In the middle of the night last night, the stillness of the house was broken by a huge crash and a piercing scream from Aliyah. I promptly jerked Peter so he could go fight off the burglar! Thankfully this did not happen while he was away . . . he went in to Aliyah and took her in the bathroom to calm her down. Apparently she’d had a dream about a lion eating her, poor thing. After a few minutes of talking to her, he went to take her back to bed and she said, “So what was that crash Daddy?” (Funnily enough, I don’t think he actually heard the crash, he sleeps so deeply!) As they went back into her dark bedroom, he noticed that our beautiful amaryllis had toppled from its place on the mantle shelf onto the floor. There was dirt everywhere and the stem of the poor amaryllis was snapped. Now you have to know the background of this amaryllis . . . we tried to grow one last year in our homeschool science program. We followed the directions they gave and started it growing in a clear glass so we could see the roots. Well, much to our disappointment, when we transplanted it, it didn’t make it. Awhile back, I told this story in passing to a friend and she very thoughtfully gave us another amaryllis for Christmas (which we did NOT start in the glass first!). Anyway, this gorgeous flower had just bloomed a few days ago so it was pretty sad for all of us to see it die last night! At least this year, we got as far as seeing it blossom. We think that the blossoms actually grew so big that they were pushing against the wall (the mantle is quite narrow) which made it fall. As Peter said when he came back to bed last night – be thankful it was just the amaryllis and not a burglar. True, I am thankful for that. And we’ll try another amaryllis next year. There is something very special about watching God’s creation grow. Which brings me onto another subject . . .
Tonight I went to the 2nd segment of the Christianity Explored course that our church is running. The course is for people trying to understand what Christianity is all about. It is exciting to watch people grow in their spiritual understanding. Please pray for all the people attending, including a friend who I am going along with. Pray that the Holy Spirit would open up their eyes and hearts and that any who are unsaved will come to know Jesus as their Savior. Final subject . . . we are now fully into birthday season in our household. Aliyah turned five on Tuesday and we celebrated with her favorite dinner (pasta), cupcakes and presents. Saturday she will have a little party with her friends. Mariah’s third birthday is next (Feb 19) and then Hannah turns seven on March 2nd. She’ll have a party the weekend before with her friends. We are blessed everyday by these little people God has put into our family. We’ll try to put up some pictures soon!
