This morning Acacia and I were a little late arriving at the church service. She had spent the night last night at the Anderson's with 3 other girls and they had a wonderful time--even stayed up until almost midnight. Then they were up early and all that made for a very tired Acacia this morning. It was a struggle getting out the door because every little thing for her (read: "interaction with her brothers") was a BIG DEAL and tears followed. I sent the boys ahead to the service and Acacia and I followed.

When we arrived, there were only a few seats left so we sat a fair bit away from the David Family where we usually plant ourselves. We sat next to a family from a nearby village: a sweet lady and her two children. Acacia leaned over about 15 minutes after we sat down and asked if she could sit next to me instead of next to the woman. I asked why and she explained that they were staring at her and she was feeling uncomfortable being the object of stares. She was about to cry again, but I told her to stay put. I reached over and grabbed her hand to console her and tell her all was well--being stared at is a small thing in the big picture of life. Two minutes later I looked down and saw that our benchmates apparently interpreted my hand-holding with Acacia as the thing to do. The mom had grabbed Kevin's hand and one of the little girls had grabbed Acacia's hand. There we all were, holding hands--some of us were enjoying this new activity (the woman and her children) and some of us were EVEN MORE uncomfortable than we were before!!!!! (Acacia and Kevin). I thought: "Isn't that just the way of the Lord, we get stretched a little and when we think we are about to bust, He stretches us a bit more, and though we may be increasingly uncomfortable, we survive and are stronger for it."

May you all be blessed and STRENGTHENED, however that may occur!