The Love Boat #1 has Sunk

Well, the signs were there but we wanted to give Ricky the benfit of the doubt. But Wednseday night, he broke my daughter's heart when he broke up with her. He was honest with her when he told her that she did everything 100% right and it was all him. The bottom line, he was and is not ready to make a commitment and hanging out with his "boys" is more important. I don't fault the kid, really. We really like him and are still planning to do stuff with his parents since they are our friends. It's just been very difficult for Grace and because she is piece of my heart on feet, it has been difficult for me and Mike.

But we knew that this might and probably WOULD happen sometime. And if our job is to teach our kids how to have successful relationships, we have to allow them to have them. Sometimes we learn most during the hard times. It's going to take a while fore her to recover. She has some moments when she seems strong and then there is the meltdown. I remember those days.

There is still no doubt in our hearts that God allowed this young man to enter our lives. Maybe it's not about Grace and Ricky at all. Maybe it is. Maybe there is a much bigger picture. I don't know. But for now, she is spending the night with some girlfriends to distract her self. I am sad for her.

Oh, by the way...Mike bought us a Wii with our tax return. More on that later.

My Heart on Feet

I once told Mike that with our kids, each one of them is a part of my heart walking around on feet. When they were little, the physical drain of mothering them was enormous. I didn't want them to grow up too fast, but I also looked forward to them being older and more self sufficient. Now that they are older and more self sufficient, parenting them has become more difficult in a different way. When their heart breaks, my heart breaks!

No, there hasn't been any relationship break ups yet, and for the sake of their privacy I am not going to go into details, but it has seemed like a 500 pound gorilla has been sitting on my chest all day because on of the pieces of my "heart on feet" is hurting. As a mom, the absolute hardest part of what I do is stand by and watch as my children go through emotional trials. Yes, I know, it's all a part of growing up and they MUST experience difficulties if they are to grow emotionally and spiritually, but geesh, this gorilla is getting heavy!

And again, God has reminded me that He experiences the same thing when I have an emotional hardship. He stands by and allows me to go through difficult experiences so that I will grow spiritually and emotionally. He has reminded me that, I, too, and HIS heart on feet. And so are you! God is so sweet to use my own parenting experiences to relate to me how He feels about me.