Jack

When the kitchen started getting underway and we started eating in the garage shortly after Thanksgiving, our sweet friends insisted that we come over and eat our meals at their house. I couldn't bring myself to intrude THAT much, and so we compromised and we only intrude for breakfast. They live right across the tennis courts by our house and a couple of footsteps away from the school. I drop off the girls at their house every weekday morning where they get to eat breakfast...way much better breakfast than what they get at my house. I know that because the girls have told me. Ahem...manners, girls. They're still going over there, because when I told them that we could now eat breakfast at our house, they started to cry in serious anguish.



Our friends are the proud owners of two sweet cats, which at first brought no small amount of terror to some of the girlies' hearts...Eli battled her fear of them versus her desire to see them with not the MOST finesse. Watching her take the long walk up their sidewalk each morning that takes her past the bushes where the cats sometimes hide was a combination of entertainment and annoyance for me. (Look at that goober vs. just get inside the dang house already, Eli!) Imagine my surprise one morning when I went to pick up Eli one morning to find her completely attached to those kitties... petting them, feeding them, loving on them, looking for them if she couldn't immediately see them. She refused to leave, adamant in her stance that she must have a cat. She's since learned that she doesn't have to sob everytime it's time to leave, although I still have to be pretty convincing in my persuasion technique. I pushed her arguments and pleadings for a cat out of my mind. In the past when I knew I wasn't prepared for a dog as a pet, I'd tried to convince Naki that a cat would be a pretty good compromise but that never took me very far. He apparently was somewhat traumatized as a boy watching his younger brother get pretty scratched up by a cat and would never be the same towards the species. After Eli made such a spectacle the thought, accompanied by a fair amount of guilt, came to me that I could in fact now get her one. Uuugh. I hate all the guilt I feel about so many different things. But this one felt awful...almost like a bit of betrayal. All over a cat, for heaven's sake! So, I just let the idea ruminate in me for a while without telling Eli that I'd been considering it.



Eli does not like change. What am I saying. None of us around here these days like change. But ESPECIALLY her. So at the first of the year when her Primary class moved to a new teacher, it did not go smoothly. With the exception of this last Sunday, it still hasn't been going smoothly, that being the understatement of the year. It took her more than half of last year to finally adapt to her teachers. She knows that once she conquered her fears last year she had the best time and has been able to realize that the same happiness is attainable for her with her new teacher. Her fear of the unknown factors of that process just overwhelm her and terrorize her. The sweet women who work with her week in and week out, who gently crouch down to meet her at her level, who endure her scorn and withering glances, who don't take offense at her biting and hurtful remarks, who try to creatively work with her to try and understand her, who try so hard to honor what I want as her mother, deserve such Heavenly Honor for all their loving efforts. I could think of no other method, idea, clever manuevering, or sincere relating to her how I knew she'd feel having accomplished something that was so fearful for her. All had worked before.



As I sat with her a couple of weeks ago on the floor in the hall outside the Primary Room, I knew in an instant what she needed. I immediately felt resolved, calm, and guilt free. I looked her in the eye and asked her if she felt she was ready to be the proud, new owner of her very own kitty. Only God knows us best, and He knew exactly what would help give her the confidence and strength to do something she is so very afraid of. The only thing that held her back a bit in accepting the plan was the worry for her Uncle that he might not be okay around her kitty. I assured her that we could always shut her new baby in her room until anyone who was slightly afraid of it had left, as so many people have done for her when she's visited houses where a cat resides. We devised a plan where she gets to earn one sticker to place on her Kitty Poster for sitting with her class during the first hour of Primary, and yet another for actually attending her class during the second hour. Each time she's earned four stickers, she gets to go shop with me to pick up one of the neccessary items required when one is to be a cat owner. After she's earned all 8 items, it will be time to visit a shelter to get the actual cat. If she chooses to not attend either hour on any given Sunday, then that is one sticker she must remove that she'd previously earned. She is simply giddy with the idea of getting her very own cat. I think I'm getting more and more used to the idea, too. Especially since she actually walked straight to the Primary Room without a single problem. Hopefully she'll have worked through these fears by the time she has to switch teachers next year...I'm fresh out of ideas. God's gonna have to plant another one in my head when the need arises, and I know He will.



Two weeks ago I noticed a cat paroling the fence in our back yard. Imagine our surprise when we discovered a cat who'd picked us! Not that we're keeping him...we've discovered who his owners are. But the timing was kinda fun. It started getting a bit more comfortable and made it's way into our yard at the same time every day. We were shocked to see it make it's way up to our kitchen porch doors...I think it about jolted Ane right out of her little self, since it's nose peering into the window was exactly at her eye level. These pics I caught were after he'd walked a bit away. We've learned that we need to stop referring to our little visitor as a "He". He is a She, who's owners made the same error and named her Jack. So, Jack comes to visit us now and then. It's been fun seeing Ane peer out the door, waiting for Jack to come and say hi.

Last night Eli worked on her poster with Lose's assistance. It was adorable, and Eli was so proud to be able to place her first two stickers.