“Praise the Lord!”

A couple weeks ago, I tagged my blog post: “Gotta love the (rare?!) rewarding moments in (young) parenting...”

Here’s another one:

On our way to church one Sunday afternoon, we stood at the bus stop for what seemed far longer than normal – probably because of the rain coming at us from all angles – as we waited for a bus.

As I explained later to the Little People: “Waiting for a bus in the rain is just part of normal autumn and winter living for most people in Montevideo.”

The first bus going in our desired direction was an unfamiliar number, so we asked the driver if it stopped at the airport, our intended destination. Receiving an affirmative answer, we piled on.

After passing several key spots in the general vicinity of the airport and then realizing that we were in fact on a route going away from there, JM went up to the front of the bus and asked the driver if he intended to head back to the airport.

“Oh no! I forgot... And actually, this is my first day driving this route, and I didn’t realize that we no longer go by the airport...”

So, we had to get off, cross the highway, and stand in the slanting rain – which was managing to wet us even under the roof of the bus stop shelter there – waiting for another bus going back to our intended destination!

“Who knows how long we’ll have to wait at this bus stop!” I exclaimed. (My mood matched the weather at that moment...)

In a few moments, however, a bus came – and it was going our way!

I got on with DJ; he sat (uncharacteristically!) quiet next to me. And although the ride was short, I wondered if he was falling asleep.

We got off and, as we were walking into the airport, DJ said to me – solemnly and quietly but with conviction: “Praise the Lord, Mommy! [But sounds like: /Pwayz duh Lohd/]! We didn’t have to wait very [/beh-wee/] long for the bus [foh duh bus] to come!”

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Thinking on all this later on, I remembered another (similar yet opposite) “miserable” experience, walking in high heat and humidity up a dusty dirt road in Lavalleja with the 1997 Uruguay Mission Team. Potable water was at least a kilometer’s walk away; though the sun was shining very brightly, my mood was dark and gloomy...

One of the other team members came alongside and quietly and simply made a comment that pointed me to God. I forget his exact words, but I remember feeling convicted. He then proceeded to bump into me and exclaim: “Will you please watch where I’m going?!” Involuntarily, I laughed. As we walked on, I thought: “I like him. This is a man I can respect...”

[My Mommy had fallen in love with him the minute she met him...]

“And the rest is history!” ♥♥

[Edited to add: Except that the journey from that ’97 Mission Team
to the picture above was long – and full of both mountains and valleys!
Lots of valleys... Kind of like life itself!]