Journey to the Well

I never cease to be amazed at how different each of my children are. All three came from my body, but each has a different build, hair color, and eye color. Doogie is a big guy with think dark almost black hair and dark brown eyes. Molly is very slim with a tremendous amount of super curly brown hair and hazel almost green eyes. Mia is slender and almost all leg with stick straight very fine blonde hair and light blue eyes. It's not just their looks that are different either. Each has their own personality, although they do have similarities. Doogie and Molly both live to make people laugh, although she's fairly shy with new people and he's never met a stranger. Molly and Mia both love physical activity and to stay busy; they are both also motormouths. Doogie's becoming more responsible as he gets closer to graduation (with the occasional lapse). Molly tends to mother (read: boss) everyone. Mia is super-sensitive and tends to cry if scolded for the least thing. I love how God made them each their own individual person, and while I can sometimes see bits and pieces of myself in each of them, they really are their own.

Molly scanned in Doogie's senior pics so I can finally show them off today. I think they turned out so awesome. The photographer was his uncle Mike, who has a business, MK Photos, in Oconto Falls. Even if we hadn't gotten the family discount, I would have taken Doogie there because of the quality of the photos. Check him out if you are in the area!

Journey to the Well by Diana Wallis Taylor is biblical fiction looking at the life of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well. Marah is at her aunt Reba's mercy at the tender age of thirteen after the deaths of both of her parents. Reba resents Marah's beauty and having to care for the girl, so she marries her off to the town brute Zibeon instead of the man who has held Marah's heart for years, Jesse a shepherd. Marah makes the best of her life with Zibeon, but tragedy seems to follow her wherever she goes until several years later she goes to the well at midday to avoid the other women of the town of Shechem who give her the evil eye and shoot scathing comments her way. At the well she meets a man who will change not only her life but that of the entire town as well. The story of the woman at the well is a well-known one, and Taylor does a wonderful job of fleshing out the character so that when she meets Jesus the reader knows just where she's been. I appreciated how Taylor didn't make any of the characters cardboard cutouts. Through Marah's compassionate eyes, even the villains gained humanity. Taylor has done a great deal of research of the lives of first century Samaritans making the settings and scenes come to life. I also enjoyed how Taylor wove other stories about Jesus, including a parable, into the tale of Marah. One small complaint: the novel was well written and the dialogue easy to read until Jesus spoke. His speeches were from maybe the King James or Revised Standard Bible and so made the flow of the story jerk to a stop. It would have been better if the author had used a more modern translation of the Bible or paraphrased his words herself. Don't let that one small issue stop you from reading this terrific work of biblical fiction.

I'm taking Molly to the doctor today, hopefully to put an end to her constant UTIs. He's supposed to give us some ideas for prevention. I'm praying!