Just Gotta Wait a Little

My little sister was married last week.



We traveled to a tropical paradise setting for the most exciting & indulgent vacation we'd ever taken to join them in our group of 16 and witness a wedding that was zero stress, very little planning, and required no decorations due to the backdrop already being a masterpiece there on the Caribbean sea.

Thank goodness she wasn't like so many others and played the Rascal Flatts song "God Blessed the Broken Road", (okay, it was alright to do that when it first came out, but weddings need to move on), but I was certainly thinking it. They very much balance each other out. He's the Yen to her Yang, so to speak. She is very carefree, traditionally, and he seems to take a little more time to unwind (must be the Army major in him, or maybe the upper East Coast upbringing?) It's amusing to watch the series of the pictures I took of him move from the beginning of the week with somewhat 'composed' smiles, to a light-hearted, comfortable, and casual collection of smiles by the end of the week.

I imagine the anxiety of turning 30 as an unmarried woman may wear on a person. Some it seems not to bother, and I'll certainly say she handled it with grace. There were other boyfriends that talked of marriage, but she wouldn't sell out. She'd say she'd much rather wait a little while longer until it felt right. It may not have been the smoothest path the last 3 years, but we all believe it's prepared them for could be somewhat trying times of Army life ahead.

I'm glad she waited, a little while longer. And I'm so proud to have my new big brother, even if he dances with me with a 3 foot distance between us. :-)

***

God likes to make me wait. I get this. I need this, too. It brings me back to reality sometimes. Taking a year off work is not an easy thing to do, financially, but I wanted so badly to have a year with L like I did C (actually it was closer to 2 if you count student teaching, but I won't tell him). It's been amazing. It's truly been the year I SHOULD have taken off, I feel. Things have happened, good and bad, that I am so glad to have had flexibility to deal with due to not working this year. I wanted to do this at age 1, 2, 3...but $ and timing never seemed to work out. I waited, just a little while longer, and God had it all worked out. By staying home THIS year, I was able to:

take my kids to Disneyworld in a more mild-weathered, slower season (and it was the food and wine festival which pleased me very much!),



spend several days in New York City with my 'new' wonderful sister and her family,

lay on the couch for 8 weeks while very sick with our pregnancy,

take my time in grieving the loss of that baby,

spend several days with my good friend in Colorado,

volunteer in C's school each week for 2 or 3 hours,

take L to the most wonderful preschool ever created but that has difficult hours for a working mom to manage,

watch Clifford the Big Red Dog on Tuesdays and Thursdays while sipping coffee and snuggling with the most precious little boy in the world,

be there each day for my daughter - not putting her off because of the stack of papers or the unnecessary meeting I 'have' to go to afterschool,

finishing the construction, decorating, and unpacking & organizing of our home (I use the term 'finishing' lightly here),

and most of all, being a generally stress-free wife, mother, family member, and friend.

I'm glad I waited just a little longer.

The money thing, I'll admit, has been a bit of a stress-causer, but even more powerful, is that God has used the 'money thing' to show me over and over again that He does take care of me. Always. Especially when I think I've 'used up' all my chances. We are getting to the very end of the savings, yet there are two months left until a paycheck. God arranged with our Mortgager to send us an 'overage' that we paid (????) for $3500 today. God arranged for me to have a July with my kids, but that once a week I am working for a friend's business and that will cover all of our utilities and phone bills for the month. He knows our hearts, and He loves His children. I'm so glad for that. I pray He keeps showing Himself to me! (I don't mean the $, just the little miracles!)

There I'd let myself begin to worry and fret about these last two months, but if I'd just told myself to wait a little, I'd have remembered that God shows up just in time - how wonderful!