Only a mother could love that face.

I love our first child more than you can imagine...but...I must be honest; he's not the most handsome of his kind. His legs are too long for his body. His eyes are too big for his face. His ears have a mind of their own. He will be 6 years old in a few months and still doesn't sleep through the night. Despite his birth father's genes, he is more white than black, and that is frowned upon in our culture. He expects treats for doing absolutely nothing and doesn't respond at all to threats. He took forever to potty train. He throws up all the time. He stares. He prevents us from having visitors in our house because he just gets too excited. We can't take him to the park for fear that he will run away.

He ran away yesterday--not the first time, by any means. He was at home with his daddy and his brother and sister, and he escaped through the open gate in the backyard. My husband didn't even realize he was gone; in fact, we still don't know how long he was gone. Aaron (husband) received a phone call in the late afternoon from a Hispanic lady telling him that she had found our oldest wandering the streets of Tulsa. He was safe and she would keep him at her house until Aaron was able to come pick him up. Since he was at Wal-Mart, he decided to go ahead and finish his grocery shopping with the other kids. When Aaron arrived at the House de la Spanish-speakers, our boy was playing in the backyard. He never ever comes when we ask him to, but magically he came running when the senora de la house called for him. Turns out, he speaks Spanish. Who knew?!

The last time he ran away, Dec. 26, 2008, he was gone for 1 full day before we found him. It was freezing outside and he had no coat. I cried the entire time he was gone. The second morning he was away, Aaron had gone to praise and worship practice at our church when, through the open church doors, our oldest son appeared. I guess he heard his father's distinguishable tinkling of the ivories and came a-running. It was our Christmas miracle.

Oh, I'm sorry...I forgot to mention that our first child is Curly Q. Beck, the Boston Terrier. How silly of me.

Until tomorrow.

~Heather