May 21 Precious time ...

Saturday evening:  Kaity and I dropped the kiddos back off to Dylan and Kelly at about 5:30 ... Erin very badly wanted us to stay and play at their house, but I usually have a 1-on-1 with Kaity on Saturdays and I didn't want to miss out on spending that special time with her.

In truth, it's not that Kaity and I do such great things when we are together ... and often I wonder why on earth Kaity even comes over to my place when obviously I am SO boring and there is NOTHING to do at my house ... but she continues to come and I continue to ask just what the Lord would have me do with the time we have together.

As we were driving back to my house, Kaity looked over at me and asked: "Grandma, when you pray for me--what do you ask God to do?" Wow. Now there was a question I readily answered! I told Kaity that I ask the Lord to give her faith to believe and a heart to receive Jesus as her very own Savior and to know how much God loves her. Kaity's response: "Oh! That's good, Grandma!" I told her that God is AWESOME and wants to do wonderful things in and through her life.

When we arrived here, I asked if Kaity wanted to play "UNO" only I said it in French: "UN" which sounds kind of like a grunt--this has been a joke with us for many months now. Sometimes we play around with the very limited Spanish words that we know (mostly because Paco claims to be Hispanic and throws around a few Spanish words when we play with him), but then I always show off my FRENCH (the perhaps two dozen words that I can remember, other than counting to ten). It surprises me, sometimes, how amused Kaity will be at the sound of different languages. She is not a person who enjoys reading--although I HAVE caught her laughing at Mo Willems books (!!), and she actually reads almost to her grade level. Anyway, we played two games of UNO, both of which I won! Thursday, Kaity beat me three games in a row! Our second game tonight was one of the longest UNO games I have ever played--we kept slapping Draw4+'s and Draw2+'s on each other and it felt like I was holding the entire deck in my hands for a little while. We did a LOT of laughing as we played ... I enjoyed this time with Kaity so much. I love to see her crack up!

After our UNO games, I told Kaity I was going to wash dishes--I invited her to come into the kitchen with me just to talk while I was working. It didn't take very long before Kaity joined in on the washing. She has always enjoyed playing in the water, and even though she is a month away from turning TEN, she still loves playing in the water! I told her she could wash and I would rinse--and we had so much fun doing it. We were both sad when all of the dishes were washed and dripping dry in the dish drainer.

Afterwards, there was something being talked about between Kaity and Emma. Kaity became so sad that she had big tears rolling down her face. She got up off the couch and let me hold her in the nicest embrace while I spoke words of love and comfort to her. I can still feel her nestled up close to my heart ...

It's been almost two days since this time with Kaity ... but I want to remember it as best as I can; hence, this almost pictureless post.

"Lord, please do Your work of opening Kaity's eyes and heart to You. Comfort her in her sadness. Chart the path ahead for her. Shower her with Your grace, mercy and peace. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Kaity. Please, Lord, make her part of Your family."