Who's on first?

So, it takes a lot of creativity and support to pickup our four children from their respective schools.

Here's how it works.

The girls, Sabrina, 8 and Veronica, 5 are at the same elementary school and need to be picked up first. Depending upon how they feel about the adult picking them up, the pick up can go smoothly and quickly or require a lot of waiting, patience and correction. The teachers know me and are helpful with the transition, but this can sometimes be a stressful moment in and of itself because I'm never sure what type of greeting I'll get. It matters to me and can have an affect on the rest of our evening, so I try to pray and have no expectations when I arrive.

Then, we're off to pick up Taylor, the oldest. He's in middle school. And whether he has track or not determines whether he's a part of the group pick up or not. He's gotten so much better at doing his part to make the pickup easier, by leaving his friends to wait across the street from all of the "afterschool action" so that we're not waiting on him. I have to prepare my heart and my mouth for these interactions...some days he's willing and ready to talk and share about all of the endeavors of his day. It's astonishing to me that he'll actually tell me about girls and school if I'll keep quiet and ask one or two open ended questions. My heart is beating the entire time because as much as he's a kid and I have plenty of great friends of my own, I want this kid to like me. So, I have to fight being cool (or tying to be) and just be...

Finally, we stop off at the Dregers who are holding onto Dylan. What a great deal! He gets to hang with one of his best buds at school, recess and then on the weeks that we are at 6, he gets to go home and continue the hang time with Trey & Cael. While Dylan is incredibly resilient and could likely have fun at anyone's house, it's the greatest setup ever as he's getting some time with people who've known him from the get go. I swing by to grab him and get to see my friends too.

With so many lives to account for, I can say that I am most days earnestly living the "Who's on first?" skit. Our lives with 6 can be confusing and is definitely (at times) funny. It is incredibly important for me to slow down and dissect a little bit of God's word to remember what's important, where we're headed and how to hopefully get there with Him as the leader. I take a couple of breaths to let that sink in and...

Then we're off! We're off to creating a family, establishing routines and creating our own traditions. It's not normal(whatever that is) how we get everyone from point A to point Q, but with communication and faithfulness we're blessed to have it work - most of the time. It's home for dinner, chores, homework, devotionals, midweeks, company, trips to the park or for times of conversation and discipline. Whatever it is, it's our family.

I believe that God has allowed many things to happen in my life that allow me to practice "letting go" and one of the biggest ways that I'm attempting to do that is to focus on our family and what it is really like, rather than trying to fit it into what it "should" be like. We will be experiencing and creating our family over a lifetime and in that time watching how God works things out. He blesses us when we pray about working on our schedules and the details required to get everyone where they need to be. For Taylor, it's track, the creative arts ministry, sometimes it's to a school dance/event. For Dylan, it's soccer, Cub Scouts, Trey's house, back to Madison to visit or just to friends' homes here as he builds new relationships. For both girls, we're working on introducing them into more of a social life in the next few months...perhaps dance or gymnastics for Sabrina and theatre or theatre for Veronica, but it's only going to add another level of "go, go, go" to our group.

Life is full though as we come together and allow God to show us the blessings through all of the transition. It doesn't always feel good or go smoothly, but I still really love it, even if I have no clue who's on first and sometimes where first really is.