Happy Day!

Lots of happy things happened today - my day started off with a 2-mile walk, listening to uplifting music. Then we made smiley face, peace sign, and heart pancakes for breakfast. Peter and I did a few chores, and then Kelsey and I went to one of my student's birthday parties. This family lives in a very low-income apartment with rougher people than we are used to. I prepared Kelsey on our drive to their apartment that this family didn't have a lot. A couple minutes after we arrived, the next door neighbor asked if her children were at the party, and the mom told her that they were not. She said, "I'm going to kick their a****, and she went off to go find her kids. She brought her kids back to the party and informed us that they needed to stay because she had to take someone to the liquor store. She asked if they could bring over some strawberries and cool whip because the kids hadn't eaten lunch yet. The little girl also brought over a cupcake from a party that she had been to. Six kids shared one cupcake. On our way home Kelsey and I were talking about the party, and she said that she was nervous when she heard the lady swear and talk about needing to go to the liquor store. You're probably wondering how this all relates to having a happy day... :) Well, Kelsey and I talked about how we could focus on the part of the party that made us uncomfortable or we could think about what we saw that was really neat. Kelsey and I had both watched in amazement as 6 children shared ONE cupcake without a single bit of fighting or complaining! They also perfectly shared the strawberries and cool whip. The cupcake was pretty big, but it was amazing to see children who really didn't have much, be so willing to share and be grateful for getting something so small! Kelsey then said if we would have had one cupcake at our house, we would have said things like...."Hey that's mine - get your own! Hey, you're taking too much!, etc., etc." My heart smiled as I knew she really understood that what we saw today was pretty special. As we had left the party, she said, "Wow, people here are really nice" after we stopped and talked to a man (who looked like someone who may have been homeless) about the dog he was holding. This was a whole new experience for Kelsey (and a very good one, too!) After the party we did a little bit of 4th of July t-shirt shopping and then dog sat for our neighbor's dog. Kelsey was thrilled to play with the dog and walk him all the way to Bethany Village. We ended the night hearing a great message at church and then going out for dinner.