November-ish

 November is a month to celebrate many things.  It is national adoption/foster care month.  It is Josiah's birthday month.  It is my mom's birthday month.  It is Election month and Veteran's Day month....and it is Thanksgiving.  

Josiah had a birthday yesterday.  He's 8.  He cried the night before his birthday because he couldn't share his birthday with his birth mom....and he missed knowing her and being able to talk to her and share things about his life with her.  I told him he had a big empty hole in his heart where she should have filled but because she couldn't fill it He should ask Jesus to fill that part up, too.  He said that made sense.  I think it does, too.  Adoption is a hard thing.  The joy we felt when we knew we could add him to our family was balanced by deep sorrow for his birth mom because she couldn't keep him in hers.  She gratefully and willingly turned the job of parenting him over to us.....and we promised her to do our best to raise him to be a good person, to know the Lord and to fulfil whatever purpose He had for him.  Josiah came when he was 6 months old and I was 45 years old.....lets just pause there for a minute.....45.  Our yes to adopt Josiah was a promise to his birth mom and a hard trust in God to give us what we needed day by day to parent him well.  

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday.  She is one of those humble people who don't ask for a lot of fuss and attention but if you happen to see her in church or have her in your contacts or friend list, do send her some birthday wishes tomorrow!  She's had a hard year and lost a sister, 2 cousins and a good, good friend....and none of it was due to Covid 19.  I am so thankful for my mom.  She is the family cake-baker (in fact, she offered to bring her own cake to her party tomorrow night because, well, I don't bake!)  She is the first person to call each of us on our birthday and sing the birthday song to us.  She is generous and she is kind.  In our home, we see her as an extension of our immediate family, and the top of everyone's list for all things, not as the grandparent generation....and we love her dearly.  Her beauty and her grace shine so brightly that we all can know her by her fruit.....the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control.  

The best part of November month being election month is that it's over.

Veteran's Day brought to mind all of those that have enlisted to protect our country and have sacrificed their lives for that purpose.  It made me think of all of the veterans who survived their tours of duty and service but are struggling to find their place back in civilian life.....and I think we should all ask God for wisdom and help with that, and put some of our own mental energy in helping our veterans find purposful, and useful and wonderfully perfect jobs and careers on the other side of their enlistment.  

Finally, November is Thanksgiving month.  While I am thankful for so much every month, this month allows us to really consider and strive to be thanksgivers......This has been a hard year with the pandemic, and the social climate and the polorized political issues and the natural disasters.....but in the middle of each and every hard thing is a place to hang the things we are thankful for.  We can exercise our thankfulness muscles every time we face a challenge and a trial because the list is always, always right there too.  

As we head in to Thanksgiving week and then the Christmas holiday season, I choose to pause right here and now and be thankful.  There is a fight breaking out between 2 little boys in the next room so I better sign off!