Well, after last weeks fast and furious four day weekend, this 2 day weekend is flying by. Mema stayed with us this weekend, so she and I spent some much needed mother/daughter things on Saturday morning while Ep and Kale played at the house. We wore ourselves out at the garage sales and then moved on to get a pedicure. We came home to rescue Kale before his daddy tried to take him fishing in the insane Arkansas humidity and heat. After a rest, we loaded back in the truck and went to Dickey Stephens Park (baseball) to visit our friend's lemonade stand that was benefitting Childhood Leukemia. While there, we saw more friends...including a long lost cousin of my cousins (thus not technically my cousin, but pretty much like one anyway) as well as Master Sargent (Vince...he fishes for the National Gaurd..and is buddies with Ep). We basically had social hour in front of the ball park. Then, I grabbed our free helmet and we bailed. Our night rounded itself out with a trip to Wal-Mart to grab a few things and Mema also managed to get a hair cut as well. Kale ate supper in Wal-Mart and seemed quite happy to have the shoppers as his evening entertainment. Quite a few times, he tried to talk to them with his mouth full of banana/rice cereal mush. :) I figured we could wait a little while before we start telling him to not talk with his mouth full.
Sunday started off well. Ep, as usual, bounded out of bed and seemingly hit the floor full of energy. It took a while for us to find a church that felt like "home", but now that we have found it...whew...Ep makes sure we get there! I am thankful to him for that. So, off our party wagon rolled to church. Ep and I in the front, Mema and sleepy head Kale in the back. It was Mema's first visit to the church and we were excited for her to visit. We printed out Kale's id tag and dropped him off in the nursery. He is in the "Fish" room. He should be in the "Turtle" room, but it is so full in there that we take him to the Fish room instead. Let's just say this...in the Fish room, Kale is the big whale amongst some guppies! Most of the babies in there are at least two months younger than him! I just know that as he sits up in the floor looking at the babies who are still trying to figure out how to roll over...Kale must be thinking this "Dude! You soooo gotta learn to roll over and then to sit up! It is SO much better up here in the land of sitting up!"
So, we went into worship and found out it was baby dedication day. It was so sweet. Then there was the sermon. It was going well, and was an excellent message. For the final portion of the message, the pastor shared a story with us. It is/was a true story and very, very recent. This is July, and the events of the story were in June. Yes, of this year.
Before I share the story...let me share this. I am still trying to make myself deal with the thoughts and emotions I have been blocking out and running from. Its not an easy task for me. Yet, I am trying. I made contact with someone at the church and wanted to request some time to talk to someone there about everything that happened immediately after Kale was born. With the holiday weekend and such, I let that communication fall to the bottom of my "to do" list. Well, God knows everything and He sure knew I had let that slide, because he gave me a good hard swift kick in the hiney with this story. In a sense, I feel like God gave me a choice...either run from His house or sit there and let myself start coming to term with everything. I wanted to run, more than once. I contemplated it, I really did. However, I planted my feet and stayed there...tears just rolling down my face. I wasn't able to wipe them away fast enough. I wasn't sobbing, but I was sure having a good cry, thats for sure! I wasn't the only one either.
The story is of a little girl...and her family...a family that waited beyond her due date for her to arrive. She finally entered the world and her family celebrated. Then came the shocking news. Something wasn't right. She landed in the NICU...and to sum it up, she didn't survive. The pastor read letters that the baby's grandmother and grandfather had written about the event. They were heartbreaking and at times sounded sooooo completely familiar. My heart just completely broke for that entire family. The waiting, the not knowing, the uncertainty, the questions, and the hardship.
The sermon was complete and I literally wanted to sprint to the nursery. I did manage to wait on the coffee slurpers (Ep and Mema) to use the bathroom before we went to get him. When they handed him to me, I just stood there hugging him. I don't know if anyone realized it or not, but I carried him from that door until it was time to put him in the car seat. Someone would have lost a hand if they had tried to reach for him!
So, back to the rest of Sunday...now that I felt like I had been hit by an mack truck that had spilled emotion all over me. We headed to Luby's, where our miracle boy enjoyed mashed potatoes (he literally was making mmmm sounds as he ate), corn, and macaroni and cheese. Then, just for fun, I gave him a few dollops of mashed potatoes to try to eat by himself. THAT was fun...especially after he started smacking his hand in it.
At home, Ep changed clothes and sprinted back out the door to go fishing. He told us all to take naps, and we complied. I slept for 2 hours while Kale slept for over 3 hours! Yep, a three hour nap! Who knew that boy could do that? We rounded out our weekend with play time and an early dinner (for Kale).
Ok, well, that was a little long...but hey, we crammed a lot into our weekend! If you are interested in hearing the sermon that "nailed me", then let me know and I will send you a link as soon as they post it on their website.
