I must say that I have some of the best life long friends around. I'm lucky enough to have had the same group of core friends (including my mom and my sister) almost all of my life. We have shared our first sleepovers, first cars, first loves, and the list of firsts could go on and on. Unfortunately this core group at this moment literally lives around the world, but because of email, skype, and cell phones we often don't feel that far apart. For this reason I had often felt unmotivated to really get close and get to know the people who surround me now; mostly my children's friend's moms whom the kids are in one activity or another together. Don't get me wrong, I loved getting to know them, I just almost left part of my heart closed to them because I felt like that "life long friend" position was already more than filled.
As my oldest started to go to preschool and do more activities and become better friends with children all of that started to change. I want to be the mom that is friends with the other moms, who is in the know about happenings at school and outside of school, and the result has been more than amazing. It has been such a blessing to get to know other moms who have the day to day struggles I have, and even more neat to notice that the kids that my kids love are the moms that I love.
There are definitely somedays when I wish I had my fabulous four standing around me at a kid's party when havoc is all around and I could just imagine what each one would say, but, thankfully God has placed even more blessings of friendships in my path that I can create "firsts" with.
As many of you know about a month ago my husband's dad fell from a ladder while putting away Christmas decorations at their church, suffering three skull fractures, broken ribs, broken collarbone, and two broken vertebrae. My husband flew immediately up north to be with him and to help his mom in any way he could. The five day trip turned into seven after Pap's condition hadn't stabilized and my hubby knew in his heart he just needed to stay a couple of extra days. That week for both of us was really hard. Hard on me for having to try and keep things "normal" for our two girls while fielding calls about updates and praying to God that Pap would pull through, and, harder on my husband who upon coming home admitted it was probably the hardest week of his life for obvious reasons. On the Saturday morning that DG was supposed to fly back home I was selfishly relieved that my partner in this life was going to be once again by my side. And so when I woke up that Saturday morning to learn that my husband's hometown had gotten something absurd like 18 inches of snow and that not only could he and his mom not make it to the end of their street, not only did they not have power, but he wasn't going on any flight and neither were the other number of passengers flying out of Pittsburgh because alas the airport was closed. As I heard all of this on the phone DG had to ask me if I was still there because I was speechless. How could God after handing us a week like that put this as icing on the cake? I felt helpless at the moment and wondered why my prayer of having my family together again wasn't answered. Soon I would be reminded, yet again, of why I'm not in control and why He always has our best interests in mind.
That afternoon after the snow plow had been down DG's childhood street, DG and his mom still without power decided to trek to the hospital where they would have power and DG would get in another visit before having to head back south when the weather cleared. Through out the week Pap's mental state was below average at best. When you have three skull fractures it is easy to see why one would be confused as to where he is, the year, and even recognizing a family member. DG and his mom expected that Saturday to be no different than the past week had been. But God had a reason for keeping my husband up north one more day and for not answering my prayer. As my husband and his dad talked that day there was significantly more recognition than there had been the whole week prior to this point, his dad even asking about our girls (his grand girls). What a high note for my husband to be able to leave on and what a difference one day made. Thank-you, God, for unanswered prayers.
It really stinks that we have to have people in this life that we don't get along with. Even the word "enemy" sounds so severe as it rolls off the tongue. I would rather spend my days thinking about the things I love most in this world; my husband, kids, and some good dark chocolate, but God must have known we were going to have our share of people step into our lives that would push our buttons for one reason or another, and luckily gave us some good instructions on how to deal with such people. Even more lucky for me is an everyday miracle that always seems to come to mind when I encounter an "enemy" in one form or another.
Before I became a full time mommy I taught fourth grade. Fourth grade (in my mind) is the perfect age to teach. Too old to have tie shoes and too young to get the sassy mouth, on most days. Of course in every class you have some strong personalities and unfortunately some teasing that coincide on some not so perfect days. This happened one day with a boy and a girl in my class who had never gotten along particularly well, escalating to the point that notes were sent home, feelings were hurt, and I was still wondering how/if the issue would resolve itself the next day. I was prepared for more counseling the next morning, and planning on a class meeting to help smooth over the argument from the day before and to make sure it didn't ruin a second day of learning and a happy classroom environment.
As the two entered my classroom the next day I said a prayer that all would go well. Little did I know that God was about to use the lesson a set of parents taught their daughter the night before to help not only "A," but the 25 others of us in that room learn first hand about loving your enemy, a lesson I will never forget.
The girl walked over to A's desk, pulled out some activity books she had brought for this boy, along with a new set of pens, and a picture she had drawn for him. "A" looked at "J" with a look I will never forget. His eyes grew soft and an innocent smile came across his face. I think I had to look twice to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me as they hugged.
Thank God I was blessed enough to have in my class a set of parents who go by the same rule book as I do and had taught their child the best way to deal with an enemy, better than any class meeting would.
"It wasn't supposed to happen that way." It definitely doesn't seem like it should have happened that on what was supposed to be a date night for my husband and I turned into my husband flying up north to be by his dad's side in the trauma unit. And in the days that have followed since my mind has tried to reason that things should not have happened that lead up to that horrific accident, although my heart tries its best to remind me that we are not to understand all things. Thankfully for all of us, that "it wasn't supposed to happen that way" works both ways, negative and positive, and as my mind was coming to grips about the latest hand our family had been dealt God sent down an everyday miracle not a moment to soon.
My day had been heavy with worry; worry about my father -in-law, my mother-in-law, and how we were ever going to find strength to pull through this one smiling. Thankfully I have two little girls to keep my mind off of things, one who was anxious to get to the Dollar Store to spend her hard earned $2 that her daddy had given her after helping out at home. I ended up picking up a few extra things and M gave me her money and tossed her goodies in with my things. I paid with my debit card and tucked M's money in my wallet. Unknown to me, this was just a small piece of the puzzle that God was shaping for my personal miracle. We got home after twenty minutes of sitting in traffic and it was clear that we all needed our outside playtime. The day was really beautiful and we were being silly (much needed) taking turns hula hooping. As it was M's turn she began spinning with the hula hoop instead of just doing the hip action and found better success at it that way. As she started to twirl around a second time she tripped and started falling back, and as she did the purple hula hoop came up and smacked her in the mouth. As soon as I looked at her I knew something was amiss, her scared eyes giving her away. As she opened her mouth I saw what the matter was. Her front tooth was missing, and not just any front tooth. The front tooth that her dentist had told us not even a few months ago was attached improperly and would never come out on its own and would have to be removed when the other front tooth fell out. Coming out with a hula hoop? Wasn't supposed to happen that way...
In the moment my next thought was that the hula hoop had come directly to her mouth forcing her tooth inward, logically making me think M had swallowed her tooth.
"M, did you swallow your tooth?," "Mommy won't be mad, I just need to know," "The tooth fairy will still come honey, just tell mommy if you think you swallowed your tooth," comments followed for about thirty seconds until we were all pretty clear she hadn't swallowed her tooth, and, after searching through the grass and finding one lost front tooth we all were thankful that she indeed hadn't swallowed her front tooth. If the hula hoop came directly to her mouth, how did the tooth escape the other way? It wasn't supposed to happen that way...
Much later that evening M was laying in bed and I got a call from the tooth fairy that I needed to fill in for her on last minute change of plans. The bad news is that I never carry cash and she told me the running rate for M was $2 a tooth. I wasn't supposed to have $2 folded perfectly waiting for their glitter aka pixie dust application, but I did.
Thank-you God for everyday miracles that make us say, it wasn't supposed to happen that way.
I must say that I have some of the best life long friends around. I'm lucky enough to have had the same group of core friends (including my mom and my sister) almost all of my life. We have shared our first sleepovers, first cars, first loves, and the list of firsts could go on and on. Unfortunately this core group at this moment literally lives around the world, but because of email, skype, and cell phones we often don't feel that far apart. For this reason I had often felt unmotivated to really get close and get to know the people who surround me now; mostly my children's friend's moms whom the kids are in one activity or another together. Don't get me wrong, I loved getting to know them, I just almost left part of my heart closed to them because I felt like that "life long friend" position was already more than filled.
