Perspective

Yesterday the bank Trey works for went under - as in the FDIC came in to take over. He worked from 8:00 Friday morning until 1:30 Saturday morning, then from 7:30 Saturday morning until 6:00 Saturday night. He's going back in tomorrow at 8 a.m. He is exhausted, but such an amazing trooper. Never have I known anyone so committed to getting done what needs to be done even at his own expense.

The bank has been purchased and will be open bright and early Monday morning, so he still has a job. We don't know if things will stay that way, so please pray for God's direction in this uncertain time for him and our family.

In the midst of all this, I realize yet again that when life gets messy everyone I know wants to help. My friends and family want to do something - anything - for us. Unfortunately, the FDIC really doesn't want us up there at the bank lending moral support. (I can't imagine why not - we're very fun people!) So folks have other ways to support us.

I called my mom a million times, and she didn't even seem to care that I kept bugging her.

I called my friend and went from perfectly fine to crying in less than a second, and she didn't question my mental stability once. The drink she bought me at the Chicken on a beautiful Friday afternoon helped, too. ;)

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law just showed up to pick up the boys and take them to lunch. Trey's parents took the boys to the Aggie game. They did this both so the boys wouldn't miss out on the game and so that I could get some much needed grading done.

My sister called to check in.

Everywhere we look we see people who mobilize. That's what God's people do. They move. We are so very blessed to surrounded by people who - without even thinking about it - get up and do something.

Then my bizarre perspective on life in general kicked in. If you know me at all, you know it was only a matter of time. I had this epiphany that since I found out about the bank failure I felt like someone died. It seemed like at any moment old ladies would start showing up at my door with pie and the sympathy cards would start pouring in.

I was forced to laugh at the ridiculous seriousness of the whole situation. We're all here. We're all fine. No one is dying, or even sick (although Trey's really tired). I honestly don't mean to make light of the situation. It's pretty scary and I know it's even more stressful for Trey than I can imagine, but the reality is that - job or no job - life is still pretty darn good.

I've never known God to leave us high and dry, and I'd be a fool to think he will this time. We'll be fine. Better than fine, actually, because we'll have one more testament to God's divine omnipotence and intervention.

So, with that, two random kid things:

Kid Thing #1: When Keaton and I stopped to pick up Tucker on Thursday, Keaton stepped out of the car and exclaimed, "Oh, Mommy! It's a corn. Do you see it? It's a corn. I found a corn!" He was excited - not the screaming kind of excited, but the "in awe" kind of excited. It wasn't until he asked me to pick him up so he could get the corn out of the tree that I realized "a corn" meant "acorn."

Kid Thing #2: Tucker brought home a paper from the library on Monday. It explained a contest between all of the elementary schools. Students who read 250 pages will get two free tickets to an Aggie basketball game, and the school with the most readers will have an Aggie basketball player come to their school to read with them. They have until early December to finish.

Tucker loves contests. More specifically he loves to win contests. So much so that my five year old read 251 pages in five nights, including I Love Trains, Lasso Moon, The Night Before Christmas, and (my favorite) The Poky Little Puppy. He read them out loud to me all by himself. I sure hope his school wins!