Sunday Was a Strange Day

We have a lot going on in our lives as do our neighbor friends. I feel caught-up in everybody elses' nerves (and my own) today. It was a strange day. It seemed like everyone I knew was having to alter plans they had because of unexpected things taking place. It was one of those days when nothing goes as planned.

I had expected for our family to join our church this afternoon, on an outreach. We were supposed to be serving at a ministry for foster children (kind of like a home that kids go to before they're placed in foster care). Our kids were looking forward to it. We were going to take games and crafts to play with the kids. It was my fault that we didn't get to go. I thought it was at 3 p.m. but it was in fact at 1 p.m. when I realized that, it was already 1:30 p.m. I was also in the middle of some other things to prepare for an important meeting I have tomorrow.

We had to run errands in the afternoon, so it was just as well we had time for that. Although I am very disappointed to not have gone with our church to this outreach; especially since the kids were so excited for it. I love opportunities to get to serve as a family in such a way.

On our way home from our errands, we took the scenic route (close to the water). There are very nice homes, yachts, etc. along the way to see. I mostly just wanted to see the water. There were a lot of traffic tie-ups on those obscure side streets. Some were due to people "cruising" through downtown areas, where there were sidewalk cafes that were local hang-outs. Some of the tie-ups were from bridges drawn to allow boats to pass. But the one tie-up that I found quite unbelievable was, for a child's birthday party!

It was more like a circus or carnival. I've seen these things in the movies, but never in "real life." It was on an ocean front property. We were stopped behind a long line of cars waiting to pass. We didn't know at the time what was up the road causing this delay. We saw one armed security person standing in front of a large house. But the commotion was a couple of doors down on an open lot.

They finally let our line of cars go through, after on-coming traffic passed-by first. We looked to our left to the property to see carnival rides, mardi-gras like clowns, ponies, and lots and lots of people. There was even VALET parking along the street (the handmade sign said so.) I saw a sign with the little girl's name on it whose birthday it apparently was. There were probably at least 50 very nice cars parked wedged along the narrow upscale road.

I'd never seen a party like that one! It just made me think of the children we used to work with in the slum in Brazil. When it was their birthday, we always made a big deal about it and held a party at the ministry house for them. Although we clumped all the month's birthday into one big party. The kids didn't mind. They were just so happy to have a birthday party given for them to celebrate their lives. Although we had no ponies, clowns or valet parking!