- 3/25/2007 10:00:00 PMDay 3 - SundayI woke up this morning at 6AM. I think I might have hit the snooze. I remember being aware of the consequences of using the snooze alarm - Others would hear it and I would not get any quiet time this morning.
As I got up and walked past the boys room, I glanced in to see if Yuri was awake or not. His legs moved a little and I feared that the alarm woke him. I went down stairs to make coffee and shower as I do every day at this time. I have a routine:
1. Go Pee
2. Make Coffee
3. Shower
4. By the time I'm done with my shower, the coffee is ready to drink
5. If it is a week day, I pack my lunch and make breakfast for the kids and prepare for a daily devotional
6. If it is a week end, I read quietly and prepare my lesson plan
Seconds after I came out of the bathroom and was preparing to make coffee, Yuri came down. He looked a little sleepy and sat down at the kitchen table. I began to pour coffee and he went in to go pee. When he came out, he watched me finish making the coffee. He counted coffee scoops with me, "1... 2... good". "Click" and the coffee maker came to life. I told him as best I could that I was going to take a shower and I'd be out in a few minutes.
Based on an observation by James yesterday, I suspected that there might be urine all over the toilet because his aim is a little poor and he doesn't like to lift up the seat. I opened the lid and sure enough, most of the seat was very wet. I said, "Hey... what is this?" and signaled to him with my hand to come here. He said, "Ah" and grabbed some toilet paper and wiped it up. He was about to toss it into the trash but I told him to throw it into the toilet. Then I showed him how the seat can go up along with the lid. I stood in front of the toilet (with my cloths on) and pretended like I was urinating. "sphhhh sphhhh sphhhh". I hope he got the idea.
When I came out from the shower, I fixed him a bowl of his new favorite cereal - Sugar Smacks. He ate while I had coffee. He was telling me something but I don't know what. Perhaps it was the usual morning chatter, "I slept good/bad... I had a dream about.... My back hurts... "
We sat there in the quiet of the morning. Just him and I. I read the morning devotion from Our Daily Bread. He seemed to listen. It was the same as I do with my own children nearly every morning of the week. The only difference was, he is not my child and my own children were not present. This makes me wonder how things might change in our house should Yuri become part of our family.
Yesterday there was an incident where Yuri was riding on Ellie's tricycle. It is a heavy duty tricycle and all of the kids are able to ride it without fear that they will break it. Yuri cannot ride a 2 wheel bike like the other kids yet. He is such a high energy and quickly distracted boy, he would often leave the tricycle and go off running and hollering. No sooner would he do that then my son James would grab the tricycle and take off. Yuri would see this and then begin to call "James! James!" as if James had taken something from him.
Now, James has 2 other bicycles of his own and Yuri cannot ride a 2 wheel bike so I began to scold James about taking the tricycle. Perhaps I as too hard on him. He went off walking through the field alone. I wondered if James wondered how our family life might change if Yuri were to stay. Yesterday, during the VBS Larissa thanked each of the families for rescuing these kids from, "a living hell". With all of this in my mind I began to feel very guilty and convicted about my own attitudes and sharing the blessing of home and family that I had received and apparently took for granted.
I also began to think about what was to take place at church this morning. All of the sick and hurting were to come in front of the church and the elders were going to pray over each person individually. Pastor Kuhn told me a few days ago, "prepare your heart". I had been thinking of this off and on during the week but never spent any serious time in prayer about it. Now my mind was on Yuri and my family. It was more like the Lord was preparing my heart and setting things in order in my mind. All of these things rushed through my head while Yuri ate his cereal.
When he had finished eating, he went into the living room to resume playing with the Legos left out from yesterday. I grabbed my Sunday school lesson and began to read. I had quiet time for about 10 minutes until Peggy and Ellie came down. Ellie joined Yuri playing while Peggy drank coffee. For the most part, we prepared for church just like any other Sunday. We even left the house early and got to church with plenty of time to spare.
Yuri entered the church and one of the first people he encountered was Dave Kostreva. Dave is a true elder. He is old, very wise and leans on the Lord. Dave also keeps his pocket filled with Hershey's kisses - one for every kid and two for the ones that greet him with a smile. We sat in our usual row at church (2nd from the front). This is so that no one distracts us during the service. Shortly after the service began, we did the prayer of healing. Pastor Kuhn asked those who needed prayer for healing to sit in the front row - right in front of my family and Yuri.
Myself and the other elders gathered together in front of each person. Tim Fifield anointed each person with oil in the name of the Holy Spirit. I got down on one knee and held each person's hand. We took turns praying for everyone there (about 10 people). I prayed for Donna Revello. I don't personally know what her condition was but I prayed that God would restore her health so that she could continue to serve him with joy in her heart. I also prayed for Lydia Blohoiak, a little girl who recently discovered she has an inoperable brain tumor. Her mother Gail sat with her and is stressed to the max. We prayed for her too. Yuri and my family got a front row seat to watch us in action.
It was a very stirring and emotional thing to do and I had to fight back the tears while I prayed. More conviction and more guilt flooded my spirit and I could not resist the calling of God on my heart. I am convinced that it is my personal call to get my heart in line with God's heart. My agenda aligned with His. There can be no other way.
After church we had a pot luck dinner. The theme was Mexican and I wondered what (if anything) Yuri would eat. It seemed strange that someone would travel half way around the world and not eat the food local to that region. But this is America and that is how it is. Nevertheless, Yuri selected the food he thought he would like. One scoop of a rice dish, one burrito, some kind of corn bean medley and lots of corn chips. Before sitting down to eat, we made a quick stop at the desert table. One brownie and two small cupcakes. I also got him a cup of Chocolate milk.
He nibbled his way through each item. The Doritos and corn chips were the first things to go. He seemed upset that his burrito was not easily cut and when he tried it broke. I motioned to him that he could just eat it with his hands but he didn't want anything to do with it now that it was broken. He didn't eat his corn bread but he did eat some of the bean medley. Of course all of his deserts we eaten but not the chocolate milk. This surprised me. He wanted to go back to the desert table for more. I let him pick out one additional piece of cake. Perhaps I was being a push-over. I just wanted him to feel good about what was going on at the pot luck.
After lunch was done and the tables cleared up, Yuri, myself and the rest of the younger kids played an impromptu game of dodge ball. The youth group at church as play balls that are very spongy with a thin layer of plastic on them. You can throw them quite hard and it doesn't hurt when you are hit by them. My accuracy was dead on today. I could nail him on the run at 20 feet... WHACK! He would try and throw them back at me but he was not a good aim and couldn't throw nearly has hard or fast as I could. That didn't stop him. He would run right at me and start attacking me with his hands. Boxing, tickling and punching me in the butt. It was horse-play... boy style. Very physical with lots of laughing and a few cheap shots.
We left the church and headed for home around 2:00. I was exhausted and just wanted to read the news paper and take a nap. Our friends, the Hamels, invited us over for a play day. They have 4 children in and around the same ages of ours. I stayed at home and Peggy took Megan, James, Ellie and Yuri over there to play.
Mr. Hamel was cooking down 40+ gallons of maple sap outside. The Hamel girls allowed Yuri to ride 3 of their 4 horses. From what Peggy has told me, he was very excited about that.
While they were away I changed the oil in the Saturn. When they returned, I changed the oil in the van. As soon as I got the ramps out and lifted the hood of the van, Yuri got very excited. He ran out to me jabbering 100 mph. He obviously wanted to help. I drove the van onto the ramps, then crawled underneath dragging the oil basin with me. I pointed to the socket set and worked with Yuri to get the correct wrench and socket combination. He watched everything I did very closely. Since the van motor was still hot, the oil was also hot. I said to Yuri, "hot hot hot".
I took off the oil filter - which was extremely hot and replaced it with the new filter. I had put the old filter into the box from the new filter and closed it up. Apparently, Yuri didn't get the "hot hot hot" part of what I was saying. He grabbed the box and turned it upside down and poured hot oil sludge all over his hand and onto his new jeans. Suddenly he understood.
Later, Yuri picked out our supper meal. Ravioli, with mixed vegetables and garlic bread. I wondered how he would do with the vegetables. We already knew that he wasn't too keen on green beans. He didn't want any tomato sauce on his ravioli but preferred to eat them plain - a pasta pocket filled with beef. No butter, nothing. Just noodle with meat. He picked the carrots out of his vegetable mix but I was able to coax him into eating all of his vegetables.
During the visit to the grocery store, Peggy picked up some microwave pop-corn. We popped it and sat outside watching a lightening storm pass by to the north of us. The air temperature by us was very pleasant and it was not windy. It was very much like watching the fireworks on the 4th of July.
After the popcorn was gone, we came in to watch a movie. Tonights selection - Water World with Kevin Costner. I had not realized what a violent film that is. Lots of machine gun fire and plenty of killing. Yuri covered his head and looked away. With all of his machine gun noises, I wondered exactly how much violent television he had seen. I'm guessing not very much. Watching the movie was a mistake. Yuri was awake for all of the worst parts of the movie before he fell asleep on the floor. I covered his eyes as best I could but I shouldn't have had to do that. From now on, it is Chip and Dale and Chicken Run. By the time the movie was done, Yuri was sound asleep. I had to carry him up to bed. He crashed, fully clothed and facing the wrong direction.
