4 Babies and a Man (Buying Your Baby Goods)
In the real world I am a service provider for the Welfare to Work program. It is one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, yet it can also be very overwhelming and humbling. I admit that I have no way to understand or empathize with what each of these individuals is going through. I pray for them and ask that God give me direction and wisdom as I attempt to assist each individual. I attempt to provide them with hope, belief in themselves, acceptance, and a 110% commitment to do my part in helping them on a successful track in life. Yet despite all this, I realize that there is one group of individuals that God never gave me the ability to deal with, much less understand- kids.
I was reminded this week of my lack of kid-ability. I had made arrangements to take one of my clients to look for a job on Friday. Because of the busy week that I had, I was going to be able to cut out of work early. So my plan was to pick my client up by 9am, go to a few places where I had pre-arranged for her to job interview, drop her back off at noon. By lunchtime, I would be lounging on our large papasan chair on our screened-in porch while sipping flavored coffee, relaxing to some light jazz. This is when I discovered rule #1 when children are involved- time schedules don't mean a thing. As I picked up my client, I discovered that the day care was closed and she did not have anyone to watch the kids. I thought for a moment. I was even shocked at the next words out of my mouth. "That's OK, you can go in and get the applications and the kids can stay out in the car with me." During this moment of insanity I must have also been suffering from amnesia. It all came back to me as she began to carry the car seats out to my compact car- there was 4 little girls. I must admit that they were the cutest little angel faces you have ever seen. I had not been in the presence of that many children since kindergarten.
The 2nd rule I quickly learned was that children need to be entertained or they will find their own entertainment. I did my feeble best. While two of them were sleeping, I asked the others what they wanted to do and one said draw. I found a pencil and gave it to the oldest girl. She said thank you. I looked for a piece of paper and I could not find any. She started saying, "I want to draw!" So I got out and looked in the trunk. When I came back, the second oldest girl was behind the steering wheel. She said, "I want to drive!" She started mashing the horn and the whole city blocked looked our direction. I kept saying, "Now mommy will be out soon." And "Make sure you play nice", to which the oldest would say, "I don't want to be nice." These could not have been the same children with which I started.
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