Two thousand fifteen has been full of abundant blessings, but not without plentiful challenges also. Right now, my husband and I are working a combined total of 112 hours per week. I won't say which of us is working 70+ hours per week, because that's not important; the main thing is that we haven't been able to ride to and from work together because of it. This may seem insignificant to some, but to us it is huge. Our ride together in the morning is a 30 minute commute, a time that we set aside for morning devotion and worship- whoever is not at the steering wheel is in charge of choosing a worship song, reading a devotion, and praying over our day. This starts our day on the right note and aligns our hearts and minds. On our ride home, we typically catch up on the day's happenings, laugh, cry, whatever we need to do before we arrive to pick up our sweet Charlotte. Then, we get home and spend time with her, which usually involves a family run, dinner, playtime, and then after Charlotte's bedtime we are left with a few more hours together.
That was last year. This year, so far, we've been getting up at 4am, so that one of us can be at work by 5am. We see each other (sleepily) in passing in the morning, and we drive to work separately. After a long day at work, we each drive home separately, one of us picks our daughter up, the other comes home and starts dinner (that would be him), squeeze in a run, and then hurry through bedtime routines so that we can get some sleep before we start all over again the next day.
It's been a challenging season, and we are desperately missing the quality time together. Due to the nature of this temporary working overtime requirement, this schedule will only be for a season, and we know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Nonetheless, we have been struggling to feel like we are on the same page since we've been coming and going, and we have been specifically praying for more time together.
God honors the desires of our hearts, especially when we are seeking Him to help us align our priorities. He also has a sense of humor.
Today, it just so happened that even though we didn't ride to work together, we were able to ride home together. A rare treat these days, we planned to cherish the 30 minute drive and talk about anything besides work and our 'to-do' lists when we got home.
We had a gift card to a large furniture store in OKC, and it just so happened to be for the amount of a bench that we had our eye on. It would be a nice addition to our current dining furniture, and we'd been talking about getting it for months. Finally, today, on our way home, we randomly decided to take advantage of this time to run into this store and order our bench. What should have been a simple in-and-out trip turned into something much more complex...
Gift certificate in hand and specific furniture piece in mind, we walked into the store and informed the front door attendant that we simply needed to place a special order. He turned and summoned the next floor salesperson... "Next! Nexxxxxt! NEXXXXT!" he hollered in their direction. Finally, a woman with a sales badge, who we shall call Shirley, clip-clopped towards us in her high heels and pencil skirt.
Shirley was in her late 60's, with perfectly coiffed frosted blonde hair, painted on makeup, and red artificial nails (except for the thumbnail, which was missing). "Well helloooo!" she drawled as she stuck out her hand to greet us. She batted her long eyelashes and smiled unceasingly as she eagerly walked us across the mile long store over to a bank of computers. We explained the item we needed wasn't in stock (as we'd already called and checked) and that she would simply need to look it up and order it for us.
"Well, let's seeeeee here," she said, looking as if it were the first time she'd ever used a computer. She clicked on the icon for the company email..."well, that's not the one..." She fumbled around on the store website, with us looking over her shoulder, politely but anxiously suggesting where and how she should enter the search criteria. "Please bear with me, I'm working on a day I was scheduled to be off. Thank you sooooo much for your patience!" Fifteen minutes later, she located the item we needed (after scrolling through page after page while trying to carry on a conversation, "By the way, you look just like my son-in-law!"). Then, finally, "There it IS!" She squealed. Then she actually hugged me, "We FOUND it!"
After filling out a special order form in her carefully [read: SLOW] scrawled script, reentering the information into the computer, and struggling to print the invoice, she said, "Okay! We are done!" It was too good to be true. But then, "all I need to do now is have a manager sign off on this!" Oh. My. Gosh. JJ and I looked at each other wondering if this was a joke. We had now been there 45 minutes to make a transaction that either one of us could have completed in 5.
Shirley motioned to a sofa and asked us to have a seat while she clip-clopped across the showroom floor towards a manager (who was on his cell phone). We watched for 5 minutes while she had him sign the form and then continue to giggle and flirt with him. Just when we were about to walk over and tell Shirley to speed it up, she clip-clopped towards us, a smile never leaving her face as she batted her long eyelashes.
Then, after another 10 minutes with a cashier who looked like a high school dropout who could have cared less that we were anxiously waiting (as he flirted with another employee in a sing-song voice), we FINALLY cashed in our gift card and walked out of the store.
Good thing that bench was free.
The entire scenario was almost maddening, but it was too comical to truly be upset. As we drove away I said, "Well THAT was a waste of an hour of my life." But then I caught myself... what was intended to be a 30 minute drive home together had turned into the most ridiculous, hilarious, HOUR and a HALF time together! We literally laughed the entire way home as we speculated what kind of car Shirley drives and other ridiculous details about her.
God had answered our prayer. Not only did He grant us more time together, but laughter. It's something we had been missing for several days, and He gifted it to us. He is so faithful, even in the funniest ways.
And I have a feeling that every time we sit on that bench (when it is finally delivered), we will think back on our ridiculously comical trip to the furniture store and our time with Shirley.
And we will be reminded of God's faithfulness.
-L
P.S. Unless we luck into another free furniture piece, we will not ever be visiting this furniture store again.
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