There are so many times that life throws us a curveball. The important thing is how we respond.
Speaking of ‘curveballs’, recently Hurricane Florence threw so many curveballs at the Carolina’s. Her path changed hourly and kept all the residents on the coast on their toes.
Our daughter recently moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Six weeks after they moved into a new home to them, in blew Hurricane Florence! Under a mandatory evacuation, she and her husband packed up their cars, kids, and animals, and invited her co-workers to join her and her family at our home. A couple of families took her up on her generous offer.
During what we jokingly were calling the “Evac-u-cation”, we tried our hardest to keep everyone’s minds off the devastation that seemed to be heading for their homes. We played on the boat until we ran out of gas. We floated on the lake. We paddled around on kayaks. We soaked in the hot tub. We went to the park and toured the City of Charlotte and the City of Belmont. We made multiple trips to the store, prepping for the bad weather headed our way, although we live hours from the beach. My daughter’s boss set up his office in my husband’s study and was able to get some work done. Most of the time at this temporary ‘camp’ was spent playing games and eating better than we normally do, especially once the rain hit.
Although getting to know and spend time with each of these wonderful people, I think my favorite time during these five to six days was when 4 of the kids decided to put on a puppet show on our last day together. As the rain poured at our home, and the hurricane was banging through North and South Carolina shores, my husband dug out old socks and I grabbed a box of pompoms, googly eyes, felt scraps, paint, and pipe cleaners. Our two grandsons and two girls painted the socks to the right colors to make 4 characters from Winnie the Pooh. We hot glued eyes, noses, ears, and at least one other thing to the socks to make them look like puppets. These kids spent 4 hours straight on their puppets, props, and the show. They even decided to have the youngest child be the hostess of the show. They broke for lunch and worked on and off the rest of the day on their script. After dinner, everyone gathered around the makeshift stage made from a card table and tablecloth to see the show. These kiddos did an amazing job thinking through a creative story, ending with audience participation, dancing with our hostess and the puppets. Several times during this show, the kids broke out into contagious laughter. They were so cute, so joyful, and were laughing so hard at themselves, we, the audience, were laughing with them although we had no idea what we were laughing at.
We as adults kept ourselves and the kids entertained during the first few days of this evacuation, tubing, playing in the water, visiting the park, driving though Charlotte and Belmont. When Hurricane Florence finally decided where she would hit and we watched her destroy the Carolina coastline, these kids continued not only to entertain themselves, but they brought joy and laughter in a time of stress.
“Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child- this one is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:4
These kids not only spent the day entertaining themselves and entertained the adults, they showed us how to love each other, to laugh in times of stress, but also to concentrate on the things that we can control like puppets and entertaining and let go of the things we cannot control like what the hurricane was doing or not doing to the city of Myrtle beach.
