I can't believe I almost forgot to blog about this! Elleah and Jared came over on Sunday (because they were bored, which means they still find us interesting! HA!) The baby is very active these days, as it should be, and Elleah talks about it all time, how it's kicking her lots.
So, of course, I wanted to feel the baby kicking. But babies are smart: as soon as there's a hand on mommy's stomach that isn't familiar, they stop moving. It's like they're suspicious, or scared. So I had my hand on her tummy, and Elleah tried poking her stomach to get the baby to move, but it wouldn't. So then we tried a new tactic: she would keep her hand on her stomach, and then once the baby relaxed and resumed it's Tae Bo exercises, we would "trick" it by quickly switching hands. It worked! My hand was there, and the baby gave a little kick! Of course, it looked and felt a bit like a muscle spasm, but still, there's a baby in there, and I felt it!
I am thankful that the baby gave me the honor of feeling its presence. I can't wait to meet it. I hope it likes me. It better like me! I'm its only flesh and blood Auntie!!
-cool, unique, unusual, colorful buttons
-brightly-patterned Kleenex boxes
-the feel of running water
-the smell of clothes drying in the dryer
-pictures of empty shoes, seemingly walking somewhere on their own
-paper with perforated lines (because that means I get to rip something)
-picture frames
-cool perspectives in pictures
-dressing up
-daydreaming about wearing beautiful dresses and going to balls
-giving myself French manicures and pedicures
-dangley earrings
-kitten heels
-pearls
-soft, flowing materials like chiffon and organza
-a good Christian mystery thriller
-office supplies
-tiny flowers
-kittens
-tulips
-kisses
-hearing Art tell me that he wants to take care of me forever
-soft piano music
-the smell of the seasons
-listening to snow falling
-my fleece blanket
-apple cider
-curling up with a good book
-wedding magazines
-salty, crunchy snacks (especially pretzel sticks)
-tea with honey
-the color purple
-Pizza Hut’s crispy pepperoni
-being neat and tidy, putting things in order, etc.
-fire places (whether the fire is real or not)
-correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling
-sleeping, sleeping in, and napping
-lace
-poutine
-blogging
-choirs/choir music, especially compositions by Eric Whitacre
-the mandolin and guitar stylings of Nickel Creek
-carrots straight from the dirt
-fresh-picked, home-grown strawberries and raspberries
-walking and hiking
-ballet
-the month of May
-the feeling I get in my head and stomach in a plane at take-off
-whatever material my purse is made out of. Someone suggested lamb’s leather. Whatever it
is, it’s gloriously soft.
-The Subway in our town
-Subway cookies
-Alison Krauss’ voice
-making lists
-bottled water
-shaved legs under soft sheets
-wedding planning
-looooooooong talks on the phone with my friend Kat in Edmonton
-the satisfaction I get from cleaning
-daydreaming
-prairie thunderstorms (when I’m not trying to sleep)
-flying/floating dreams
-KD straight from the pot
-Ezekiel 16:1-14
Her name is Sarah Verissimo. Formerly known as Sarah Eastwick. She was my roommate in my second year of college, and at the time of this story, she was eagerly anticipating her upcoming wedding (in which I was to be a bridesmaid).
It was the summer of '06, about 3 months before the happy day, and she had finally decided on the color of her bridesmaid dresses: brown. Well, I shouldn't say brown; it sounds so boring and ugly. The particular shade we were going to be wearing was Truffle.
The dresses were quite beautiful, actually, even though I don't really like or wear that color. She gave me a link to the website where I could view the dress, and I promptly called the store and ordered one in my size.
The next order of business was, of course, finding shoes that matched the dress. Brown shoes. Brown dress shoes. Nice looking, fairly stylish, reasonably priced, cute brown heels to go with my dress. I did not for one second think this was going to be an easy task.
The shoes not only had to fit the criteria, but they had to fit my feet as well. And I have tiny feet. If you go into most shoe stores, you will find that their women's shoes start in size 6. I have the "blessing" of walking around on feet that are size 5. And narrow too.
But I was determined that it would happen: I would find the shoes. I would look everywhere, and I would look all summer long, until I had the shoes.
So one fine day, I said a prayer, and my mom and myself headed out of town to the big city to begin this daunting quest of finding "the shoes." We decided to start at a large Payless Shoes store, because they actually carry a reasonable amount of selection in my size (most of the time). And their prices agree with my wallet (most of the time).
So I perused the size 5 section. Moved on size 5.5, because if I had to, I could fit a size 5.5 well enough. And then I started looking at size 6 (now I'm getting desperate). I tried to convince myself that it was just one day, that I only had to wear the shoes for one day, so if they were a size too big, oh well.
I saw a surprising amount of brown shoes, but after consulting the sales ladies, none of us were convinced that any of those shoes would be suitable for a wedding. But then, I saw them. There they were, sitting in the size 6 section. They were cute. They were brown. And they looked really comfy, despite the fact that they were sporting a 3.5 inch heel. So I took them out, I tried them on........but they just didn't work. They were a size 6, and I am a size 5, and a narrow size 5 at that.
There was no way I would be able to put up with these shoes for an hour, much less a day. So I handed them to the lady, and she gave me one last sliver of hope: she would call other stores to see if they had them in my size. After what seemed like forever [it was probably only 10 minutes, but still, 10 minutes is a long time waiting for a sales lady to get back to you about a pair of perfect shoes] she gave me the news: there was one pair of these heels in my size, in One store, out of THREE provinces. THREE PROVINCES. And those shoes were at a Payless in St. Vital Mall. ST. VITAL MALL. St. Vital Mall is my province; in the very city I was in, and not a 15-minute drive from where I was standing. She asked if she should call them to set the shoes aside, and I nearly gave her the "are you crazy?!" look. Of course she should reserve the shoes!
What's even better, is that if that particular store doesn't have something you want, but another store does, they will print out a receipt that gives you $5 off any purchase. So I grabbed my receipt and my mom and we rushed to the car and flew over to the mall. When we got there I practically thrust my receipt into the sales lady's face and blurted out in an excited panic, "you have shoes for me, my name is Jenene!" She retrieved those beloved shoes, I paid for them, and when I got home, I was floating.
I had found the most perfect shoes on my very first attempt, and they were rare too. Only God could have set that up. They were my God shoes. I couldn't wait to tell Sarah.
Except I didn't get the chance to tell her the whole story. I told her what the shoes were like and she spent about an hour and a half looking for those same shoes online at the Payless stores in the States (did I mention she is from California?). I very quickly found out that Payless stores are not the same from Canada to the US.
I also found out, only then, that she wanted all of us to have the same shoes. I did not know this, otherwise I wouldn't have gone on that escapade in the first place. And since they didn't have those shoes in the States, she informed me that I would have to purchase a different pair online, from a US store, so that all of the bridesmaids' shoes would match.
If she sounds mean or cold, she isn't. She had every right to want our shoes to be the same. She is the bride, not to mention my dear friend, so of course I complied. I was still keenly disappointed though. I informed my mom, we made another call to that bridal store in the States and requested that they add the Sarah-selected shoes to my order.
So what about my God shoes? Well, I didn't need them any more. I am very careful with my money, and I try not to make purchases on a whim, especially if I have no need for it. And I didn't need those shoes anymore. The shoes I ordered were going to be dyed to match my dress, and besides, they were a good $10 more than the first ones I had purchased (and then there was shipping, plus exchange).
I needed the money from my first pair of shoes in order to pay for the second pair of shoes. Which meant I had to return them. I had to go back to the store and return my God shoes. I think I almost cried.
I mean, it was an absolute miracle that I had gotten them, and I really loved them, and I wondered why God had gone through all of that trouble if I was going to end up returning them. It didn't make any sense. But return them I did, with a heavy heart.
About a week later (or so), my mom called me into the kitchen because she needed help "reading something." When I got the kitchen, I saw the real reason why she had called me: sitting on the table was a glass vase filled with beautiful flowers (red and white daisies), and a large bag. I looked in the bag and saw a box. I pulled the box out of the bag and set it on the table. I lifted the lid of the box, and behold: the shoes.
Not a similar pair; not look-alikes. The very shoes that I had had in my possession only a few days before. You see, I was (and still am) dating a wonderful man named Art, and he loves me very much. I had told him my sad tale of the shoes that were never meant to be, and he decided he would try to make it otherwise.
And this story is even more incredible than the first.
Art secretly conspired with my mom to buy the shoes for me, but of course, my mom had to be the one to carry out this plan, because Art lives far away. So one day,while she was at work, my mom made a call to that Payless in the mall. She asked them if these shoes were there, and if they could set them aside.
The lady she spoke with went back and forth from the phone to the size 5 section, grabbing various shoes and describing them, asking my mom if those were the shoes she wanted. My mom said no over and over, and finally the lady told her that the shoes must have been bought by someone else, because they were not there.
So my mom hung up, thinking that was the end of that. *Keep in mind that my mom did not give her name, her number, or where she was calling from. She simply made the call, with no success.* About 20 minutes later, someone answered the phone where my mom works, and then proceeded to search the entire office, asking everybody if they had called a Payless shoes, because there was a lady on the line looking for the one who had called her earlier. NO NAME, NO NUMBER, NO NAME OF WHERE MY MOM WORKED. But she called back anyway.
So my mom heard that this sales lady from Payless was on the line, and she took the call. The lady informed her that the shoes she had been looking for had been sitting in a different section, among shoes of a completely different size. Which is why they could not be found earlier, and it is also why they had not been purchased by anybody else.
So my mom asked the lady to put them aside (again). But my mom was still faced with one more obstacle: she works in our town, not in the city. Getting there to purchase them was going to be a problem. So then she called my dad. My dad is an insurance salesman, so he goes all over when he works. He could be anywhere at any given time. But my mom called him on his cell phone and sheepishly asked him if it would be possible for him to go to the mall and pick up some shoes. She waited, hoping against hope.
My dad's answer? "Oh, I'm already in the mall, so I'll go on over right now." (I mean, seriously, how amazing is that?) So with the combined efforts of my boyfriend, my mom, my dad, the sales lady at Payless, and whoever answered the phone that day at my mom's work (not to mention all the coincidences that could only be called divine intervention), my perfect God shoes were given to me to keep.
More important than the shoes, I have an incredible story to go along with my shoes, and I remember every time I look at them. I always knew that God loves me and takes care of me and meets my every need. But I forget that He often meets many of my wants as well. I didn't need the shoes, but He loves me SO MUCH, that He came up with an incredible plan just so that I could have them anyway.
I am going to keep these shoes forever, as a reminder to everyone that we have a Father in heaven Who loves us extravagantly, and loves to bless us richly and abundantly, above all that we could ask or imagine.
P.S. To thank my boyfriend, I bought a dress to match the shoes, so I could wear them on a fancy date with him. The gesture was not lost on him. ;)
