Happy Meatloaf Day!

It's June 6th and around here that means meatloaf and mac and cheese. We celebrated God's grace poured out on us three years ago today with that meal. It was three years ago that lightning struck our house and burned us out of our home for the next year. Having left the raw meatloaf in the oven to cook while we went to the library, we arrived home to see smoke rising from our roof and the only prayer I could pray was "Please Lord don't let it be the meatloaf." It wasn't my fault and it was only by the grace of God we were all out of the house when the lightning struck. Not a hair on any of our heads was harmed, we learned a lot from our experience in another neighborhood, grew closer as a family and gained a lot more space in our newly refurbished home where we returned to a bigger kitchen and dining room and a completely redone everything else.

Honestly, I was sort of glad Tali decided not to show up today. I mean, we just *have* to have meatloaf and mac and cheese on June 6th and the poor girl would never be able to pick her own birthday dinner...what fun would that be? On the other hand, she will never be part of that story. It seems funny that the family goes on, more are born and something as monumental in our lives as that fire won't be part of her own life story. At least Nathan can say he was conceived while we were waiting for the rebuilding to happen (although somehow I doubt he'll take a whole lot of ownership in that little fact...).

June 6th also happens to be the birthday of the baby we lost when an adoption disrupted many years ago. When Ben was 10 months old we brought an adorable little baby into our home for adoption. We named him Jacob Matthew. We had him for 3 months when the week before Christmas his birthfather showed up out of prison and decided he wanted to be a dad. We had no choice but to return him to the agency and to his birthfamily. They named him Jamil but he will always be our Jacob. He's celebrating his 10th birthday today. His dad is back in jail - he'll be out about the time Jacob turns 16 or 17...sad....We miss you Jake.

It was a good Meatloaf Day today, though. We had a good riding lesson this morning. We were short volunteers so we did some vaulting for the first time in a long time. David tried it for the first time and was a regular little gymnast on top of his horse. The camera is packed in my hospital bag and ready for tons of pics of Tali so I didn't have it along but I sure wish I did!

JT and Ben had a couple of friends over this afternoon preparing for the great Lego Boat Race tomorrow afternoon. The rest of the brood decided to play in the sprinkler in the driveway when the mailman pulled up. He handed Adora the mail then parked his truck in the street, got out and stood smack in the middle of the waterfall with a big ol' grin on his face. He was good and wet when he returned to his truck and we were glad to let him cool off with us!

Then tonight was opening night for Grease for which JT was running the light board. The show went off ok - Tad and Ben represented the family - and Tad said JT was spot on with his cues. That's our boy!