Not Always How We Plan Things, but Eventually It's OK

Mercedes is getting confirmed today. The church instituted a new policy that the grade in school did not determine confirmation date, but the demonstration that a youth was ready to be confirmed. Sadie has done everything she was supposed to do and has been enthusiastic about the process, demonstrating that she really understands what is happening and that she is ready to take this step. We didn't necessarily plan for her to be confirmed at 14 while her almost 16 year old brother still is not, but it's turning out OK.

Salinda is having a baby girl. She is due in a little over two months. Her baby shower is today. This isn't what I planned, nor what we dreamed for her life to be. But at the moment she is happy, I felt my grandaughter kick my hand last night, and at least for right now it seems like everything is going to be OK.

I became the family member solely responsible for making the food for two big events today with help from friends and my children. I certainly was nuts to even think I could pull it off, but thanks to my friends and very helpful children, it looks like everything is done and we might just pull it off. It's going to be OK.

It wasn't my desire to have older children, 19 and 20, still not graduated from high school, but right now they are going and it looks like they might graduated. So eventually it may be OK.

It wasn't my plan to have Rand living with us when he was 21, unemployed. But yesterday and today he has been as helpful as possible in the kitchen and with rides, and so, at least for today, it's OK.

I could go on and on with examples of how our dreams aren't coming true the way we imagined. I could articulate time after time where we were disappointed, almost crushed, but it all seemed to work itself out. Gotta make you wonder if maybe Someone Else isn't in charge of the whole deal.

I was watching the two slide shows for today for each of my daughters (I'll post them later). I was choking by 7:00 a.m. on this significant day just reading the words to the song we used for Salinda's shower video. I'm going to give her a gift from my own mom who can't be here today and that makes me miss her and makes me sad that she is too old to travel. It's a teddy bear that my mom made for me when I was a baby and she saved for her first grandchild.

I gotta quit blogging. I'm making myself cry again.

A big God who irons out the most wrinkly of life's messy situations., the best parents anyone could imagine, a husband who is beyond compare, twelve children that I truly love, and some wonderful friends -- from the past and present -- who could ask for more?