Monday, October 1, 2012

I sat down after dinner tonight (which was "mimi's" corn chowder and cheddar garlic biscuits, thank you very much) and made a list of things I needed to blog about. And while that sounds very oldest child OCD of me, trust me its not (#1 because I'm a youngest, messy, artist child). Its sort of just vital to me organizing my thoughts these days and being any sort of productive. If there is not a list made, I will opt to sit on the couch and allow my stress or exhaustion or just plain state of "me" to turn my brain into mush for the remainder of the night.

And so it turns out that there's alot that I wanted to blog about, so we'll try to blog about like things and I'll split it up into several installments.

First Installment of:

 "What's up with the Merediths"
(subtitle: in case you were wondering)

I will start this off with come classic foster parent honesty. Coming back from our weekend away in Nashville was bitter sweet. Sweet because we got away. Bitter because, to be honest, there are times that absence does not make the heart grow fonder. (ouch, Meg, you say. Well, this is life. Love is a choice. It's not always something we "feel") So coming back and getting back into the swing of three after an awesome weekend was hard. I felt re-overwhelmed. If thats even possible.

But deep breaths and extra long runs help. Endorphins work wonders. We move forward.

The other sweet things about coming home from the weekend away was that that very next Monday, Kyle started his new job. He is the new director of the Boys and Girls Club in Bella Vista. And he is loving it. And we are loving having him home at reasonable hours, lunch breaks and such. He jokes that its his first "grown up job" and to quote my good friend Kristin Hare, "right…grown up job. 401K and foozeball…"
But lets face facts, how cool is the Lord. How many trains have we jumped up until the B&G? He was going to teach school ( to make a difference in kids lives), he was going to be a youth pastor (to minister to kids while being the "cool" guy), he was going to be a manager ( because that's what he does well) and he was going to be a professional goof ball ( oh wait…that's what he's good at).
And here we are. The perfect mash-up. God always knows what he's doing and it's always brilliant.
(can I hear a bazinga?)

And then in the past week or so we had another foster parenting reality check, when the kids social worker gave us the reality of how long the kids might be with us. And in all foster parent honesty, I was dissapointed. My heart plummeted down to my toes. Because we were ready for a Siesta or even re-evaluation for the future. But until further notice the "future" is an obscure term.
And after about a day and half of  "pity, party of one" I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So, I humble myself, listened to his voice and turned my dissapointment into life lessons. Over dinner (probably taco soup and chips) I had a teaching moment with Mr. Mannerly (which these days we can just call Fro). Here's how the conversation went:

me: "So, here's what you social worker has said (XYZ) and I know that's a lot long than what we were thinking and what you were thinking."

fro: "yeah."

me:  "and when life is not quite what we wanted or it feels hard, what do we need to do."

fro: "pray about it."

me: "and when somebody we know is having a hard time doing the right thing or in alot of trouble, what should we do?"

fro: "Pray for God to help them."

me: "and when we need a miracle, who do we turn to?"

fro: "Jesus."

me: "you are right. so I apologize for not praying for your mom with you until now. we're going to start praying for your mom at meals and at bedtime prayer time."

fro: "ok." (with a huge smile on his face)

And it was a beautiful thing to hear him pray for his mom that night.
My plans may have been changed or postponed. But I'm teaching Fro to pray and that's something God had planned. And it's changing me in the process, which is also part of his plan. But more on that in the next installment.


No comments: