It’s time for some Little Happies again!
This week is NOT brought to you by basketball…as my March Madness bracket went from good to abysmal with all the upsets! Fun and painful to watch.
To be quite honest, I am glad I am committed to these Little Happies now, as this past week was rough. I found out that yet again, I did not ovulate. Mentally thinking about the fact that this was failure cycle #28 of trying to conceive was also incredibly tough…that’s starting to sound like a lot, right? Then I broke out in fevers, coughs, chills, and congestion for three days. Thank goodness for modern cold & flu meds and youtube/netflix/kleenex.
Really needed these Little Happies to ward off the melancholic within after all those chances to self-pity! Without further ado, here are some small things going on in our world that made me happy this past week:
–one–
The Annunciation!
Let’s be honest, not only do I love this feast day, but I really LOVE that we get the day off work! And this was before I got sick, so I actually enjoyed the day off.
–two–
Divergent!!!
I read the trilogy in one week flat a few months ago. The movie, although there were some plot changes, did a great job capturing overall the Divergent world. I was very happy we went!
Also – we got the tickets in advance from Costso – saving us over $5 off had we bought them at the theater. Another happy in itself.
–three–
We basically forgot to go on date’s this month. Bummer. But the great part? We had a month’s worth of date night money sitting in the budget waiting to be taken advantage of! YEA!
So we went to Hibachi Grill!
It’s one of those fun places that thrills and grills right in from of your table! That whole giant flame thing never gets old. Or the onion choo-choo train.
What made this an extra -special happy was the fact that they were SUPER gluten-free conscious. If you didn’t know, soy sauce’s second ingredient is wheat. Crazy, right? Well, they made sure we had the gluten-free sauce and even cooked some of the group’s meals with that sauce so we could all enjoy the food but it wouldn’t contaminate me. We thanked the server profusely, as this is truly rare…especially since they didn’t charge me extra. He then said that to buy 5 gallons of gluten-free soy sauce, it cost them $180 but to buy the regular 5 gallon soy sauce, it cost $40. The fact they don’t put that extra cost on the customer made me so grateful.
–four–
Stephanie, we stole your idea and your photo.
We finished our adoption application in disguise as a coffee-date! This is obviously not the hard part. Not even close. But we’ve got it done! All we have to do is print and mail it off to the agency! God-willing they think we are good applicants, we will begin the homestudy process. This is getting real, folks.
–five–
Since we are big kids and on our own, we decided to eat what we felt like for dinner – beer and wings. Not a single vegetable or fruit. We had caramel ice cream for desert. Sunday’s are the best!
–six–
This reading from Sunday’s gospel:
“His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.” John 9:1-2
Many times I get twisted up in my brain thinking about what I did wrong to make God so mad he would punish me with infertility. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I know. But it’s a real temptation.
This verse hit me like a brick today.
At first I thought, if I am the blind guy, I am ticked. All this blindness so you could teach everyone a lesson? So you could do a demonstration and prove a point? Sucks to be me!
But then I thought that the blindness (and our own sufferings) are not caused by God. They are a result of a fallen world. Jesus came to redeem them. God’s works can be made visible in my life precisely because a part of me is broken. Understanding it from that angle made infertility feel like a privilege. (never have I ever said that…and I may never again) 😉
Sexually active, non-contracepting women with healthy fertility have…children – which are absolutely a work of God. But conception for someone with no big issues is the natural result of God’s grace working in union with man/woman’s nature. It’s the norm. It wouldn’t leave people confused or rioting, like Jesus’ cure of the blindman – something contrary to nature.
However our story unfolds, whether through adoption or biological children, foster care or something else…our lives are available for the works of God to be made visible. I hope the story is so good it leaves even us, maybe the world, confused and in shock/awe. I can’t say how it will shake out but I do know Jesus has a spot in his heart for those whose bodies are broken. I pray we can just stay open to his grace so he can work in our lives however and whenever he wishes.