This darling boy...

He could give a rug lessons in lying. Sweet Flint has many redeeming qualities. Truthfulness does not happen to be one of them. I do believe I have tried - to no avail - every technique known to woman to help us achieve what I desperately hoped would be our shared goal: speaking that which is actually honest. I am afraid I find myself alone in my ambition. Lying just seems to be his default mode. Meadow has talked to me some about what happened in the orphanage during the years they lived there together, and apparently this was a habit he developed quite early in life. I have not doubt it served him. The poor child is drawn to mischief like a sad helpless bug is drawn to one of those blue neon zappers that ends its happy buggy existence in a tragic puff of smoke. He knows he shouldn't, but he just.can.not.resist. So, he naturally lands himself in some sort of  "trouble" (facing some sort of consequence) frequently. Lying is his squirming mechanism, used to try to wiggle his way out.

When my attitude is positive and hopeful and I've stored away all the necessary sleep required to hold an overall optimistic view, I figure, we'll get through this. I mean, surely it can't go on forever! Not in a home where he is loved and taught and held accountable, for goodness gracious sakes. It is when I allow fatigue to rest heavily in my mind, when I grow tired from endless corrections, when my desire to do good fails, that I fear things will never change and we will never properly bond like a mother and young son should and he will never feel compelled to tell me the truth out of love and respect for me and the inability to withstand a guilty conscience. It is then that I project my despair into the future and wonder how we will ever manage to establish a sense of harmony. This parenting children "from hard places" business is not for the faint of heart. No one has to tell me, I already know that much to be true.

Celebrating our 14th anniversary with my honey love's favorite dinner, and our table full of honey loves, last night - pork picata served with pasta and green beans. German Chocolate Cake topped off the evening. It really was lovely. I can not imagine a better spouse, partner and companion than the man I get to call my husband. Truly. My facebook status yesterday said that he takes an intricate thing like marriage and makes it so very light and easy. It is the truth. He is simply and thoroughly enjoyable to know, to get to experience this crazy life we lead with.  His love and encouragement and unconditional acceptance and palpable admiration is a constant source of strength and stability to me, as a woman, as a wife, as a unique person who can sometimes get lost in the shuffle of home and family servitude, and as a mother. Year after year, he continues to find me, with all of my flaws and foibles, desirable, capable, treasured. And this is a gift beyond limit. His confidence in me inspires confidence in myself. He assures me I can do anything I set my mind toward. Every once in a while, I even begin to believe him...♥