I don't know what's going on with the Blogger site, but I've been having a terrible time uploading photos to the site. So, my apologies for the lack of photos of Joshua's latest adventures, but I'm working on it (though I'm at a bit of a technological disadvantage seeing as how this isn't my area of expertise...at all).
In terms of updates for him, I can share that our sleeping situation has improved dramatically since I last posted. Joshua seems to have taken like a fish to water with his new big boy bed. He is now starting to tell you that he wants to lay down in his big bed when he's tired. I see this as our first opportunity to start to wean him away from the "fall-asleep-in-Mommy's-lap" syndrome that we have. He's still waking in the middle of the night, but for much shorter periods of time. I believe he woke 3 times last night, but the longest we were awake was 45 minutes. A vast improvement for sure.
Daddy taught Joshua a few new words. I wish I could upload video, because this is priceless. When I came home from a very hard day at the office on Tuesday (more about that in a minute) Joshua greeted me with 3 new words from a book that Jason was reading with him. He showed me a picture of a "hoppo-potto-moose" and a "rhi-nocerous" (the "nocerous" part gets said very fast after a drawn out "rhiiiiiiiiii") and a "baboon". Now, aren't those three very useful words to know when you're 21 months old? The next morning, the first thing he asked for was that book because he had to "find hoppo-potto-moose".
Joshua made great friends with the air duct cleaner the other day when he was to our house to do a good cleaning on the dusty ducts. He's still talking about the man's "big BIG sweeper". From what I hear, he followed him all around the house and was "helping" as much as an almost two year old can help and talking to his new buddy Jim the whole time.
Joshua and I now have shared a nasty cold with each other, so we're suffering with that together. It continues to amaze me that he can run around full tilt with a snotty nose and not seem to mind. He's getting a little fussy a little easier than normal, but all in all, he's handling it OK. We've been lucky with how infrequently he's been sick, so hopefully this will pass quickly.
I mentioned my tough day on Tuesday, and I think it warrants mentioning here. I seem to write down the happenings in our life here with more clarity than I can speak of them. And this has been weighing heavily on my heart all week. Everyone knows that my career as a State Farm Agent has always been something that I take seriously, but I've always watched total devastation from afar, as my dad helped clients through house fires and similar situations. Well, at 11:00 on Tuesday morning, I got "the call" that sent me rushing to the scene of a house fire to stand with clients as we watched the fire department try unsuccessfully to save their home. The family is a super one- and one that I've really enjoyed getting to know. They have 5 children, all of whom ran from the home without even shoes on their feet when they realized that there was a fire in the garage. They sat in the front yard of their home, watching everything they love burning to ashes. Within minutes the entire house was engulfed with flames. I got involved immediately in taking money to their bank for them to have immediate funds available for necessaries, and then I started locating hotel rooms (not an easy task during the Little League World Series). I redirected a few shipments of new school shoes that were coming for the kids to start school in and cancelled the delivery of 2 new sofas that were coming the next day. And so, my firsthand experience of handling a total, devastating fire loss has begun. I spent yesterday at the fire scene with the family and the fire investigators to locate the source of the fire- a refrigerator in their garage. We began the process of inventorying their personal belongings- an utterly overwhelming task. Can you even imagine having to write down every single thing that is in your home? So if you haven't taken video or pictures or written down the specifics of your electronics, do it now and store it outside of your home.
The whole thing makes me so thankful for a whole bunch of blessings in my life. I'm so thankful to be in this career and to have the opportunity to be a help to this family. Today we've found them a home to live in, all by connections in this little, wonderful community I'm a part of. I'm thankful for our home...it's no Taj Mahal, but we're comfortable and we're safe and I realize that having a place to call home isn't something to take for granted when you compare it to the longing that this family has for a roof over their head that isn't a hotel room ceiling. Watching how quickly things can change just puts things into perspective...and it truly has been that way for me this week.
So, from hoppo-potto-mooses to house fires, I feel like we've run the gamut of emotions so far this week. Keep this family in your prayers, please. More soon.
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