Full House

Layne and I have been working with our pornography addicts for almost 9 months now.  I have come to love the wives that make up the support group that I attend each Sunday night.  They are righteous women who do their best to follow the commandments of God and live with the addictions of their husbands.  It is not easy.  Dreams are lost and hearts are broken.  Addiction is hard to break.  It seems to me that most of the addicts that attend the recovery group Layne leads are only partly committed to quitting, at best.  I have come to believe that only 100% commitment to overcoming pornography addiction will work.  The rest just play at quitting.  And so the nightmare for supporting families lingers on, usually for years.  It is a world I do not wish to live in, and neither do these beautiful women.  Together, every Sunday night, they talk about their struggle living with addicted husbands and how they manage to live with it.  Now there is a new program to use at these meetings, designed just for those who try to support their addicts.  We started using it last week.  I believe it will address the basic needs of my group, but time will tell.  Sometimes I feel like the war for the souls of men and women is unfairly balanced on the dark side.  There are so many snares and so many of them involve sex.

                   Idaho wildfires turned the sun red and filled the sky with smoke.

On the bright side, Monday was filled with clean-up from the previous fun week with Ben and his boys, Nikki and her Heather.  Reed and his boys arrived just after the house was fully prepared for them.  I was a woman alone with 7 men for the bulk of the week.  It has been fun to have these Galbraith men here; Reed, his five sons and a foster son.  Reed's Dorothy, Audrey and Isaiah arrived on Thursday and the remaining part of this past week has been full of fun and activity.  Our favorite day was Friday; we spent the day tubing down the Boise River.  Everyone, except Layne and Audrey, went and killed the day floating and laughing in the River.  All except me.  I spent it waiting for them.  But I didn't mind.  Still, I'd like to take a float myself one of these days.

The river launching place, under a bridge.  Here you see Isaiah standing, James with Bruce and Vincent.

Son Reed and his son, Timmy, making their river way.

We had another fireworks night on Friday.  It was the funnest one this year.  The older boys took charge and set off the collection of fireworks Layne saved for them.  It was a lovely show as the night sky lit up with sparkle and laughter.

The fireworks collection, carefully organized by James.

Our gang, enjoying the Friday night fireworks.

I like Reed and Dorothy's boys.  They are thoughtful and helpful.  Dorothy runs a tight ship but the result is that her sons are very attuned to caring for things and people.  I enjoy having them around.  Of course I also love having my Audrey nearby again too.  And Isaiah.  I feel full of family and so grateful for the positive influence they are on me.  I wish, wish, wish we were not so far away from them.

Tomorrow we pack up for the family reunion in Oregon.  It'll be another family packed week.  Then a few mostly open weeks for recovery.  I'm tired but happy.

Audrey's Isaiah, with Reed's youngest, Bruce.

Sourdough pancakes, a family tradition.  They were made from Mom's recipe, using her starter, her griddle and her flipper.  What sweet memories of mother.