And We Are Off and Running!

It's the sixth day of 2008! And are we having fun yet? It's just been crazy, crazy, crazy!

Had a single mom show up at church last week. That's where the wild ride began. This mom had three children: 4, 6, 8 years old. The eight year old boy is in Laura's class at school. The story goes like so:

The little four year old girl looks very sleepy all during Primary. I lay her down on some chairs in the back of Primary. She sleeps all through primary and the mom can't seem to arouse her after. At about 3:00 PM the missionaries in my ward call and ask if I can watch the other two children. The mom thinks she should take the little girl to the ER to make sure there is nothing wrong with the girl. I say "yes" to the missionaires about taking the boys and think that it will be a short two or three hours on Sunday afternoon. Boy was I wrong! At about 7:00 PM we decide to take the little boys to look at Christmas lights. Then we get a phone call asking us if we could have the boys overnight. No big deal, right?! Come to find out the children are wards of the state and Daren and I will have to have an emergency background check so the children can spend the night at our house. It's 11:00 PM by now and there is a police officer and a HHS child protective worker checking out our house and us! We passed luckily! It makes you think of all the clean laundry piles everywhere, the mounds of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and the dirt in the corners you have been meaning to clean. So after collecting some bedding, clean clothes and the medications the boys are on, we had two extra guests for the night! And a night it was.

In the morning we dropped off the two boys at daycare and then went to see the little girl in the hospital. Seems the little girl "might" have been given some of her mom's med's or just too much or her own. Still don't know about that one.

I got to see a side of the law I really hadn't before and don't know if I want to see again for a long time. I want to remain with my head in the sand...not really...but it sounds nice at this point. I had to watch as the police counted this single mom's medications for herself and her three children. Some pretty heavy duty medications if I do say so myself. I watched the police photo journal this family's home. It was not a place I would want to have my kids. Very dirty and very cluttered. I had actually cleaned two of the rooms early in the day as I went to pick up the children. I was just trying to help! Glad I did now!

After that day...we had a wonderful New Year's Eve with a cute young LDS newscaster from our ward. We invited her over to help us eat some of the chocolate fountain we pulled out for the "kiddo's." NICE! and so fun!

The week just went so quickly. A broken stove--brand new and still under warranty. And so many other "little" things. It is a little frustrating to have the "little" trials of life that sometimes come when one is trying to do what is right--especially in serving others. Had a neat older couple in the ward loan us a griddle, roaster and frying pan for the next couple of weeks until our stove is fixed. We are doing some pretty creative cooking and loving it! IF you have any tips on feeding a family of six with these devices please pass on the advice. I'm all ears!