Speaking of Blessings...

In an attempt to put off the cleaning up of the breakfast dishes I sit and open my blog. I am not sure why this is where I decided to go for distraction today since I have been neglecting the blog for awhile now but here I am. Yesterday I found myself in one of those moments I have occasionally when everything is perfect in the world. It doesn't matter what is happening in the news or in other places in the world, where I am at, life is perfect. I wouldn't have called yesterday's moment truly perfect just because of the simple fact that David is in Florida on business until tomorrow so we weren't all together but for mommy time with the kids, it was a wonderful afternoon to remember.

We have a trip coming up and the van has had power steering trouble for a few months. We have just been putting more fluid in and for about 4 days it drives fairly well til it all leaks out. Then we just fill it again. Wasteful I know but we have to have time in the schedule and it just hasn't worked out. Well, while David has been gone I have been trying to get a few things in order so that he will have a few surprises when he returns. One of those - surprise to me too was that they could get us right in on Monday to look at the van. Zach and I got a ride back home and they had it for two days to diagnose and fix the problem. I left there saying a little prayer asking God that if at ALL possible could these repairs be covered under our extended warranty? By the end of the day Monday I got the call and after praying a few more times during the day I was overwhelmed with that truly blessed feeling when the service guy called and said that the $1,200 worth of work WAS indeed covered under the extended warranty! I was so excited that I told him to go ahead and replace the two bald tires that they also found during the diagnosis (there is ALWAYS something else to fix!) That WILL be a surprise when David gets home, not only that the work is done and the van drives GREAT but also that it was FREE to us! Can't wait til he gets here to tell him although I really think that I am going to wait til he gets in to drive the van and see what he says! Trip is a week and a half away and at least the van is ready to go!

Surprise number two is the painting job in the living room. Ran out of paint and tape so, when the kids got out of school yesterday the shuttle came to pick us up from the car dealership and we all went to pick up the van. After that we headed to Menards. There was enough on our list that everyone got to carry something. Zach was thrilled that it was the sticky tape that he got to carry. Ryan was thrilled that I trusted him with the gallon of paint. I did have to ask if he had big enough muscles and of course I got that funny look like "Mom of COURSE!" So, off to pay and back in the van when I surprised the kids and told them that we would be having supper at Lone Star for kids eat free night.

As I sat there at the table with four of the biggest blessings in life (actually five if you include the little guy dancing on my bladder), I was just so proud of how easy it is for me to take four children out to eat by myself and in that moment I felt perfectly blessed. They really know how to act and be polite (with only MINIMAL reminding). Zachary has come a long way on his path out of the murky world of PDD and has joined his siblings in the ranks of "children with good manners and in control most of the time" catagory. I often sit and marvel at what is before me as a mom. The "infertile girl" is about to become a mom of five! There really are no words and when I add to that the fact that somehow I managed to be blessed with the five most wonderful children on earth and I still remain speechless. (I know I haven't MET Five yet, but God has done nothing but great things with our DNA so far, I trust Him COMPLETELY!)

Although I would love to sit and share more great antecdotes, those breakfast dishes are calling and now it is almost lunch time. I can't wait til David's plane comes in tomorrow night so I can share this week with him! (That isn't even including the father's day gift we picked up this week while he was gone too!) It has been a marvelous week of planning surprises and experiencing the grace God has given that although David has been gone, we have gotten along and look forward even more to his homecoming.