CHOICES!!

     Oh I am so sad for my oldest son.  He is having to make some hard choices in relation to this crazy adoption process.  Two things are happening this summer that he may/will miss!

     We are a drama loving family and the show this summer is going to be great.  Around and around we have gone to see if there is any way possible that Rob and the boys could be in the show.  We have tried - so hard - to figure out how to work it out.  The director has e-mailed and tried on her end to figure it out.  It boils down to a decision today that is unbearably hard to make.  We can't do it.  Ben was going to be cast as Benjamin in Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.  What a cool part in a really neat show.  Rob was going to be one of the other brothers.  Rob doesn't mind missing but it is killing dear Ben.  He loves drama.   Playing Benjamin would have been such a fun part. 

     Ben also loves swimming.  He swims every weekday and in the summer swims for two hours in the morning, two hours in the evening and coaches the younger children.  The biggest event of the summer swim season is the last big swim meet against ALL the teams in our region - 16 total.  Our team ranked 3rd last year and since it has only been in existence for 4 years - that is an amazing accomplishment.  Ben may miss part of the summer swimming and more importantly that last meet.

     It's hard.  We decided at the beginning of this journey that we wanted the boys to go with us on one of the trips.  We want Aaron to see them in his world and we want them to know what Aaron's world has been like for the last six years.   Time and again we have discussed taking the boys and we have time and again affirmed that taking them is important.  My heart's desire for my children is for them to grow into adulthood with hearts of love and compassion for God and for others.  Our blog is titled Micah Six Eight, a verse in the Bible that sums up my personal motto since college.  To love God and love others. 

     Ben is fifteen.  A hard age.  Part boy and part man.  God is molding him this summer.  It's hard to watch.  It's hard to see him having to choose.  We want it to be his choice.  He does have the option of staying.  He has chosen to go.  He wants to go get Aaron even though it hurts.  It isn't easy to hear him cry out his hurt at saying no to a part that means so much.  The pain will be even more intense if our schedule drops right on top of the biggest swim event of the season.   Justice and mercy are hard.  My oldest is learning this.  I'm learning the same lessons alongside him.