Somedays there just isn't a title...

Sunday afternoon I found myself standing in front of my ex-husband in the middle of my driveway and thanking him! He had called the day before to say that he was going to drop off some NY Giants stuff for Noah, so he could celebrate the Super Bowl in style (Noah’s a huge Giants fan). He said, "Don’t worry about making dinner. I’ll bring dinner over." Yes, I’m still shaking the cobwebs out of my head from that one! And he didn’t just bring dinner, he brought enough snacks to feed an army, plates, napkins, cups, serving trays shaped like footballs, cases of soda, and gift bags for all of my kids... filled with candy and little toys. Then he drove off. Said he had a few people coming over to watch the game at his house.

We don’t even celebrate the kids birthdays with so much party stuff and junk food!! (We can’t possibly afford huge birthday parties for each one of them.) On both sides of the family, there are tons of kids so we don’t even attempt to have birthday parties anymore. Steve and I give gifts and have a small party at home for them or we’ll go out for dinner, etc.

I watched as my little ones dug into their bags like it was Christmas... as they invited their neighbor friends over to see all the snacks and eat with us... "Oh my gosh, mom, there’s little footballs on key chains!" One has gum and one has "minty marshmallow looking things". Can you believe it - I was proud that those precious little ones were so thrilled... because they hadn’t been spoiled with that stuff everyday. Can you believe it - I nearly cried several times that night from gratitude... they were so happy and I couldn’t have (and probably wouldn’t have even if I could have) given them all those candies and trinkets and snacks and hoopla. They had so much fun that even Tuesday afternoon I overheard them at the table with their Fisher Price people "playing Super Bowl"!

My gracious husband accepted it all, though skeptical, with sincere gratitude. He suspects there will be some wicked act to follow (because there usually is). And there very well may be, but I’ve been learning lately, about the difficult areas in life, to be thankful for what I can be thankful for and to be prayerful for the things I cannot. "And so today, Father, in a most surprising twist and for the first time in many, many years... thank you for my ex-husband. Please bless him for bringing such joy to my children." (O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, 'I will build a house for you.' So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer.)

And now I’m off to write a thank-you note that I certainly don’t have the words for!!

(gratitute rocks via ebay seller chicinnovations)