What a Sabbath Day!!

Today was our yearly children's sacrament meeting program, and what a day it was. The kids sang well and behaved amazingly well. Gabe--well, Gabe is Gabe. He was all over the place, but he was more manageable than usual. Another teacher took him over for me and was able to get some reasonably good behavior out of him. He said his part and climbed around the rostrum behind the bishopric during the program. He also sat on this elderly teacher's lap for quite awhile. We had several people spotting for us, but no one had full control of Gabe. He was his own little man!!

At times like this I am so very thankful for people who are so willing to assist. If we knew what to do to solve the problem, we would certainly do that. So far, even with consultation from his therapists and teachers at school and elsewhere, we just haven't solved the church problem.

After the main meeting, Gabe went to Primary class with the other children. He was worse than usual, however, for the rest of the meeting schedule.

He has become milder and more compliant lately, but has gone backward in some other areas.

And isn't that the way it always is?! A few steps forward and one or two backward.

I have felt so lost so many times, but I just keep working on new ways to help him calm himself. They didn't work today, but maybe next time.

What was it Churchill said? "Never give up! Never give up! Never give up!" Well, we don't ever give up on our son. We are thankful for him and the fun he brings into our family!!! I thank the Lord each day that we were able to bring Gabriel into our family before he got older.

Although I often find it saddening to think about how all this had to come about, I also think of the energy and sweetness he has brought into our world here. Not that Claudia and I have more energy because of him--far from it. It is more like the other way around--less energy to spare since he has come to live with us.

I often wonder what might happen one day after he grows to adulthood. What will he be like?

We hope for the best and pray. We pray as though everything depended upon the Lord. Then we go to work as if everything depended upon us.

And what does Gabriel do? He just goes right along doing his own stuff and learning how to be a better kids.

Academically, he takes after his mother. He just took the state reading test and got a 3 - higher than most kindergartners. I watched him work in class this past week, and was amazed at how engaged he was for the new student teacher. And his latest psych eval lasted a whole 3 hours total--a lot longer than the 20 minutes for his first such assessment--just over a year ago.

Sometimes I just want to take his pain away--Oh, how I feel pain over the challenges in his life!! Yet, I know that he will learn something from all of this--something that just could make him stronger and happier. For in the midst of all that we experience in this life, the only way we discover what makes us happy is by experiencing what is sad. If we never knew sadness, we could never know happiness.

My hopes are that Gabe will become happy because he has been sad--that he will learn to trust because he learned what it is like to not have anyone to trust--that he will learn to love more and more because he has somehow missed the love and nurture he has needed. If I have anything to do with the outcomes here, I will do my best to restore to Gabe as much of normalcy and nurturing as I can--as much of responsibility and success as I know how--as much forgiving as he needs to feel to forgive all others.