One down, one to go...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The day started off with a bang...a howling wind-and-rainstorm.  But things settled down by the time the appointed hour arrived.

Photo creds to his sister, The Princess.

It was a very sweet wedding.  They were married in the church she grew up in, with her dad officiating.

The ladies of the church put together a fantastic reception in the basement.  One commented to me that the bride was 'the church baby'...born shortly after her parents came to pastor; everyone watched her grow into the lovely young lady she is now.  Love was very evident all around.

I commented to My Sweet Babboo that The Actor's Little Red Haired Girl is an actual princess.

I confess, I had kinda leaky eyes through the ceremony.  I didn't when the girls were married, much to my surprise.  But I think it was her dad who moved me to tears.  He held it together really well, a barely discernable effort only threatening once.  But I know of some...difficulties...they are walking through, and to hear him speak of the wonderful adventure in front of the kids, knowing full well that life is hard but the work is worthwhile, really touched me.

Fortunately there was a box of kleenex on the front pew, lol.

They went away for the weekend, but will head home tomorrow. Their actual 'wedding trip' will be to Colorado in October to see the eclipse.  So totally in character for them.

I still have laundry to catch up and decor to store.  But there's another event on the horizon, so...well, I'll get it caught up eventually.

An Epic Christmas Present

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

My Sweet Babboo and I got married in 1980.  One of the wedding gifts we received was an antique-styled cookie tin.  Oh, it came from Penny's or Sears or some such place, but it was a great storage bin for home made cookies.

We didn't travel to Indiana for Christmas in 2000...that was one of those 'Christmas on a Sunday' (oy.  see note below) years that just made holiday travel tough... normally, there's a weekend on either side of the holiday for travel, but when Christmas falls on a Sunday it's just rough logistically.  So, with the extra time that year, we made an assortment of Christmas cookies...spritz cookies, rolled and cut and iced cookies...it was a big family project.

And, of course, those cookies went into the cookie tin.

Now, that was the year that we decided that, since we weren't going home, we could travel down to Jacksonville, Florida and attend Morning Star Ministries' New Years Conference...that ran from, oh, Friday night through Sunday night.  When we left town, we still had half a tin of cookies, so we took them with us to nosh on whilst we were down there.

The conference was awesome; a catalyst for us as a family, but when we got home, we realized we'd left the cookie tin and remaining cookies on the counter in the kitchenette of our hotel suite.

Bummer, man.

Sometime around Thanksgiving, the kids were all sitting around the table reminiscing about various things and that weekend came up.  And whenever that weekend comes up, whatever else we mention we always mourn a bit over the forgotten cookies.  I commented that I really missed that cookie tin...but, well, what's past is past, right?

Yesterday, we unwrapped our Christmas gifts.  One gift was 'saved for last'.  It was to me from The Artist...the 30 year old older son, and everyone else knew what it was.

Y'all.  He managed to find an identical cookie tin to the one we'd left behind 18  years ago.

Jaw on floor.

That may be the single most epic Christmas gift I've ever gotten.

That's a great start to the year...resurrection, restoration, however you want to look at it.

The boy did good.

ETA Note:  I totally misremembered that.  Christmas was on Monday that year; I think, in retrospect,  we just wanted to try 'Christmas at Home' instead of traveling.

It's a busy summer...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Despite my best intentions, I didn't  get the Joshua post written last Thursday so I could publish it on Friday, since we hit the road Friday to take the Actor's Pile to him.

The pile of boxes and stuff that he left in his room when he drove to Florida, awaiting the signing of an apartment lease so that he would have, like, a closet to put the boxes and stuff in.

Well, he signed a lease about a week ago, so we loaded the minivan up full and headed south.

Y'all, it had been nearly 14 years since I was last in Florida.

But it was to a women's conference in the very city and very church that now employs my son.

You can't make this stuff up.

His apartment is a furnished lock-off (bedroom and bathroom) on a 4 -bedroom dorm-style room.  Common sitting area, eating area, kitchen and laundry and three other locked-off bedrooms with one guy that he knows slightly and two random dudes assigned by the housing complex.

It's about all that fit his budget.  Starting at the bottom.  But it'll do.

We took our time driving down, stopping for the night in Valdosta..no hurry, and we didn't want to wear ourselves out.

So we got there around 11 AM on Saturday, unloaded the car, had some lunch, and went to go check in the hotel whilst he shuffled through the stack of stuff to clear things enough to actually, like, sleep.

We puttered around until we could check in, chilled in the room a bit, then went to an ice cream place and talked for about 2 hours.  The next day, we went to church.

Which is so much like our church that it didn't even feel different.  Had some awesome worship, heard a great word, and got a look at the children's area, which was all decked out for the summer theme, that you totally cannot see from this angle.

He manned the exit door after the service.

Dinner at a dad-place (read: barbeque), then we hugged him bye and headed north for a few hours, stopped and drove the rest of the way on Monday.  Totally avoiding Atlanta, by the way.

Back to work today.

Not sure how often we'll get down to see him...but I bet it's not another 14 years.

Not sure how often I'll get my Friday posts up and how many times I'm going to miss it.  There's a lot going on in the next two or three months...but we'll catch up as best we can.

"Baby Bird's Gotta Fly Sometime...."

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

WARNING: Much rambling reminiscing ahead to set up the news I'm sharing in the end...lol...

In the late 90's, we were still in our little denominational church, doing...well, lots of stuff.

My Sweet Babboo made several trips to Promise Keeper Events, and, despite originally not wanting to go, even went to the rally they had in Washington DC in...was it '98?  A start up Christian Satellite TV service offered a deal during their start--up...purchase the equipment with a one-time membership fee and have free Christian satellite for life (well, 'Life' was about 10 ish years before they closed up shop, but I guess we got our money's worth); the kicker was that they were going to broadcast that Washington PK rally live.

So we made the investment so I could watch.  It was awesome.

One of the channels, we discovered, carried a program from Morningstar Ministries  .  30 minutes every Sunday at 2 PM; one worship song and a portion of a teaching from one of their conferences.  String two or three programs together and get the whole message.

We came home, ate dinner, then turned on the VCR and recorded the program as we sat with our Bibles and soaked it in.

I have compared that to the ravens feeding Elijah.

At first, the worship seemed rather strange to us 1st-2nd-and-last-verse folks, but it grew on us.  And, through a series of events, we ended up at their New Year's Conference the last few days of December, 2000, at the location where most of the broadcasts had been filmed - New Life Christian Fellowship Church in Jacksonville, Florida.

The Princess was (barely) 15,  the Artist was 12, the Actor was 7 and the Flute Player was still 7 years away from picking up a flute at age 4.  We had a marvelous time and there were lots of good things that came from that weekend.

In a -wow, I don't believe this- sort of way, before 2001 was over, we had changed churches and the church we ended up in was pastored, as it turned out, by the former senior associate pastor of that very church in Jacksonville, Florida.  They had left just about a year and a half before we were there to start the church in the Rocket City.

Fast forward 17 years...through more uncanny events and amazing relationships, The Actor has just been offered a staff position on the children's ministry team at...you guessed it...New Life Church in Florida.  Where he happened to attend a conference as a 7 year old kid.

Who would ever have thought.

I'm still kind of in denial, I think.  I'm so proud of him for taking this step, but, wow, thatsa long way from home for a kid who has to make the jump to self-supporting.

I just keep reminding myself that Jacob had nothing when he headed to Haran and God took care of him just fine...

He's packing up; he'll take basic necessities with him and his dad and I will come down with a van load of stuff once he gets himself a place with space. He's going to be sleeping on an air mattress w/ friends for a bit.

We'll be down to one kiddo in the house after that.  Gonna be a big change.

But it's the right kind of change.

On Being a Mom...

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This Mother's Day finds me thinking more about being a mom myself than years past; I'm not sure why, other than the youngest graduated from high school last year, so, in theory, the bulk of my parenting years are well behind me.

I commented to someone once when the older kids were still young that I kinda missed being a student.  If you're a student, you learn material, you do the work, you study for the tests, you get a grade.  Pretty immediate feedback on the effort; you know fairly quickly if you did well or if you failed.

But parenting is different.  With parenting, you don't know if you did it right for something like 20 years.  And you only get one shot at it. No do-overs.


We  have great kids.  They are wonderful people.  But somehow I have the feeling that if we had done things better, were better parents, they would make choices that would make their lives easier.   Maybe we should've been stricter regarding video games; maybe I should've stopped what I was doing and played with them more when they were little.  Maybe if I had been a more organized mom, the kids would not struggle with disorganization.  Maybe if we had been parents who tucked in and sang songs and said prayers every night,  we would have prepared them better somehow to recognize their dreams and follow their passion.  Maybe if I hadn't lost my temper that time or that time or that time or that time...or maybe if we had done this or not done that...we'd've been 'A+' parents who gave their kids what they needed to go out and set goals and achieve them.

It's funny...I know that we had to have done things right, because the kids are great people who have (so far, anyway) not made life-crippling choices.  But I do see some struggles to establish themselves, and I wonder if we failed them somehow, made life more difficult for them.

And you know...I kinda suspect that this self-doubt is something that plagues most parents of young adults.  Because we did the best we knew how to do, and yet, somehow, feel like it wasn't good enough.

But God.

It is God who put in those kids their particular mix of gifts and talents and then put them in my house to raise.  I kinda have to assume that He knew what He was doing, even if I didn't.  And He has endless stores of grace to make up for where I fell short.  AND...He has a greater interest in my kids living out their destiny than I do.

And He has plans for them...plans to prosper them and not to harm them, to give them a hope and a future.  He created their inmost being, and He does all things well. They are His workmanship, created to do specific things that He prepared beforehand.

So...I need to give over all my doubts and insecurities and inadequacies and foul-ups and goof-ups and parenting mistakes  and let God redeem them all.  It would be pretty prideful thinking to believe that I could mess something up beyond God's ability to resurrect and restore it to what He originally intended.

If they will follow Him, it is enough.  He will take it from there.

5 Minute Writing

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I've seen some 'participate and link up' memes floating around where the bloggers are given a particular word and have to write for 5 minutes without stopping and editing...just as an exercise in creative writing.  I've thought about participating once or twice, but never really caught it right.

But tonight....

We're starting a song writers group at church.  I don't know if I can contribute much, but, given the manuscript sitting in a drawer waiting on...something...I thought I should go and see what I can learn.

The first meeting was tonight.  Our leader had a small table with random things on it...a little ceramic bird, a candle in a holder, a tv remote...stuff like that.

We were to choose one item and write however it inspired us for five minutes.  I didn't quite finish what I wanted to say in that five minutes, but I have to confess that even as I was writing it I thought, 'Oh, this will make a good blog post!'

So...my five minute assignment...with no editing, although I will finish it ;-)

Little Birds in a nest
 2004...the week leading up to [The Princess's] graduation.  Mama robin had built a nest in the holly bush  in front of the living room window and the four eggs hatched.

Amid the preparation for the graduation festivities we would stand in the window and watch as mama and papa robin fed those creatures that were little more than gaping mouths.

But they grew with astonishing speed, turning from mouths into indignant looking naked birds, then growing pin feathers and opening their eyes to see the world.

Photos barely captured the transformation, as in just a matter of days they became too big for the nest, crowding together and vying for the tidbits mama and papa continued to bring.

Graduation day...we joined the throngs at the civic center to see our girl cross the stage, deliver her speech and move her tassel.

Morning after, she left to spend a week with her grandparents, a high school graduate with her future before her.
(as far as I got.  And I was so close to finishing!)
We returned to normal life, and the baby birds hopped about the branches in the bush. The next day...they all flew away.

A Sunshower Kind of Day

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Laha Roi

Pouring rain and bright sunshine.

Appropriate for the return home from dropping The Actor off at his new home for the next 9 months.

When the older kids went to the church internship apartments, they were still in town.  Still working at church.

But this is a slightly different internship.  He'll be actually out of town, going to one of the other campuses for church.  And he's in a...different...sort of environment.  This is not the church program, but an internship with a prophetic evangelist friend.  The intern guys stay in what are pretty much bunk rooms at the ministry center.  Even if nothing else transforming takes place, learning to live in that kind of a space is going to have an impact.

Now, he's 20 years old and he's had two years at the internship at church, riding back and forth with me, so it's not like he's fresh out of high school.  And I know in my heart that this is the right next step for him.  And I know it's just for nine months, and then he'll be back for at least a season.

But tonight...after all is said and done, there are three of us in the house that less than two years ago held six. Suddenly that seems like a very abrupt change.  And I'm wanting to stop, to slow down, to hold everyone for just a wee bit longer.

So I'm indulging my maudlin mom emotions for just tonight, even while I'm very proud of the folks these kids of ours are turning out to be.

The sunshower was the perfect allegory...

The LAST "Last First Day"

Posted to Beer Lahai Roi by Lisa Laree

Somebody asked me at work today if I was having a hard time dealing with the baby of the family starting her senior year today.

I replied that it only bothered me when I thought about it, and I've got so much going on that I haven't had time to think about it so...no, not much.  Yet, anyway.

This year is going to be so different in many ways.  The Actor will be going off to a residential internship program...it's just about 20 minutes down the road with a ministry that is run by a long time friend, so it's not like he was going, to say, Mexico or something, but he will be GONE and he will be busy and when he is at church he will be at one of the satellite campuses.  So we three will be rattling around the house somewhat isolated from the rest of the crew.

We raised our kids to be independent; sometimes I think I did a little too good of a job of that.

But the senior year is going to be the last of so many things.  It will be the last time I chaperone the state drama competition (assuming, of course, that nothing comes up to prevent me going this year).  Out of the 10 state competitions in which my kids were participants, I've only missed two...because there was no need for another chaperone.

It will be the last high school musical for which I am obligated to be part of the costume team.  I am not ruling out the possibility that, if asked, I might take my machine down and sew for an evening here or there, but the days of hauling home massive amounts of work will be done.

To be honest, I am somewhat sad that the years that seemed so tedious day by day have flown by so quickly.  Those cute kids...the unstructured days when I did not have to go out and clock in my hours...in hindsight, it was a blur.  I have a few moments that are in sharp focus, but mostly it seems rather like a dream.

But.

I've been doing the kids-in-school thing since The Princess headed off to 3-day-a-week Preschool in 1990.  24 years is a long time to be on repeat...even if each verse is slightly different than the last.  And, not having a self-motivating child, I am Tired Of Pushing.

As poignant as the moment is, I think we almost have the last boulder up to the top of the hill...

I may not know exactly what to do next, but I will at least have something of freedom to choose.

Off she goes on her last 'first day'.

Class of 2014.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Baby number one was a tough one; fussy and rather frustrating.  I discovered that about the only thing that would guarantee a peaceful day was to spend it walking outside or at the mall.

The umbrella stroller saw a lot of use.

Baby number two was even tempered and contented; he would play in his crib for an hour after he woke up.

I thought it was because I was a more experienced mom; I knew what I was doing the second time around, so the second kid was more relaxed and secure.

So when baby number three was on the way, I figured I'd just add one more right into the mix with no trouble...I was a pro, right?

Wrong.

Baby number three was not just fussy, he was demanding.  He was impossible to satisfy.  When he started crying, he went at it with a vengeance.  And he never slept more than two hours at a stretch until he was nearly two years old.

I was one desperate mama.

During one of his crying spells, after trying everything I could think of, (he hated being in the car seat, the baby swing, or being rocked, just to name a few things we tried), I tried deep, swift knee bends.

It calmed him down.  Soon, not only me and his dad, but all the ladies in the church nursery knew the deep knee bend trick.  I joked that I had great quads but the knees of someone way older than I was...

When baby number four came along, they all begged me, 'Please don't do knee bends with her!'

Fast forward to today.

Baby number three, AKA The Actor, currently in the ministry internship program at church, was pegged to work in the nursery during third service.  My Sweet Baboo happened to walk by...and The Actor was doing deep knee bends with a crying baby, explaining to the other interns that I had done that to calm him.

Yes.  There is justice in the world. ;-)

Ten Days...

I knew it was coming, but I still wasn't quite ready for it.

Two Saturday mornings ago, the Artist came down downstairs. 'Mom, would you mind if I borrowed the van for a while today?'

The van is the antithesis of cool.  I was mystified...but I shouldn't have been. 'What do you want the van for?'

He grinned. 'Moving my stuff into the apartment.'

Two of his friends had rented an apartment and were more or less waiting on him to join in and split the costs again.  He'd gotten a raise at work, and paid off one big chunk of his outstanding debt.  Independence was calling.  And the rain was holding off; he wanted to take advantage of the dry weather.

His room (that he painted dark brown only 6 months ago...I'll have to have him help paint it a more girly color before his little sister upgrades into it) isn't *quite* empty, but it's close.  I suppose it's possible that, if both his roomies find ladies and get married, he could end up back at home for a season, but I rather doubt it.  He's never liked living on this end of town; it's too far from his occupation and his social life.

As he was loading up, I kept thinking there should be a ritual or something to help handle the 'moving out'.  A blessing to pass along.  'Bye, mom!' just didn't cut the mustard on this one.  We weren't even home when he brought the van back and got his car and the rest of his stuff and headed out.

But he's gonna be 24 in just a couple of weeks; he's not too young.

And, truth be told, I'm not seeing significantly less of him than I did before.  You wouldn't think it'd make that much difference. And, I suppose, it really doesn't.  It's all in how I decide to look at it.

After all, all I need to do to see him is bake a carrot cake... ;-) 

An Official Beau

The Princess has a Beau. Part of me is thinking, 'It's about time!'...after all, she's 24 1/2...but part of me is thinking, 'What, already?'

This is the first real interest she's had. Oh, there was the high school freshman thing, but that erupted into such drama when it turned out that one of her friends was sweet on the boy that the Princess decided to 'date God' through out her high school years (picture her parents pulling in a 'Yess!!!!' for that one!)

And there was the fellow who wanted to kindle a relationship when she was in her first year of Master's Commission...in which dating is Not Allowed...that she discouraged until he gave up (bad timing, and she was convinced they had incompatible personalities).

But that, so far as we know, anyway, has been it.

Then suddenly the brother of a friend Noticed her. Whilst My Sweet Baboo and I and the two younger kids were visiting family in Hoosierland, The Princess and the Friend's Brother were taking baby steps towards a dating relationship.

Friday night (I should add that it was the FIRST available night after we got back), he came over for dinner and, before the night was over, officially asked for our blessing on said relationship, which they received.

The Princess posted the change in her relationship status on her Facebook account before she retired for the evening. So it is not only official, it is public. Both the Princess and her Beau are in their 20's; they are certainly old enough to know their own minds.

But this is new territory for us. The Flute Player's birthday was over the weekend; I didn't think about the Beau being included in family celebrations right off and had to make an extra grocery stop to pick up a tad more chow for dinner. Not that there's anything wrong with that...I just need to make the paradigm shift.

The times, they are a changin'.... ;)

Risk Assessment

One of the things we did while we were visiting with family last week was attempt to teach a few members of the next generation how to play Euchre, which is a four-person card game that is pretty much limited to the Midwest. I think I was something like 13 when I learned to play; it's a pretty quick game.

My brother's girls (age 15 and 14) wanted to learn, so we paired them with adults and began a learn-as-we-go game. Somehow, the Actor got involved, with me as his coach, despite the fact that he really didn't want to learn.

Euchre's a pretty simple trick-counting game; there's no bidding of numbers, just proclaiming trump, with the team that picks the trump suit for that hand obligated to take 3 of the 5 tricks for that hand. Failure to take those tricks results in 'getting Euchred' and the opposing team scoring two points.

In the course of the game, The Actor and his cousin had been Euchred once, but managed to scramble back into the lead. The score was 9 to 7 (10 points wins), and the offered suit had been declined by the his partner and the dealer's partner. The Actor had a passable hand, but I wasn't sure he could take 3 tricks in the offered suit...he was better in the other suit of that color.

'I don't want to risk it,' he said.

I agreed that it would be risky to order up the offered card (the dealer always picks up the card offered, and the dealer was on the other team). If the other team Euchred them again, it would be a tie, with the next team to score winning.

He repeated, 'I don't want to risk it,'...and ordered up the card, which made the offered suit trump.

As it happened, he hit his partner's hand well and they took all five tricks to earn two points...one over what they needed to win.

But it struck me how odd it was that we had two different ideas of what it meant to 'risk' something undesirable.

My idea of 'risking it' was to order the card up...to risk losing, going down in defeat, getting Euchred. My instinct was to play it safe and wait for the better opportunity...which might not come.

His idea of 'risking it' was to be passive and hope he got a chance to call the suit that was actually better in his hand. But he didn't want to be cut out of the action; he wanted to make things that he did count. He didn't want to risk being made ineffective.

Y'know, maybe the kid's gonna turn out ok eventually after all... ;)

Watch and pray....

One of my sewing buddies wrote a post about one of her children doing well in a public venue, and having folks congratulate her on his performance (Mermaids). I read her post and thought it over and realized that it is far easier for parents to allow their children to own their successes than it is for us to allow them to own their failures. If my kid does really well on something, it's because he/she is a great kid, using the talents God has given him/her.

On the other hand, though, if one of my kids messes up, drops the ball, fails, it's all too easy to believe that it must be because I've done something wrong as a parent. Surely, if I'd've encouraged at the right times, disciplined in the right way, explained life a little better, modeled the right kind of discipline in my own life, this would not have happened! It must be my fault...

Granted, parents have a large input in both the failures and successes of their kids. But ultimately, as my sewing buddy pointed out, the decision to push through to excellence or to give up and let things slide is the child's own decision. There comes a point at which there is nothing more a parent can do but watch.

It's a tough assignment. But right now I'm watching...

Oh. And praying. ;)

When Faith Kicks In

Several years back, I taught the book of James for the local Christian Women's Job Corps site (those of you who did the James study with me remember that I used that study as the basis for the one I did here). In one of the sessions...I don't remember which...I heard myself say something to the effect of "Faith doesn't kick in until it looks hopeless."

That wasn't in my notes, but I realized that it was true. It's easy to believe God's working when you can see a way out; it's when you don't see a way out that it's hard to hold on to the promises.

I've mentioned that the younger kids are struggling with their grades; that has been a great disappointment to me because I thought we'd been through that and they had adjusted. By the time we realized they dropped their respective balls, there was precious little time left in the term. We've tried to contact the teachers; there's one that still hasn't responded (although it is possible the response has been lost in cyberspace). Meantime, the hole has been dug deeper. Now, there's no excuse for the continued use of the digging equipment...but if we'd gotten some feedback from that teacher, we possibly could've headed it off.

Water under the bridge at this point. We have 3 days of classes and then finals left. There may be reaping of what was sown, and there may be gnashing of teeth once the term is over.

Faith kicking in requires me to believe that God is more concerned with my kids getting what they need than I am. He will not allow failure unless He has a plan to redeem it. No...that's not quite right. If the kids choose to fail, He will allow it. But He also stands ready to redeem it when they follow Him. Ultimately, it's not about my faith that God will not allow my kids to fail, it's about their faith that He can guide them through even personal failure to His purpose if they will commit their way to Him.

Not commit their way to me. Commit their way to Him.

That's the hard part. Trusting Him with them...no matter what.

And I know that things could be soooo much worse. It's not a horrid disease. It's not criminal activity. It's not blatant rebellion. It's...grades. It's a place in the magnet program.

But my heart hurts for them just the same...to put themselves in such a hard place when just a little discipline and responsibility could've prevented the whole thing.

But, I know He is trustworthy; He has plans to prosper and not to harm, plans for a hope and a future.

No matter how ugly it gets for the next term; I believe He is able to put them where they need to be.

Doesn't look good, but I believe.

Heavy Lifting

I wrote on the Actor's facebook page that I was very proud of him for his heavy lifting.

Remember the grades that were abysmally low about 5 weeks ago? He brought everything up to A's and B's by the time the report cards came out.

I'd say that was some major elevation.

Certainly worthy of an 'attaboy!'...and more than a few 'Hallelujah!'s ;)

Fight the Weariness

The Actor posted the following on his Facebook:
Do not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. - Gal. 6:9

I'm encouraged that he posted that...we are struggling mightily to not become weary in doing good (that would be writing essays for AP classes). We turned a corner on attitude, but it's still a mind-grinding load of work. He gets weary of doing it; I get weary of trying to be the understanding supportive mom and not slip back into the role of being angry when he doesn't do it the way I think he should.

He's got to find his own voice. Even if he turns in the essay late, if he writes a really good one it will pull his average up. Not as much as if it had been turned in on time, but up is up.

The key for him is to not give up until the good essay is written...the key for me is to not give up praying for him and encouraging him to do his best work.

But these late night efforts are making me tired enough that my ears are ringing.

Thank you, Lord, that as he makes the shifts in his mental gears to grasp the form of essay writing they will get easier for him.