What a summer!

It has been a while since i've had time to sit at a computer. My Lord has taken His sons on an outing, giving me a bit of very precious free time. So bits and pieces of my summer:

First, my Lord's sixth son was born as planned. He is a very happy and healthy baby, growing by leaps and bounds. While intellectually i know that genetically my Lord determines the sex of His children, on a gut level i feel a great pride when i find out that the new baby is a boy......it's one of many areas where an emotional reaction may not be based in 'reality' but is just as real as anything can be. While we love His daughters as much as His sons, i do have that irrational reaction that i've done something special (better?) when the child i carry for Him is male.

The other big news is that we had two weddings to plan this summer. Our nanny of several years married a young man in our fellowship, plus the young woman who was living with us to learn to be a wife/mother got married, also to a young man in the congregation. The nanny's parents still live in Asia, so we ended up planning everything (they did stay with us for 10 days for the ceremony), and the other young lady's family lives several hours away, so we had the joy of doing much of the arranging that as well.

In the nanny's case, my Lord has conveyed the young man's request for her hand when in Asia on business. The other young woman had come to live with us when her father had accepted a marriage proposal for her -- but neither she nor i knew who the young man was (although my Lord had conveyed some of the groom's wishes on training to me).

The nanny's new husband bought land near here, and they are living in a small house he had built this summer. He is letting her continue to work for us part-time, while she and i train our two new nannies, cousins from a traditional Asian family distantly related to her. But she's now expecting (married 7 weeks, 6.5 weeks pregnant!), so her husband has made it clear that workign outside the home will be ending very soon.

In k's case, her parents came for a visit (the first wedding) and it was at our house the next day that they invited the intended over, at which point he and k spent some time talking, along with several visits over a few days. Before her parents went home, her father asked if the proposed marriage met with her approval. Since k likes and respects the young man (i say that, then realize he is only 4 years younger than i am!), she agreed with her fathr's judgement and we proceeded with the wedding plans. So that was last weekend.

Good practice for when His daughters are old enough to marry. K in particular needed a lot of guidance; she'd been homeschooled and not allowed tv staring when she was in grade 2 (and had gone to a conservative Christian school for 1st grade), so she really didn't know much about the world or male-female relationships -- which is what we are hoping for for His daughters. k's mother is a wonderful person, but she freely admits that she wasn't able to handle lots of this (that's why they sent k here in the first place!), so the training and education fell to me. And that was good for me -- to articulate what/how/why i do things. i'll admit to real curiosity about how things are going - they get back from the wedding trip on Monday, and i know the new husband has already scheduled for k to come over some time this week for a debriefing [grin].

With the new house (almost a year here), we have much more land, so we had a larger garden this summer. It gave the boys some chores (since He feels they shouldn't do female work inside), and it kept me busy, as well as producing lots for us to eat. One of His things He insisted on this summer was a season of physical labor for me -- I've always been active (what mother of many isn't?) but He was much more demanding/specific it this summer, in the context of training for me. So, in addiiton to the regular gardening, i built (as much as i could without his help) a shed and a small greenhouse, as well as expanding the deck and patio. He told me that i had to carry as mcuh as i could by hand -- no cheating by using a wheel barrow or such. His reasoning for all of this: that i needed the reminder that all of me -- my intellect, my labor, and so on -- belongs to Him. Since i don't work outside the house to turn a paycheck over to Him, this was a summer-long reminder for me. For the most part, i was quite happy with the arrangement - time outside (more than the past couple summers) and i got things done that are quite useful to have. i wasn't sure i liked pullig the plow that His oldest son was guiding when we went to start expending the garden even more, but i very quickly understood that that was my pride surfacing, so He dealt with it swiftly (he's good that way [grin]).

He's also gotten much more direct in His control of the boys' homeschooling. He gave me a detailed outline of what He wanted for the year, which i was directed to turn into week-by-week lesson plans (He has me plan by the week, to allow for a bit more flexibility than day-by-day schedules), then made extensive changes/corrections to that. He also had new school letterhead printed, with our new address -- and it now lists Him as principal and teacher with me as classroom aide (i was the asst. teacher on the older paper). But as His sons get older, He wants to be much more involved in direct oversight.

Life is good -- on our anniversary this year (10 years!), we took some time to reflect on our lives and the changes we've made. On one hand, it seems like we've come so far -- but i realize how often and how far i fall short of where i know i should be in obedience and submission, getting frustrated and eager to go too far too fast. One thing that i frequently need to remind myself is that (as we look back) He is almost always the one who is right about the pace and order of changes; whenever He has taken a suggestion from me about moving faster or in a different direction, which hasn't been often [and is less often the further we go into this journey], it has quickly become apparent that we should have done things His way. Yet another reminder of why He is in charge..........