Seeing the beauty in the brokenness

'hallelujah, He has saved me. sin and death shall reign no more. Christ has made a way for sinners. Hallelujah, what a savior'

Such an emotional rollercoaster day today. I have cried out to the Lord both in bitter despair and in utter joy. By the time supper rolled around, I was done. Bless my sweet husband's heart; he was left to do all the bed-prep by himself. It was just one of those days where I just needed to walk away for a bit, curl up on the bed with my book, pretend to read it for a few minutes and then just cry until it was all out. We tend to call that 'having a moment' in our house. :) 

Anyway, so as a result of all that crazy emotion, I'm having a hard time organizing my thoughts, yet there are so many that I feel are worth sharing. Most center around three precious PP quotes so here goes....

"Mom! I've gone two whole days at school without my medicine!" 
~ This came out of the blue as the girls were having their after-school snack yesterday afternoon. Princess Petunia just lit up as she said it, and then I just hugged the stuffing out of her and choked back tears. Before coming to us, PP had been labeled ADHD and had been prescribed Adderall during the school year. She was convinced that she had to have her medicine in order to do well in class. Aside from being a very energetic little girl, we have not seen any true signs of ADHD  in Princess Petunia. We're convinced that any ADHD-type behavior was due to her environment and not a result of any lack of ability. We are praying that this reality will be evident to her teachers at school as well.

"Mom, I'm scared to go to sleep by myself because we practiced the lock down drill at school today." 
~ I'm going to spare you the angry rant that I shared with Jared. Suffice to say that I was none-too-happy about the lack of age-appropriate explanation of the need for such a drill that Princess Petunia was given at school. Given her situation and background, the 'lockdown drill' has been pretty traumatic. She still talks about it, and I can tell that despite all the assurances from Jared & me and the prayers, there is still that residual fear in her heart. 

"Mom! I prayed on the playground that God would help my stomach ache to go away b/c I wanted to go to gymnastics after school. I knew that if I came home, I wouldn't be able to go. And He helped me!" 
~ Ever since we watched the US Women's Gymnastics team compete in the Olympics, PP has talked about wanting to take gymnastics. She has so much energy and natural athletic ability that gymnastics really is a good fit for her. We signed her up for classes, and when I told her that she was to start today, she flung her arms around me and screamed! It is just so sweet to see her starting to rely on the Lord in a real way. And even sweeter still to see our great God answer the prayers of our little miss Princess Petunia.