Day Seven: God has been good to us in El Paso

Today was our last day in El Paso with Jesse's family. Last days are always hard (for everyone I think) ... but there is nothing you can do about it being the last day ... except to make the very most of every single minute you have, right?
We played at a small water park over at Biggs this morning. It was SO hot outside today, and this was the perfect place to play and stay cool. This is the last day this park will be open until Memorial Day of next year ... even though it is really HOT all throughout September and most of October, they just close water parks down like they do up north ... probably for want of personnel to run them. We talked it over and decided they ought to at least be open on the weekends so that folk can enjoy them for a long time.

I'll tell you who enjoyed themselves today, though ... Matthew, Christopher and Emma. I'll just show you a couple of pictures so that you can see for yourselves ...

And even though the boys were lathered up twice with a pretty high-powered sunscreen, they still got a little too much sun today and were sore this evening. It was great to watch them having so much fun in the water ...

After we played at the park, Jesse drove us around Biggs Air Field and showed us where he actually works ... well, Diana did the driving because Jesse's knee is still recovering. We came home and did some quiet activities for the rest of the afternoon.

Emma and I did a lot of reading. We read all of our Josalina Piggy books, Oliver and Amanda Pig (one of Emma's favorites) ~ and I brought two new books: Does God Know How to Tie Shoes? and Who is the Best Cat? We also colored a bunch of pictures together at the dining room table, played briefly outside with friends, shared a yummy pizza dinner, and then did more art work after dinner.

Five days doesn't seem like enough when it had been over 150 since we got to hug these little ones and share our lives with them. We have come to accept that this is the situation, but we don't like it very much and wish it could be different.

We got to help tuck everyone in again tonight. Our story was about the woman who washed the feet of Jesus with her tears and dried them with her hair. It is beautifully told in the Jesus Storybook Bible and the children listened so carefully to it and asked such interesting questions.

The times I treasure most are those quiet little talks you can have at bedtime with children. The boys were so tired they could barely keep awake, so they tucked in quite quickly. Emma was especially sweet as she was saying good-by tonight ... I'm just going to keep our conversation to myself ... some things are just too private to be shared on a blog. But I prayed for her, because she asked me to, and then she prayed for me. Hers was a beautiful prayer from a heart who knows the Lord with a simple, childlike faith ... the kind that is so precious to God.

Inside Emma's art box that I made her for her birthday, I put two little necklace kits ... you know, the $1 kind from Michaels. Emma made both of them a few days ago and then said that one of them was for me. I hesitated to take one, because I really intended both of them to be for her. But she called me back to her room tonight because I left it on her nightstand. She said I had to take it with me "so that I wouldn't forget her" ... I told her I wouldn't forget her if I didn't see her for a million years! We had a last hug, shed a few tears, and then smiled at each other one last time.

"So we praise God for the wonderful kindness He has poured out on us, because we belong to us dearly loved Son." Ephesians 1:6