Halloween -- The Church Party

(Jordyn Gottlieb as "Sharpay" from High School Musical, 10/25/08)


To begin with, a thought that came to me last night as I was trying to fall asleep:

Whenever your "best laid" plans get all messed up and your day ends up looking nothing like the one you had envisioned, try thinking of yourself, perhaps, as the answer to someone else's prayer.

Taking my precious Jordyn (my imaginary grandchild) to the childrens' Halloween party at our church last night was, indeed, part of my Saturday "agenda." The rest of the list looked something like this: Clean bathrooms, dust and vacuum main floor rooms, do two loads of laundry, organize desk, iron...

The only thing checked off of that list is Take Jordyn to Halloween Party. The revised list reads: Have Jordyn dropped off mid-afternoon (Mom flying out of town unexpectedly; have Jordyn spend the night after party; drop Jordyn off at friend's house after church tomorrow. (Each one of those entries now has a tick in the "done" box.)

As usual, when asked to do a favor for someone (in this case, Jordyn's mom), I said yes -- but not without inwardly griping, "Oh great -- now I won't be able to get anything done!" Hello -- We're talking about housework! We're talking about replacing housework with my favorite little girl in the whole world -- my secret "inner child!" What was I thinking?!!

Just look at this face:

(The "real" Jordyn, Lake Shannon, August 2008, by Karen Branson)

Whose plan would you rather follow? Yeah, me, too. Thank you, Gina, for asking me to help out. Thank you, God, for using me.

Oh -- there was one other item on both lists -- Get together with Dawn (Greg's sister) and Mik for dinner and cards (or something.) That one also got checked off. Plus, Dawn got her chance to be Sharpay...

(Dawn as "Sharpay," 10/25/08, by Greg Fischer)

Afterword: All of my Jordyn-Time this weekend was nothing short of delightful, and reminded me of how blessed we are to have her as part of our lives! She was on her very best behavior, no matter what we were doing. She made me proud and happy everywhere we went, right up through Mass this morning. And twice, when people thought (or pretended to think) I was her mom, well, I just counted that as part of my reward. (Oh -- a big thanks to you very nice folks, too!)

After-afterword: Of course we consider Dawn a really special blessing, too!