There is a season

A scripture I think of often.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
A time to be born, and a time to die…A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance….
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away…
A time of war, and a time of peace….”
               Ecclesiastes chapter 3

I get ahead of myself alot.  Move to seasons in my mind that my actual life isn’t ready for yet.

Projects I’d like to do.  Things I’d like to finish.  Things I’d like to start.  A business I’d like to grow.  Books I’d like to write (yea, books).

And I have to often remind myself, “To every thing there is a season….”  To every thing, there is a season.  And sometimes, I have to be more patient for certain seasons to come, and certain seasons to end.

God has this whole thing figured out.  He’s pretty smart.

For now, my season is little people.  And lots of messes.  And lots of laughter.  And a whole lot of tears.  Very little alone time.  Very little personal time.  Constant dependence.  Teaching.  Enduring.  Enjoying.  Cleaning.  Cleaning.  And more cleaning.  Homework.  Reading.  Bedtime (that takes far too long).  Morning routines before school.

Little people.  Man how I love them.  And already miss things they do even though they’re still doing them.  How is that even possible?

As hard as having four little kids is, I’d freeze them if I could.  I truly would.  Because I know things to come are only going to be harder.

To every thing, there is a season…..

All we had to do was ask.

To my kids,

“If we pull our minds and our spirits away from our problems from time to time and redirect them to our blessings, we will find much to celebrate.  We’ll recognize that the world is full of beauty, that most people are worthy of our respect and trust, and that the affairs of suffering humans are replete with acts of love, kindness, nobility, and sacrifice.  And we’ll remember that overseeing it all is a God who knows us well, who loves us anyway, and who is very, very good.”  Richard Swenson

By some miracle, I finished all my Christmas shopping early this year.  And not only is the shopping done, the presents are wrapped, and toys put together (I only cursed a few times).  And on the Friday before Christmas, I found myself with a completely open day.  Nothing on my schedule.  Not one thing.

And then your dad came home from work and started pulling stuff out of his closet.  Said he got an email from a friend at work about a family that was “discovered” who was in great, great need.  They haven’t had a Christmas for years.  The children were being clothed in things 3 sizes too big so they would last for years.  No warm clothes.  Broken beds.  Or no beds at all.  A box of old shoes to squeeze many different feet into.  Times were tough.  The parents were humble.  And kind.  And would give the shirt off their back to a stranger.  They didn’t ask for help.  “Many are worse than we are” they assumed.

So the call to action came.  I sent out an e-mail to 250 of my closest friends 🙂 and put one post on Facebook.  We didn’t have much time.

And suddenly my Friday became busy.  With e-mails, phone calls, and deliveries.

Within 24 hours we had raised nearly $4000 in cash and gift cards.  We had dozens of bags of gently used clothing, toys, mattress’s, computers, an entire bedroom set, bunk beds stacked in our front room.

And things keep coming.

All from people WE know.  People WE love.  People we get to call friends.

No judgement.  Just love.

Dad and I always knew we had amazing friends and family.  But this surpassed any expectations we had.  We were humbled.  Honored.  And felt love unlike anything I can describe.  Love for us.  Love for that family.  Love for mankind.

“But is it possible that the most important thing God has for me on any given days is not even on my agenda?

Am I interruptible?  Do I have time for nonprogrammed things in my life?  My response to those interruptions is the real test of my love.

We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.

God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions….

It is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform a service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.”  Richard Swenson

God expects us to take care of each other.  That’s how he takes care of us.  By using other people.  We all belong to each other.

“What are we here for, if not to lessen each other’s loads?”

Love,
Mom

To all of those who donated money, physical items, words of encouragement, time, and love, I thank you with every ounce of sincerity and love I can find.  This has been an amazing experience for our family.  Mike and I  are grateful for you in our lives.  And grateful our children have seen such an overwhelming response.  All we had to do was ask.  And you came.
Thank you.  We love you.

(Pictures of things that trickled in after we had delivered the things that filled up our front room the first time and the envelope we had was bursting with cash and cards.  I didn’t think to take a picture the first time around.)

He knew just what to do with that $50.  It wasn’t pretty getting it back from him.




Everything matters

To my kids,

A quote from the wise Mother Teresa

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.  But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”

What you do matters.  Big or small.  Little things add up to big things.

You matter.  Your actions matter.  Don’t ever underestimate doing a good thing.

Do “small things with great love”.  Because the world will be less without them.

Love,
Mom

I promise they get calcium.

And yes they drink milk.  And take Calcium vitamins.  We have BAD luck with broken legs around here.

Carter broke his leg when he was about 17 months old.  Jumping on the couch.  He cried for about 30 seconds and then was fine.  But he had a slight (very slight) limp for about a week so we took him in to get him checked.  Just to be safe.  And while he was literally running around the pediatrician’s office, she came out and told me it was broken.

This is him playing soccer in the street after he broke his leg but before we took him to the doctor.

He cried harder getting the cast on than he did when he broke his leg.  Not because it hurt.  He didn’t want people touching him.

He recovered from cast trauma quickly.

 

While he had the cast on, he also got pink eye.  Hot.  Mess.

He adapted to regular life with a cast quite quickly.

He refused to wear the protective boot.  So we tried to protect it with socks.  That didn’t work either.  He busted through the first cast after one week and had to get another cast put on.

Carter then broke his other leg just before he turned 3.  Jumping on the tramp.  On his dad’s birthday.  He was on there with his older sisters and cousins.  And they bounced him too high.  And then took the bounce out of the tramp.  At least that’s what we guessed happen.  There were no reliable witness’s.  But we knew from the way he acted that it was broken.  He is a physically tough (but emotionally fragile) little boy.

This brake was worse than the first one.  He had to be in a hard splint for a week before we could put a cast on.  And he wasn’t allowed to walk.  That was tricky getting him around while having a baby around too.

Getting the cast on this time was much less traumatizing for both of us.

Relaxed as could be.  No worries, ladies.  I’ve been here before.

Then it was off to target to get his “wheelchair” a.k.a skateboard, and a sharpie so people could sign his cast.

He wasn’t allowed to walk on it for 3 weeks.  It was a long 3 weeks.

Once he was allowed to walk, I told him “You can walk now”.  So he stood up, took a few steps, looked at me in complete surprise and said “I CAN WALK!!!  I CAN WALK!!!”  I think in his little mind he thought he’d never walk again.  It brought tears to my eyes.  What a blessing that it was just a little broken leg that would eventually heal and not a lifetime battle we would have to fight like some parents do with their kids.

He again adapted quickly.

And broke through this cast as well.  We just put duct tape on it.  Duct tape fixes everything.

He doesn’t like loud noises.

And then Caleb, in an effort to be just like his brother (which he tries to do daily) broke his leg falling off my sisters front porch steps when he was about 18 months old.  He thought he could walk down the steps going forward.  Turns out he couldn’t.  And we knew right away, having dealt with Carter’s prior broken leg, that it was broken.  But we waited for one day so we could take him to our own pediatrician.  We’re running out of instacare’s to take the boys to without having to worry about DCFS.

Caleb was allowed to put weight on his and walk, but he wouldn’t.  For about 10 days.  It was a long 10 days.

He started pulling the “stuffing” out, so he got his cast off a few days early.

Carter.  Still not diggin’ loud noises.

Here’s to hoping we’ve got all our broken legs out of the way.
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