The Streetpoet

Wednesday evenings are my time with Gigi, and she so graciously runs errands with me while the boys are in AWANA clubs. It’s nice to have the help and company, and the time with her is precious as we’ve had so many years apart.

As wonderful as Wednesdays are, this week was memorable for a busted milk gallon glugging under the fridge as I hurriedly put the perishables up before going to get the boys. Thankfully Gigi is strong enough to move the refrigerator and helped me mop it up before leaving, but then poor Ian was hysterical from being left in his car seat, and we had forgotten the dog who was following us out the driveway, so we just let her in as we didn’t have time to put her back in the house. Thankfully Gigi could drive while I sat back with him and talked and sang songs to him. Then after we picked up the boys from their AWANA clubs the brakes got so hot they were smoking! But Seth said the cutest thing and I wanted to remember it, so Gigi handed back a receipt and pen for me to jot it down…

“I see that star! A star is when an angel comes out! And the angel’s going to eat it! And go in the grave.” 🙂

Thanks for everything, Gigi!

We have two of them and I can see them out of my kitchen window. The almond trees are the first to bloom every year and I take much pleasure in their white, delicate blossoms in contrast to the dark deodars standing behind them as if guarding them, protecting them. The blossoms are long gone and they are bearing their fruit now.

It was the day Jerome chose the almond tree for his nature notebook entry that we met Summer. The boys had just finished eating dinner on the picnic table outside and Seth came to tell me that one of my friends was at the park. I walked out with Ian on my hip and saw a woman I had never met before peering over the wall. I admit I was rather guarded and suspicious, but I soon realized what she wanted. Summer is from Palestine and recognized the almond tree and asked for some green fruit to eat. She told me that in her homeland they eat them green like that and often served with salt. We got her a few handfuls in a bag and chatted on tip toe, seeing only each other from the noses up. I don’t think I had ever seen such amazing eyes as she has! I wish I had remembered my cell phone in my pocket to take down her number, but I’m not quite used to having it back and didn’t recall it. She said she would come back, and I have been praying that she will. I want to share with her, I want to know her story, I want her to know my Jesus.

We stayed home from church this morning because I’m still under the weather. So the boys are playing in their room and listening to a story as we’re enjoying a quiet Sunday. Apparently Peter had helped Seth unbutton his pants so he could go potty. Suddenly we hear Seth crying hysterically in the bathroom and we both jump up and go running to him. As we get there he’s standing in front of the currently-flushing toilet with his drawers around his ankles, obviously relieved to see us. He sobbed, “I didn’t go poop!” and then, pointing at the toilet as it finished flushing, calmed down with an effort, smiled and said, “It was trying to overflow!” Jerome never flushes because he’s afraid that it will overflow, now Seth is developing a flush phobia. I don’t know if there’s a name for that phobia, but it seems like they are not alone.

The other morning we were sitting at the breakfast table and as Seth was kicking his feet under his chair he said “My feet are singing! Sing with me, Jerome, it’s about the Lord Jesus!” So they both start kicking their feet. 🙂

My precious Gigi reminded me yesterday that is it our 20th spiritual birthday.

The week before her fourth birthday all three of us agreed together that we would ask Mommy and Daddy to pray with us to ask Jesus into our hearts. We had just learned about death and heaven first hand when Mama’s best friend Jeanna died. My memories are vague but I do have a cherished few of that time. I remember seeing Mrs Jeanna lying on her sofa very sick when we brought her flowers we had picked, and somehow the song “People Need the Lord” is connected with that memory. And then I have a picture in my mind of all of us kneeling around our bed with Daddy. But most clear in my mind is my baptism. The baptismal was high up behind the pulpit of the church and I remember looking out and seeing my grandmother in the audience, and dog paddling from the underwater stool to the steps. All three of us were baptized together.

That was the beginning of my walk with Jesus. I’ve often thanked God for the faith He’s given me, for I’ve never looked back or questioned my salvation. However, I don’t recall my own stretching of spiritual legs until about five years later when we were in Russia and I learned how to pray. My lessons of faith were daily taught in my heart regarding fear. There was so much to be afraid of, and until then I had known no fear for we had a sheltered childhood. We read together as a family daily from the Word of God, and saw answers to our prayers on a daily basis as well as miracles. My God is so very big! He showed us how faithful He is, and How great is His love for the very least on this earth, and I understood that when I was ten. However, I have always struggled with letting fear take root in my heart instead of faith. How easily I forget God! And how good He is to always lead me back into trusting His good will. I need Him more and more as I have three sons now to raise…and that is my greatest desire, that they come to be His children and to know His love. I have to trust my Saviour to be my sons’ Saviour too.

My sisters have each had a different walk with Jesus and they both have beautiful testimonies of God’s power in their lives. It is such a wonderful gift to have sisters be for life and eternity!

And I know that one day my Jesus will see fit to bring me to Him and right there will be my Daddy, and there is no fear in death. Jesus has walked with me for twenty years and has never forsaken me and I know He never will. Blessed be His holy name!

As wife to a gentleman for six years and mother of three boys, two of whom are using the toilet, I guess I’m just plain lucky that I’ve come this far before falling into the toilet because the lid was up. Thankfully nobody got hurt, wet, or dirty…or fussed at, and my three year old calmly and quietly closed the lid for me, as he was the culprit and I was only taking a seat to brush his teeth.  🙂

This afternoon while Jerome was happy burning holes in leaves with his magnifying glass, Seth was happy to walk around with his sweatshirt up over his head like a bonnet, when in reality he was disliking getting undressed and enjoyed being stuck better.

Ian took his first little steps today!!! He stood up in the kitchen and stumbled towards me and when I squeaked for Peter to look, Ian stood up and did it again for Daddy to see! Of course this is all after a very long day for all of us and we have no energy to celebrate. Everybody’s in bed except for Ian who had a nap in the car, and me. My brain is rather fuzzy with sleep deprivation and a cold to boot, but these thing I wanted to remember and share with you.

Here are some of the boy’s recent drawings. Seth made his while sitting in church with Noel: