I cried

Yup, I’m a little behind in the blog this week. Everyone else had Halloween pictures of their children posted Monday. Me, not so much. We purchased a new fancy camera and it did not come with a cable to move the photos from the memory card to the computer. And of course I can't find one at the local Target.  And I’m scared to pull the memory card out of the camera, insert into the computer and copy the photos to the computer. The last time I did that, the memory card freaked out and I lost 800 photos ( tornado photos no less!). I was eventually able to recover them with the help of National Camera Exchange and $45. I’m trying not to repeat that mistake…Halloween pictures will be forth coming. Just not today.


So back to why I cried…

Our Alex was confirmed last Saturday, October 30th. In our program, the kids teens are required to find a verse or section in the bible that resonates with them, something that is personal for them. They are then required to write a paragraph explaining why that verse or section is meaningful to them. This is called their “Faith Statement”. The weekend prior to confirmation, all of the confirmation students went on a retreat to work on their Faith Statements. We did not see Alex’s Faith Statement nor discuss it with him prior to arriving at the church that Saturday morning. He went to meet his small group leader and we headed into the sanctuary. We grabbed a program on our way in. Inside the program were the Faith Statements of all 20 kids teens. I immediately turned to Alex’s Faith Statement. I immediately cried. As did my mother, my mother-in-law, Alex’s God Mother/Aunt and several family friends. Our men will deny it but several teared up royally as well. Let’s just say I was a mess. Much to my surprise, I did much better when he actually read it to the congregation during the actual ceremony.

Here is the verse he chose and what he wrote:
John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.”
This verse relates to me because my brother was an orphan. The choice was up to me, in the beginning I liked being an only child but over time the Lord worked his way into my heart and told me to adopt him. At first I resisted but I learned that the Lord is always right. He taught me to share my possessions even though it sometimes is a hard thing to do. As time goes on, I find that it gets easier and easier to give up one’s possessions for others all thanks to the Lord.

In the church that day was Alex’s basketball coach from days gone by. We have remained friends with John and his lovely wife Brenda. John is a big burly guy who happens to work as a prison guard (very fitting occupation by the way). The boys always joked about you do whatever Coach asks you to do before he finishes his sentence. John/Coach summed it up after the ceremony, “Tell Alex that Coach says ‘He done good, I’m very proud of him.’” And so are we! Unbelievably proud!