Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow

This morning Benjamin and I enjoyed a "gourmet" breakfast together, sitting on the back patio. The weather has finally cooled off in Tucson, and we are outside as much as possible! Our lovely breakfast consisted of cinnamon coffee (or, "foccee", as Ben calls it) and cinnamon pop-tarts (otherwise known as "top-parts" in our house). Yes, I know it was not the most nutritious meal, but it's been my favorite since college, and Ben is certainly my boy - he loves it! He even dipped his pop-tarts in the coffee, just like Mommy does. It was such a special time. He is so talkative, and loves to tell me about everything around us -- "blue! chair!" (he was sitting in a little blue chair) -- "big! rock!" (he is obsessed with rocks) -- "foccee! hot!". Then we blew bubbles, or rather, Ben put the wand to his mouth and spit. It was so much fun!

We were able to enjoy our breakfast while Daddy was at Home Depot, buying new exterior doors for our home (since our current ones were kicked in, or attempted to be kicked in, by the burglars on Tuesday -- see previous blog). We have spent the past couple of days putting our home back together after the burglary, going through things to see what all is missing, working with the insurance company on a list of the losses. Yesterday morning we were feeling pretty good, as if we were getting a grip on the situation, processing what we'd lost (and what we hadn't lost!). Bryan even bought a new camera for me, the same kind as the one that had been stolen. He knew how upset I was about that, since I take pictures daily of my babies.

But what nearly ruined the day yesterday was that we realized that the burglars had taken our movies -- nearly all of them. We had most of our movies in one CD folder - at least 80 of them. These are movies we'd collected over the past 7-8 years. And we would not have cared so much about the loss of all those movies, except that we had also stored some precious home videos of Ben as a baby in the back of that binder. As Bryan put it, "It was like getting robbed all over again." We were crushed. Then we remembered that we'd made copies of those videos for our parents, so that made it a little easier to bear. But for me personally, it still hurts to think that someone out there has video of my baby, and though they more than likely will NOT watch it, it still bothers me. They will probably trash the videos, and that hurts too. There were many things taken from us that were valuable only to US, and knowing that the burglars will just throw those things away just pierces my heart.

But our day was NOT ruined yesterday, and of course we are not letting this burglary ruin our lives or any part of them. Benjamin is such a joy - he is mostly oblivious to the situation, and very excited about every little thing. Cars, blocks, rocks - you name it. This is one happy little boy. Bryan and I are praising God for him this weekend. We went out to dinner last night (another "gourmet" meal, this one at Arby's) - we needed to get out of the house after our disappointing day - and we had never had so much fun. Ben was excited about the cars driving by...he was excited about his chicken nuggets...he was excited that there was milk to drink...he pointed out Sam's hair, socks, and pacifier with great authority. We were laughing and so grateful to God that little Ben was unaware of our low spirits, and that he was able to raise them without even knowing it.

Bryan and I are so grateful for our family. We are realizing how blessed we are to have our sons and one another. We know that the things of this world will always pass away, but the things of God will not. We have been pointedly reminded of this fact during the past week! So once again, we rest our hope and peace in Him.