Today was quite a day. Andrea and I have been holding down the fort, and will continue to do so until Sunday late afternoon, while the men are off at play at men's camp. No worries! We're capable women. We've got it covered.

There was an intense storm this afternoon that cut out all the power. I was off on a mission to pick up some more kids from across town, so Andrea (bless her heart) was flyin' solo when the power went out. It was raining and even hailing outside and she had at least 8 kids between 4 and 15 in our little house with NO lights, NO radio/CD player, NO tv... (haha that's a joke, we don't have a tv) and NO computers.

What did all of these media oriented kids do for the 3 hours the power was out?
You guessed it, they picked on one another.
And they ate snacks. You can actually look at the furniture and see remnants of everything they ate over the course of the afternoon. (sorry Rob...good thing we bought that little cleaning machine!)

I probably could've been better at moderating their sugar intake, because by the time 8pm rolled around some of the kids were so hyper, that they couldn't control their little flailing bodies and wild laughter. It was funny, but sufficed to say it got a little out of hand. It was like a zoo in here. Too bad I don't have any pictures of that, because words don't do it justice.

We had all had dinner, freezie pops, blueberry muffins, candy and doritos. We looked up everybody's brother/baby daddy/momma on the county court website (you can search for inmates and past inmates, see their photos and what they were charged with, all online...it's like a ghetto family photo album for some of these kids...) and then Andrea and I needed a mental health break and decided to head off to the Charlotte prayer room www.charlotte24-7prayer.com but when we arrived (I only got sorta turned around on the way there) it was unavailable.

So we did the next best thing - we went to Wal-Mart.

!

By the time we got back, it was around 10:30pm and we felt rested and refreshed by our outing. I figured the kids would all have scattered and the front porch would be deserted.
Man, was I off.
We could see their shadows in the midst of the dark - darting about in untamed merriment. We could hear their tribal shrieks before we saw the whites of their eyes.
They ran up to the still moving van - calling to us:

"Miss Heather, can we watch a movie?"
"Miss Heather, can we have a snack?"
"Miss Heather, where are you going? Can I come?"
"Miss Heather, where'd you go? You were gone too long."
"Miss Heather, I want some" (of what, I have no idea...probably one of those pre-emptory questions, just in case i was toying with the idea of giving something out!)

There were hands slapping at the minivan, and afraid I'd run someone over, I put the van in park and opened my door - answering the above questions as best I could:

"No. It's bedtime for Miss Andrea and me."
"No, you've already eaten everything I've got."
"What do you mean? I just got home."
"I went out."
"Some of what?!"

There was a unanimous squawk:

"WHAT!"
"You're so mean."
" You never let us do anything."
"We never get to come over to your house."
"I know you got food in there."
"You aren't going to sleep - I bet you are gonna watch a movie without us."

Andrea and I made our way into the house, dodging the wiry kids that were trying to push past us into the house - as though their very presence within would qualify them for a prize (the coveted freezie and Madea movie) and we collapsed on the couch, more than amused by it all.

Next thing you know, we see little pairs of eyes peering into the windows and through the screen doors. There's a kid at each window, front and back door peeking in and squealing to the others:

"HEY! They're not sleeping. You said you was sleeping!"

*sigh*

God bless this place - it feels like home, even though home has never looked anything like this in the past. That's the power and beauty of being in God's will.

"My dwelling place is the Most High" - George Scott Railton