"Da!"

Clearly we need to take some more pictures of Myles. But for today you get Juniper and her toothy grin. She's been amazing, by the way, as Myles has gotten into a habit of hitting her in the face (which I am trying very hard to teach him is not the way we treat Juniper), and she always ALWAYS backs away and removes herself from the situation. A good lesson to me, as sometimes I wish I did a better job of removing myself from hostility without lashing out.

Myles has developed three new words, "Da!" "Na!" and "Da-ah." Translation: "Da!" means "give it to me," which is really very brilliant when one considers that da in spanish literally means "give." "Na!" means "open this now!" And I'm not really sure what "Da-ah" means yet. That year of working with nonverbal developmentally disabled autistic adult men is coming in handy...I am more intuitive at figuring out what it is that he wants than I would have been without that experience. However, by and large these days, it seems that what he wants is not something he can have. This is the life of a toddler. He wants to go up and down the stairs for hours at a time, all with my help, of course. He wants to open up the granola bar that's too hard for him to eat. He wants to toss his books in the toilet or the tub. He wants to play with the digital camera and pull the table cloth off the table and empty the contents of my wallet and make the telephone beep by pressing all the numbers. He wants to stand tall in his wagon, stand up in the slippery tub, climb onto the chair or couch, stand on his rocking chair. So life can be frustrating for him...good thing we get lots of rest!

Yesterday was quite a day. I preached my last sermon as interim minister of christian education, and we had a potluck after church. Since my colleage/boss was out of town, I led service, and it still takes a lot of energy for me to do that. Just felt like a big day, and when we got home I was both exhausted and too keyed up to take a nap. We had a wedding at 4:00pm. Alli and David got married outside, right next to the river, in Swannanoa, about a 10 minute drive from Asheville. Alli looked absolutely gorgeous. David is Juniper's vet and both of them went to Mexico with us a few years back. The food was a vegetarian dream, so fresh, so raw, lots of salads and strawberries and baked brie. Myles loved the strawberries (and stained his suit, which I hope will come out with stainstick). I started feeling sick while we were there, and when Myles started breaking down at 6:30 we took our leave. By the time we got home I had a raging fever. I'm feeling much better today. I think it was just my body's way of getting out some of the stress, and letting me know that I better listen when it says "REST!"

I have an interview with the church on Wednesday for the full time Associate Pastor position, as one of the final 3 candidates. In classic church fashion, it does not simply consist of an interview. First, I meet with our Moderator (primary lay leader) tomorrow for an hour. Then, I meet with my colleague/boss for an hour on Wednesday morning. Then, I have an interview with the Search Committee. Then we all share a meal together. Talk about exhausting! But I am up for the challenge. We'll see what happens, I'm assuming I'll know one way or the other by June 15th. Please please please keep me in your thoughts and prayers this week, especially on Wednesday as this is a job I feel called to and would very much like to have. As Myles would say, "Da!" (give it to me...)