Relationships Today

Today was a very cool day.

For those of you who have read my past posts, you might remember me talking about May-May. She is the six-year old daughter of the woman, Annette that I met at the Salvation Army two weeks ago. Well, this morning at 8:30, I was in the Southside of Youngstown picking up May-May for church. I got a big, familiar hug from her when I got out of the car, and one from Annette, too. It was great to see them again! I buckled May-May in the backseat of our minivan next to Johnny, and away we went. (Caleb had gone to church even earlier with Jon in the Jeep.) I had put on a farm CD for them to listen to in the back, and it was the sweetest thing hearing May-May’s off tune voice singing out Old MacDonald and other fun favorites. Johnny sang some here and there, but spent most of the time just staring at May-May. I could see his wheels spinning in his brain wondering why her skin looked different than his. He was focusing mostly on her arms. I realized that he doesn’t remember any of the four months of his life in Kenya, so May-May is really the first dark skinned person he’s spent this much time next to. By the time we got to church, he’d gotten over the skin thing. They walked hand in hand through the parking lot on the way to the building. It was a beautiful site! While Jon and I practiced music, Johnny ran around asking, “Are oo, May-May?” wondering where she was hiding. Johnny and Caleb loved their new friend!

So, the gathering happened, Johnny was in the nursery with Hannah and the other little ones, Caleb was in the 3 and 4 year old class, and May-May was upstairs having games and story time with the bigger kids. She had a BLAST!! Her excitement when she came down was just priceless. It was as if she was just able to be a kid for the first time in a long time. She loved it! Plus, since Jon and I do music for both gatherings on Sunday mornings, she got to have a double dose of the fun – she was pretty pumped about that! After it all, she and Caleb and Johnny chased each other for an eternity through the chairs and down the hallways and in and out of the classrooms. They had so much fun together.

I was excited about having May-May for the afternoon. We went out to lunch at the local pizza buffet place, and then headed back to our house. My kids went down for a nap – and so did Jon, so it was just me and May-May hanging out. We had a great time cooking and eating at the play kitchen. She made me some fabulous broccoli and chicken! Then it was time for me to clean the real kitchen a bit. She said she’d never helped do dishes before – she always asked her mom to help, but her mom says no. So, we did the dishes together, and then she cleaned the sinks, and scrubbed the stove top, and helped sweep the floors. What a helper! While we did all that we had some time to chat. Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese. When I asked her what she’d had for dinner the night before, she said nothing. I asked if she was serious, and she said yes. Her mom forgot to make her anything. When I asked her if she said anything to her mom about dinner, she said that she didn’t because her mom knows she’s supposed to feed her, she just didn’t do it. Then she said she hadn’t had any lunch or breakfast either. Now, I’m not sure if she knew exactly what she was saying, cause at the pizza place today, she didn’t exactly seem desperate to eat anything. So, who knows? But…maybe she hadn’t eaten. Sad. I asked her what her favorite thing about her mom is, and she said that she’s nice to everyone. I then asked her if there was anything she didn’t like about her mom. She answered that she doesn’t like that she cusses so much, and that she leaves her with her Grandma all the time. But…then I asked May-May what her favorite holiday is. She answered Mother’s Day, because she gets to give her mom gifts. How sweet is that?!

May-May came with us to the Salvation Army in the afternoon, and helped out serving drinks for awhile before I brought her home to her mom’s boyfriend’s house. When I dropped her off, I got one of those great big hugs, and once again my heart just melted. Jon and I did our thing at the S.A. again, and it was awesome, as usual. An hour or so after we got home, Annette called to see how the day went with May-May, and she also wanted to tell me that since she’d gotten home, May-May has been saying that everything is, “Awesome!!” Apparently that word was not part of her vocabulary before I came along. Cute. They both sounded so happy. Annette told me she’s excited to come with us to church next week, too. I’m pretty excited about it, too. God has really opened a door with our relationship and I’m pretty pumped to see how He continues to mold these relationships.

Speaking of God molding relationships, as I sit down in the basement writing this post, Jon is upstairs hanging out and playing guitar with his friend Greg. Greg is a plumber who’s been doing work on Jon’s job site. Greg is an alcoholic and recovering heavy drug addict, who is having extreme marital tension. We’ve really seen God at work in Greg’s life. He’s felt His hand moving in amazing ways in his own life, and he’s giving God the credit for it, which is very cool. Greg’s come to church with Jon a few times now – once he brought his 7 year old son, Gregory. He has shared custody of him with Gregory’s mother. So, what’s cool about right now is that Jon’s upstairs teaching Greg some guitar stuff, and they’re totally worshiping together. God is very present up there right now. They’re playing and singing the chorus, “Better is One Day” and it is just such an amazing thing to listen to knowing all that Greg is going through right now. It’s been a blessing to Jon that Greg has confided in him about everything he’s dealing with. God has truly brought them together.

I’m slowly learning that loving others – which is done in a lot of different ways – really is what God calls us all to do. So far it’s pretty great!