“HR wasn’t anything I was looking to get into, and I definitely wasn’t looking at manufacturing for a job. But every job that would have been perfect for me, that I could bring a lot of skills and knowledge to the job, or that would help in my continuing education? None of them worked out.
Instead, God brought me into a factory.”
Read more…
“November of 2018 was my daughter’s eleventh birthday and we had just lost her Grandmother a few weeks prior. Her Grandma was Mrs. Claus reincarnated, and the two of them bonded over shopping, fashion and decorating. Christmas and birthdays always brought her awesome surprises from Grandma.”
Read more. . .
“I can’t pretend to know what the answers for moving forward are. But a door has opened wide for all of us. It is time for us to take a good hard look at ourselves and take a step through that door. A door to a place where we truly live the words that we have been taught. The teachings that God loves everyone. That there is no difference in his love for anyone based on their skin color or anything else. He just loves us all because we are his children, and treats us all equally. And so should we.”
Read more. . .
“Last week I was in Walmart with my son. As we waited in line to check out I was noticing the amount of people wearing facial masks and thinking, ”I really miss seeing people’s smiles, I can’t tell if how they are feeling with their face under a mask.”
And then it hit me.
This is how my son has viewed the world.”
Read more. . .
So let’s check in. Where are you today?
Are you struggling to function and eating cupcakes and cinnamon bears for breakfast? (True story!) Step back and realize, IT’S OKAY!!! You can feel grumpy and sad and full of rage.
Read more. . .
“Somewhere living in New York there is a Jewish woman who is the best example of ministering to others I have ever known. I’ve never met her yet she ministers to me daily. She is my model of how I should be serving others.”
Read more. . .
“In the middle of your grief or theirs it can look to you like someone isn’t grieving enough, or someone is too involved with grief.
But this is the time to take a step back.”
Read more. . .
“Some days we can rejoice at the step forward our child has made. And we do. But some days we have to give ourselves grace, realizing that what we are doing is HARD. And right now, I just want to avoid anymore hard. I need hard not to exist for a while. And I think that is where the ignoring, the procrastination, the indifference to it all is coming from. I’m human. This is my life. And it’s hard.” Read more. . .
“I watched people walk by the door of the classroom through the window. I remembered the times I had sat in front of a TV thanking God my kids weren’t old enough to go to College after watching the reporting of a mass shooting at one.” Read more. . .
We spent the entire month of August (and more) living in hotels as we waited to find and close on our home. I could give you a run down of where to stay and where not to stay in traveling across the U.S. and in the Memphis area. But that isn’t what this post is about.
The last hotel we ended up in for several weeks was Home 2 Suites by Hilton in Olive Branch Mississippi. Living in a hotel for weeks on end is hard in any circumstances. Add to it that you have 4 people and 2 dogs living in the same small room, and one of them has special needs. . . It has been an experience. My kids no longer think it would be fun to live in a hotel.
Through our house buying process we had several hiccups that were unusual and frustrating.
And then came breakfast time at the hotel. Often, I would have the kids eat breakfast, take them to school and come back and have my own quiet breakfast. On one of those days when I despaired of being able to cross the next hurdle that had arisen. I was talking with one of the other guests and a staff member of the craziness and how I just couldn’t find a way through. The other guest said to me, “It’s already done Baby. You just got to believe.” That was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment to be able to press forward.
Our mornings as I have written about before are hard and exhausting. An employee of Home 2 Suites, Tonni Carter, made them immeasurably better.
There are a lot of us living in the hotel for an extended period. All for various reasons. Tonni greets each of us with a smile, asks us how we are and does her utmost to serve us. And by “serve us”, I don’t just mean serving us breakfast. She serves us all. Listening to our problems and heartbreaks. She tells our children to hurry themselves up or they are going to be late for school when you are busy getting your own meal. Tonni watches out for them and makes sure they behave. She greets us with a hug and treats us as her family. It’s not that she doesn’t have troubles of her own. She has a gift that I hope her place of employment appreciates. She makes living in a hotel more like home.
In the parenting world, we talk a lot about needing a village to raise a child. Yet often, we wonder, “Where is that village?” We can’t seem to find it.
A hotel is not the place I expected to find my village. Yet it has been that. And in this difficult month of our lives, I am so grateful for the people like Tonni who have been my village. Who have cared for us, shined a light of hope and helped us hold on.
