Trial by fire

Had my 2nd session with new clients at LDS social services. Had 3 lovely clients with big problems, but I feel they are making small but gratifying steps to health and to change. On the other hand, Family therapy is really, really wild. I was trying to problem solve with a family and I had one parent get really mad at me, blow a gasket, storm out of the room, refuse to come back into the room. This person was so mad and I was alone at the agency. I was at a loss at what to do! This moment was really tense. I didn't ever have this happen at Mental Health corp of Denver and all my sessions in my home office have been really subdued. What an adventure! Finally I was able to get the client calmed down.

Visit to See Lucas, LDS Social Services

On Monday, I flew to Provo to visit my new Grandson Lucas. I got to play with Sammy and make a dinner. Mark sent me flowers for valentines while I was there.
Bryce lives in such a beautiful place. When Sam and I went for a walk one morning and threw chunks of ice into the holding pond, you could see snowy mountains all around.
Sam has a LOT of energy. When he gets wound up, he runs around saying things in Portuguese, his little legs spinning like a turbine out of control. I made the mistake of showing him the non-violent parts of Spiderman I. He was shooting webs out of his wrists and talking about "pidaman" all the rest of the week. He is doing something really cute. He is in the "why" stage. I say "Sammy, we need to put some long pants on because it's cold."
Instead of saying "why?" 400 times an hour like Bryce did, Sam says, "Porcause" which is a cross between "Porque" and "because"
On Friday, when I got home from Utah, I began to do therapy at LDS social services. Doing counseling at this agency has been a dream of mine for the last 15 years. I had 3 clients and I started learn the agencies computer system. I wore slacks instead of a dress(no one told me!), but all in all, it was wonderful. It feels so nice to do the thing I was trained to do. I am able to use my EFT training as well. There is an added aspect, another layer of help from God you can access that was never there when I did therapy at MHCD.
Nagham brought her brother to church who is visiting from Lebanon. I was assigned to teach the gospel essentials lesson on the Holy Ghost. My goal was to get everyone to participate at least 2x and share their experiences with inspiration and promptings. Nagham had an amazing experience this week helping another student get to her inclecs test in the blizzard….. No taxi’s would venture out. She was able to convince someone who knew how to drive but had no license to drive an ancient car out into the streets. Then that got stuck down and they were stranded. The nurse was weeping and wailing. Nagham prayed and stuck out her thumb and God sent a woman to pick them up. The woman couldn’t make it through the snow, but her husband was pressed into service. They arrived 1.5 hours late and were able to convince the testing center to let her take the test . This girl passed the inclecs! This is a huge accomplishment for these nurses and we are all praying for Nagham to be able to take her test soon.
After church, Sam and nagahm came over for Mexican food. I love these kids. They call me their American mom. The necklace and earrings I am wearing is from her Lebanese mom.

The First Discussion

We've been praying about the nurses. We felt they should be going to the singles ward. So today was their first day. There was no gospel essentials class organized so a FT elders and Paul Kamit who went to Arapahoe with Don and Aus taught them a first. What great elders! This picture shows blonde Elder Penrod. It was so amazing, it took my breath away! It flows and covers so many awesome things. It reminds me of watching a well choreographed musical number. I started to cry, thinking of what was going on, feeling the spirit and seeing how much the Elders faces lit up and thinking about Austin and Tiana giving first discussions far, far away. Nagahm was relly touched and got me kleenex and rubbed my back. I am her official American mom now. Both Enkey (from Albania) and Mem (from Thailand) accepted a BOM and the challenge to read. It was the most fun I've had in months. Afterward dad cooked his famous salmon on the barby and they loved the double chocolate cheesecake from the cheesecake factory.