God Answers Even Little Prayers

Luke absolutely loves his preschool class. He loves his teachers. He loves his friends. He loves everything about it. Of course, his favorite part of preschool, though, are the parties. Now, I use the term "parties" loosely, because as my friend Pamela once told me, they are most structured parties she's ever attended. The teachers set up several stations that are manned by parent volunteers and the kids rotate between them doing little activities.

After the last party (Valentines Day), Luke subtly mentioned that it sure would be nice if one of his parents could come to his party. I promised that I would try, but explained that with Ben and Olivia, I have a hard time finding time to even get dressed in the morning, so getting to a party is what his Daddy would call a "stretch-goal." He completely forgot about it (as did I) until last night.

"Mom, are you coming to my party?"

"No, baby. I have to stay here with Ben and Olivia."

"Is Daddy coming to my party?"

"No, he has to work."

"Oh . . . "

He was so sweet about it. I could see the disappointment in his eyes, but he didn't say a word. I felt terrible.

I spent this morning trying to figure out how I could get to this party at the last minute. My parents are awesome at helping out with the boys, but they both had commitments this morning. I have lots of friends who are great about babysitting too, but I couldn't figure out a schedule to make it work, especially since Olivia was going to need to eat 15 minutes before the party started and they all live 15-20 minutes away. Aaron assured me that Luke would have to learn to understand that this is part of having siblings and that Luke wouldn't require counseling (at least for this) later on down the road, so I said a quick prayer asking for some way to get me to the party.

Not even 10 minutes later, my grandma called and asked if she could come over to get a "kid fix." I fed Olivia and we were out the door (Benjamin was very happy to have his Grannie Bop to himself).

Luke wasn't quite sure what to do when we walked into his class. He kissed and hugged both Olivia and me at least 10 times and I could see how proud he was to have us there. On the way home he said, "Mom, thank you, thank you, thank you for coming to my party."

Sometimes it is easy to forget how the little things are the big things to your kids. . . .