Sunday, July 16, 9:30 PM. Garrett.

It’s been an awesome day. Sofia woke up this morning and she seems okay. She’s weak and tired and slept a lot, but when she was awake she and Claire talked and taught each other things. I think she’s pretty nervous about where she is and who we are. I would be. Daniel was nervous at first but he’s not anymore. He and Trevor play all the time. They even argued just a little today because Trevor got onto him for how he was playing with the Legos. They both took naps and after that they got along just fine the rest of the day.

I argued with Mom tonight. We were cleaning the kitchen together after supper and I said what an amazing miracle it was that Trevor got us to go out just in time to find them. I wasn’t trying to make her mad, I just thought it was true and was happy about it. She didn’t say anything for a while and then she said, “I don’t think it’s that simple, Garrett.”

I said, “What’s not simple?” I really didn’t know what she meant.

She said, “People throw the word ‘miracle’ around like it explains everything.”

That made me kind of mad, but I tried not to show it. “I think it explains this.”

She stopped drying the dish, and she put her hand on her hip and turned to me. “You want me to believe that God was kind enough to lead us to find them, but unkind enough to let them get into an accident in the first place? To let them nearly get burned up? If he’s in the business of miracles, can’t he smooth things out a little better? Couldn’t he have pushed us out the door half an hour earlier? That way we could have found them before they got into an accident, and saved us all—mostly Sofia—a lot of pain and worry.”

I wish I knew what to say to that but I couldn’t put it into words.

I don’t care. Mom can think what she wants. It’s obviously a miracle and she’s dumb if she wants to try to explain it away.

It makes me sad that my mom is like this.

But I don’t care. I’m happy that we found Sofia and Daniel. God knew we needed to find new people and he knew they needed to find us. It’s perfect. It’s like when your favorite game comes out with a new DLC, or like fresh hay in a stall you’ve just cleaned out real good. It’s exciting to have new people in the house even though we can’t really talk to them. It’s almost like the family got bigger again.