Blessings

Kiddo had a haircut appointment this evening at 6, which meant I picked him and Pumpkin up from daycare, I stuffed a bottle in Pumpkin's mouth so she'd have a little something to tide her over, we all loaded up in the van and headed out.

I told Kiddo that if he was a really good boy at his haircut and sat really still, we could stop at McDonalds afterwards for supper. In reality, we just didn't have time for supper ahead of time so we would've been stopping at Mickey-D's anyway, but when one has the chance to dangle perceived rewards in front of a 4 year-old, one always takes advantage of the opportunity.

So one did.

Sweetie had a long day at work, so she wasn't able to join us until after we had arrived at McDonalds. True to his word, Kiddo had been great at his haircut, so we all ordered, then Sweetie took the kids to find a table while I brought the food over.

I got back up to get ketchup and napkins, and apparently Kiddo wouldn't let Sweetie start eating until I got back so we could all say prayers together. So we said our usual mealtime prayer ("come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen."), and Kiddo added his usual postscript petitions concerning Pumpkin and the world and rocketships and Ellie and Aunt C.

And then we ate.

While we were in the middle of our meal, the two ladies in the booth behind me got up to leave. Before they did, they came over to fawn over Pumpkin (I mean, who wouldn't?). =) They asked how old she was, and Kiddo offered them the information that he was four and she was four months.

The older of the two ladies said "you are so blessed. God has blessed your family, and it's wonderful to see."

We agreed, of course.

She continued, "I'm 96 years old and get around just fine. God has blessed me, too. God is good."

The other woman (who HAD to be her daughter...she looked like a clone who was 25 or so years younger) helped her up and complimented our kids. They both said their goodbyes and left.

I looked at Kiddo, Pumpkin and Sweetie, and just thought, "ma'am, you don't even know the half of it."

God has blessed our family so richly. I don't know why...we certainly haven't done anything to deserve it. But we are blessed. That doesn't mean life's a big ol' bowl of cherries or that nothing ever goes wrong or that we live in this happy la-la land. But because of the strength we have as a family, because of the mutual love and support, because God has placed himself at the center of who we are and what we're about, when the bad times do come we can remain joyful and thankful.

That is the true blessing of my family.

LH