Saturday April 21st, Who's in Control?

Wow!  It's almost like we're normal again for a couple days with no hospital appointments to make.  We're all recovering from lack of sleep and enjoying having a little time together and with friends at the house and around town.  It seems like we can't go anywhere without bumping into folks that we know or that have heard about Ingram.  It's great....especially for me! 

You see my mom still calls me "the drill sergeant" because I had my kids on such a tight schedule when they were babies and toddlers.  I wanted to get them on a schedule regardless of what was going on so that they would all be happy.  All that to say, I don't think I'm the drill sergeant anymore.  The only real schedule I have is hopefully getting Ingram to take a nap, when I'm able, and hopefully getting my girls in bed before 10pm on any given night, including school nights!!  What might have taken 30 minutes before now takes a couple hours to do, especially when we're out and about. 

Here's a perfect example...today we had soccer as usual and then needed to run into Target for a couple things and an hour and a half later, we were checking out.  We got 10 feet inside the door and ran into friends and spent 30 minutes talking with them.  Then we were going down the main aisle by the registers and ran into one of the girls friends from soccer and talked with them.  It turns out, the mother knows one of our doctors and then we found out we live near each other as well.  I've given up trying to be efficient when we're trying to do things and now really enjoy talking to friends and strangers alike. 

There are many things I'm learning and God is at the core of all of them.  Right now, He's choosing to impress upon me all things control.  He's teaching me about giving up doing what I want to do and doing what He wants me to do instead.  Sometimes being in such a hurry turns me into a grouch, especially when the kids want to touch everything they see at the store.  Then I'm like, no, put that down, get back in the buggy, and who knows what else I'm saying to my gifts from God.  Now we're slowing down and enjoying talking to friends and strangers alike because that's who God put in our path.  Jeremiah 29:11 says "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope;" and even though we have no idea why God is taking us down this path with Ingram, we know He already has it all planned out because He is the one in control, not me.  Sometimes, it's our friends who need to talk to us so that they feel better about the situation and other times it's one of us who needs to talk to a friend.  God uses even simple things like running to Target to show us even more how He orchestrates our lives together and puts people in our paths to show us His love.

Forget the Schedule; We're Still Playing at 9:30pm Tonight!