It is 12:30am and I am holding two flashlights while M1 has both hands down into a mass of wires under the hood of our 15 passenger van. He had 5 hrs of sleep and then got called in on his day off, pulling 9 hours.


D1 is the "Assistant Cook" and I got her started on supper about 4:30. At 5:30 we called everyone in from the various corners of our domain to feed the hungry. We were headed to a small group Bible study that evening, so everyone helped "their child" get cleaned up and dressed while I fixed M1's food and left it on the table. He skidded into the driveway just as I was giving directions to load everyone into our 15 passenger van. I  had tried to get our state inspection sticker that morning for the van but the back lights were not working, so on the way to the study M1 stopped by the auto parts store and replaced two fuses. When the study was over about 9pm we got all the kids in the van and...... it was completely dead.....the battery was working but there was apparently a short somewhere. I was dropped off at home by some friends and picked up our other car, went back, piled the kids in, and brought them home. Everyone helped "their child" get pj's on and get to bed....I headed back to help M1. Everything he checked was still working, so he put it all back together and we headed home.

We sit on the sofa in the dark at 1:30am. My head is resting on his shoulder. I ask him about his day. Statutory rape, burglary, warrant arrest, domestic violence. All in a day's work. He has to leave early in the morning for his off-duty part-time job, then he goes back to work the next day. I hold his hand and pray for strength.....there are so many things that have piled up that we need to talk about, but there is no time. He is exhausted......maybe next week.