Perspective

Well, if today didn't start with a bang, or should I say hisssss?  This morning at 6:45 when sitting on the couch I was prepped and ready for some good quiet time all alone before the mad rush of the day.  I had been there about three minutes or so when I sensed something moving a few feet way.  Sure enough, a small black snake about the width of my pinkie finger was headed in my direction looking as if he didn't even notice my presence. When I saw him I flinched, and then he flinched.  We were at a stand-off.  I quickly walked to the bedroom and let Doug know that we had company.  He came ready for a fight with the broom.  Well, as we approached the little guy, he slithered toward the other broom that was already laying on the floor from the night before--sometimes kids don't put things away, as you may well know.  This is one time I was actually grateful because that's where he buried his head which made it easy capture him.  Doug got a pair of scissors from the drawer and began to cut his head off.  Then we pitched him out the door with the two brooms.  Phew!  I didn't see that coming this morning. 

Well, before we knew it, our kids were up--half an hour earlier than normal.  We had chosen to look in each of their rooms which was just enough of a disturbance to rouse them.  So as you can imagine, with kids come noise, demands, and no time for getting back to my reading.  We're off....  Muffins were the insistent request so I threw the mix into a bowl, began mixing with my new handmixer and promptly noticed the slight burning smell.  I was told that that's a problem with this model.  A few minutes later the muffins went into the oven and I went into the shower.  As soon as hit the water I knew it would be very short one because the water was already lukewarm.  It went cold before I even had a chance to get the shampoo out of my hair.  Back to the kitchen more promptly than expected, I checked the muffins which looked just fine and not ready. 

Darius asked me why the freezer was not working and peered inside.  Sure enough the shrimp in there was thawed and therefore needed to be thrown away.  A few minutes later I pulled the now lightly browned muffins out of the oven, only to discover that the bottoms and sides of each were black as coal. 

Well, before I knew it I was in a terrible mood and ready to cash it all in.  This was a hard day and it was not even 8:00 a.m. yet!  I had begun to list in my head all the crummy things that had taken place so far and how this is just not reasonable.  I was mentally deciding how upset I wanted to be about it all.  Then, the Lord said, "Kim, this is as much of a battle in your mind as it is a physical battle around you."  That was something to ponder.  Hmmmmm.

How would I handle this?  I was getting to decide.  After some thought I chose to win.

So, Selah and I sat down to a great lesson in her Phonics book--we studied the letter K today.  (I had to smile. That's my favorite letter.  Selah smiled, because of course it would be.  Hers is the letter S.--Don't you love kindergarteners?)

Later we headed out to Casa de Fe on foot and on the way heard a friend call out her window to say good morning to us.  She was in the process of emailing me and thought it neat that I came right past their apartment at that very moment.  Then, we ran into the field trip that Sethy and his class had taken to the local store.  A nice delay with some smiling faces. 

When we arrived at Casa, Selah went into her new room right next door to mine where I placed her with six other kids and a teacher who all speak no English.  It could have been the recipe for a disaster but instead Selah loved that she got to look at new books, color, string beads together, and learn some new Spanish.  She wasn't crazy about the snack but she tried it anyway.  When she and I finally left, she was telling me about her time while we started off on our mile walk home only to be picked up a couple of minutes later by some friends that were leaving Casa as well.  We saved about 20 minutes.

Other great things happened too, but this has already been a long enough post.  I won't go into any other details about our day today.  Suffice it to say though that I'm glad I chose to get past the morning.  It could have been a very ugly day indeed.  (In fact, some things are just so jarring or hard that any day could turn out similarly:  stepping on dead rats in the road, walking everywhere, being caught in impromptu rainstorms without an umbrella, tossing and turning because the music in town is so loud on Friday and Saturday night, arriving at a closed butcher shop knowing that your next chance to buy meat will be three days from now, cutting into an eggplant only to have a worm fly out and land in your egg wash, being greeted by a tree frog in the bathroom in the middle of the night, the constant threat of lice and stomach aches, being woken by car alarms that go off in the middle of the night, having to use cash for every purchase because no one accepts credit cards, knowing Spanish for about 30 years and still struggling when talking to some locals, having your children's feet stink so badly from their playing outdoors so much that their classroom teacher has to have a talk with you....among other things.)  Crazy, isn't it?  And it's only been a month.  They tell me that this isn't even roach season yet.  So much for a short post.  : )

Every day is an adventure.  Some just more so than others.  May we all chose to take it in stride and know that He's with us in the details. It is the comfort that makes it all do-able.
Blessings, kim