My 5 year old son, Chance, loves to draw.
And for being 5, I think he’s a pretty good artist. Maybe that’s just me being a proud parent. Whichever way… my favorite moments are when he explains his drawings. I thought I’d share one with you…
… OH… and Chance doesn’t really even nap anymore.
I love how Chance is so open in expressing his thoughts. This is something I hope Brian and I never squelch. And I hope he’ll always feel as free as he does now in talking with me about everything.
I honestly never think about Mother’s Day till it comes around.
Before you say it’s a mommy issue or whatever… I rarely remember my birthday or anniversary either. But just like my birthday and anniversary… I celebrate it and am thankful for this day when it comes around.
If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know I have a somewhat distant relationship with my real Mother, however, I’ve found an incredibly meaningful relationship with my Mother-in-law. And as I wait on God’s hand in reconciling and restoring my own relationship with my real Mom, I’ll celebrate the second Mom He so graciously gave me. I don’t think I’m an unlucky girl because of a lack of relationship with my Mother… but I DO think I’m fortunately enough to have a second chance with my MIL. So, as we head into this weekend, I’m thankful.
Love you, Mom! Both of you!
But this post isn’t as much about them as it is me… or rather… who I mother.
As a mother of two amazing young boys, I really do appreciate when they celebrate me… but I would much rather celebrate them… and the privilege God gave me to BE their mother on this special weekend. And because of that, I never want to make this “holiday” of expectations. I want it to be a celebration of our family.
I have so many good friends that struggle on this day. Ones who were extremely close to their Mothers but have lost them to death. Ones who WANT to be Mothers but for some reason, that card just hasn’t been drawn yet. Some, like me, who’s Mothers really want nothing to do with them. And though all those are mournful situations and my heart truly breaks for them (and myself)… at this moment, I choose to joy.
I choose THIS moment. And in this moment… all is well.
Here are my moments:
Paxton got a haircut.
Chance quietly staring out our backdoor while in his Spiderman costume.
Chance’s schools’ Mother’s Day Dance.
Pax & Mommy Wrestling Time.
I-10 Westbound around 50 mph.
The traffic stopped suddenly.
I hit the brakes.
I looked in my rear-view mirror.
Watched them slam on their brakes.
Held my breath, praying they wouldn’t hit us.
And they come maybe 6 inches from hitting us.
Exhale.
Thank you, Jesus.
Traffic goes again.
We speed up. Maybe 45 mph.
Traffic stops.
Brakes.
Full stop. Far enough from the car in front to see their rear tires.
I look at my rear-view mirror.
Please slow down.
Nope. Are they looking down?
Wow, they’re coming at me fast!
BRAKE! BRAKE! BRAKE!
Brace myself.
*SCREECHING*
BAM!!! We’re hit!
Babies screaming!
BAM!!! We hit the car in front.
I turned around to check on my babies.
“You guys ok?”
Chance: “What was that, Mama?”
“We were in a car accident. Are you ok?”
Chance: “Yeah. I hit my head. It kinda hurts in the back, but I’m ok.”
“Ok. Pax? You ok?”
Paxton: “Whoa, Mama! Do again!”
Uh, yeah. He’s fine.
We pull over to the shoulder on the right.
Three cars.
Black car in front of me.
Me.
White Dodge Caliber behind me.
I call 9-1-1. “I was just rear-ended!”
I answer all their questions.
Dispatcher: “The Police are on their way, ma’am!”
“Thank you!”
I text Brian:
I unbuckle. Turn around in my seat.
Crawl back to double check on my babies.
Good thing I’m still somewhat flexible.
Pax is smiling and saying, “Bang Bang Bang!” over and over again.
Yeah, he’s fine.
Chance is rubbing his head.
His arm and the car door is covered with sticky juice that had gone airborne.
I cuddle him for a minute, thankful even for the stickiness.
“Ok, boys. STAY HERE! DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR! Mama’s gonna check on everyone outside, ok?”
“OK!”
I get back in the front seat and look out the front windshield.
The black car I hit is gone.
Interesting.
I look back.
White car is still there.
I get out… walk the 100 yards to their car.
Please speak English.
“Are you ok?”
Him: “uh… no Englais.”
Me: “Crap… um… me no habla Espanol.”
Him: “uh… uhh….”
Me: “WAIT! I have an iPhone. I have Google Translator!”
Him: “huh?”
*tippy tappy type type*
Me: “¿Estás bien?”
Him: “Si… si… efiajweoijfa;oijsldkjaei”
Me: “CRAP! Como? no? wha? uh… Policia coming.”
Him: “Policia? Uh. Ok.”
I look in the car to check on the gal in the passenger side.
Her knees are all banged up from the dash.
I type out: “Help is on the way. Are you alright?” and hit “translate”.
She replies: “Si… si…”
A firetruck is there within 3 minutes and police a minute after that.
Nice work, El Paso!
A team of firemen help get the gal out of the white car.
A team come check out my boys and me.
Chance re-enacts the whole accident for them.
Paxton yells “BAM BAM owie car!”
The firemen are GREAT!
Brian and our friend, Sam, pull up in front of us.
Brian hugs me and unbuckles Chance for a cuddle.
A fireman crawls out from under our rig.
HEY… when did you get down there?
He brushes himself off and says:
“You can drive this, but you need to drive it straight to an auto mechanic.”
Our under carriage was not-so-bueno.
We waited for the police to give us the incident report card with case number.
THEY’RE INSURED! Thank you, Jesus!
“You’re free to go! Take care!”
“Thank you SO much!”
The gal from the white car limps up to me and asks for my número.
I give her my google number.
What? You never know.
She takes my hand and says: “Los más pequeños?”
Pequenos? Little… that’s little… kids. RIGHT!
Me: “It’s ok. I mean, we’re ok! You ok?”
Her: “Si… si… lo siento!”
“Está bien, amiga.”
That was the most Spanish I’ve EVER spoken.
Three thoughts:
1. I’m so thankful no one was terribly hurt.
2. I love my big rig.
3. I really need to learn Spanish.
——————————————
It’s been awhile.
It’s been 2 weeks to be exact. In the last two weeks, Crystal and Mom came to visit us back to back. It was awesome to have them meet everyone… and I didn’t post anything new because I really wanted to savor family time with them as well as focus in on our kiddos.
The kids are doing VERY well. Better than I expected. They’re having a tough time adjusting to something because their sleep schedules are off. And when I say “off”… I mean, WAY off. They are waking up at 4:30am to 5am and want to go to bed at 6:30pm. If we had moved from the East Coast, that would make sense, but we moved from the OTHER coast and it’s only an hour difference. It may also be that our upstairs neighbors are both up at 4:15am and seem to wear military boots at all times. I want to become friends with them soon so I can tell them to wear fuzzy bunny slippers instead.
Chance also hasn’t been able to get rid of his cough. It’s not a “I’m sick” cough because there’s no mucus or “greenies” (as I like to call it) that comes with it. We think he’s just adjusting to the dryness here. The cough seems to get worse the nights he plays outside for an extended period of time. I hope he’s not allergic to El Paso, cuz that would be awkward.
Other than these little “transitions”, our kids are doing amazingly well. Thanks to Brian’s parents, Chance gets to go to a private Christian school here in El Paso. I appreciate the structure and the level of education they are presenting to the kids. We actually held Chance back a year so instead of continuing with Kindergarten, he’s in K-4 (an in-between of Pre-School and Kindergarten). We wouldn’t know the difference though, because the curriculum is quite challenging. His class already knows how to write in cursive. It’s NUTS! Brian and I have to work with him extra at home to get him caught up.
Other than the first week and a half, we’ve had the nicest weather. Here, we took the boys up to Transmountain to see the Elephant.
We are somewhat settled now (whatever that means) and Brian has just begun to look for employment. We’ve busied ourselves with getting to know the people of Paseo and it’s been a blast. It’s hard to explain, but it feels like we’ve just come home to family we haven’t seen in a long time. That says a lot about Paseo because I have some deeply rooted family/friends in Portland. I’m not saying my other friends have been replaced, I’m just saying it’s nice to not feel so much like an outsider.
I’m loving the staff I get to work with here. My first staff meeting was last week and I’m pretty sure I laughed more than halfway through it. What’s most peculiar is that by the end of the meeting, the next two months of services and the calendar through July was planned. You gotta love when you can have fun with the people you work with, right?
I’ve gotten to lead two weekend gatherings already too. Well… technically four since there are two each Sunday, but I’ll write more about that later. That in itself deserves it’s own post. But for now, CLICK HERE to read Greg’s thoughts on last Sunday’s gathering. Here’s also a pano of what Paseo’s gatherings look like.
If you want to catch up on the last newsletter we wrote, CLICK HERE. We’ve got another coming out soon too, so make sure you subscribe to it if you haven’t already.
Ok, your turn. I’ve been out of the loop:
Your HIGH and LOW from the last week.
GO!
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