I just have to tell you all about the day that I just had.
First off, Tera slept horribly last night. Like…worse than she did when we first brought her home as a newborn. I have no clue why. Maybe she is having a growth spurt and feeling extra hungry. And Theo left for work at 5 am. So, anyways…I’m running on a little less sleep than I would like.
Secondly, my brother in law and sister in law and their three kids arrived yesterday, and will be living with us for a few weeks while they get all their last minute things prepared to move to Africa. It is a privilege to have them in our home at this time, but it also more than doubles our family size. So this morning I woke up to the voices of children (they are just getting me ready for the next 10 ish years of my life). I spent the morning with them, then headed off to a baby shower at church. The shower was wonderful, a great time of celebration of new life and fellowship amongst women.
I left the shower and headed for home, Tera in tow. I was driving down the road when I noticed a bunch of cars parked in a church parking lot. I squinted at the sign and realized A CHRISTMAS BAZAAR! How fun!!! So I stopped. I mean, I had to. Since I hadn’t planned on stopping anywhere, I didn’t have anything to carry Tera in, so I just carried her in my arms. As I walked around at all the tables, people kept oohing and aahing over Tera, asking how old she was and telling me she was just precious (I know, I know). One table of middle-aged ladies were selling quilts and blankets. The lady on the end took a blanket off her rack, folded it up and stuffed it into a bag- and then handed it to me! She said, “You only have a first child once!” I could not believe it. This thing is not just a dumpy, cheap blanket…it’s handmade! And rather large!
I kept going around to tables, and after about 15 minutes inside I was ROASTING. I had a dress (with leggings underneath), a jean jacket, my coat and then I was carrying Tera who was wrapped in a blanket. I kept scanning the room to look for someone who I might know that I would feel comfortable letting them hold Tera while I took off my coat. I finally fell upon a table that was selling the most adorable baby things. A mom, her young daughter and the grandmother were all manning the table. I hesitated a little bit and then said, “Would you mind holding the baby while I take my coat off?” Let me tell you…Grandma jumped out of the chair and had Tera in her arms before I could even blink. She had the biggest smile on her face and kept saying, “You made my day!” “Out of all the people in this place you picked ME to hold your baby!” haha, it was so cute.
So once my bazaar grazing was done, I headed back to the car to make a quick stop at Wal-Mart to drop off a Redbox movie. It was on the way to Wal-Mart that I remembered that someone had handed me a coupon for a brand new deli that opened right next to Wal-Mart. When the person offered it to me, I had thought it was just a random coupon…but this thing was actually a VIP pass, and the restaurant had only given it to certain people/companies in the area for a “preview opening”. The restaurant isn’t even open yet…it was only for people with this VIP pass today. So, I parked, jumped out of the truck and noticed that I had parked REALLY crooked. I knew I would only be dropping off the movie and grabbing a deli sandwich, so I just left the truck parked like that. I dropped off the movie, then headed to the deli lugging Tera in her massive carseat (remember, I forgot the carrier…). They opened the door for me, and I asked if there were any to-go options for the day. They replied in the negative, so I decided I would just head home and not use the coupon. I get Tera all settled into the car, get myself in the car, put the key in the ignition, turn the key….nothing.
Turn the key again.
Nope. Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Again.
Nothing.
Ok…you get the picture.
Tera fussed in the back seat. I was certainly cutting it close to her next eating time.
Good thing her food is transported with me everywhere I go!, I thought to myself. Then I glanced down at my dress. Um…yeah…I had dressed with a baby shower in mind, not a breastfeeding session. There was no way I could feed this child until getting home to change. Darn it.
I thought for a minute about bursting into tears, but then I decided that would not help solve the problem. So I text Theo that I’m stuck at Wal-mart. But Theo is very busy at work, so I don’t get a response from him. So I text my second lifeline…our discipleship group. We set up this group that lets us text everyone in the group with one text. It’s AWESOME, especially when in a sticky situation. I shot out a message to the group and then decided that I might as well cash in on that free meal! I headed back to the restaurant, where the door-greeter wondered why/how I had changed my mind so soon. By the time I got situated at a table and checked my phone, five people had offered to come pick me up. One person happened to be right across the street. She came, and since my coupon offered a free meal for TWO people, I asked her if she wanted to eat lunch with me. She obliged with her son, and we enjoyed a free meal. As she sat down, she mentioned that Johannah (the person that gave me the coupon) had offered the coupon to her..but she had turned it down! Ha! How fun! She still got to enjoy it…and it sure helped me out when I was stuck!
So Rosann gave me (and Tera) a ride home. We arrived back and were telling this story to my brother in law and sister in law. As they listen, they finally interject: “Johannah offered the coupon to us, too!”
I have no idea how many people this coupon got offered to before it made it around to me. I had taken it so casually, thinking it would be nice but not that it was a total life-saver. And yet it was. It gave me somewhere warm to wait while someone came and rescued me. It gave me something to eat instead of getting hungry. And I had a free lunch date with Rosann! Wow!
….And that has been my very adventurous day…so far. It’s only 5:00.