Leading the Life I'm Assigned

In the middle of the night tonight, I will be leaving for a 12 hour road trip with 6 kids.  We're off to visit my sister in Illinois.  The kids have been packed for days and are nearly jumping out of their skin with excitement - me, not so much!  I am not the best at long-distance driving which is why my oldest daughter absolutely had to come in order to take shifts driving.  I also have no husband support as he and my oldest sons have to stay back and do school and work.  So that won't make it as fun either.  However, what is keeping me going is the change of pace for the kids and the fun of seeing my sister and her place as well as her new crew of foster kids which are around the same age as my little guys.

I also wish my sister lived in Florida like she used to!!!  That would make my 12 hour drive so great to know there was sun at the end of it all!!!  I'll be driving to exactly the same weather - cold and snow.  But, enough with the complaining - it will be fun in a lot of ways, too.  I'll get to be with my kids who will get to listen to me for 12 hours non-stop.  Love that.  I will also get to play some of the creation cds I've never been able to play them like I did for the older kids.  It will be fun to eat fast food - I love fast food!!!  And that is rarely on the menu as it is so expensive and so bad for us!  That makes it a great treat.

I do love driving to places, too.  I love visiting people more than anything in my life.  I only wish I had more time and more money to go somewhere longer.  I would just keep driving if I could.  Who do I know in Florida that I could visit????  I wish I could pull that off.....

So for now, it is Illinois and I can be content with that.  Sister and brother-in-law time will be fun for everyone.  Their house is basically as full as our's now.  Though not all of their's live at home, they now have 8 children as well!  If we only knew that when we were kids we'd have 16 children between the two of us.  Wow.

What has helped me and the kids lately is a verse I refound yesterday.  It puts everything in perspective.  It helps me with any complaining or grumbling that I do and it helps me when the kids start grumbling and complaining about their situations.  Here it is,

"Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him."  1 Cor. 7:17

My kids often dislike that not everything is done in our house like other people we know, "Will we ever have a 'normal' house?"  They'll complain about their birth order, "I hate being the first born!" or "Why can't I do what the older kids are doing?"  They'll complain that we're only going to a cold place, not a hot place.  Ok, I admit it, that was me, not them.  They'll wish their siblings didn't exist sometimes and maybe they even wish they had funner (is that a word?) parents.

But yesterday, when I read that to them, I reminded them, "This is the life you were assigned.  You have to lead THAT life, not a different one."  It's always always always about contentment, isn't it?  Wishing you had a different life, thinking that somehow it would be more fun and more satisfying if you were in a different situation.  Even if that were somehow true and possible, that you could switch into someone else's shoes, I don't think it would make anyone happy long term.  I'm pretty sure it would just lead to more discontentment.  We have to seek contentment in the situation that we are assigned and called to.

The test for me never ends.  I know all the things I tell my kids to be true, but I have to believe it for myself, not just for them.  I have to practice contentment on a regular basis and that is hard work!

The antidote is always the same - gratefulness.  I have so many things to be grateful for.  I need to make the list out loud with them and in my own head. 

So, it will be a great trip!  Cold or not, it will be fun and it will be an adventure and it will be long, but we will come away with great memories guaranteed!  Can't wait.....

Church All Week Down the Street

Last week ended up being so dangerously cold all school buses were cancelled most of the week.  It was strange to think that being outside for too long could actually kill you.  I even ended up cancelling a 40 minute trip into town to visit with my sister and mom on the coldest night of the year just to be safe.  What if the car broke down?  What if there was an accident?  I couldn't believe I had to think like that just because of the cold.

We ended up having a morning without water which didn't surprise us, but it did take a really long time to thaw.  It was very hard taking care of the animals, making sure they had water was the least fun activity.

The side benefit to all this was my children got a little time off school as their neighbours did, too.  Knowing they weren't in school was very hard for my kids, so we made some arrangements to connect.  What I wasn't expecting was the side benefit for me!

This same neighbour who got me out of my slump on Monday ended giving me what felt like a week-long vacation at her place.  We thought our dryer had started working and then it stopped again.  The good news is the part is so cheap and we'll get it this week up and running again, but in the meantime, in the cold, I found it so hard to get to the laundromat and my older kids were so busy it wasn't happening as often as I needed it....in steps my neighbour.....

It became the routine for the day.  She'd pick me up (I was car-less), a few of my kids and we'd all head to her place where she would fix me a gourmet coffee.  Then we'd throw in the laundry into her dryer.  Then we'd sit in front of the fireplace and talk for hours.  Sometimes she'd drive me home and drop off the little boys after dinner.

She'd often feed us and send snacks and food home with us just because she cared and was all about taking care of her neighbours up the street.  

As the week of coldness came to an end and I was thinking about church on the weekend coming up, I realized I had experienced church in the truest form all week.  Real church.  The church I think that is described in the Acts.  She was once again the epitome of the Christian described in Romans 12 where she "contributed to the needs of the saints and sought to do hospitality".  She considers herself a baby Christian, but I would argue she shows the marks of maturity compared to so many who would call themselves mature yet don't show this kind of fruit I was blessed by.

So much of our conversation was answering her questions regarding her husband's new faith.  I was even able to even sit together with him as they'd met with the pastor about baptism and had lots of questions about that, too.  It was amazing to talk with him and share how we'd prayed for him for so long.  What a special time it was.

All the while, my kids were making fast friends with theirs.  Their oldest boy and my son made a deal, "his hover board for our homeschool life".  He wishes he were homeschooled so badly!  Who knows, maybe one day!  She's open to it!  It's fun to have friends for the kids so close by.

So, I'm kind of sad the cold is over for now as even though it was awful, it was better than a week away in Florida.  It was my intense week of friendship, hospitality, coffee, laundry, visits, tears and prayers.  It was as if my batteries got recharged and I really only went less than 2 minutes down the road.  My kids will probably think they never have to do school again and I imagine it will be hard to get them on track this week.  They were blessed, too.  

No guy will ever understand how a week like that can be fun, helpful or even special in any way, but as women, she and I both felt so uplifted.  We knew we'd be given a gift and we treasured it.