Tulips

Allow me to preface this with an apology to all the ladies out there reading this blog. I am sincerely and whole heartedly sorry.....I stole the very best man out there for myself.
In general Tuesdays are my hard days. It's pretty much a guarantee that I will cry at some point and there are usually at least three times in the twenty-four-hour span where I utter the words, "I hate Tuesdays". This last Tuesday was particularly challenging. I had been battling a little head cold, not feeling my finest. The stresses of finishing up Halloween costumes, in combination with the stresses of pulling together "Night of Excellence" for our Young Women's program, were heavy on my mind. Mike works until 10pm on Tuesdays. It is also the day when Gavin has gymnastics so it means I am taking all three children to the gym and then coming home to do dinner, baths, bedtime, etc. alone. On this particular Tuesday I was scheduled to have a friend over to help with the YW project (she is a leader also).
All seemed to go okay until about 7:15 when my power went out. Mmmhmmmm.
Three children, bedtime, no power, no husband, five candles, one flashlight....and a partridge in a pear tree.
Initially I did not panic. After all, power goes out all the time...usually for a minute or two. An hour later, I was getting a little disgruntled.
I finally got Suzy in bed and the boys fell asleep on the couch next to me. I had to call off the project for YW's and miss a much anticipated episode of "House". Instead I curled up with the cat and finished off the book I was reading.
Around 9:15 or so the power is back on. YAY!!
While the return of our heat and lighting had me in a substantially better mood, I was still a little sullen. It had been a long day and I was tired and a little sad. It just seemed like one more thing that had not worked out the way I thought that I needed it to. I was feeling a little discouraged....which led to feeling very discouraged. By the time Mike called to say he was on his way home from work I was in tears. According to my stressed out and sleep deprived self I would never get my YW's things finished, I would never catch up on the house work, we'd never be out of debt and I would never be able to have another baby......anxiety does not do pretty with Jen.
Here comes the happy part of the story....you're so ready for it to aren't you? Me too! So here it is: Mike walks in the door with a small bouquet of yellow (my favorite) tulips. As he gives them to me he pulls me into a hug and tells me that even though it's raining, cold, dark and windy outside something beautiful can still exist here in our home, where it is warm and bright and full of love. Even when things seem impossible, miracles happen every day.
He is so right. Even when life seems impossible....miracles happen every day!