I was sharing this story with a new-ish family member last evening; thought I'd share it with all of you, too. The Grandkids ages: Jack was pushing 6 and the Twins were 3.
==============
About 11 years ago, while my grandson, Jackson, was struggling with his kidney-related disease, my daughter called and asked me to watch the Twins for a couple hours while she was taking him to the doctor for a blood test. Previously, when she had taken the Twins, too, and Jack was screaming in the doctor room, they were standing in the hall screaming and crying right along with him. She didn't want that to happen again. Now, that only made sense, but...
I was getting ready to leave for a trip for a few days, and needed to finish house chores, packing, cooking, laundry, and more and more. Watching the Twins at the same time didn't seem like a good idea to me. When she begged, over and over, I finally said, "O-K! But only two hours; you can't be out running around doing errands or taking a break."
She dropped them off and they hung out in my living room. I, on the other hand, was running up and down the stairs in that four-level house. Hitting the laundry room, running to my bedroom on the top floor, chasing downstairs to my office on the lower/basement level. Grabbing, running, focused on getting everything done. Not one moment with the girls, except to tell them to stay out of stuff so I wouldn't have to clean more. The family room was actually in the basement also, but for some reason, they stayed in the living room. I don't remember, but expect I didn't want them to be dumping toys all over the place... and I'd have more cleaning to do when they left. Not so sure, overall, but sounds like me.
Well, after about half an hour of running up and down stairs, I suddenly heard some bouncing on our hard wood living room floor. Lots of bouncing. As I headed there to see what was going on, I heard Kayla yammering. When I turned the corner of the stairway, I saw her dancing and she was singing: "Grumpy Grandma, Grumpy Grandma." Then her sister, Randa, started dancing and singing, "Grumpy Grandma, Grumpy Grandma, Grumpy Grandma."
I froze. And what did I do? I bounced up to the living room and grabbed them, and pulled them firmly up to me...
And I LAUGHED. And laughed and laughed some more.
What else did I do? I set aside all my "tasking" attitude, and spent the rest of their visiting time playing with them. God obviously used them to get my head and heart moving in the right direction for that day.
After all these years, when thinking of that moment in time what do I do?
4 comments:
This makes me smile! Big time! Hope to see those soles again soon ...
Hi Joan
Praise the Lord. Thank you for this beautiful story of your visiting grand children who turned your heart to playing with them, turning your heart from the fears you had on keeping your house tidy.
God works miracles and messages of direction of spiritual lives from anybody he has created including the little ones.
Thank you for the inspiring messages you pass to us. Would want to see you in Soroti again.
God Bless
Okello Pauline
Jo,
This is so funny. I remember the story, but it still is funny to read it in print. It reminds me of a time when our girls were very small. I had to have dental surgery and Larry couldn't get off work, so our pastor and his wife kept our girls for us for the day. Jennie was 2 1/2 at the time. She was playing "house" by herself when the pastor's wife heard her say to her dolls, "I the mom, I sick and tired!" Oh dear, how embarrassing!
It was the same type of thing when I was teaching kindergarten at my school. When the children (5 yr. olds) would play in the playhouse center during center time, I would know exactly what went on at home. Very enlightening.
You made another bright spot in my crazy schedule.
Thanks.
Me.
Post a Comment