Observations....

My hubby and I went out for a lunch date the other day to Einstein Bagels. Roger loves the Tasty Turkey! Anyway, as I was sitting with him, I noticed an elderly lady and what I assumed to be her preteen or early teen grandson. She was struggling and struggling to open the door to the restaurant. The boy just stood there, waiting for the old lady to open the door. They then proceeded to the counter and placed their order. The boy took his glass and walked to the soda machines and filled his drink up. The old lady joined him a few minutes later with her own glass and filled hers up. Then they sat down to eat.

I don't know why that struck me as significant...I'm sure that kind of thing happens all the time...when a person is completely oblivious to the needs of others. When it happens in MY home, however, it is a little bit different.

When one of my children (or step children) goes in the door in front of me and lets it go without holding it open or in some way being courteous to me, I just stand there on the front porch until he realizes what he did.

It doesn't take long for him to figure out that if Mom (or step mom) doesn't get in the house, food will not be cooked, laundry won't be done and life as he knows it will not go on for long.

When my children were little, I taught them to LOOK for service opportunities. When they were only about three or so, I taught them to hold the door for other people and to pick something up if someone dropped it. Those little fellas just ate that kind of stuff up! It was so cute to see them trying to lean against a big door going into a store just to be polite to someone else!

Becca's homeschooling group is pretty awesome when it comes to service opportunities. Once a month they pick something to do to aid others. It is really nice to see those same junior high and high school students holding the door for people, calling us by Mr. and Mrs., and just simply being polite to people as we come and go in the church building where their classes are held. There are now over 180 students involved in this group and there are a LOT of opportunities to serve! The older ones have been responsible to totally clean the classrooms and the restrooms after their one day a week "school day" is over. I was really impressed when Becca started there last year! Now that she is starting high school (oh dear, where has the time gone??) she will be attending 2 days a week...with LOTS of mom's involvement! Thankfully, she will have an actual teacher to help her with Algebra and Spanish! (not my strengths....)

Two weeks ago, Becca and Gideon's youth group from church went to "The Wilds" in North Carolina for church camp. I guess it was pretty fun! Becca rededicated her life and surrendered to missions if that is what the Lord asks her to do. (or anything else He wants for her life.) Gideon did the same thing with an idea of working with youth. I know that they are young and that may not be what the Lord asks them to do, but it is nice to see that their hearts are open to Him.

The 4H fair is starting up again soon! This has been a pretty hard year with us moving and getting our bigger house ready to sell. It hasn't been easy with my Roger being so sick. The kids weren't able to go to very many workshops and hopefully they will be able to do those things more next year! They each have a few projects, though, and I hope they do well.

Well, we've got to get to the craft store now and then back for their final 4H meeting before the fair. Both Gideon and Becca are officers so they need to be there. (I just want to take a nap...)

By the way, our homestudy is completely done and I talked to the adoption agency on Friday. We need to forward things to them from the other adoption agency. Guess what? We have been approved to adopt 1 or 2 little ones! Wouldn't that be great? Two precious souls? One would be fine with us but two would be an additional blessing. The country that we are adopting from only places siblings and not two unrelated children. I am going to leave that in God's hands.

Since adoption is so near and dear to my heart, I tend to talk about it a lot. I think that it touches people's hearts to hear that people are doing this kind of thing. I try to make it all about the Lord but I also don't want to sound self righteous. Some of you might remember a post that I wrote back in December about walking in the snow and thinking about our little girl waiting for us in Africa. I added to it a little bit to bring in more about Christ's salvation and I entered it today in the open division in our county fair. I told my hubby that at least one or two people will be forced to read it since they are judging it so....who knows if they have ever really heard about God's Adoption of us?
Well, have a lovely day! It is really HOT here in Indiana!
Blessings, Beth