The Doorkeeper of the waiting room.

This past Saturday I went on a girls' road trip with friends to the Pioneer Woman Mercantile in Pawhuska, Oklahoma.  Very cool place, you should go there.  Cute little town, lots of character.  The Merc opened last fall and has been wildly popular.  Wildly is putting it mildly.  Averages 6000 customers daily during the week.  On the weekend? Upwards to 15,000 in a day. The population of Pawhuska is 3,666 fine friendly country folks.  Okies are the friendliest folks on the planet.  I mean it!!

So....the Merc was packed with people.  There were lines of people outside waiting to just get inside the restaurant section, with estimated wait time of 2 hours.  Two Hours.  120 minutes.  One hundred twenty minutes.  Far far too long for us chicks to wait.  As it turned out we innocently cut into a line we didn't know existed,  and entered the store/bakery section while the doorkeeper's head was turned.    Of course we never made it to the restaurant section.  Enjoyed superb baked pastries and luscious coffee instead.  

It's one thing to wait in line for a fun event, or to eat a fancy meal.  Pretty insignificant compared to other "waiting rooms" we might find ourselves in from time to time.  You've spent time in your own waiting room, I'm certain of that. So have I.  

Both of my daughters and their husbands were  very eager to become parents. But parenthood isn't a quick process for every couple.   Between both couples there were eleven years total for me in that stressful waiting room.    With prayerful consideration, adoption was the route they both chose to take.  For both of them, it was a roller coaster of emotions.  Lots of "why" and "hurry up" type prayers. While you wait.  And wait and wait.  I found myself trying to cheer them on from the spectator section. Often it felt like I was right there with them on that wild roller coaster ride. The excitement of our first grandson's adoption was indescribable.  But the roller coaster continued to operate for my youngest.

One particular morning during our youngest daughter's wait to adopt, I had a meltdown of epic proportions and found myself sobbing and crying out to God, begging Him to please make my girl a mommy.  Seeing her pain was breaking my heart.   I cried out to God, telling Him that I seriously did not think I would survive if she wasn't able to be a mother.  I cried aloud to Him that I trusted Him as much as I possibly could, but my faith was weak.  

Mainly, I just cried.  And cried.  Sobbing to the point I wasn't sure I could stop. 

In an attempt to just get a grip and stop weeping, I opened my devotional book for the day.  It was a healthy living/diet type book with scriptural content.  Surely that would distract me from my despair and stop the waterworks.  A total change of subject to change my focus was what I needed.  Words on dieting should do the trick, I hoped.

I opened up the devotional book to that day's message on food and exercise and this is what I read:
The scripture was from Ps 139:13-14.  "...you knit me together in my mother's womb...." And then the comments for the day:
    "Perhaps you are knitting a sweater as you await a grandchild's birth.  You have not seen his face, but you know he is a boy.  You knit each stitch and pray for your grandson.  You already  love him and know that he will be a delight to his parents...But God is doing much more to prepare.  He is creating this little boy and knitting his cells together in the womb.  He has plans and a purpose for this little life."   

Well, that stopped my tears.  I had no idea what these words had to do with dieting or a healthy lifestyle, but there was no doubt in my mind Who had intended for me to read them.  I actually looked around the room expecting to see Jesus himself standing by my table, telling me everything was going to be okay.  I couldn't see Him but HE WAS THERE!!  Yes, He was.  And suddenly I was calm. Composed.  Hopeful.  And I knew I'd received a message from God that He was in control and there would be a baby for my baby girl.  He saw my tears.  He dried my tears.  He held me close.  

A few days later the phone rang.  It was my daughter, telling me that they were meeting their baby boy that very evening.  They brought him  home from the hospital three days later.  He had been in the newborn intensive care unit for three months.  Living in the hospital next door to where I worked, and I had no clue!!  A miracle extreme preemie needing a mommy and daddy.  And a grandma heart just waiting to hug and kiss him.  He was the boy that God was telling me about just a few days earlier. 

While we wait...."God is doing much more."    We can trust the doorkeeper of the waiting room.  

I could share a lot more details about the hand of God in regard to this story. So very amazing!!  But I want to leave you with these words of hope that my pastor once shared:

Waiting is never easy

but when there is nothing

you can do, 

it doesn't mean 

nothing is being done.

God is working for you 

in ways

you cannot see.

         

Observations from 1600 miles southeast of home

Today marks the end of a glorious two week trip to Savannah, Ga, with my husband the IT consultant.  He travels 1600 miles from home every week to earn a living. This is his career.  He's had this traveling gig for the past 13 years.  He provides income for us.  To put food on the table and pay bills.  To buy our home where I am the main occupant.  He spends more time living in a hotel than in our home, if I do the math correctly.  If nothing else, this trip has made me acutely aware of the sacrifice required in being a consultant.  He doesn't complain. I believe I might tend to whine a bit if I were in his shoes.  But whining does come natural to me regardless of circumstances.  We all have our gifts.  😃

Retirement is approaching (a little over two years) and I considered this two week period of time a little experiment to see how well we might tolerate living together on a daily basis.  And.....after two weeks I believe we would both agree we'll do just fine.   

Isn't Savannah gorgeous?  And February is a splendid time to visit, meteorologically speaking.  Although the second night we were there, the tornado sirens and our insanely loud weather apps on our phones woke us up at 4am.  I looked out the window, and he pondered what we should do.  We quickly decided to just put adequate clothing on so that rescue and recovery squads wouldn't experience potential mental anguish and visual suffering when they found our bodies.  Then we went back to sleep.  It was 4am, for crying out loud.  Kansas tornadoes generally seem to be more respectful re: time of day.  No worries. Damage and injuries were north of our location.  All was well.  

During this trip I learned some stuff about a variety of subjects.

  Seafood platters at The Crab Shack.  Heap lot of delicious food with one glaring exception.  Crab legs, shrimp, mussels...all delightfully delicious.  See picture number 2?  All that remained was crawfish.  I asked the waitress exactly how one consumes a crawfish and she showed me the beheading process, and what part to eat.  Luckily our first and only bites were small ones.  We were both able to swallow the crawfish meat without making a grade-school child-like scene of spitting it into our napkins while gagging.  And we both agreed it was our first and last bite ever.  Icky stuff. 

For fun on the weekend we drove to St Augustine, Florida for a couple days.  This is the oldest city in the USA and a wonderful place to visit. Go there if you ever have the chance.  

We went to the fountain of youth archaeological park. 

 And drank the water.  

Still waiting for results.  

Not all that hopeful.

Saw our very first drawbridge in action. And our second.  And third. And fourth.   Busy harbor.

 And ate at a fabulous little cafe called Gas Filling Station.  A repurposed gas station with a cool and quirky interior and really really good food.  

And the beach, oh the beach was marvelous.  Lots of long walks on the beach.  Very fun weekend seeing the sites of St Augustine.  You need to go there!

Back in Savannah, while the hubby worked, I found things to do.  Like visiting the Coastal Georgia Botanical Gardens.   I learned,  maybe you already knew, that the Camelia Senesis (pictured) is the source of ALL tea.  The bushes flower from October to March, and tea is made from the leaves.  Processing varies for black, green, white, oolong, or pu-erh.  Just like all wine is from grapes, all tea is from Camelia Senesis leaves.

Such beautiful flowers...I like tea even more now.

The crapemyrtles of course weren't even leafed out yet, but I learned an important horticultural tip:  Don't prune your crapemyrtle bushes! "An unpruned crapemyrtle produces a longer lasting flower display".  Yay.  Saves me some work on my youngish crapemyrtle bush.

The garden is pretty new and will eventually be quite nice.  For now it's in its formative years.  But still a lovely place to walk.

I would imagine March and April would be a great time to visit.  I should come back next month.  😁 And the month after.  

Found this awesome little quirky BBQ joint, complete with Guitar Pickin' Parlor and Music store.  The owner repairs guitars, and constructs his own guitars.  Very cool place.  The store is jam packed full of stringed instruments.  And the food is southern style barbecue.  Pretty tasty. 

But my favorite scene was this one:

The shadow of me and the man of my dreams watching the waves at Tybee Beach.  Something about the "heartbeat" of the ocean that just soothes the soul.

We're back home.  No oceans.  No palm trees.  Oddly enough, the day we returned to Savannah from St Augustine, I opened up Facebook and discovered "Only in Kansas" posted this picture highlighting beautiful sights to see in Kansas:

Even though I'd just seen all the incredible beauty that Savannah and St Aug have to offer, seeing this picture brought a little tear to my eye and warmed my heart.  Now that's home.   Minneapolis, Kansas.  Home of Rock City.  Site of many fun experiences in my childhood.  Memories of home.    

Home's where your heart is.  Home is incredibly beautiful.  Even with no beach.