Life With Ezra {Never a Dull Moment}

Tim teaches Ezra the art of garbage disposal repair.

After two+ years of hosting Ezra in our home, one thing remains the same: there is never a dull moment! Ezra's adjusting provides many teaching opportunities; his ongoing successes and accomplishments give cause for celebration.  Having grown up in civil war-torn Liberia, bounced from mom's rural village to dad's city dwelling, then sent to live in an orphanage; witnessing tremendous violence and chaos...  Perhaps in response to myriad environmental, social, and psychological disadvantages (horrors) of his youth, Ezra's personality is reserved; almost hidden.  Chatting away with the boys downstairs, Ezra will clam up completely when an adult comes into earshot.  Not that his conversations are inappropriate, just that there is one Ezra who lets loose when he feels safe and one Ezra who's on guard in the company of adults or strangers.  Complicated.

Ezra's resistance to asking questions, seeking clarification, or following a series of instructions have led to:

• a sink completely clogged with dirt after Ezra used it to clean his running shoes after a very muddy trail run during cross country season
• a broken garbage disposal, choked with 12 potatoes' worth of peels (although he had been asked to put the potato peels into the compost bin)
• a ruined electrical outlet, torn from its socket when Ezra folded up his Murphy Bed with a clock plugged in right at the mechanism's center
• bleach concentration sprayed all over the house from our new mopping device, after Ezra added 2 TBS bleach when instructed to add 2tsp vinegar

Ezra's accidents and honest mistakes provide opportunities for us to grow in patience, and to charitably teach him how to repair the damage.  He has had instruction in sink maintenance, garbage disposal repair, and careful product label reading.  He has learned to make plans and seek permission at least a day before an event.  He has gained confidence in using the telephone and asking others for rides.  He gets himself out the door by 6:30AM every day to catch a city bus to a school bus to commute 45 minutes to his culinary arts vocational training; followed by half-days at the public high school and after school sports involvement.  We continue to look for ways to help Ezra grow closer to mature independence, and each day Ezra gives us a reason to smile.  We genuinely enjoy his company and delight in getting to know him better, one tiny little glimpse at a time.

Tim shows Ezra how to raise and lower his new Murphy Bed.

Pray for Ezra~

Pray for us!

Ezra's 19 {Celebrating in Style}

Ezra celebrates his 19th birthday with a bowl of ice cream.

Ezra doesn't ask us for much. In fact, Ezra limits his conversations with adults to a bare minimum. We don't take it personally (usually), but we do continually encourage him to expand his communication skills.  Out of the blue a week ago he approached me and asked if he could host a movie night to celebrate his birthday. In an effort to help him develop better step-by-step planning skills, I required him to write up a proposal with all the details and his guest list so that Tim and I could discuss it before a decision was made.

The guest list, proposed date and time, as well as the top two movie titles were listed on Ezra's movie night proposal.  Fine evidence of a well thought-out beginning of a plan for a low key gathering at our house; we gave him the go-ahead. Phone calls were made, brothers and friends from Scouts and youth group were invited and told, "bring a snack to share during the movie."

Party planning 101 behind him, Ezra soon began party planning 201. Not a little shocked to learn that since it was HIS party, HE would be the one responsible for the dinner menu, he suggested pizza. We let him know that the cost of pizza was prohibitive, and guided him toward a more cost efficient (and home cooked) alternative. Ezra chose pulled pork sandwiches, watermelon, and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  Ezra wrote the shopping list, selected the items at the store, prepared the meat, cooked it overnight in the crock pot and even led a blessing before dishing up and serving the sandwiches to his 10 guests. 

Ezra trims the pork before slow cooking

A rough and rowdy game of soccer out front before dinner

Ezra serves his guests pulled pork sandwiches and watermelon.

Since neither of his movie titles were in our (limited) collection, Ezra had to figure out (with coaching) how to get the desired DVD in time for the screening on party night.  At first he seemed downright shocked to learn that the movie wouldn't just appear out of thin air! The library's copies were all checked out by the time he got down to business, and several attempts at looking up movie stores in the phone book were fruitless at first attempt.  But Ezra persevered, making many phone calls with varying success rates until he was able to locate a copy of the DVD.  With only hours before the showing, Ezra hopped on his bike and rode downtown.  He found the place using a street address he got over the phone, opened an account, and rented the DVD with birthday money from his grandparents and brought it home.  (This required great courage on his part, and he almost didn't do it out of fear of not being able to find the place.)

D--, Enoch, T--, Judah, Zachary, Peter, Ezra, Joseph, Boaz, Chris and Kevin

Planning and preparing behind him, with his guests on site, Ezra orchestrated a game of "football" (soccer) before calling everyone to the table.  The big screen (projector) showing of Percy Jackson {not to be shown here again} captivated the gang and the assorted snacks were passed around and shared.  Afterwards Ezra and company ate homemade ice cream and cookies, before saying goodnight.  Heading to bed for the night, Ezra went out of his way to come find us and say, "Thank you for letting me have a movie night to celebrate my birthday." 

Blacked out windows and rearranged furniture were all part of the plan for Ezra's movie night.