When I was having uncontrollable seizure in my twenties, I learned to rely on Jesus Christ for transportation (while living in a suburb with unreliable public transit) and health, praying for carpools, a flexible schedule, and a med that would finally work . Jesus was all sufficient. I kept my teaching job (!) and was only late to school once when my ride forgot me. I forgive you, nameless teaching buddy. (It was NOT Julie Johnson...it was a substitute carpool buddy.) And I only had one seizure in the classroom during six years of teaching. And nobody noticed. I'm not kidding. Jesus gave me what I needed. He was all sufficient in my weakness.
This week, the sufficiency of Jesus had a different flavor. Erik left for four days in Las Vegas on Monday morning. No, he hasn't taken up gambling. He had a launch meeting for work. But you probably already guessed that. Anyway, it had been awhile since I flew solo around here. Of course it's much easier with people who dress themselves, feed themselves, and toilet themselves. But I was still counting on a harder than usual week. I wasn't wrong.
There were meltdowns, some of them from the children. There were less than nutritious meals. You'll see pictures below. And over and over again, I was encouraged by the words of my dear friend Jean who is no longer with us. As a military wife and mom, she would remind me repeatedly and lovingly, that Erik's week gone was nothing compared with a wife whose husband was in a war zone for months on end. Here's where the amazing "brought to you by Jesus" moment happens.
A package came in the mail this week. It was from Okinawa. My friend Jean, who is now in heaven, has a son in the Air Force, for whom we named our second born. This Paul has a wife named Courtney. She sent the package. We opened it on Wednesday, and it was full of absolutely awesome Japanese activities and food. On the day when I had arrived at the end of myself and was ready to call Erik bawling if the boys had one more Bicker Fest, we opened this package of fun, culturally educational goodness. Some would say it was coincidence. Jean's voice in my heart all week coupled with my past experience of Christ tells me otherwise. Jesus provided this package at just the moment I needed it. He is all sufficient.
Wanna see what it held?
Lots of AWESOME stuff. Origami paper and instructions, a fun make-your-own-puzzle kit, kid-friendly chopsticks, regular chopsticks, fancy and beautiful chopsticks, headbands, stickers of Japanese "alphabet", a beautiful scarf, and LOTS of yummy Japanese snacks. I'm forgetting stuff, but it was all accompanied by a wonderful letter from Courtney, wherein she explained some fun things about Japanese culture. One story about the toilets with the remote controls had my people rolling on the floor laughing. It was brilliant. All of it. Here are a few of my favorite items.
There is so much about this packaging that I really like. The title. The picture. It's all excellent. There were two of these, but one of my people is MUCH more prone to being the Leader of the Fun...can you guess who immediately donned his headband?
Yep. Our Paul. He is the Bona Fide Leader of the Fun at our house.
Instant chocolate milk! We drank these with our almond milk. It was tasty.
I got a pretty. Thank you, Mrs. Courtney.
One last bit of amazing. Thursday, the day after we opened the package, I turned the page in our Language Arts curriculum and the lesson was all about writing a thank you note. Um...that's so stinking perfect. Of course, I always want my boys to write thank you notes, but the fact that the necessity coincided perfectly with the school assignment just makes me happy. And I see it as another example of Jesus pulling together the details of my life to keep me sane. Luke finished the note today. It is precious and heartfelt. I'm not posting it because I want Courtney to experience it for the first time as she holds it in her hand. I pray that it will bring her a small piece of the joy Jesus gave to our house this week through her package.
