be able to identify and define emotions that even adults would find a challenge to talk about! But he did rather well, and his maturity is really beginning to show.

We talked about many different things, about what he felt like when he has had episodes of insecurity, about what he is scared of, and most interesting we delved a bit into his feelings about his birth mom. Joan asked him to explain to us as best he could what his thoughts were about his orphanage, explaining he may not remember it but we wanted to know what his impression was...was it good, bad or just OK. Then I also asked him if it was more good than bad to give him another level of explanation. We first asked him about people we knew would elicit a positive response, and he would use a "thumbs up". Then we asked about the orphanage and the caretakers there, which he indicated was "OK" but when questioned further was a little more bad than OK. When asked about his birth mom, he at first said he didn't know...then said more bad than OK. It was obvious that any time we came around the subject of bio mom and dad he was reluctant and less open about his expressing his feelings, although not showing any open anger.

When I left the room, they worked with puppets, which is exactly the sort of imaginary play that is right up Josh's alley. Joan tried to get Josh to use the puppets to "talk" to his birth mom, to tell her anything he wanted to say. This was the most telling thing for me...within a few moments he said "I just can't do this." and would no longer participate.

While we have the insecurity issues to deal with and are developing strategies to work with that more effectively, this little guy has a real wall up about his birth circumstances, and I have a feeling that unless we get to the bottom of that we will continue to see this revisit us over and over again...and maybe even if we DO deal with it successfully we might find he still has issues about it all.

In the meantime, I have remembered some of the things I did back when he was 3 and 4 years old which seemed to help. I am now telling him every step I take. If I have to go to the garage to get something out of the freezer, I will tell him where I am going and that I will be back in 2 minutes. If I will be working in another room in the house, I will tell him where I will be and how long he can expect me to be there. That does seem to lessen his need a little to check on me continually. He still has the urge, but it is less frequent. We are going to try to set a timer if I am working on a project safely in the house or in our yard and tell him he may only check on me when the timer goes off, and then slowly stretch that out from his current once-every-5-minutes to less frequent check in's. I also am going to laminate a small picture of Dominick and I that he can carry around with him and I will urge him to look at it when he starts feeling edgy about us not being physically next to him.

I also came up with an idea today, and I think we will try and have him draw and write a story about the beginning of his life, and then talk about it. I want to see what comes out in art and word when he is trying to share it with others in a non-verbal way, then we can talk about each page of his "book" and I can urge him to share what it feels like, not just the facts. I have no idea if this will help or not, but I think helping him put it on paper and get it out in a way that provides us with an opportunity to really examine it carefully one step at a time might just help him organize and explore his thoughts about it.

He was so tired after our appointment and lunch that he fell fast asleep in the car. I looked in the rearview mirror and something about seeing him there with his beloved torn and tattered blankie carefully wrapped around the new stuffed bear he got at Joan's office just touched me ever so deeply. He is such a nurturing little boy, caring so tenderly for his animals as well as those humans around him...and yet he is so vulnerable. It is as if he wants to make sure that those that he loves, living or stuffed, are loved and cared for in a way he never was in his early months. I also said a prayer of thanksgiving that his reactive attachment disorder has been successfully dealt with in most ways. We don't have a son that we fear may harm us or others, we don't have a child who is loud and angry and physically acting out. He is not a liar nor deceitful in any way. He is a very, very good and respectful son.

He just hurts inside. He is scared mommy or daddy will leave him and never come back. When that has already happened once in your life, it is a very reasonable fear. It is not at all irrational. When you think about it, most RAD behavior actually makes a lot of sense when considered from the point of view of the child. We may not like it, we may think it is abnormal based upon comparison with other children...but kids like Josh have been given good reason to push others away, to reject affection and protect their damaged little hearts.

Actually, I think it would be more abnormal if a child came through some of the things our RAD kids have come through and act as if all was OK!! Now THAT would be abnormal! But because the behavior hurts us so much, because we feel rejected and confused and uncertain about what to do we see their behavior as unusual and abnormal. I guess I always saw it as making good sense, even if I didn't like it. I realized we had to provide Josh with a new construct, a new set of experiences to balance against the old that had hurt him so much in order to help him move forward out of self-protection mode, and I knew that would not happen overnight. We were able to do that over time, but now there is this lingering insecurity which may never fully leave him. We now will have to teach him coping strategies to deal with, to help him see it for what it is in a rational way. The older he gets the easier that might be, but we will begin now and do what we can. If we need to revisit this many times over his childhood, then so be it. Each time will strengthen him, each time he will see it anew.

Matthew and Kenny both returned from church camp today, and all is right with our world! Hahaha! I happened to pull up next to our mailbox this evening after my ministry classes in Grand Junction just as Dominick was there with the boys. Absolutely nothing in the world can beat the look on Matthew's face as he came racing out of their van and ripped open my door yelling "Mommy! Mommy!", giving me the biggest hug ever. He suddenly looked much younger and I was thinking to myself "They really are still little guys." which is sometimes hard to remember as the days pass so quickly and they grow faster than I ever imagined they would.

As we all pulled into the driveway and piled into the house, Kenny comes in and I can tell right away something is wrong, his eyes are red rimmed and he is trying hard to hold his emotions in check. He comes straight into my arms and melts, tears streaming and his chest heaving. He tries to tell me what is wrong but between his speech issues and the sobs I can't make it out so I have to ask him to repeat himself a couple of times. Turns out he is terribly sad about this being his last year at La Foret with his amazing counselors, and he had such a good time this year that he doesn't want it to end...he doesn't want to move up to the older group. He has had the same 3 women as his counselors, all of them older moms who saw Kenny from his first week at camp 2 years ago when he had been home barely a month and had no English at all to speak of, was as mature as the average 4 year old at times, and they were highly skeptical that Kenny and I would last even a couple of days. Seeing him only once a year for a week, they have seen dramatic changes in Kenny over 3 yearly visits.

He finally calmed down and a couple of hours later they all went to bed, and I heard him quietly crying again so I went in and took him by the hand, leading him back to our bedroom where we sat in the recliner and I rocked his gangly body in my arms as he cried and cried. When the tears slowed we started quietly talking...talking about loss, about love, about mixed emotions. He said he would miss these 3 women so much, that they had done so much for him to help him "see God", that they made him feel very special. He asked why it hurt so bad. I then took him back mentally to when our best friends moved to Chicago and how painful that was for me, how I cried many tears myself as our friendship was amazing and special and although I was ever-so-glad to have had them in my life it hurt very badly to have them leave. He remembered how hard that was for me and the rest of us, and we talked about how that pain eventually dims and then only the good memories remain. I suggested that it might help him feel better to write each one of his counselors and tell them how special they were to him, how he appreciated them so much. Finally he was calm enough to go back to bed and fall quickly into a deep slumber.

There are moments this Mommy stuff isn't easy, when you can't easily find the words or you don't know what is the right course of action to take. I question myself daily...heck, hourly sometimes...wondering if I am doing the right thing, if I have said the right words. Each of our sons has such an incredible heart, they are so open with their affection, so generous of spirit. I don't want to ruin that. I sometimes feel so inadequate to parent these emotionally deep kids, like I can't possibly keep up with them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE who they are!! While this depth of spirit and unusual set of life experiences which follows them and sometimes haunts them affects them forever, it has also created some uniquely emotionally wise-beyond-their-years young men who are tolerant, forgiving and thoughtful.

I constantly worry about my ability to continue to give them what they need so they are not hindered by their past, but are able to use it as a stepping stone to maturity. I guess it is hard at times for me to keep up with it all and feel I am walking the right path with each of them, as the path is different for each and the terrain constantly seems to be changing. I worry I will miss the crack in the sidewalk that I know will trip them up.

As Matt and Kenny each unpacked their bags tonight, they shared their camp gift shop purchases with Josh and his best buddy who went along on the trip to check out the camp for their first year next year. Both boys had something for the little ones, not knowing that Josh's friend would be with Dominick they each gave away him something they had intended to keep for themselves...a stuffed animal from Kenny and a camp pennant from Matthew. Their first thought was not for themselves as they didn't want to leave anyone else out. It was not just Kenny who was in tears when, after we all settled down and the boys had a late dinner I asked "What was the best part of camp?" and Matthew answered "Shopping for my brothers at the gift shop! I couldn't wait to get them something!". Knowing he had a terrific time and had tons of pictures to show for it, I thought it was pretty darned special that his favorite memory was when he was thinking of giving to others. Kenny's response? "F.O.B (short for "feet on bunk" hour rest time) when I could write you and daddy a letter!".

And as I finish writing this after having spent the past two evenings photographing a group of close friends' family reunion where 60+ family members gathered from round the country, I realize my own mini-family reunion tonight was just about picture perfect itself. We may not be 60 members strong, but we are LaJoy's, and we are DEFINITELY family.

Infant Attachment Disorder A Few Years Down the Road

We have the RAD monster fully active again at our house, and we intend to tackle it full force! Joshie has definitely had a setback, and we are beginning therapy again with our first visit on Friday. I attempted to do so a few weeks back, prior to "FluFest '09" and was thwarted in my efforts as we all had to regain our health. But the past couple of weeks were firm reminders of the fact that my dear son is wandering around with a hurting soul, and we need to do our best to help him.

Much of what we are seeing is revisiting what he was like at about 3 or 4 years old. While the night terrors have subsided, that may be only because we now have an air mattress on the floor of our bedroom and have reassured him he can continue to sleep in our room every night for as long as he feels a need to. Yea, I know other parents would flip out over that and send him quickly back to his room, but we feel it is absolutely the right thing to do to reassure him that we are nearby and he is safe. When he was younger and finally allowed himself to sleep in our bed and wasn't as repulsed by human touch as he initially was, we slowly saw great change in him which we attributed in part to co-sleeping and the security that provided him. As the night terrors have diminished we once again feel it is the right move and as far as I am concerned he can stay there for months if that is what is needed. There is nothing as gut wrenching as having your 6 year old son scream out in the middle of the night "Don't take me back, I don't want to go!" or "Mommy, don't leave me!!" as he sobs with his eyes wide open, seeing no one but the terror of the moment in his dream.

For me though it is the daytime behaviors that are the hardest to see resurface. Let me share with you what Infant Reactive Attachment Disorder looks like in a child as they mature and perhaps regress a bit...

1) Right now Joshua needs to know where I am every single moment. He spends much of his time feeling very uncomfortable if I am out of sight. For example, as I work in our guest bedroom/office and he is in another area of the house, he will come and quietly stick his head in the door at least 7 or 8 times in a 45 minute period...pulling away from activities with his brothers to go check on me and make sure I am still there. He has nothing to say, he wants nothing, he just needs to know I am still there.

2) I am followed every where, he is so insecure right now that unless he is with others such as Dominick or our very closest friends, he will follow me to the bathroom, around the outside of our home, out to the car. If our entire family is in the backyard hanging out and I happen to wander to the front porch to water the plants, I will soon find him right there beside me.

3) If we try to leave him in a certain location with his brothers, for example at the toy aisle at Target and I am going to be the next aisle over...totally within earshot...he will dissolve into tears. He HAS to go with me.

4) I have noticed lately that he is still very genuinely affectionate...but if I lean in for a kiss he will turn his face away, then catch himself sometimes and turn back to me. It is automatic, not something he is even very aware of, but it is one of the subtle things that are huge red flags to me.

5) His personality is a bit more subdued, he is not quite as joyful as he usually is, although not actually depressed acting.

6) I don't know if this is going hand in hand, but his eating patterns have changed as well, he is not eating as much as he normally is, declining to eat some of his normally desired foods.

Thankfully, we are having no other forms of acting out, no anger, no temper. Much of this is huge regression from where we were even 6 months ago, and it is hard for me to see.

Sadness, insecurity, fear...those are the things we are seeing...and it breaks my heart.

I know intellectually we are likely going to be revisiting this many times over his childhood, but I hate that he is walking around feeling so uncomfortable and uncertain inside. I want my son to be emotionally healthy and strong, to be able to feel confident as he walks through the world.

I can't fix this, I desperately want to and yet I can't.

He is older now, he is better able to verbalize his feelings, he is also extremely intelligent. All of this may work in our favor as we delve into things once again. He is not a non-verbal infant who is terribly disturbed and hurting. I remind myself that we made it through once, and we can make it through again...that we are actually much further along than we were years ago. Why then does this bother me so?

But when his instinct is to turn away from me, it still hurts. When he turns back, it feels a little better...but it is as if I am someone whom he still fears will let him down, will abandon him, will once again hurt him. And in spite of it, he still loves me deeply as do I love him.

I think of what might happen were I to meet with an early demise. How would that tear him up? How would that destroy all that we have worked so hard to accomplish? This wonderful, sweet, tender child of mine who has been through so much...I live daily with the secret and often unvoiced fear that something would happen to me and Josh's deepest held nightmare would come true. I pray often that God would lay a protective hand over me, not to keep me here for my own desires but to save my son who might not live through it either. I hate having those thoughts so often, yet I admit it is very true.

So once again we will begin to slowly work to draw Joshie out, to bring his fears into the light and address his insecurities. Maybe I will get my happy little guy back, maybe I will soon have back the direct eye contact that I miss, maybe eventually he won't have to catch himself subtly turning away.

I love this child so very, very much...he is just about the sweetest soul I have ever met. It is hard for anyone not to love Joshie, now if we can only find a way to let him feel that love and rest in it securely.

He is lucky, he has a caring and nurturing family, brothers who adore him, a best buddy who is just as sweet and kind as he is, other adults in his life who contribute so much. It is what has brought him this far and I have to trust it will eventually bring him all the way. God will continue to work through all those around Josh, will use their arms to hug him and hold him, to help him gain all that was lost 6 years ago when he was abandoned and handed from one set of disinterested arms to another in institutional care. He is really a child of many others, not just our child, their love pours into him. He is also a child of God, and as we continue to build that spiritual connection perhaps he will one day be able to find solace and comfort in that when those insecure moments creep up on him.

When I think of all Josh has to help him achieve emotional stability, of all those rooting for him and in his corner cheering him on, it is hard not to think of all those children who suffer such fears who have no one to continue to hang in there with them, no one to even begin to help them find a way to happiness and feeling whole. Foster kids who have been tossed about at the whim of a system they have no control over, children in orphanages all over the world who feel unloved...and remain so in "real life", children who aren't even "lucky enough" to be in an orphanage who survive life on the streets and back alleys.

Why, oh why, does anyone...from the littlest child to the eldest senior citizen in a nursing home...have to feel unloved in a world full of so many people? Why??? Perhaps it is my experiences with Josh that have brought sharply into focus those in my circle who are lonely at moments, who I can imagine having solitary times where they too question why they feel abandoned regardless of their station in life. I honestly try hard to see to it that anyone I know of who might feel uncared for even for a moment would know that they are not alone, that I care, that there is someone who will happily provide a hug, will stop and listen to them and be truly interested in what they have to say, who will think of them when we are apart. I have some tremendous friendships in my life, I have amazing people who surround me who are just the absolute best, and they deserve MY best. Joshie has made me ever more aware of the quiet pain of others, I am thankful to have my eyes opened but wish it weren't at the expense of my son.

You Know Your Family Is Different When...

You know your family is different when...

1) Your kids ask for wallet photos of themselves to create pretend passports...and they remember to include visa stamps...and they line up at a little table with one of them sitting behind it with a grim face saying "Passport Control" and seriously giving the "passport holder" the onceover as they compare photos with the face.

2) Your kids lay their arms down on the table and line them up according to skin color.

3) A friend asks the evening of 4th of July if your son needs a jacket because it is growing cooler and as he casually walks away he responds over his shoulder "Naw...I'm Kazakh...we don't get cold!".

4) You are at Target with your kids and one of their buddies who happens to be a cute little blond guy, and your kids are spending gift cards received from Grandma, and the clerk says to your son's buddy "Well how fair is that? Mom and Dad buy gifts for your friends and you get nothing?"...and you tell the clerk "You have it wrong, he's the one who isn't ours!"...and she STILL looks at you like you are crazy and you can tell she still can't even figure out which kids are really yours.

5) You see someone at an event in town whom you haven't seen in a long time and they ask jokingly "So...do you still have 2 kids? Or are you up to 5 or 6?"...and they are joking...and they don't even know you currently have 3...you don't know how to tell them it really WILL soon be 5!

6) Your kids ask you what countries hit your blog today.

7) You drive behind an SUV with those stick figures of family members on it...and your son says "Man, mom...look at that, that's a lot of little guys on there!"...and you quickly count and say "Yes, but that's one less than we'll eventually have..." and your son's eyes grow ever slightly larger. Then, in some misguided effort to make it sound better you say softly "...but at least we don't have the dog. Yet."...and your voice kind of drifts off...

8) Your son gets into an involved conversation with adults about the merits of traveling via Lufthansa versus other carriers.

9) You walk through Walmart and you see 2 little girls standing off to the side staring at your family and one of them is making "slant eye" faces which thankfully your children miss...and you walk by and don't hesitate before out pops out "You girls ought to be ashamed of yourselves..."

10) It takes more than 5 minutes to explain the birth order of your children.

And finally...#11 - When you experience all of the above on a daily basis and DON'T think of your family as different!!

Fear in Many Forms

As I have tried to discern and follow what I have perceived as a call to ministry in one form or another, I have really had to push myself to enter uncomfortable arenas. I often find that I am laughing inwardly...almost maliciously...as I struggle to let go of old images of myself. It is hard when you begin to pursue something you never would have imagined for yourself. Believe me, this caught me totally off guard and I avoided what was growing more and more obvious for a very long time. I heard God, but chose to ignore what I was hearing because I was so disturbed by it.

When I finally gave in and realized I would know no peace until I did surrender, a wave of relief washed over me which was quickly followed by great fear and trepidation. Those who minister to others have a great responsibility and they need skills which are not always as measurable as those necessary for an architect or a mathematician. The soul is the very essence of who we are, and nurturing that precious part of us is not a task to be taken lightly.

So upon making the decision to follow what I felt was God's path for me and work towards licensed lay ministry, I knew there were going to be great challenges ahead. I was going to be pushed so far out of my comfort zone that it would be like asking a gorilla to excel at needlepoint. I am not at all a person one would point to and call "courageous", and stepping into the unknown abyss is something that most often I would turn and run away from. But I knew if I wanted to honor God and respect the direction I had been given I simply had no choice.

So today, for the 3rd time in 4 years I found myself standing at the pulpit and delivering a sermon. I was asked if I was interested in filling in while our interim pastor was away this week, and my first inclination was to say "no" but somehow "yes" came out. This is so completely out of my element. I am an absolutely horrible orator. I was the kid in high school who would rather die than give an oral report, who was the wallflower and preferred to sit near the back of the class and not be called on often. There are those who exude confidence with a microphone in their hands, who are such naturals at it. I am not one of them.

Why do it then? Because I take this call to lay ministry very seriously, and I have so much to learn. Much of what I have to learn will be uncomfortable at first, and some of it may remain uncomfortable and I may never really feel I have reached a level of proficiency that I am pleased with. So I am forcing myself to follow God into places that are unfamiliar, where I know I might never be satisfied with how I perform. But it is only through this sort of exploration that I will discover those areas where I do excel. And surely there will be one or two along the way.

I stood in front of our congregation today whose numbers were greatly (and thankfully!) diminished due to holiday travel plans, and I did my best. Was it good? No. I am a beginner and know that full well. Was it the best I had to offer with the training and lack of experience I currently have? Yes. That is all God asks of any of us, isn't it? Will I ever be a good preacher? Nope, I highly doubt it. But maybe somewhere in the midst of all that ineptitude there was a message that was received by someone, maybe something I shared as I stood there with knees knocking and heart pounding hit home for someone. If my efforts touched just one heart, I would feel as if my own personal suffering and discomfort was worth it.

I am still trying to figure all of this out, I have no idea what God has in store for me or why I, of all people, have been asked to walk this road. At this stage, all I can manage to see is all the things I can't ever imagine myself doing and all the roles I will never be able to fill. I ask myself over and over again "So why am I doing this????" and the only answer I seem to have is "Because you were told to.". There is no plan for the future at this point, there is no thought as to how I might use the training I am pursuing. There is only trust that what I have been asked to do has value and the use for it will eventually be shown to me.

I am learning a lot from facing some of my fears and pushing myself to do that which does not come naturally to me. I am seeing myself from a different perspective, as someone who maybe does have a little guts. I also like the lesson this is teaching my sons, that you don't walk away from something simply because it is hard or scary. You can tell your children to "do the hard stuff" but there is nothing like showing them.

Tonight as I sit here I'm also giving great thanks that Dominick, our friend Mr. Steve, Matthew and Kenny are all safe. They were driving the boys over to Colorado Springs when their 5 hour trip was interrupted when they came across a road block as the traffic was stopped due to a 4 car pileup on the 2 lane mountain pass they were traveling. There was at least 1 fatality and the road closure caused them to have to double back and lose about 2 hours on the drive. It had happened not long before they were to have passed through that section of road. They were running a bit late this morning, and it might have literally saved their lives.

Isn't that one of our worst nightmares? That we will not be traveling with our family and something will happen to them and we will be left behind? When we read of such stories in the media, we almost wish we hadn't read them for the emotions they bring up in us are ones we want to push away, as it is unfathomable to think of being a survivor when the rest of your family has perished. I am one of those who would never live through such an ordeal, I would never have the strength to go on if I were to lose my family. I am eternally grateful that other than an inconvenience of the boys arriving at camp 2 hours late, tonight is not a night of horrible sorrow.

Thank you God, for so many things.