Surrogate Parenting: Week Two

It is Sunday evening. The house is quiet except for Tara watching "Extreme Home Makeover." That's the show where they build you a new house and then the new owners jump around screaming "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" and occasionally even worse things when they see their new digs. The giving side of it is beautiful, but whenever I watch it, I'm reminded that we're all too materialistic. There are other things they should be far more excited about than a beautiful new home. At the same time, Paul teaches in the NT that God has given us all things for our enjoyment. Every blessing can be received with joy and thanksgiving because it is ultimately from the hand of a good God.

Keven finished his first week with us and is well into his second. He had a rough first few days but began learning and growing almost immediately. I have been teaching him the basics of Christian theology and Aunt Tara has been teaching him the basics of structure, self-discipline, and good decision-making. Ultimately these two fit together; one is the philosophy that guides; the other is the practical outworking of this philosophy. Both of us gravitate toward our strengths.

Some us you wanted to know what happened to the entrapment scheme that Tara and I set up for Keven a few nights ago. This involved empty food boxes in the snack cupboard. The answer is that nothing happened. He obeyed and stopped snitching food without permission. Sorry that there's nothing exciting to report!!

On the more interesting side:

Keven got blamed three times today for things that we finally discovered that he did not do. For example, I found a string cheese wrapper buried in his sheet on the couch and I gave him the what-for for taking food and lying. As a consequence I let all the other boys have a string cheese for morning snack but not Keven. Later Tara pointed out that, hadn't I had a string cheese last night while sitting on the couch?

So this was the beginning of wonderful life lesson for Keven. He has learned repeatedly this weekend that once you lose people's trust, it's very difficult to get it back quickly. He has also discovered that all of our boys immediately look at him when anything is broken, out of place, possibly wrong, whatever. Several times it hasn't been his fault!!

Keven also made a pretty funny mistake today. He was climbing up my tractor and pretending to drive. So far, so good. But then he climbed up onto the steering wheel, including his feet. (according to Evan) Now what would you expect would happen if you climbed bodily onto an old steering wheel of a 1954 tractor? The wheel will turn (no power steering) and dump you unceremoniously on your side. That is exactly what happened to Keven. We heard a yell from the other side of the house and I told Tara to hustle around because I have something pulled in my lower back that doesn't allow me to run today. So she saved her nephew and he recovered pretty quickly.

We are back to work this week with three big jobs to finish. I also have bids scheduled for Monday afternoon, so I am excited to see what will come of all our work this month.