I've had a particularly tough month, likely not much different from many other adoptive parents. Looking back at some of my October posts regarding gratitude, love and supporting my children, plus reminiscing about how tough last October was when I faced abdominal surgery with a potentially scary outcome, I figured this October would be a walk in the park in comparison.

I was wrong.

Having my laptop stolen by a family member, a son with sticky fingers nearly did me in. I lost so much important information; it contained all the financial nerdy spreadsheets that enable us to function. I could complain for paragraphs and bemoan the loss until I bored myself, suffice it to say, I took it really hard.

A reader, John, wrote of having to cable his laptop to a desk making me wonder how it was then a laptop and not, by default a desktop model, but that wasn’t the point anyway. His son also had ripped him off and it hurts.

For 8 days I was totally immobilized, another 8 days until I found a very inexpensive replacement and John I have joined you in a cabled laptop. The salesman at the computer supply store informed me that this is a common solution particularly for folks who travel.

A wonderful woman from my church is coming with a crew to build us a locked up room in the garage for storage, bolting a fireproof safe to the floor not for the $2 I carry around, but for important adoption papers, birth certificates and some savings bonds.

This darling lady also is replacing the upstairs carpeting and a bathroom that my RAD daughter delighted in flooding every day, knowing that a rotted out floor would upset me.

We’re fixing the lights that my bipolar son pulled out of the ceiling, the doors that have been pulled off the hinges, and other cosmetic damages we’ve endured.

Soccer season will be over next week, a positive endeavor for older adopted children and we’ll face November, praying for still more improvements in our lives, especially that my children will continue to grow and to heal.

Photo Credit Cindy Bodie