Thankfulness--Day Two--All My Bonus Chil-ren

The Four Shorties

I took this stupid aptitude test in high school and at the bottom of the paperwork you could write down in a blank space what you wanted to be when you grew up. I put "Mother" in the blank. The feminazi of a guidance counselor called me into the office for a private audience to discuss not "wasting" my life as a housewife. (ahem) In retrospect, I'm pretty sure that she was just afraid I was planning on getting pregnant right then or something and was staging her version of a misguided high school intervention. I meant later, after college, with The Husband. Duh.

Chris and Carl

I always wanted to be a mother. Everyone who knows us for five seconds knows that we went through infertility for four years and then had four shorties in four years (this is known as Spiritual Irony), but what you may not know is that we have collected around us a wide assortment of Bonus Kids--children who are just, well, ours too even though I didn't birth them. Sometimes we call them Honorary Johnsons or Johnsons by Association. Same result--they go with us on vacations and get special Christmas gifts and I get to "mother" them simply by being involved in a little, tiny way in their lives.

   

Some CCA Students

It's much more of a blessing to me than it is to them. At last count, I've got three Official Bonus Kids--Hannah, Carl, and Chris--and I praise God that I get to know them.

  

And then there are My High School Students, who never cease to amaze me. I love them so very much. Sometimes they call my name one time too many, but the rewards far outweigh the demands. I can't really remember what I did before I worked at Chilton Christian Academy. I've talked them into all sorts of craziness, and they've talked me into all sorts of craziness. It's a win-win.

Some USBC Youth

And then there are My Youth from Church--the ones I get to know best to the human video dramas with me. I'm also a go-to girl to drive the bus to and fro--you get to see the most interesting things that way. I dig them and they dig me. It's all good.

 

And then there are my GAs--for those not in the know, this is the Girls in Action missions class made up of 1st-6th graders at church. I teach them on Wednesday evenings at church. I love making exotic foods and arts and crafts and doing prayer journals and taking field trips. It's the bomb.

 

GAs at Missions Camp



I got the desire of my heart...and isn't that a fabulous reason to be thankful?

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.