Ham!

(Pictured are Ben, Matthew and Joey on the right)
Joey is in Kindergarden and last week while we were working on reading we had an exciting moment. He looked at his book, sticking his tongue out and making adorable faces trying to figure out what I was teaching him. Then he smiled and said, "Ham!". He looked at me and gave a look I will always treasure and said, "Ham!" a bit louder this time. He jumped around in his chair and said, "Ham! Ham! Ham!" It was in that moment he understood, it made sense, and his life of reading began. We sat and read 2 1/2 of his reading books. Lunch was necessarily postponed a bit, nobody really complained except Lydia, and we broke out a cup of Cheerios for her and Ben to tide them over.
As everyone came together in the dining room, feeling the hunger pains, they all passed along their congratulations and enthusiasm to Joey for his reading!
With every child, when they have met this milestone, we take them to get a reading lamp to put by their bed and a new Bible. They now have joined the "I can stay up 30 extra minutes at night and read!" club.
I would fail miserably if I tried to put into words the joy of being able to teach my child how to read. Something that he will carry his whole life long. Something that will teach him how to do anything, be anything!
Most importantly, it will allow Him to meet God. To understand his purpose of which God had created him for. Hopefully by reading God's Word Joey will realize that he, along with the rest of us, is a sinner in need of a Savior.
Ofcourse if not carefully protected, reading can also have the pull and start an appetite of ungodly, even evil and wicked things. Children like what you feed them. This is true with real food, as well as music, books, everything.
So please pray that the Lord would continue to provide us with wisdom and discernment so our Joey, and those to follow, will have reading material that will provide them with godly wisdom that will have eternal value, blessings and peace.

The Tailless Opossum

Dad has his office in the basement and he heard some scratching in the window well. He came upstairs and asked for special hunting assistance from Benjamin, Joey, Matthew and Daniel, and soon excitement was on the rise. They thought is was just a mouse or two, but it was an opossum! Dad picked it up with a stick and gave Lydia and Mom a close look from the inside window, she loved that! It was growling at their face from 1 yard, and showing it's teeth. Then he took it to a tree, but it didn't have a tail so it couldn't stayup. Then the kids chased it all around and it ended back to the window well. They got it out again, and it went under the porch, so they needed a big pole to push it out. It ran to a bush and then eventually they chased it into the field. You would have thought there was prize money with the end result, everyone was thrilled with the chase.