My Aching Heart...

This morning my heart hurts. I am a grieving mom... feeling the pain of my children. The responsibility of raising God's gifts can be so challenging at times, especially for a softie like me!

The reason I am sad is mostly for Andrew (or DREW as he now likes to be called). You see, he has the broken arm with a cast from his wrist to his arm pit, which prevented him from finishing out his baseball season. He also can't swim for at least seven weeks- and the poor thing LOVES to swim. We are going to Disney World Sunday and he will have to be so careful about the rides he can ride and he won't be able to swim. We are not even going to the waterparks, but the place we are staying has a cool pool with a big slide. I know that will be hard on Drew.

Another reason I am sad for Drew is because of the unfairness he has had to endure all year. Keep in mind that he taught himself to read at the age of three, can do double digit multiplication in his head and has the highest averages in all his subjects (he's even the youngest in his class with an August 29 birthday). He should have been on the all A Honor Roll, but has been kept from it, only making all A/B Honor Roll- due to his handwriting, of all things. He is in the honors class and his teacher is very strict. I have silently put up with it all year- that is until today. Last night, Drew spent extra long on his spelling paragraph. His handwriting was beautiful. He looked at me and said, "Do you think I'll make a 95? I would be so happy!" I answered, "I bet you will- and end the year with a bang."

Well, today is his field trip. They are seeing a movie, which at the last minute was changed to "Hannah Montana." Drew was in tears about this already, since it's such a girlie movie (I told him just to sit with his buddies and try to have fun). Then in a panicked rush to get to school early, Pete and I said, "Leave your backpack here- you won't need it anyway." All of the other kids keep their backpacks at home on field trip days. Well, when I took him to school, and as I was sitting with Nicholas having breakfast, I remembered about the spelling homework. His class was lining up to wait for the buses.

I hurried over to his teacher and said, "Drew forgot his backpack, and his spelling..."

She interrupted me. "I know," she said, "we already talked about it and he is very upset. He can bring it tomorrow."

Yeah, with a minus ten points for being late, I thought. "Can't you let me just run it up here- it's all my fault. We were in a rush..."

"No. Please don't. It's his fault, not yours. He can bring it tomorrow." Very terse and to the point.

I wanted to cry out and say, "Don't you hear me- I made him keep his backpack at home- he didn't even get a chance to say anything, we were so late. He was worried about that!" But, of course, I kept my mouth shut.

But I did call Pete. He told me to take it up there anyway and leave a note- "Isn't this Drew's best handwriting? Please let us take the blame for his not turning it in this morning. WE were the ones who told him to keep his backpack at home." I hope it works! Drew deserves an 'A' in handwriting!

Pictures from the Zoo

Here's Nicholas with his good friend who lives right down the street. They love to play together!

What a look! So very cute...

Of course, we could not keep the kids away from the petting zoo. Thank goodness no pigs were around. And, yes, we washed those hands (scrubbed them, in fact).

My Cardinal at the Zoo

While I was at the zoo with Nicholas, I kept thinking about Mary a lot, for some reason. Maybe because this reminded me of something she would have loved to do with her kids. Nicholas and I walked around with a small group, and a grandfather was the ring leader. He had us moving along quickly so we wouldn't waste time or miss out on anything. I was tagging along quietly, taking pictures and watching out for Nicholas when suddenly I spotted a beautiful bright red cardinal. It was not part of the zoo exhibit. This bird was just there. I knew exactly what was happening and said a prayer of thanks, while I quickly fumbled for my camera. I followed this bird around and took several pictures (I hope they show up okay on the blog- can you find the cardinal in each one?), then I realized that my group had left me. But I did not panic and two young girls appeared who worked for the zoo. They were ready to get me back with my group, but one of the moms came looking for me, so they did not have to. Thank you, Jesus. Anyway, this was such a delightful experience on my zoo trip: seeing a cardinal to reassure me that God is with me, and Mary is with Him, and we are all in this together.

Roadblocks in Life

I just came home from an awesome field trip to the Houston Zoo with Nicholas' kindergarten class. I have many pictures to share and a VERY inspiring cardinal experience, but will have to post those later. Right now I have to share a revelation I had on the way home. You see, I accidentally took the wrong turn, and then got stuck in traffic from a lot of construction, so what usually takes 90 minutes, took us three hours. Nicholas was quite happy at first, oblivious to all the congestion (thanks to portable DVD players). Then he fell asleep for a while. By the time we got home, he was saying he never wanted to go to the Houston zoo again because it is so far .

Anyway, as we were driving through the roadwork, I watched cars impatiently zip in and out, back and forth, thinking they could outsmart the traffic. Then at one point, the cars began exiting the highway. I thought to myself, 'Who would do such a thing- you never know where that road will lead.' I just trudged through, chewing piece after piece of gum and listening to music. I soon noticed that all the people who had exited had a bigger pileup than we had on the highway. One daring car eventually drove across the grass, back onto the highway, and as I drove on and looked out my rearview miror, I noticed a lot of cars following suit- illegally driving back onto the interstate.

Hmm. This seemed strange. If they had only stayed on the road and gone through the congestion, they would have been better off. They wasted a lot of time thinking they could outsmart the traffic. Then, I realized this is so much like life. I am on a road through life. Sometimes traffic or congestion stops me, or causes me to take a detour, but if I have patience/ faith, and stay on the right path, I will get to where God wants me to be. But so many times I jump off the path, and think I can do things my way, just like those drivers today. Or I avoid going through the jams, because I know they will be too painful. But If I trust God, he will steer me in the right path. And this is a wonderful thing!