Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Mystery Christmas Angel

I will preface this little story with a little recap of my day up to this point. Matt, Levi and I all got sick over the holiday weekend and decided to stay home from church on Sunday and watch our service on live stream. As I listened to the service I was struck by how I was being reminded that I am ultimately not the one in control of my life. I can say this MUCH more easily than I live it. I am a planner, I make lists, I check things off and then I make new lists. I have a today plan, a tomorrow plan and a 5 year plan. It really is a little bit ridiculous!! I took some time in the morning to reflect and think about how to make life changes so to speak to show God that I know he is in control of my life.

Not 6 hours later Matt and I are rushing through Walmart trying to get a little artificial Christmas tree and I revert back to listing off what we needed to when we got home and "being the boss" all over again. Levi was throwing quite a fit the whole time we were at Walmart because he had to have this giant candy cane we passed at the beginning of the store. Matt and I were a little bit distracted because of his screaming, etc. Matt told me he would pay and I should just take Levi out to the car.

After everything was in the car we drove home and I continued to think about everything I "needed" to do before the Monday morning came. We pulled in the driveway and went through our routine of Matt emptying the car and me getting Levi unbuckled and grabbing the diaper bag. Well...to my surprise there was no diaper bag.

My blood pressure immediately sky rocketted. I use the diaper bag like it's my purse. It had my car and house keys, my wallet, and obviously all of Levi's stuff for when we are on the go. Matt and I started rushing around calling and putting a hold on our credit cards and trying to figure out what to do.

Matt went back to Walmart to check the parking lot, the carts, and then scouring the aisles to find our "thief". Even though I was rushing around panicking somehow God's calm and quiet presence asked me "Do you think I am big enough to fix this? Do you believe that I am the God of your life? The big things? The little things?" My initial response was to push those thoughts out and say this isn't something God would really care about. It's not life or death. And then I stopped myself and just fell on my knees in our living room. I said God, I can see this is your wake up call to me. A little diaper bag can completely stop me in my tracks. I need you. Our family needs your protection and hand over us.

Now you hear these stories and think, oh that's cute but I am sure it didn't really happen that way. I can assure you it did for me. As I was still on my knees, my doorbell rang. I peeked out and saw a man holding my diaper bag. I was a little nervous thinking about what he was doing at my door but I called Matt quickly and just held onto my phone as I answered the door.

My Christmas Angel stood at the door speaking very broken English. He said "Are you Alexandra Dehong? I said yes and you brought my diaper bag to me. Thank you so much. He responded with these simple words "God bless you." Then he just turned and walked away. I wish I could repay him in some way. Not so much for the "things" in my bag but the undeniable gift from God he gave me. I am sitting in a new light today. I am reminded of the awesome power and grace my God has over my life.

Thank you God for sending my my mystery Christmas angel.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Teacher in Me

First I would like to welcome myself back to the blogging world. It sure has been a while. Life was and is busy but I want to get back into blogging again. I always enjoy reading everyone else's story so I figure I should write again for anyone that is interested in my life :)

The past few months have had many life changes. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with Levi by opening my home up as a daycare back in January. It has been such a wonderful experience to be with Levi and the other babies in my home and I love it!

I am starting to find ways to bring let the teacher out again. Each month I am starting to pick a theme. This month is family. We made family photo albums and have been practicting everyone's names. Today we finger painted a giant tree that will hang in the playroom for our "daycare family tree". This weekend we will have a daycare family bbq and I hope to take pictures of everyone's family to hang on our tree.

Last month our theme was animals. The babies were all exposed to many animal words and the sounds they make. The youngest baby is 8 months old and the oldest is just about 20 months. (Levi is second oldest at 17 months) So they are young and I always feel quite accomplished after getting an art project accomplished...it's a BIG moment for me everytime :) It's funny because I recently went to a workshop where I was told at this age art is "all about the process, not the product!) but I usually have one they can go wild on and then we have our "teacher led" version to hang or go home!

It's been so much more of a challenge than I thought it would be to go from teaching to home. I have to remind myself in the moments of scrambling to get lunch ready, feed them all, and clean it up that I am still a teacher. I teach them about life and even though I don't have state standards to measure up to anymore, I hope the standards I set for myself and the kids are still "measuring up".