When Daddy's Away

Thankfully, Rick does not travel very often. But when he does, something always goes wrong. I posted about Murphy's Law about a year ago. Murphy needs a new law stating something like this: when Daddy travels, something must go wrong.

On one of his last trips, I put a frozen dessert into the refrigerator and shut the door, only to hear the earth shattering. Upon opening the refrigerator, I found the shelf to be shattered into billions of pieces. And those billions of pieces shattered even further when they fell upon my tile floor. I spent the rest of the week steering the children away from the kitchen and picking shards of glass off the floor.

Really, I could go on and on about the different things that go wrong when Rick is gone. Instead, let's focus on this week's mishaps.

On Monday afternoon, the boys decided to pull out the backyard hose and water the trees, even though we just had an inch of rain and it was 45 degrees outside. Nevermind that I told them to not turn on the water. When I discovered this disobedience, each boy proceeded to point to another brother for the blame. They learn early, don't they?!

After dinner on Monday, we had to buy groceries, my favorite past time. We loaded up and took care of this task in record-breaking time. I patted myself on the back, as I pulled into the garage with a trunk load of food in an hour's time. But my pride was quickly dashed, when both of my potty-trained three year-olds wet their pants on their way to bed. Both of them! I got a little bit angry over this. Well, actually, I got a lot angry, and I had to apologize to each of them.

I'm sitting here racking my brain trying to remember what we did on Tuesday, but I flat out can't remember what occurred. But I assure you, Tuesday did exist.

On Wednesday, we needed to run some errands. One of those errands was to run by a new coffee shop, which is supposed to be the location for a mom's coffee that I'm hosting for fellow adoptive moms next Tuesday. The coffee shop is so new that the owner has now decided to not open the doors until Thursday. The invitations for my mom's fellowship...they say "Tuesday". Sheesh! I've since rearranged the event for a new location, in case you're sweating nails like I was.

On our way home from that escapade, one of my children decided to wet his pants. In the car. In his car seat. In a car seat that is the biggest pain to take apart for washing! I swear my children are potty trained, but they all decided to make this week just slightly more challenging for their mama by making her question her every parenting ability.

By Wednesday night, I knew that Liam's asthma was bothering him. I gave him a breathing treatment before bed and prayed that we would make it to morning without a run to the ER. At 11:30 pm, I got up to administer another round of Albuterol. But remember...Daddy is out of town. The breathing machine decided this would be a good time to overheat and flat out quit! An asthma attack in the middle of the night without a breathing machine is a mighty fine scare for a mama that is left behind as a single parent. I spent the next hour in some serious prayer that my baby boy would be able to breathe on his own until 8:30 am. Not that I wanted him to quit breathing at 8:30 am, but at least I could get my hands on a new machine by that time.

God answered my prayer, and Liam was able to rest pretty well through the night. I was able to get a new breathing machine Thursday morning as well.

But guess what happened Thursday afternoon? Another pants-wetting incident. By another nameless child. Yes, this would be the child that has been potty trained for 2 1/2 years, the same one who was trained in 2 days. Don't ask my how to potty train. Apparently, I can get them trained, but I can't keep them trained.

Today is Friday, the day Rick comes home. I had hoped that we would make it through the day without any mishaps, but after only an hour of wake time, Liam dropped my camera on the tile floor. The camera didn't come out on the up and up. I shouldn't have let him have the camera while I was busy and unable to supervise, so it's my fault. But I wonder if this would have even happened if Rick were already home?

Now, I must admit that this week was not a total mess. Here are some positive notes:

1. The wind damage to our roof was assessed at only $189.

2. Our tax return this year is, um, amazing. Thank you, Lord! First purchase: digital camera.

3. Did you read Garrett's prayer at lunch yesterday? And Liam's questions concerning heaven? Their hearts are taking in some good, thanks be to God.

4. As we were singing some songs last night, Liam requested "Jesus Loves the Little Children". As he sang it, he added every family member's name to each verse. For instance, "Jesus loves the little Jacksons, all the Jacksons of the world...." I want my boys to first love Jesus and then their family, so this rendition made my heart swell.

5. When introducing my boys to our new sponsor child through Compassion International, Jack offered to pray for Brian, a 13 year-old boy living in Uganda. "Dear Jesus, please keep Brian safe and happy. Thank you for his family in Afwica."

Well, thank you for sitting through my week's summary. As you can see, our world isn't all rosy, but it's life.

Mr. Murphy, wherever you are, could you please make it official and add a new law that states: Hey, world, whenever the daddy travels, wreak havoc on the CupRunnethOver family.

Thanks.