Saturday evening I was cleaning up the kitchen after coming home from the yard sale. I was tired and exhausted – it had been a long day…..I still had to feed the kids and get everyone ready for church in the morning….. Baths, clothes set out and shoes and Bibles set by the door were needing to be done. Dw had gone to prepare for Sunday and wouldn’t be home till much later.

As I was doing the dishes, everyone else was doing what had been assigned to do. The kitchen was relatively quiet and I got to thinking. What a blessed woman I am. Abundantly blessed -actually in gigantic portions. My heart was overflowing as I looked around the house that was completely strewn with the remains of yard sale preparations, boxes from the storage shed that I had searched through for things to put in the yard sale, contents falling out of some of the boxes, dishes, pears needing to be canned, dinner plates, cups, the toaster, purses, sweatshirts, computers, stuffed animals, books, toys, toys and more toys.

As I was thanking the Lord for my life I started remembering something some relatives of ours had said to me years before – in 1988 to be exact. On three separate occasions that same year I had had relatives call and tell me that they had thought about it and decided that I should give up having anymore kids and move on with my life. (Bless their hearts!)

Hmmmm…..that was an interesting thought from three women: one who had one child and two who had none…. Is it just me 0r do you ever wonder what people like that are thinking? Since they have never lived near me I’m not sure what their reasoning was (that is, if they used any). I had never asked for their help in any way, shape or form. I had never complained about my kids (it’s just not my style – I have gone through too much blood, sweat and tears to belly-ache about my treasures)…so what they were thinking will remain a mystery forever, but suffice it to say, I politely thanked them for their input and went about life.

Well here I am pondering my life 20 years after those three separate phone calls…..and here’s what I came up with as I cleaned up our very chaotic kitchen/family room…

What if I had listened to these three family nay-sayers?? How would my life be looking today? If we had “closed up shop to more kids”…..we would now have been empty nesters for 5 years already! What a nightmare thought!

On that note…here’s just a sampling of what I would have missed out on over the last few days in our lives if I had listened to the “crowd”…… I would have missed:

linking arms with Emma while skipping down Main Street late Friday night on our way to a movie, just the two of us, at Gaslight Theatre….

having Emmy snuggled against me in the theatre, as we watched intently, whispering back and forth from time to time…

having Graham, unprompted, come over to where I was sitting in the family room and leaning over to kiss me good night and saying, “I love you mom”……

all six of us riding in the truck together to drop stuff off at the parsonage for the sale and being totally goofy so our older kids were completely embarassed and E and G were texting back and forth about how embarassed they were (of course they were laughing the whole way)….

while dropping the stuff off we ran into a kind friend who attends our church and asked us to stop over as he had an ice cold IBC Root Beer for each of the kids and Dw (I declined the offer) and seeing their tickled expressions — their very own IBC!
waking up Saturday morning to my oh-so-very dashing husband singing Days of Elijah and Year of Jubilee with great enthusiasm (that song would have no personal significance if it weren’t for little Miss Jubilee)…

driving early in the morning to Starbucks with Emmy and her friend as we laughed about some silly things… phoning Graham to see what he wanted from Starbucks and having a giggle about something…

sharing our story with two young women at Starbucks who said they would come to the sale (if it weren’t for adoption we probably would have talked about the weather)…..

two hugs from Autumn and her boyfriend stopping by the yard sale to check in on us……

spending the day laughing and being crazy with some really special friends whose hearts are also stirred for the orphan….
hearing Isaiah squeal “mommy!” when Grandma brought him to the parsonage…..

Isaiah and Liberty’s arms wrapping around me when they got to the sale…..

watching Isaiah and Liberty giggle and play all day long while we sold “stuff”…..

talking to our Tyler-son just before he leaves for a few days on a special training mission…..

panicking as I ran around the side of the parsonage to see where Isaiah was? Had he headed over into the parking lot and to the church building himself?

relieved to see him safe in big sis Emma’s arms….

watching Isaiah and Liberty race each other in rolling chairs down the driveway while we started packing it up to call it a day….

talking with my kids while we drove toward home…

having Emma help me drop bags off at the Thrift Store’s back door…..

making supper for the kids, while Emma helped me and the guys emptied the truck of the dining set (that didn’t sell)….

racing Isaiah down the hall toward the bathroom for his bathtime and hearing him giggle as we raced….

listening to Isaiah and Liberty talk with each other….

hearing Emma trying to contain her chuckle while calling to me to tell Isaiah to stop…..

hearing Isaiah mimic Emma who had come to tuck him in….”Isaiah stop saying everything I say” “Isaiah stop saying everything I say”; “I’m serious Isaiah” “I’m serious Isaiah”; “Isaiah, really, stop doing that!” “Isaiah, really, stop doing that!”; “Mom!” “Mom!”; “Mom, Isaiah won’t stop copying me!” “Mom, Isaiah won’t stop copying me!” “Make him stop Mom!” “Make him stop Mom!”….(his little personality continues to make us laugh!)

driving into church this morning with Emma, Graham, Liberty and Isaiah and having each praying for specific needs (Jubilee, etc.) as each of us agreed together with the one praying outloud…..

holding Isaiah’s sweet little hand as we walked about the church grounds doing little necessary tasks before first service….

snuggling with Isaiah on my lap during second service at church….

having Isaiah stroke my hair while I was holding him and singing and worshipping during 2nd service this morning……

going to tuck in Liberty and Isaiah and deciding to run from the bedroom door toward their bed and dive onto it……

hearing their peals of laughter when I plunked down in the middle of them…..

having Isaiah kiss my hand and say, “you the best mommy!” getting to snuggle up with Liberty this Sunday afternoon because she has a tummy ache and is feeling “ishy”….hearing Emmy’s excitement of who she found (after moving from Charlotte, NC 12 years ago) on Facebook – her first tiny sweetheart – Matthew – they were 3 at the time when we moved….
watching Graham’s face turn flaming red as we mentioned something that tickles us and embarasses him…tasting Emma’s Mississippi Mudd that she made this afternoon……having Isaiah sound asleep in my arms as I type this blog…(note: Liberty sound asleep w/pan beside her just incase she woofs, Isaiah asleep and Nelly on the other side)…and one trashed house surrounds me this Sunday evening…..So as I pondered just a smidgeon of all the delightful moments these last few days have brought I wonder what would have happened if we had taken the advice of our “caring?” relatives? I shudder at the thought and then I let my mind wander a bit more: Why would I ever want this joy to end??