My child of loss

There have been many times in the past 22 years of parenting that I have felt inadequate. Repeatedly, I have wished for an all encompassing guidebook/tech manual for training up a child. I am talking a book like the repair manual for my van.  If A then B types of advice. Maybe with a flow chart or script. That would be my "left brained" self thinking. I am realistic enough to realize that it is not possible. Parenting is so subjective, since each child brings their own set of individual circumstance and personality to the mix. In spite of the lack of direction, I have tried to help my children through difficulties such as: negative peer pressure, diagnosis of a chronic illness, questioning their faith, etc.  The situation that makes me feel incompetent is when one of my children is dealing with a loss. Each of them have had to deal with loss but there is one child that seems to experience more frequently than the other two.

This child began her life of loss at 6 years old when one of her best friends was killed in a playground accident. It has continued through a couple of family deaths but the past few years have been more difficult. She has had at least two close friends move out of the area each summer for the past 4 years. On top of that, she had two friends killed in a car accident this school year. Each of these losses has come with a fresh period of grief for her. And we as parents, are powerless to help.

This month we learned about another instance of a state relocation as well as a two year extension to another friend's dad's job out of the country.  These two newest instances have caused me to reflect on how frequently I have seen this daughter saddened by the loss of another friend in her life. I am beginning to see how strong she really is as she works through her grief. I am also convinced that God has a purpose for her life that will utilize these losses for His glory.  Or as my mother pointed out she will have many places to stay as grows up and wants to travel the world.

Time to get going again

I have been very fortunate for the past 9 years to not have any trouble with my knee.  In December of '09 I had to have my knee reconstructed after a softball injury.  Until March of this year I had never had any issues with it.  Then I twisted it.  I cannot believe how long it has taken for me to be able to even think about jogging again because of the stiffness in my knee.  This past weekend I decided I would give it a try and I was able to jog a mile straight through and do a walk/jog combination for the other 4 mile.  I was so excited.  I feel like I have been given my freedom back.  I was depressed thinking that I was not going to be able to jog again after just starting to really try.  The best news is that it was just a tiny bit stiff after that walk/jog but not unbearably so and I also felt like I could do it again the next day (if my quads hadn't been so sore).

Under the Dome

I am trying to be very cautious to not give away and of the plot when I do a book review.

I have always been a Stephen King fan and this book did not disappoint. It was a little daunting at 1074 pages, but right away King's characters had me in their grasp and I had a hard time taking breaks from the story.

An invisible barrier has come down around a little town, resting right on the town borders severing them from the rest of the world. Set in the small town of Chester's Mill, this story portrays what might happen if a small pocket of society were suddenly cut off from outside contact. The dome not only causes problems politically, relationally, and emotionally for those affected by the dome, it also causes some environmental impact on the area that is cut off. The citizens of Chester's Mill fight along with the United States Army to try and figure out a way to get rid of the dome, while some corrupt people trapped beneath it take advantage of the isolation to increase the tyranny that have been inflicting on the small town all along.

King does such a good job of character development throughout the story, I found myself reacting emotionally to the storyline as if it were happening to me. I cannot tell you the last time a character in a story mad me as angry as the villain in this story did. And even at the end of the 1000+ pages I was still wanting more.