eleven years ago this summer....

I was pregnant for my eleventh child, Miss Evelyn Joy. She was 9 days overdue, which was unheard of for me, and it was a hot hot summer....now I wonder how I survived, with my oldest child being only 14 years old. One thing that happened that summer....

We went to the symphony on the lake for the fourth of July celebration. Let's see, Em was 14, Abigail was 12, Benjamin 10, Mirielle 9, Joseph 8, Aaron 6 and a half, Mali 5, Samuel almost 4, Margaret 2 and a half, and Kathryn was 15 months. And I was due in a few weeks. Paul took the kids to the playground before the music started, while I sat and put my swollen feet up. He came back with them, and apparently Miss Margaret, the two-year old, was having a little fit about it. So she hung back and just stood there, stubbornly. I don't remember this, it is what Paul told me later. She was not far away from us, just ten feet or so. Anyway, a storm was brewing, it had been threatening and suddenly it was upon us, it was not just going to blow over. Wind and rain....we were quickly packing up our things and WHERE IS MARGARET????!!! She was nowhere to be seen. Wait, she had to be...but no, she wasn't there. We started asking everyone....Paul just took off looking for her....by now the rain was coming down in torrents, and it was dark, and thunder-y. My other kids were taken under the wings of kind strangers who sheparded them up under the porch where the symphony was to play....and just like the parable of the lost sheep, I forgot all about the other 99....I just had to find my Margaret....I was terrified. One particular guy, a guy who looked like the kind of guy any parent would tell their kids to stay away from, was totally persistant in looking for her. He kept coming back and asking if we had found her yet. He was concerned she had fallen into the outlet or something....he told me later that he has kids too, and he pictured it happening to one of them, and just had to help. So never judge a book by it's cover, or a rough looking dude by his long hair. Anyway, I had given as many people as I could the description of Margaret, showing them the other kids' dresses, as they matched. At one point one of the musicians yelled that she had found her, but it was either Mali or Kathryn she had found.....one thing I remember is that I had lost all shyness, and was actually yelling at strangers to HELP me find my daughter. (How could people just stand there when the world was crashing down around me?) One of the park rangers came along and called into the main gate, and notified the police (this was before everyone had cell phones), and within a few minutes we were told that they had had a small child at the main gate., but had given her to a police officer who had her in his cruiser.....oh my goodness, it had only lasted 15 or 20 minutes, maybe even less, but I cannot express the fear. The thoughts that wanted to take over....I thought she was GONE. Anyways, here is what happened......she was standing there in her stubborness while we scrambled to pack things up (I still cannot fathom that she wasn't right next to us....), and a well-meaning man was hurrying to get to his vehicle, saw her standing there as it started to rain, and brought her to the entrance booth. The people there gave her a necklace and talked to her, thinking her parents would show up any minute, then gave her to the officer.....and all the while, we were frantic. I still think the guy who scooped her up and took her to the booth was out of line, he should not have done that. When we looked for her, she should have been there!!! He actually called our house a few days later, sniffing around for a reward....he didn't quite realize how terrifying it was for us because of him. And I think Paul and I totally beat ourselves up about it for quite a while. How could we have lost sight of our two-year old? So if I seem paranoid about keeping the kids in sight, there you go!

That was just a few weeks before Paul took Ben on the boys' camping trip and Ben fell out of the boat and hit the propeller.....106 stitches ....that is another story for another day, one that has already been told too many times....

Then Miss Evelyn Joy came along and blessed us all. She was due the 12 of August, the first day of our summer conference that year. I remember being there in the heat with my huge tummy, people asking when I was due..."Today..."....but she didn't make an appearance until the 21st.....we named her Evelyn Joy after a dear friend of the same name, who sadly went to be with Jesus four years ago. They were eighty years apart! (I also thought it was funny that Evelyn sounds like eleven...sometimes we call her "Eleven".....)

Oh well, things are happening here. Miss Rosie is an attacker of remote control cars, so Jon solved that by putting her in her cage. She is not just lying there like a good dog. Camille is packing up dollhouse things and carrying them around in a plastic Walmart bag. I want to do more around here than I did yesterday, which honestly isn't much. Oh, summer....I love thee....Mirielle always says, " I love the green monotony that is summer....."