Yes We Did

Grace and I went to Costco today. I was wearing my latest Barack Obama t-shirt. (It pretty much just says, "Yes We Did.") Right as we walked in, a rather large man walked up to us and asked, in a serious voice, "What did we do?"

I couldn't read him, at all. After a year of campaigning, volunteering, calling, block walking, etc., I've seen and heard just about everything. But, I wasn't sure how things would go with little Grace sitting there in the cart.

So, I responded as politely and respectfully as possible, "We elected Barack Obama to be the next President of the Untied States of America."

He stood there for a moment, made his hands into fists, then thrust them both high into the air and yelled, "Barack Obama!!!" Grace giggled. I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. Then he gave me a huge hug and asked me to pray for President-elect Obama.

He's not the first random person that's hugged me in response to one of my t-shirts.

With all of the holiday hustle and bustle, I haven't had much time to get too excited about this, but Susan and I are going to inauguration!!!!! Yes, the inaguaration in Washington D.C. In just a few short days (22 to be exact), we will be standing here:

A Christmas Story

I had my blog ready to post today. A simple bible verse. The true Christmas Story:

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" Luke 2:8-14

Appropriate and beautiful. The perfect Christmas message. A Christmas Miracle.

Then, this happened:

To understand this story you have to understand my mom. She's a regular person who works full time as a nurse and LOVES to spend her hard-earned money on her grandkids. This year, she was thrilled, to say the least, about something she'd found for Logan:

I'm not very familiar with what's cool in the toy world, but this is apparently what seven-year-old Logan had been drooling over for quite some time now. In her usual over-eager fashion, my mom ordered the car for Logan, told Logan all about it, then informed his mother (my sister, Mindy) about her purchase.

Mindy was none too excited about a gift that cost several hundred dollars and would jet Logan down the road at 10 miles per hour, but Logan was already in love with the little car, so Mindy was basically powerless over the situation. And in her heart, she knew that Logan would be thrilled by the car.

For weeks now, Logan has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of his red mini racer. Every time I see him, he explains a new aspect of the car in vivid detail. "Aunt Erica, it goes up to ten miles per hour and someone up to 150 pounds could ride on it!! That means even you could fit on it!"

Amazon.com had given mom an estimated arrival date somewhere between December 17th and December 22nd. Mom waited and waited. The car never came. Finally, on Christmas Eve, my not-so-online savvy mom contacted the company she'd ordered the car from.

Several frantic phone calls and emails later the truth was brutally obvious to all of us.

The car had been stolen from my mom's front porch.

It had shipped on December 10th and had been delivered to my mom's front porch on December 13th. There had been no signature required on the delivery. To make matters worse, everyone involved had curtly dismissed my mother's worried questions. The company who sold her the car had fulfilled their obligations by shipping the car via FedEx. FedEx had fulfilled their obligations by delivering the car to my mom's address. No one was responsible for what happened to the car after it was delivered.

I am not exaggerating when I say that we were all absolutely heartbroken at the thought of Logan's car being stolen and felt powerless to change the situation. Susan and I were armed with all of my mom's email correspondence, tracking numbers, credit card info, etc. On the 26th, we were ready to go to battle trying to get someone to help us replace the car. We knew it was a long shot, but we were willing to call anyone and everyone involved until we found someone willing to help. My dad and I found the same car on ebay and were ready to buy a replacement if all other efforts failed. I told Mindy to tell Logan that the car was just taking longer than we expected to get here. I couldn't bear the thought of Logan knowing that his car had been stolen.

In the midst of my frustration and sadness, I tried to console myself with the thought that maybe there was someone out there who needed the car more than Logan did. It didn't help. I just couldn't wrap by brain around the fact that there was someone out there willing to steal a little boy's Christmas treasure. Naive. I know.

Last night, I prayed for God's help. Help finding Logan a new car. Help with straightening out the mess that my mom's order had become. Help with protecting a new car from being stolen again. Help with softening the heart of the person who had taken the car.

This morning, my mom found the box on her doorstep, no shipping label or packing info, no address of any kind, still factory sealed, intact in every way.

One perfect red mini racer inside.

There were no angels singing, but it was a Christmas miracle, nonetheless.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you health, happiness, and hope. Now and always.

Love - Ray, Erica, Grace and Carter

Grace spent the night with Aunt Mindy tonight. Ray and I have gone away on long weekends, or short trips in the past, but this is the first time that we've been home while Grace is away. We are in complete agreement that life with Grace is much better than life without her. Carter is lonely, too : )

Close Encounters with the Rat King

Today, Mindy, Mom, Ellie, Grace and I celebrated the first day of winter with our first-ever trip to see The Nutcracker Ballet. Mindy and I knew we were taking a bit of a risk taking 2 four-year-olds to the ballet, so we kept our expectations extremely low. We purchased Sunday afternoon tickets and made sure we were on the very back row of the auditorium. That way, an escape would cause as little disruption as possible.

The girls behaved beautifully and enjoyed the ballet. Grace's only complaint was towards the beginning of the show. The story of The Nutcracker begins in Clara's home. Her parents are throwing a Christmas party. Clara receives the nutcracker as a gift at the party, so it's kind of a set up for the entire ballet. The party goers are sort of dancing around, but they are in party clothes, and they don't look like ballerinas at all.

We've been reading the story to Grace every night before bed for a while now, so I thought she'd be prepared for how the ballet would unfold. But, about ten minutes into the opening scene, Grace turned to me and said, "These people have been on the stage for weeks now." Then, she held up the program, which had a picture of a ballerina dressed in a beautiful, glittery snow queen costume and said, "I'm ready for them to leave and this lady to start dancing. Right Now."

Soon enough, we were all mesmerized by the Snow Queen, the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Rat King. The dancers were stunning and the music was magnificent. I have to admit, I have always loved The Nutcracker. Sharing the experience with my daughter and niece was something I will never forget.

After the ballet, we braved the weather and headed for the parking garage. Once we were buckled in, Grace spotted what she thought was a rat, but then decided it was a leaf. We all turned to look just as it scampered across our path. It was a rat. A huge rat. The girls and I decided it was the rat king, hiding in the shadows after the show. They immediately began squealing with delight and terror.

The ballet was amazing. But the Rat King sighting may have been the highlight of our afternoon.

Christmas Stuff

Lights in downtown Taylor.

Carter's ornament from school.

Grace's letter to Santa.

This year, the kids and I decorated an outside tree. It's at the end of our street and it brings our hearts great joy every time we drive by it.

Phase Two: The Magic Button

Donating made simple. Just click to donate via your PayPal account or with a credit card. No amount is to small. The important thing is that it comes from your heart.

I guess it was right before Thanksgiving. Mindy told me about the previous Sunday at church. The sermon was about giving. The message; these tough economic times create and even greater need for charitable giving. We have to find a way to dig deeper and give to those so desperately in need.

After the sermon, the offering plate was passed around, as usual. After the offering was collected, an envelope was given to every member of the congregation. Everyone in the huge church, even Mindy's seven-year-old son was given an envelope.

Inside: Cash.

Everyone who came to one of the 3 services was given between $5 and $300. Their instructions were to give the money to someone in need.

I was intrigued by the idea. Mindy goes to a huge church. I'm sure that on any given Sunday several thousand people attend one of three services. The church was giving away a lot of money. All they wanted in return was for their members to share with them what they did with the gift.

Inspired and excited, I urged Mindy to something BIG with the $30 she, Stuart and Logan had collected. But what? What can you do with $30? How far can you make it go?

Raise more, I said. Have a fundraiser. Collect money from your friends, family, coworkers. Charge a cover for Thanksgiving dinner.

I had a lot of half-baked ideas, but no real inspiration. Mindy and I wound up adding our own money to the church money and using it to sponsor a child on an angel tree. We wound up sponsoring two angel tree kids because there was one lonely ornament left on an angel tree at Grace and Carter's preschool. I'm sure these children will be thrilled with their trains and bike, but somehow, I knew something was missing.

Inspiration hadn't found me. Yet.

Tonight, it did. Maybe inspiration is not the right word. Maybe it's a tap on the shoulder. A whisper. A calling. Maybe it's God telling me specifically what He wants me to do. Maybe I'm delusional.

It doesn't matter what you call it. This is the thing that found me tonight:



I've heard of this before. I remember reading about it. I also remember reading about the what the critics had to say. And, yes, I know that there are starving children right here in Austin. I know there are many reasons why I should not do this or why I should do something else, but dwelling on those would be pointless.

This is the thing that found me.

And this is what I'm going to do.

First, watch this. Then, I will explain my somewhat baked plan.



OK. So now, here's my plan.

First, I started out with a plan to buy one of these $199 computers. Yes, it's Christmas. Yes, these are tough times. And, yes, Ray, I know, we are not made of money. But come on, it's two hundred bucks. We've spent that much on a steak dinner in the very recent past.

But then, I got to thinking. What if I could buy two computers, or three, or enough for an entire village?

That's where you come in.

If you are reading this, you have a computer. Wouldn't it be wonderful if your tiny contribution connected with other tiny contributions and resulted in a child experiencing the wonder of the Internet for the first time?

We have the power to create meaningful and lasting change in the lives of children everywhere. We do.

Seriously. If I called you right now and said, "Hey, I'm stuck at home with the kids and I really need a Diet Coke." You'd get in your car, drive through, and bring me a Diet Coke. You'd pay $1.37, and you wouldn't even think twice about it.

Same thing.

So call me, email me, leave a comment. Let me know what you think.

Love,
erica

p.s. This is only phase one of my plan...

The Slumber Party

Last night, Ellie came home from dance class with us. The girls thought it would be fun to have a slumber party and spend their Tuesday together.

They laughed their way through dinner, had some hot chocolate, the giggled in Grace's bed until about 10:30.

This morning, there was a little crankiness from the late bedtime, but by lunchtime things had evened out nicely and everyone was happy.

Grace and Ellie were playing in Grace's room and Carter was busy driving his trains around on the coffee table. I was cleaning up the lunch dishes and getting ready for our "painting party." The girls were excited about spending the afternoon painting Christmas pictures.

I could hear their sweet voices drifting downstairs. Grace and Ellie were happy and chatting up a storm. As I piled the Barbie dolls back into the toy box, I noticed Grace and Ellie had been giving the Barbies haircuts. There was soft, blonde hair all over the place.

I decided to go check on the little darlings, and this is what I found:

It took a moment for my mind to register the pile of hair atop the paper towel. Grace has been known to scalp a Barbie or two from time to time but no doll in Grace's collection had that much hair. All of the dolls combined would not have had that much hair.

The hair was Ellie's.

My mind flashed to the Barbie hair downstairs. That was not Barbie hair, it was Grace's.

Immediately, the arteries pumping blood to and from my heart froze. As the pressure built in my chest, I mustered the courage to peer at the girls. I must have had a horrible look on my face because Grade shrieked, "Mommy, please don't hurt me," as I moved toward her.

My mind was racing. I could vividly recall a conversation I'd had with Mindy years earlier. She'd called, hysterical because Logan had given Ellie a haircut which resulted in bangs. As I surveyed the damage the girls had done to each other's hair, one thing was glaringly obvious: This was way worse than bangs. I knew that Mindy wouldn't be mad at me (no one could have ever imagined that they'd be doing this to each other), but I worried that she would be heartbroken at the loss of Ellie's hair. Ellie, you see, has a beautiful head of silky, smooth, full, supermodel hair.

Unable to process everything that was happening, I quietly advised Grace to stay in her room and directed Ellie to the spare bedroom. I went downstairs to try to restart the blood flow to my heart. I felt like a large man was bearing down on my chest with a pair of vice grips.

After a few deep breaths and a panicked call to Lisa, I brought the girls downstairs and we went ahead with our painting party. After all, I didn't want the girls to get too worried about the state of their hair. I silently examined their heads and prayed Mindy could even things out when she came to pick Ellie up. While the girls painted, I asked them if they were sad that they'd cut all of their pretty hair off. "Nope, my hair never stops growing," Ellie replied. I was relieved that at least we weren't going to have to deal with two little girls who were devastated by their suddenly short locks. Still, I worried about little Grace's hair. It seemed to be much more choppy than Ellie's. And, unlike Ellie, Grace has a head of wispy, thin, baby fine hair. She needs all the help she can get in the full and thick department.

Mindy was completely shocked by Ellie's Grace-inflicted bob. I had done my best to prepare her on the phone, but visually, the girls were quite stunning.

I'm happy to say that Mindy, truly the artist, did a splendid job smoothing out the girls' hack jobs and they both look cute with their new pixie bobs : )

I, however, am still waiting for my arterial flow to return to normal.

"My Family" by Grace

I found it in her Friday Folder and was amazed.

Ahhh, The Difference A Year Can Make

Last year's Christmas tree "adventure"....

This years....

Last Week In Pictures

The Dinosaur exhibit at the Botanical Gardens: Carter was disappointed that there were no bones. Grace loved the giant goldfish : )

Carter's first movie: Wall-e at the $1 theater. That way when you have to bail an hour into the movie, you haven't wasted too much money. Grace and Carter really liked the movie, but we didn't make it thorough the whole thing.

Thanksgiving Day: Ray made bacon-wrapped chicken, sausage and cheese balls. We were calling them "love balls" but then decided that just didn't sound right. I think we finally settled on "balls of death."

The kids actually sat at a "kids table" and only needed minimal supervision from Papa.

Aunt Susan burned all of her extra Turkey Day calories on the tramp.

At some point, we painted the kids hair orange. Not sure why.