Life with Joe-Joe

WHAT IS A BOY? by Alan Beck

2010-09-25T06:20:00.003-04:00

I found this essay while cleaning out my desk yesterday. A lady at my church gave it to me years ago when we first got the news that Joe-Joe would be joining our family. At that time, I had no clue what being the mother of a little boy would entail - but boy do I know now!! These words perfectly sum up our life with Joe-Joe!

Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood we find a delightful creature called a boy. Boys come in assorted sizes, weights, and colors, but all boys have the same creed: to enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day and to protest with noise (their only weapon) when their last minute is finished and the adult males pack them off to bed.
Boys are found everywhere - on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around, or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them, and Heaven protects them. A boy is Truth with dirt on his face; Beauty with a cut on its finger; Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair, and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.
When you are busy, a boy is an inconsiderate, bothersome, intruding jangle of noise. When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly or else he becomes a savage, sadistic, jungle creature bent on destroying the world and himself with it.
A boy is a composite - he has the appetite of a horse, the digestion of a sword-swallower, the energy of a pocket-sized atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the lungs of a dictator, the imagination of a Paul Bunyan, the shyness of a violet, the audacity of a steel trap, the enthusiasm of a firecracker, and when he makes something, he has five thumbs on each hand.
He likes ice cream, knives, saws, Christmas, comic books, the boy across the street, woods, water (in its natural habitat), large animals, Dad, trains, Saturday mornings, and fire engines. He is not much for Sunday School, company, school, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barbers, girls, overcoats, adults or bedtime.
Nobody else is so early to rise, or so late to supper. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs, and breezes. Nobody else can cram into one pocket a rusty knife, a half-eaten apple, three feet of string, an empty Bull Durham sack, two gum drops, six cents, a slingshot, a chunk of unknown substance, and a genuine supersonic code ring with a secret compartment.
A boy is a magical creature - you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can't lock him out of your heart. You can get him out of your study, but you can't get him out of your mind. Might as well give up - he is your captor, your jailer, your boss, and your master - a freckled-face, pint-sized, cat-chasing, bundle of noise. But when you come home at night with only shattered pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with two magic words: "Hi Dad!"

Happy Valentines Day??

2010-06-02T08:07:00.002-04:00

Mother's Day dawned as a typical, frantic Sunday morning. There's nothing easy about getting two adults, two small children, and a teenager ready for church! But I had finally gotten the little ones ready and shooed them out of my bathroom so I could put the finishing touches on my face and hair.

Suddenly the door burst open! Joe-Joe ran in holding a long-stemmed red rose, arms wide open, and yelled, "Happy Valentine's Day!"

"Why, thank you!" I replied as I accepted the rose and wrapped him in a giant hug. "But don't you mean 'Happy Mother's Day?'"

He dropped his arms, pulled back, and looked at me like I had three heads. "No," he answered, "why would I say that?" Then, with a peck on the cheek, and a shake of his head (obviously still convinced I was insane), he ran out of the room.

Oh well. Call it Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, or even Christmas. It was a special day made even more special by my special little boy!

English, Please!

2010-03-18T21:37:00.006-04:00

Like most of our afternoons, this one involved running multiple errands on a tight schedule. Today, we had to make stops in three different cities before getting home. Because time was of the essence, I knew it would be better to rely on the GPS for directions than to test my forty-something-year-old memory. Imagine how thrilled I was when I actually located it on the first try - no small feat in our van! I thought that was a sure sign of a smooth afternoon.

Wrong!!! I turned it on, watched as the maps loaded and the satellite found us, then hit the button to retrieve my desired location from the memory. Imagine my surprise when the language displayed was German. GERMAN!!!! I immediately turned to the back seat, where two big green eyes and a dimpled smile met my gaze. He cocked his head, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Ooopsie."

Ooopsie was right. My frustration grew as I realized that I could not restore the language to American English (or any kind of English for that matter) without being able to read the menu in German! I pushed all the buttons, turned it off and on several times, talked to it, yelled at it, and shook it - all to no avail. Finally I did what all red-blooded American mothers do. I tossed it (ok, threw it) in the backseat and declared that, "Daddy can fix it for us tonight."

I'm happy to report that my middle-aged memory served us well, and the day's list was completed. After supper, I decided to download some pictures onto my Facebook page. I also needed to delete some less than perfect pictures and free up disk space on the camera's disk. These are all very routine tasks. But wouldn't you have loved to have been a fly on the wall and seen my face when I turned on the camera and discovered that Josiah - aka Curious George - had reset the language to. . . Chinese! CHINESE!!!!!!!!! It's a good thing he was in another room on the other end of the house! Oh, and needless to say the pictures did not get downloaded. I simply turned off the camera and headed for the nearest supply of chocolate!

Well, this adventure definitely had to be recorded in "Life with Joe-Joe." So, I sat down and logged on. Because I haven't blogged in awhile, the settings had returned to their default language which is. . . Russian. RUSSIAN!!! Thankfully, I knew the location of the log-in area, and when I logged in, it defaulted back to English. Otherwise, y'all would be getting updates written on napkins from the local mental hospital.

And the Winner is.....

2010-01-26T21:43:00.000-05:00

Life with Joe-Joe continues to be wide-open and exciting! He is having so much fun in first grade, and we have been blessed with a wonderful teacher, Miss Parry. What a saint! She has several "Joe-Joe's" in her class this year - and still shows up for work every day! She has been so kind and patient with Josiah's academics, while enjoying my son's unique sense of humor! Several times a week, I get a text during the day telling me about a hilarious quote or situation my son has gotten himself into! (Thank the Lord she has a great sense of humor!)

Josiah's school holds a Fine Arts Fair every January for students to showcase their particular talents. Photography is one of the categories, so he and I decided to enter a picture he had taken last spring of Nina's newly painted toes. It really is an adorable photo - one of my favorite pictures (in spite of the fact that he snuck the camera off the counter and out of its case to take the shot). So I printed it, matted it, sent it to school, and forgot about it. So I was really thrilled the night before the event, when the teacher in charge of the competition told me that Joe-Joe's photo had placed, so I definitely needed to be at the Award Ceremony. How exciting!!

Now, the Fine Arts Fair is a pretty high-brow event, and the Award Ceremony and Showcase are the main course. It consists of a number of students performing classical piano and serious hymn numbers, along with the announcement of the winners. Because it lasts over an hour and is so serious, Miss Parry knew better than to attempt bringing her entire class. So, a few minutes into the Showcase, she sent Joe-Joe to sit with me. Thanks, Miss Parry.

He came bopping in, fresh off the playground and smelling like a sweaty little boy! He plopped in the seat between my friend and me, and sat there taking it all in - for about ten minutes! Then the restlessness kicked in. He pulled hymnals out of the pew backs, played with car keys, dug through my purse, pulled my hair, and made funny faces at people for the next thirty minutes. The row behind us was filled with high-schoolers who didn't help me any. About the time I got him settled down, one of them would poke him or pull his hair, and then he was wound back up! Oh, and did I mention that during all of this, he was also passing gas?

The time finally came for Mrs. McGarity to announce the winners in his category (one of the last to be announced, might I add). Honestly, by this point I was only half-way listening and ready to grab his certificate and get out of there while I still had a little hair left! So, we weren't really paying very close attention when she said, "And first place goes to Josiah Swanson."

That instant Joe-Joe and I looked at each other with our mouths hanging open. Then he regained his "composure" and let out a very, very loud "Woo-hoo!" as he was jumping over me and my friend, Debra. Then he proceeded to skip up the aisle and give Mrs. McGarity a huge hug and giant, cheesy grin! The auditorium erupted in laughter and applause! Then he ran back to his seat and high-fived each high-schooler sitting behind us! So much for the "high browness" of this event!

After the ceremony ended, he got to re-live the moment for his classmates and Miss Parry, call his grandparents to tell them that he "winned", and celebrate with ice cream and a new movie that night. It was such a special day for a special little boy!

Now, I wonder what he's going to do at the State Competition in March. . .?

God Will Save the Day

2009-08-11T09:06:00.000-04:00

While driving home from GCS this morning, the Lord dropped the most precious memory in my spirit. I thought I'd share it with you....

When we were in St. Petersburg, Russia, we had several problems with hotel accommodations. I don't remember all the details, but we were there during a celebration known as "White Nights", during which there is twenty-four hours of daylight in the city (due to its geographic location). Anyway, it is a huge celebration in Russia, and people from all over Eastern Europe flock to St. Petersburg during those two weeks in June. It's crazy! Unfortunately, for us, the travel agency we used messed up our hotel reservations, so twice we found ourselves without a place to stay!

One such time was the day before we were to finalize the adoptions and take our children "home" from their respective orphanages. We were on the way to visit Josiah when we got the news that the apartment we thought had been reserved was not available. Of course, all hotels were booked solid, and Mike and I were very frustrated! As I rocked Josiah in a rickety old swing on the orphanage playground, I thought about Mary and Joseph - with baby Jesus on the way - and "no room at the inn". At that moment I gained a deeper understanding of and new appreciation for some of the emotions that must have gone through that young couple as they struggled with the gravity of that situation. (At least I wasn't about to give birth!). I was actually able to thank God for our circumstances because of the new insight they had given me.

As I rocked and cried and prayed, the Lord dropped a song in my spirit - one we sang in church quite often at that time. I began to sing the words over my son. "God is bigger than the air we breathe, the world we'll leave. God will save the day, and all will say my glorious...." Over and over I sang that verse. During this time, Mike walked over and snapped the picture posted here. He had no idea what was going on when he took it, and it is one of my very favorite photos.

As I sang and swung, my Savior's amazing peace filled every part of my being. I knew that I knew that I knew that God would save the day! And He did - within an hour of that visit, we had secured an apartment for the rest of our stay!

But here's the "rest of the story" - the miraculous part. When we finally got to our "real home" in North Carolina several weeks later, I was going through the many, many voice mails on our home phone. In the middle of them was an unbelievable message from my dear friend, Rene. She said, "Kim, I don't have any way of getting in touch with you in Russia, but you've been on my mind all morning. God has given me a song that I'd like to sing over you, but since I can't get you in person, I'm going to sing it into your answering machine." My knees buckled as she began to sing, "God is bigger than the air we breathe, the world we'll leave. God will save the day, and all will say my glorious." I checked the time and date stamp on the message, did the "time zone" calculations, and - you guessed it - she left that message at the very same time I was singing over my son in Russia!!!

To be honest, I haven't thought about that miracle in several years. I don't know why the Lord chose to remind me of it and have me post it today. But maybe someone reading this is in an overwhelming circumstance right now and needs to be reminded that God IS bigger than the air we breathe, this world we'll leave. God WILL save the day so YOU can say, "My Glorious."

Road Warrior

2009-06-07T05:44:00.000-04:00

This year Joe-Joe got out of school a week before his sisters (much to their dismay). He was thrilled, but I was a little worried that he would be bored around the house without his siblings. But, after we took them to school that first day, he came home and began quietly playing with his cars. I was amazed!!

After "driving" for about fifteen minutes, Josiah ran to the bathroom and grabbed a long strip of toilet paper. "Wook, Mommy, a woad!" he exclaimed. It seems that a piece of toilet paper is just the right width for two Matchbox cars to fit on side-by-side - a perfect "woad"!! Again, I was pretty amazed! So, my little engineer son grabbed the roll of toilet paper and began making roads along the floor.

"No big deal, " I thought. "A roll of toilet paper is cheap entertainment." So I went back to my bon-bons and Mint Juleps (haha), and let the child play.

About fifteen minutes later I went to check on him and could not believe my eyes. There was a complete, toilet paper Interstate system through most of the rooms in our house! Holy Cow! It went through the living room, foyer, dining room, master bedroom and up the stairs! There were twists and turns and overpasses. . . . . Why, I had a toilet paper Spaghetti Junction running through my home! All made out of Cottonelle!! And, just for the record, it was strong enough to support the Matchbox cars! Once again, I was speechless! And little Joe-Joe just stood there beaming, so proud of his accomplishment!

Of course, being a seven-year-old, it wasn't long until he was bored with his roadworks. But that's the incredible thing about being a kid with an active imagination and four rolls of unwound toilet paper - you can turn it into anything you want! So, all those "woads" became party decorations! Suddenly, we were in the middle of the world's most awesome celebration! How fun was that?!

So celebrate, we did. Until a few hours later when someone needed some toilet paper for its intended purpose. . . . .

Graduation: A Night of Miracles

2009-05-26T10:54:00.000-04:00

Last Friday night, May 22, Joe-Joe officially graduated from kindergarten. He was so excited about his program and being a "big first grader." I must admit that I was more than a little nervous about what he might do when he got on stage in front of a lot of people! But the ceremony came off without a hitch - I guess you could say it was a night of miracles!

Miracle #1: I suppose the first big miracle was that he made it through the year without getting kicked out of school! His daddy and I have been holding our breath all year! You must understand that one day during the first week of school, Josiah informed us that he told his teacher she had, "big feet and a big nose"! (Thankfully we later learned that he was actually talking about an elephant. At least, I HOPE he didn't call Mrs. Roman an elephant, too!!). Then another day in the car line, he yelled "Wo - Man!" at his teacher. I wanted to climb through the floorboard until I realized that he was saying her name, which is Roman. I guess he figures surnames are optional! Then there was the day he climbed into the car after school carrying my huge NIV Study Bible (their school basically teaches you should only use the King James Version). Imagine my delight when he told me he had taken it for Show-And-Tell that day!!! Are you getting the picture. . . . .?

Miracle #2: Joe-Joe made it through the ceremony without misbehaving! He behaved perfectly through the awards ceremony, "Three Little Pigs" play - in which he gave a stellar performance as "Mr. Man #2" - and the actual commencement! He said his lines on cue, applauded where appropriate, and remained quiet when he was supposed to. Unbelievable! God does answer prayers!!!

Miracle #3: All family members in attendance behaved themselves, as well! My parents and brother and sister-in-law came to the graduation. They are all wonderful people, individually, but when they're together - WATCH OUT!! Anything can (and usually does) happen!! I had a few worrisome moments when my mom walked in wearing pants (gasp) and when my brother, sister-in-law, and daddy were huddled around the principal - but, like Joe-Joe, they were all on their best behavior! I'll say it again: God does answer prayers!!!

Before I end, I must give a huge shout-out to Josiah's teacher, Mrs. Debbie Roman. What an awesome, Godly, saint she is! She went above and beyond the call of duty helping Joe-Joe with his phonics and numbers this year. I know that he was well loved and cared for while he was with her. Many, many times I saw her in the hallway, working one-on-one with Joe-Joe on his schoolwork. Almost a week later, he still cries at least once a day because he misses her. Thank you, Mrs. Roman, for making this year so very special!

Not the Preacher!!!

2009-05-18T14:21:00.000-04:00

We belong to a fabulous church. Our pastor, Terry Howell, is one of my very favorite people in the world! He loves Jesus with all of heart, soul, mind, and strength. He is wise and compassionate, yet straight-forward and "real". Pastor Terry is not about position, politics, power, or personal gain. He's about people and leading them to a greater life in Christ. Over the past eleven years, we have laughed and cried together, worked and relaxed, disagreed and argued, asked forgiveness of and been forgiven by each other. He has counseled and stood by Mike and me through thick and thin. (Once, many years ago, he asked Mike how things were at home. Mike replied that it was kinda like the Israelis and Palestinians trying to occupy the same territory!!). And we've had the privilege of standing beside him in many of his trials. He is one of God's greatest gifts to my family.

Needless to say, Nina and Joe-Joe adore Pastor Terry. Since he was about three years old, Josiah has recognized Pastor's truck and squeals whenever he sees it. More than once, we've had to make an unplanned stop by the church office to say hi to Joe-Joe's pastor because he saw the truck parked in front of the church when we drove by! Of course, we're always greeted by big hugs, smiles, and candy!!! It's priceless! BUT, even Pastor Terry isn't beyond the wrath of Joe-Joe's mouth!!!

It happened the Christmas before last. I was helping with the church's angel tree, and was in and out of the church office that day. The kids were home schooling at the time, so they were with me. Josiah was having fun with the men in the office and wanted to stay there while I went over the another building for something. (Should've known better....) While I was gone, Pastor Terry came in, and he and Joe-Joe had their usual chat session. So far, so good - right?

About fifteen minutes later I walked back into the church office to some very strange looks and somber attitudes. "Pastor Terry wants to see you," several of the men told me solemnly. I just held my breath wondering what Josiah had broken or done - I mean, it had to have been pretty bad for all these serious tones. So I took a deep breath and went into the Pastor's office, feeling like a fifth grader visiting the principal!

"We need to talk about your boy," he began, unsmiling, hands folded on his desk.
I held my breath as he continued, " I came in the office, pulled him up in my lap, and was talking to him about Christmas, and going to Grandma's and what all he was going to get. I thought we were having a good time. Then do you know what he did?"

As his eyes narrowed, my heart sank. "No, sir," I managed to squeak out.

"Well, he leaned back, rubbed my tummy, and said, ' you got a BIGGGG belly.' Acting like I don't have any feelings at all."

"Ohhhhh nnoooooooooo!" I thought to myself. "Not Pastor Terry!!! Why, Josiah, why??"

Thankfully, at this point I realized that my Pastor was laughing so hard tears were rolling down his cheeks. Then he retold the story, laughing through the whole thing. I weakly joined in, but was still feeling somewhat horrified! As I humbly left his office, I realized the entire staff was laughing, too. Oh my!!

A few minutes later, as we were getting ready to leave, Pastor Terry came out to give us all - including Joe-Joe - good-bye hugs. He smiled, laughed, and loved on us, as usual. Then he got very serious, looked me in the eye, and said, "But I will be starting a diet on January 1."

Speechless

2009-05-14T22:09:00.000-04:00

It's not often that I'm at a loss for words. My husband says I even talk in my sleep. But occasionally something will happen that renders me speechless, and most of the time Joe-Joe is at the center of those situations! Such was the case earlier this week.

Nina had injured her hand that day, so she stayed home from school. (I'll write more about that interesting injury later). I had told Kayelyn and Josiah to ask their classes to pray for her hand because I was afraid she had been bitten by a Brown Recluse or some other poisonous spider. We were all very concerned, and the kids did tell their friends about it and asked their teachers' to pray. For awhile, Nina's hand was the talk of the school!

Around mid-afternoon, I got a phone call from Nina's teacher. She started by asking about her hand and what the doctor had said. After we talked about that for a few minutes, she said that she also wanted to congratulate me. I had no clue why she might want to do that, so I asked - unfortunately!

"Well," she began, with a hint of laughter in her voice, "Joe-Joe asked us to pray for you, too, because you have three babies in your tummy!"

Speechless - I was absolutely speechless!

Then, when some words finally formed in my brain, I knew I couldn't say THEM to a Christian school teacher!!! So, I stuttered and stammered for a few seconds until I was finally able to screech, "WHAT????!!!!"

Of course, Miss Parry was roaring with laughter at this point. She was enjoying this way too much! I told her that we don't even joke about such things around our house! My word, could you imagine three Joe-Joe's?! No, no, no there are no babies in my tummy!!! Lots of pizza, cookies, and ice cream - but NO BABIES!!

Oh my gosh, I still get nervous twitch just thinking about it! Thankfully, all the kids at school were much more interested in Nina's huge hand than in the possibility of Joe-Joe's Mom having three babies in her tummy! Otherwise, I would've had to do something drastic - like losing weight - to convince a bunch of 5-year-olds that there were no babies in me! Then, again, that would probably have been more than enough incentive to go to the gym everyday, huh?

Now for the scoop on Nina's hand. After going to bed one night, she decided it would be fun to put a couple of rubber bands around her wrist, cover them with Kleenex, and wrap tape around it. She woke up the next morning asking me to cut it off - which I did - but her hand seemed fine. Thirty minutes later, her hand had swollen to three times its normal side and was hurting. I also noticed a small sore on her wrist. It really scared me because I thought something had bitten her. Of course I called the doctor, who told me to start giving her Benedryl and put ice on her wrist until he could see her later that day. That brought the swelling down some, but the pain continued. When he looked at it, he figured out that the sore was where she had clawed at the rubber bands in her sleep, but couldn't get them off. Apparently the swelling was an odd type of delayed reaction to the tight rubber bands cutting off circulation. He massaged her hand and had her move it a lot of different ways, and by 5:00 that evening, the swelling was gone. The next day she was our happy, active, Nina again!

Congratulations, Caleb

2009-05-12T18:30:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we loaded the family up in the van and headed for Charleston, SC to my oldest nephew's college graduation. It's so hard for me to believe that Caleb is finished with his undergraduate degree! It seems only yesterday that he was dragging me outside to push him in his race car or to ride down a hill with him in his little red wagon. Now he's a handsome grown man getting ready to strike out on his own! As a matter of fact, he's the same age I was when he was born (for another week). Unbelievable!

Ok - I digress! So we loaded up the van and headed to Charleston. MeeMaw, PeePaw, Steve, Freda, and the Hendrix's were already at the hotel when we arrived. Nina and Joe-Joe had slept much of the way down, so they had their second wind and were ready to party when we arrived at the hotel around 8:30 pm. Everyone else was already there and were gathered around the pool. Thank goodness it was a warm, clear night because Nina and Joe-Joe would've died if they hadn't been able to jump in that pool!! They swam, splashed, and played for close to two hours before "quiet time". It also gave the adults a chance to visit and catch up before Saturday's graduation. And when bedtime came, there were no complaints from our two little swimmers!!

I must admit that I was more than a little apprehensive about how Joe-Joe would behave at the graduation ceremony. After all, it would probably last for two to three hours - and we are talking about Joe-Joe!!! But Chris said he was ready to take him out and entertain him, if necessary. (Between you and me, I think Chris was hoping for an excuse to get out of there!!) So, we fed the little ones a big breakfast and headed for the Civic Center. Joe-Joe, armed with a small box of Lucky Charms, positioned himself right next to Chris - which concerned me a little, too! After all, they are two peas in a pod! They even share the same birthday, just thirteen years apart! Caleb's girlfriend, Ashley, was on the other side. She's an elementary school teacher, which gave me some relief. But still, the thought of Joe-Joe and Chris teaming up at a formal commencement ceremony had me holding my breath!

All was well until the graduates began crossing the platform to receive their diplomas. You know, they go in alphabetical order, and Caleb's last name is Mitchell. So we had quite a wait before his turn! Poor Josiah tried for as long as he could to refrain from cheering, but he finally succumbed to temptation and let out a tremendously loud shout and cheer for some girl whose last name fell in the C's or D's! The shout was so loud and unexpected that we all jumped and then died laughing (none of which is good in that situation)!

With his cheering out of his system, and his Lucky Charms in his tummy, Joe-Joe crawled up in my lap and fell fast asleep. (Everyone say, "Awwww"). Unfortunately, he slept through seeing Caleb walk across the stage and get his diploma. But, in hindsight, that might not be a bad thing! There's no telling what he would have done!! He woke up just in time to see the graduates tossing beach balls around during the recessional - which may have given him an idea for his upcoming Kindergarten graduation! And he thoroughly enjoyed having his picture made with Caleb afterwards (although he couldn't resist playing with the tassel).

So, all in all, it was an amazingly uneventful event. I'm still in awe of how well behaved he and Nina were during the ceremony. Thankful - but in awe!

The weekend left me feeling very nostalgic. While I'm proud of both of my nephews and the awesome young men they have become, I miss those mischievous little boys who were always up to something! If I could go back, I wouldn't miss a Little League game or a school Christmas program - no matter how far I had to drive to get there! And as quickly as the years passed between Caleb's Kindergarten and college graduations, they will seem to go by even faster for my own children. My fervent prayer is that God will help me enjoy every minute, to make the most of each and every day - even those frustrating, infuriating days that I think will never end. Because they will end. And all too quickly I'll be watching my children walk across a stage, receiving a piece of paper - and striking out on their own.

Giving Thanks

2009-05-11T22:23:00.000-04:00

Joe-Joe's mouth is notorious! If he thinks it, he says is - loudly!! Such was the case in church yesterday morning. He and Nina had behaved beautifully throughout the service. Looking back, that should have been a definite clue that a "Joe-Joe Moment" was imminent!

Pastor Terry concluded worship by challenging everyone to take a minute and thank the Lord for all He had done in their lives. Well, being the spiritual and unselfish little saint that he is, Joe-Joe thought it would be a blessing to give thanks on behalf of his teen-age sister, Kayelyn.

"Woo hoo! Kayelyn's going to marry (name withheld to protect the innocent)!" he proclaimed at the top of his lungs. Now, you must understand that not only is Kayelyn not getting married (she's only 14), but she's only good friends with the person named as her fiance! And did I mention that he's loud? People two rows in front of us turned around just in time to see a horrified Kayelyn exclaim, "WHAT?".

Quite pleased with himself, Josiah flashed her those dimples and quietly said, "Thank you, Jesus." His older sister just stood there in stunned silence while the rest of us doubled over laughing. It's a good thing Mike and I were between the two of them - otherwise we may have needed a healing service!

Let the Blog Begin!

2009-05-11T21:16:00.000-04:00

Ok! I'm finally taking everyone's advice and starting a blog about Josiah's adventures (and misadventures). This child has added so much love, laughter, and looniness to all of our lives that it must be documented for prosperity!! Some stories will be current, and some blogs will be from the past - but all will be Josiah "through-and-through"! So, pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee, and get ready to laugh with me as I write all about "Life with Joe-Joe"!