Saturday August 2nd

Saturday we woke up on the mountain, since we had spent the night for the Elders Quorum social.  The kids found an old abandoned raft on the lake and took it out a little ways. The water was shallow enough that they could just walk out to the raft, but since we had just finished reading Huckleberry Finn, the kids got a real kick out of it.  It might seem silly, but I think that was evidence of the Lord's hand in our lives.

We had been reading about Huck and Jim floating down the river, and kids had been so intrigued.  They wanted to know all kinds of details about the Mississippi River and how to steer a raft, and you could tell they were just itching to try it.  Unfortunately we live an extremely long way away from the Mississippi River, and the chances of them riding a raft anytime soon seemed extremely remote.  But then we go to a mountain lake and find an old falling apart raft that the kids could push out a little ways and feel just like Huckleberry Finn.  Our God truly does love us and pays attention to the smallest details. 

The other evidence of God's hand in our lives today is that Friedrich is home!  Hooray!!!  It feels like he has been gone forever.  After his week-long Scout camp he went up north with a friend to watch Wicked (I am so jealous), and then went to dinner and rollerskating.  I know that they were thinking about waiting to bring him home on Sunday because there was someone already going to make the trip on Sunday.  But I was texting like crazy, offering to meet them halfway, telling them how much I needed to see my son.

And it worked!  They brought him down, and I met them part-way, and got home way after midnight, but he's home!  I am so glad.  When he was a child, I was sure he would never survive past the age of five.  (Partly because I wanted to kill him most days.) But now he's a strapping 14-years-old, and he's just so fun to have around.  I told him he's not allowed to leave home anymore, but for now I'm just so glad that the Lord brought him home safe and sound.