You’ll probably think I’ve lost my mind when I tell you that I took nine children (two were at work) to the indoor water park today, all by myself. For the first ten minutes we were there I honestly thought I had lost it. The six year old that we’re providing respite care for this week has FAS, a speech disorder, I’d guess a fairly low IQ and possibly pituitary dwarfism. She nearly drowned twice in the first five minutes we were there. The shallow children’s area is on the right side, the deeper older child area is on the left side and all the way to the back is a whirl pool area that is also deep. She and my four year old kept running and jumping into the deep areas. Yes, the four year old nearly drowned twice as well. There I was, with baby Amigrace on my hip, using my other arm to fish the girls out of deep water. Silly me, I thought they’d figure it out after being pulled out the first two times.
As I was wondering what kind of horrific mistake I had made bringing the children here by myself, I saw an acquaintance who politely mentioned that the life guards had a stash of life jackets that they were willing to loan out. I thanked her profusely and wasted no time going to the life guard office to request them. After that, a fun time was had by all for several hours so it worked out in the end.

You see this week is spring break and I haven’t done anything special with the children this week because it has been so hectic around here. Partly because I have eleven children at home this week, then my adult daughter had an emergency C-section, and I got called into work on Monday morning for the entire week from 9am until 1pm. I haven’t told you that I’m a substitute rural letter carrier. I’m suppose to work 3.5 hours every other Saturday, but it hasn’t been working out that way. If one of the regular carriers decides to take a day off or gets sick then I have to work; and the regular ended up in the emergency room with kidney stones early Monday. Had I known that I would have to work all week; I never would have taken on two more children. Doesn’t the Bible say that God won’t give us more than we can handle?

Lynae, my thirteen year old daughter with FAS, has a special way with children. I had to intervene several times at the water park when she was trying to “help” the four year old. The four year old was screaming at the top of her lungs, while lying on the floor, with her feet pushing against Lynae, as Lynae was pulling on her arm trying to take her somewhere. As usual, Lynae had her reasons; I just smiled and walked away.

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Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2007