During church this past Sunday, our pastor talked about trusting the big and little ways that God continues to shape our lives even when we turn away from Him and hurl doubts and bitterness His way. He created a beautiful visual for me about God’s part in creating “the back of the tapestry” where you can see how all of the seemingly abstract or random colors and designs on the front are brilliantly woven together and connected. So many moments come about where the only choice I have is to label it “a God thing.”
One moment in particular came this past Friday, as I was sitting on the couches (which are amazingly comfortable btw) at Trampoline Zone, watching all three kiddos members of my family jump with joy throughout the building. Normally during this time, I would be reading a magazine or concocting a new blog post on my phone, but I decided to just watch and embrace the moment. A few minutes later, a woman sat down and we struck up a conversation. Although I consider myself pretty darn social and able to make conversations with a good number of people, in these situations and on my sacred weekends, I like to switch into “introvert” mode and a hide in my shell a bit. So the fact that I was drawn to this woman and participated in the conversation as a two-way kind of thing was definitely a pull that was not my own.
As it turns out, this woman had 4 biological kids, 1 internationally adopted son, and 1 son that she had adopted from the foster system. We connected over the struggles and laughed over the funny parts of our journey that included others’ judgement or colorful comments that could and should be kept to themselves. It is these connections that make me feel most like a true mother. I feel “normal” in my little mighty tribe that feels like the opposite of normal most days (and especially foreign in the middle of the night when an anxious WonderBoy can’t fall asleep out of fear that we won’t be there in the morning which could be a sad, but true reality someday for my little man). She was much more veteran and wise than I could ever hope to be, but I hope that the connection was mutually beneficial to her as it was to me. My heart was truly filled just by this chance meeting. And this little encounter is one that can only be described as a “back of the tapestry” kind of thing because really, how does that happen? And how does it happen at a time or moment that I could really have used it the most?
Aside from this chance meeting, I have been working hard to put all the feelings, words, memories, and pictures from our first year as Team Brave Dinosaurs into a scrapbook to look back on and love. So many times I get to make the connections in hindsight that I may not have had the clarity (or quite frankly the time) to see in the midst of the crazy, frick-fracking hard, storm beautiful formation of our little family. Here are a few shots of my progress (disregard my “white noise” Netlfix binge of Hart of Dixie in the background) – almost through April!!!
P.S. If you are reading this “big fan”, you have no idea how much that simple note and gift meant to me back in March of 2014. Please read the journaling in the top right to see how big of an impact it truly had on me in my early days/months as a mama. Thank you thank you for your kind and caring gesture.