Divine Timing

A few days ago, we were at Walmart looking around for birthday gifts for Brice and at the same time keeping an eye out for little things for the kids' Easter baskets. We came across these little car-seat toys called "Mommy & Me Soft Driver". It's a cloth steering wheel that a toddler can play with and comes with a little remote control that the mom and press to play a message that you pre-record for your baby. Anyhow, I'd seen them before and had wanted to pick up a couple for the twins but never had. I was thinking that they'd make cute gifts in their Easter baskets. I mean really...it's not like they need a bunch of candy...we all know who'd eat it! I was thrilled to discover these toys were marked as clearance...they were marked all the way down to $3.00 each (the original price was around $15.00 I think). I was so excited, that I grabbed one for each twin and Sydney. Then Albert suggested we grab a few more for our sisters' that had babies so we grabbed one for our neice Tatum and Albert's new nephew Kenton. We also then grabbed one for our neighbors who have toddlers/babies. Then I mentioned that at this price we should get a few for the "Big Shelf" at clinic. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Pediatric Cancer and Hematology Center where Brandon attends clinic...they have this big closet called "The Big Shelf" and The Big Shelf is stocked with toys and games. When a sick child has had a particularly rough day or has been brave throughout a treatment or proceedure or just if its been a while since they've visited the shelf...they are allowed to pick a toy to take home from The Big Shelf. Also, their siblings are sometimes allowed to pick a toy as well. For the last three years, we've gotten quite a few things from The Big Shelf and we thought it'd be a nice thing to maybe give back a little bit. We thought instead of always receiving, it would be nice to put things in the closet for once. I suggested it to Albert and he thought it was a great idea. In fact, he thought it was such a great idea that he proceeded to go get another cart and then buy every single one of those toys that Walmart had left. Seriously, we had like 30 of them at least. I kept three for us, two for our niece and nephew and a couple for our neighbors and then this afternoon (school was cancelled for St. Louis City...Albert's district YEA) we drove up to clinic to drop them off.
Here is the good part of the story (yes, I'm very long-winded) As I rounded the cornor to the nurses' station to deliver the toys, I saw two other moms that I'd never seen before at clinic and they were asking to see Dr. Bob regarding an article concerning Aplastic Anemia. Most of you know that Aplastic is exceedingly rare so I was a bit stunned. Being that I have a large mouth and often speak before thinking I blurted out.."Who has Aplastic?" One of the moms looked at me and said "Both of our children do." You can imagine my suprise! This was really incredible timing. I just happened to walk up on the conversation. One of the moms was so new that her daughter was just starting the treatment....they had just been diagnosed and none of the girls' siblings had matched. I was so happy to be able to tell her how well Brandon was doing after the same treatment her daughter had had and the hope on her face when I told how high Brandon's counts were made me feel incredible. The other mom, had a son who was in the first few months of thier journey as well. I felt so lucky to meet these moms and was able to get their website info so that hopefully we can stay connected and share information. I really think God led me to clinic today at just the right time! Yea!
I also had the pleasure of a nice lunch with my husband since our kids' school district was in session and Albert's was not! Yea again! I say that lunch was pleasurable...but only in a relative sense. Alexandria was still displaying her most diva-ish behavior, arching her back and whining when she didn't get her way. Albert tried to console her by giving her an empty french fry carton to hold but she angrily squashed it and threw it down and then gave him "The Look" I tell you, she had the mean temper of me and all three of my sisters combined! Isaiah also tried to console her by reaching over and rubbing her arm and was rewarded with a big smack quickly followed by another and another. Albert scooted Isaiah's highchair away from Alexandria's saying "It's okay Saiah...come here before she hurts you." That girl is mean. Very mean.
Tonight was Emanuel's basketball banquet at pizza hut. I took him and at the last minute, Brandon and Jackson decided to tag along. It was nice to spend a little time with just those three. Drew stayed home with Albert to help and as a reward he and Albert are going to do something special either this weekend or next week. Probably that movie 1000 BC or something they've been wanting to watch. This weekend we have Jackson and Brice's joint birthday party comming up. We have made a family decision to scale down birthday parties this year in the commercial sense...but amp them up in the spiritual, creative, and family oriented sense. I'll post more on this when I post about the party. Gotta run....Albert and I are challenging each other to see if I can limit my computer time and he can limit his Wii time in favor of some time together...