On Monday I put myself in a different place than i ever had before (and i don't say this to toot my own horn...not by any stretch of the imagination, but to document and remind myself that there's hope yet for me).
Really i have to thank my amazing counter part, truly my Help Meet, helping me as always to be better than i am today.
John asked a favor of me and really the credit goes to him for loving people enough to be willing to see that there's no obstacles for those that truly need or want help.
What am i talking about? Well John's favor was the favor of a woman really.....a woman that wants to do what she needs to do to be whole again and to get her child back.....a woman who was stuck. I hope it helped her as much as it did me....
A year ago i think i would have said no, you're crazy, (to a favor like this) but i thought....well she's a child of God too, he doesn't just ask us to be nice or kind or serving of those we go to church with or those we love or are friends with....he asks much more of us than that. I would want others to help me if i was in dire circumstances. We have to be willing to give up everything if He asks it....I have made promises.
I drove this woman all the way to Nashville four hours away so she could check herself into a rehab residential facility for addicts. It is the (hopefully) last step in her being able to get custody back of her daughter. She wanted to go, but had no way of being able to get there, until John offered a solution...me.
So the kids and i packed up snacks and DVD's galore and took her to Nashville. We stopped at the Nashville Zoo (which is awesome by the way) afterwards only to realize that because of winter hours it was to close in 30 mins. I think i literally ran to every cool animal i could think of (having been there once before) in an effort to have the kids believe the illusion that they weren't getting the short end of the stick before our four hour journey back home.
But you know what? They said they were glad to help that woman, because it also meant they were helping Heavenly Father and Jesus. Amazing! I love my kids and how understanding they are and they all said the 30 mins of the zoo was worth the whole eight hours of driving (well let's not kid anyone, it's more like ten hours when you factor in all the potty breaks and stopping to go through drive-throughs for meals, and get gas). ;-) The good side to the zoo almost closing was that we were the only ones there and it felt like the place was ours. Well it certainly made keeping track of 4 kids running around trying to see all the animals like crazy-heads easier! :-)
So again i thank my husband for putting me up to the task...for allowing me to see something better and greater than myself.....i thank this woman for allowing me to help her......and i thank my kids for being super troopers! This was a good experience for me more than anyone.
Gibbons in the background...
they get their own free range of REAL trees to swing from here.
It's magnificent!
Only the males was around as 5 days previous one of the females had given birth to a beautiful baby giraffe and the other female that was the Aunt was help take care of the newborn along with the mother. So sweet.
Giant Ant-Eater...
...having dinner!
The kids went nuts over these guys!
So beautiful and they were so fast too!
It made taking pictures hard that's for sure!
Having learnt about lynxes in "school" it was especially exciting for them to see these guys. These ones are Eurasian Lynxes and are the largest breed.
They are native to Asia.
The smallest breed being common to our area of Tennessee,
but also more commonly known as the Bobcat.
They didn't seem to like each other though.
The white one kept growling at the other.
This bridge goes right through the flamingo's habitat.
The Anaconda. Iman was really excited about this one having also recently learnt about it (not school this time, just Jack's Diego DVD, ha ha!).
See, we were literally the ONLY ones there! So fun!
