Family Prayer

Five months ago, almost to the day, we brought home two kids who had gone through a lot and had experienced a gamut of emotions. The very first night we brought them home, we knelt in family prayer up in the boys' bedroom. We prayed for each child by name and asked for blessings to meet their specific needs. They were of course restless and didn't understand what we were doing but they were pleased to go along with it.

Since then, we have....

Prayed together before bed 153 times.

Gone to church 20 times

Made 10 loaves of bread and about 20 dozen cookies.

Did 240 loads of laundry

Watched 8 hours of LDS General Conference

Taken 330 pictures

Gone on 10 walks

Gone to 5 movies

Had 15 picnics

Given 450 baths

Read the same books 100's of times (yippie! If you'd like to know what Patrick keeps in his backpack, I'm the gal to ask)

Swam in the front yard 12 times, a real pool 2 times

Went to the zoo and aquarium 1 time

Went to the park 25 times

Went to time out countless times

Played 20 hours of Super Nintendo, Mario Brothers (curse you castle #3)

Drove 1500 miles added up

Went to 2 team meetings

Attended 1 court hearing (skipped 3)

Wrote 2 letters to mom in jail

9 family visits

Painted 20 fingernails 6 times

5 visits from caseworkers

Celebrated 7 birthdays and 3 holidays

Watched a billion youtube videos

Agonized over 40 pages of homework

Went to 22 playgroup meetings

Wrote 9 journal entries per kid

Offered 2 father's blessings

Had 2 going away parties, one with friends, one with family

Laughed everyday, cried every night, hugged more than ever and was humbled beyond words.

Last night, we gathered in a circle for prayer together for the last time as this group of six. This time, they all four knew how to pray and each of them begged to be the one to offer our final prayer together. This time, the children prayed for each person by name, thanked the Lord for their blessings, and asked for their needs. What a whirl wind the past five months have been...

I'll never be the same.

Today we took them to their new home with their wonderful family. Little Big Man sobbed as he said goodbye and Essa was eager to be with her cousins. Tate and Emerson cried as they gave them hugs goodbye and that was it. We drove away in a very quiet van.

We messed up a lot in this process, I rarely, if ever, had the right answers to the problem. I honestly, saw a side to myself at times that I wasn't proud of. But I really feel like this was an experience our family needed to grow and become better. After all, that's what life is about!

Going forward? We don't know. . . Right now I'm sitting in a quiet house for the first time in five months, so we'll figure that out tomorrow-ish!

. . .But you'll be the first to know. . .