Stripped Away Take 2

So I didn't know what to expect when we took all of Gabe's things out of his room. I thought the impact would be huge but once everything settled and the day went on it was just a topic of discussion that came up again and again. Gabe went to his friend Aden's house to play. I finished taking down and packing away the Christmas decorations and adding all of our new treasures we bought in Abilene yesterday. It actually was a good rest of the day. My heart is a little sad each time I walk by his room and their is nothing in there. It makes me want to just be done with it, throw in the towel, and restock his shelves. But I want him to learn the lesson that he does need to care about his things and that he is a blessed little boy who has lots of wonderful things to play with and be responsible for. So, since today he was good overall we decided to put one toy back into his room. His V-Smile that he got for Christmas. I kind of have these expectations that he will awake in the morning to his V-Smile and grab it like it is Christmas morning and be so excited to have a toy to play with. But I am sure it won't go exactly as I have envisioned, ha! I am sure he will stumble from his bed if he hasn't already crawled into someone else's by morning and announce it is morning, requesting cartoons, and a cup of milk. Well, let's hope it is with good manners at least. We shall see...until morning.....