Well, I had high hopes of posting two new Christmas Projects on my blog this past weekend, however, I got thrown a curve ball and the weekend didn't play out quite as I had planned.

My Boy ... oh ... why do I call him Boy so many of you ask?!  No, it's not a privacy thing.  We call him Boy simply because he likes us to call him Boy.  I know it sounds totally stupid.  Years ago a dear friend of mine had a dog and they named him Dog.  It cracked me up because I had never heard of such a silly thing.  Well, Boy likes his nicknames and he likes us to call him Boy.  He also doesn't like it when his sister calls him Kevin, or Kevin Martin or Kev.  He insists that she call him Brudder.  We happily abide by his wishes.  And that's all there is to the story.

So ... speaking of Boy ... he had his very first run in with trouble this past weekend.  As a result my Saturday and Sunday didn't go quite as I had planned.  In fact, I've even put my Christmas Projects aside.  In place of these projects Boy and I are working on a mini album about his adventures this past weekend.  He's done lots of writing and now I'm in the process of putting it all together.  Because he wrote so small ... I may even share a shot of the finished project ... as long as it doesn't embarrass him.

I have to share that through all of our adventures this past weekend what I feel more than anything is thankfulness and gratitude to God for taking care of my son and protecting him.  The first thing I told my boy was that I loved him and everything would be okay.  Honestly, I was more overcome with love than I was with anger.  In fact, I'm not even sure if anger is a good word.  It was the fear of 'what could have happened' that scared me more than anything. 

Through this whole experience I keep thinking how blessed I am to have the God that I do and that He is in control.  I can't help but think of myself and how much I need God's love and forgiveness on a daily basis.  More than anything I wanted my son to know that his mom and dad forgive him.  We may be disappointed by his actions, but, we love him and we forgive him and we're here for him ... always.

Typically, I don't share personal issues such as this one on my blog and I must admit that I feel somewhat odd doing so.  As I sit here typing I can't help but think of a post Debbie had written on her Simply Inspired blog a few weeks ago.  It was about glasses of gratitude.  Here is the part that speaks to me right now ...

"So what kind of glasses are you looking through? Do they give you tunnel vision, turn everything darker, or help you to read between the lines? Do they magnify situations or do you hide behind them? The glasses we wear directly effect how we perceive the circumstances in our lives. I want to see clearly but I also want to be able to rejoice with those that rejoice, weep with those that weep, and be encouraging and hopeful, regardless of what is going on in my own life."  Glasses of Gratitude


When I finally went to bed this past Saturday night my heart was overcome with so many emotions.  "How weird is this?" I wondered to myself.  After all of the events that have just transpired ... my heart was overflowing with love, and joy , and thankfulness, and peace, and forgiveness.  My husband and I, together with our son, had spent the day taking a negative situation and making it good.  We each learned from this experience and we chose to focus on the good that could come from it.  We made a conscious decision to see and to do the positive ... together.  And that ... makes my cup ... runneth over.

Merry Christmas!

Mischelle