Christmas with Cousins

After traveling to Alabama for my nephew's funeral, I asked my other sister if I could take her daughter with me back home to help entertain Jack in the car. They were coming the next week for Christmas, anyway, so  it seemed like a good idea. Well, her little brother could not be left out of this vacay, so he joined us for the week, too. So mother of six I was again. This time, it was much easier. Her youngest are 9 yrs and 7 yrs. Much different than 6 under 5 yrs.

I mostly let them run wild while I just took care of stuff. They were great entertainment for my four. It was louder and messier with 6, I have to say. There were a few times they were driving me nuts and I had to come up with a project. We cooked, went on a Christmas light scavenger hunt, and made these Christmas trees..

Scrapbooking supplies to the rescue.

I learned a lot about my niece and nephew... 

Zion is MESSY, loves sugar, loves to spend money, and is GREAT with Jack. I hope she finds a well-paying job when she's grown. . . or a rich husband. I think she wants to be an actress.

Isaac is just plain cool. "Mr. Popular." He's funny, doesn't let much bother him, knows way more than my 7 year old (with 3 older siblings, what else would you expect?), always wears this hat, and is much neater than is sister.

I think next time, I'll plan more activities for us to do. Keep the wildness a little more under control. I really think the kids had a great time, though.

Joel

A week ago, Friday, I got a phone call from my dad that I'll ever forget. My nephew, only 20 years old, was shot and killed at a birthday party. It's a story that we are hearing too often these days, but this time, it's struck my family. The shooter was at the party and got into a disagreement with another person there and was asked to leave. He came back with a ski mask and an assault rifle. He shot at everyone at the party, but my nephew, Joel, was the only one killed. My other nephew, his older brother, was there with him but only got scaved. We believe Joel may have been trying to stop the shooter. I'm an still stunned by this tragedy. He was such a good kid. Loved Jesus, was kind to everyone, funny, a musician. It's nothing but heart breaking. The night I got the phone call, I remembered the Christmas cards I had just ordered that day and then I remembered that I had put a Scripture verse on there. I was starting to regret the verse I picked, thinking how inappropriate it was to have such a nice Scripture written on my cards after this nightmare. But then that still small voice spoke to me. His word is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. This does not change His Word: "You crown the year with goodness. Your paths drip with abundance." Psalm 65:11.

I really thought/prayed long and hard how to explain what happened to my boys. It was really layed heavy on me that this shooter was hurting and I wanted the kids to see him in that light, too.  I talked to them about the right and wrong ways to respond when you get your feelings hurt. I let them tell me what they thought they should do and not do when they were hurt. Then I told them that this guy was hurting. He didn't not handle his hurts in the right way. I told them what happened to their cousin. That's something I wish I could have sheltered them from for longer. I do pray for this man. You've got to be in a lot of pain to do something like this.

I was blown away by the way my sister has been handling the whole thing. She has spent her life seeking God and striving to serve Him in complete obedience. God is her rock and she is standing steady on Him. It really inspired me to seek God more myself. I don't think I'd be as prepared as she was spiritually to handle such a blow. I can't wait until I need to be prepared to start preparing. I told her she needs to blog about all this that God's doing through his death, so when she does, I'll link you up to it. It'll inspire you.

I didn't have the honor of knowing Joel all that well. My sister and her family has always lived pretty far away, but my heart still breaks them. I can't imagine losing one of my babies. I do know that he's in Heaven with Jesus and we're going to get to see him again one day. I made sure to tell my boys that, too. He's not in any pain - he's living the LIFE. It's just us here left on earth that are missing him. Caedon told me that he thinks Joel might be missing his family just a little bit, too. 

This is a pictures of all the cousins, taken back in May. My boys are on the front row and Joel is in the back with the dark striped shirt on. Doesn't he have a nice smile?