Our First Born Son

When you have a large family and you make a decision to bring home another child you at times wonder what the older kids are thinking but not saying. Joel doesn't say much at times but I know that his mind is always going. Well, when we started discussing where we would put another child, bedroom-wise, Joel immediately wanted to share a room with Nathan. Now, part of that is not too bad of an idea as some young children are up a lot at night and some teenagers are nocturnal, we did decide however to leave him in his own bedroom. But it did show a piece of Joel's heart for his littlest brother-to-be.

Joel is one of those responsible kids whose homework you don't need to check. :) He has somewhat of an engineering brain with the heart of a disciple-maker. It is a great combination. His future plans have hopped all over the place-from architecture, car design, ministry, teaching English as a second language, ambassador... It will be exciting to see how the Lord leads Joel. He has such a willing heart and is eager to be used by the Lord.

As a part of the mission team we travelled with last summer to Guatemala he pitched in where needed and really enjoyed living for a week with some of the young men on our team. Partway through the week Joel was ready to move to Guatemala!

After trying sports he figured out they weren't really his passion. For a while he played clarinet. But I really love listening to Joel play the piano, he has taken lessons for years but also plays by ear (which is frustrating to his teachers). I love it when he puts together a song he has heard with his own twist! To us it seems Joel's music comes from his heart.

But to us, the most important thing about Joel is his commitment to the Lord. He is faithful to spend time in God's Word and loves the spiritual conversations he has with other kids. He is an encouragement to me as I watch him.

Now, lest I leave the impression that this guy has no faults maybe I'll share our recent Jeep story with you all sometime. :)