ann kiemel

well, i spent the night with tom and
jan in sacramento, and jan and i were up
early yesterday, pulling things out of her
(their) big bedroom. we bagged and boxed
and worked until some others came over to
step in our shoes. you know moving and jan!
well, i was jumping into her mindset yesterday.

tom reserved a beautiful, hotel room for us
here in lodi where i am. got jan out of the house
before she threw away all the things he wants
to keep. kiemels are good at that. today,
brandt, my youngest (fire fighter) is renting a
u-haul and driving in to sacramento this
morning, and he and tom will move everything
over to their new house.

brandt will be deployed on saturday for six months.
sooo hard on a mother. jasmine and the baby will
stay in marysville. no comforts in deployment.
roseanna's and natalia's parents had a big, yummy
cook-out for them saturday. swimming and ribs and all.

colson called at 3a.m. from maryland.
renting from his army buddy and wife. guess
friend drank too much and slapped his wife across
the face,and colson beat him up. the guy kicked him
out just as he had paid for august.

"mom, i'm homeless. scared. don't get paid
again for a week. what am i going to do?"

calls like this
drop my heart to the ground.
i get on my knees and start praying.
praying. praying. he called taylor, and
taylor (in school even) got him a motel room for
a night, and a few after, and colson is going to pay
him back when he's paid for everything after the first night.

i don't know when colson is going to do his laundry.
and i worry about his socks and underwear (yes,
mother stuff...sigh), but he's 24! on his own. he's
in manangement in mcdonald's and does so well.
makes good money and can find a mcdonald's job almost
anywhere.

a mother is a mother is a mother.
and a single mother stands alone.
pray for us. for our children.
there are SO MANY things we have to
depend on God to help us.

i weave around in my brain,
and go to sleep at night after reading about the
prophets and disciples and Jesus and the Cross and
somehow, peace tiptoes in and i fall asleep knowing
that God really does have the whole world in His hand.