Sleepy ramblings...about a blessed life!

This has been a long week: busy, full, exhausting, blessed, rich, another birthday week, some news from Liberia, watching Baby Charlie all week, shock and dismay at the events on Fort Hood, disappointment at people's reaction to that attack, saddened for a whole new group of families needing God's comfort and my prayers, praising God that son in law Jon has a new job, celebrating that 4 years ago Esther and I traveled to Cambodia to complete the adoptions of Leah and Rachel, and found ourselves nose deep in the fight of our lives to bring our Isaiah, the girls' bio brother, home. We celebrated Esther's 15th birthday in Cambodia, and thanks to the Kings' Birthday celebration that week as well, we had fireworks for Esther's birthday! This year we celebrated Esther's 19th b-day with chicken and dumplings and the first pumpkin pies of the 2009 fall season week , a week full of memories........... A poignant memory from the night aside from enjoying Esther 's birthday was given to me by Gideon. This guy HATES to have his photo taken, acts like MR TOUGH GUY often so that people will not see what a soft hearted marshmallow he is inside. Baby Charlie was unhappy about something, was unable to fall asleep and stay asleep. We passed him around and none of us were successful at getting him to calm down or fall asleep: UNTIL Gideon!! HE held that tiny baby so tenderly, bounced and danced him in a two -step all around the dining room, LET ME TAKE A LOT OF PHOTOS in which he was SMILING and making no effort to hide the fact,got Charlie to sleep for a great nap, and in general totally blessed my Mamma heart!!!!!!!!!!
NOT a week with much time to write or to download and publish the photos I intended to post. I am quite honestly VERY TIRED. It is wonderful to have a Grand baby. Charlie is wonderful. Charlie also has a temper and a pair of lungs which help him generate a decibel level over which I can not be heard a mere 6 feet away. Figuring out which issue has Charlie angry is challenging, especially if I am not successful at least 15 seconds BEFORE that issue presents. I have not had a baby in my life for 7 1/2 years, and Naomi was 5 months when she came home with us from Vietnam. She was NOT a screamer. I am out of practice at caring for a newborn, particularly when trying to home school 6 children. Our of practice on THAT score goes back 15 1/2 years to Baby Jael ,and I had 5 home schoolers.
The Consulate at the Embassy in Liberia called me and I was very satisfied with our conversation. He needed information about our case so that he could ask informed questions of the Ministry of Health officials for us, and I needed some kind of idea as far as what to expect of the visa process at the Embassy once we get to that step in Daniel's adoption. We spoke about our Junior and Diamoh's adoptions and the future of adoptions for those many children still waiting for their processes to be completed. Nothing there to hang any hope on: its still "yes there is progress, but not much."
Last night, after cleaning up after dinner and trying rather unsuccessfully to complete my Praise and Worship music preparations, I sat down on the sofa to watch a basketball game with the boys. I was so sleepy that I fell asleep on the sofa. I woke up, I guess about 1:30, I'm not sure. Being a creature of habit, when I realized I was on the sofa, my first thoughts went to where my glasses were...I didn't know..........and that the cell phones were not on their chargers for the night, that the TV was still on and was louder than I wanted to try to ignore, I had not processed the milk from the evening goat milking, and that I had no idea where the remote control was to kill the TV.
DILEMMA: get up, put things in order, go upstairs to bed and guarantee that I would not be able to fall back to sleep
or
choose to ignore the nagging sensation that I had NOT shut down the house for the night, choose to ignore the phones and my glasses' location ,and the milk, and hope to stay asleep on the sofa: something I hate to do.
Interesting mind battle for sure.
For one of the few times in my life, the apathy of sleepiness won out over the need to be orderly. When I awoke this morning, my glasses were right next to me, safe and sound, so were the cell phones.Not sure I felt rested enough to really start a new day, but here we are at 10 PM and I am still coherent. Spent a challenging day with Baby Charlie and home schooling and then a great afternoon shopping with Jael for winter clothes. SO fun that our tastes are so nearly identical! WE don't wear the same things, but we definitely LIKE the same things.
I am blessed, life is wonderful. For the first time in my life that I can remember, I appreciate sleep. I used to say that sleep was what I did when I couldn't think of anything else to do. Now I know sleep is a pretty good concept...I still never seem to need more than 5-6 hours, but I recognize that I need it.
I am singing "Lord Reign in Me Again" as I wrap up this day..."my one desire, Lord my only aim is that You reign in me again!! You are the Lord of ALL I am.........."