I was discussing Secret Santa last week with my planning period partner in grading and crime and mother/teacher/badass-hood. We agreed that the best gift secret santa could bring us was a maid to deep clean our humble abodes. Just thinking about it, was sort of heavenly. Hours later, I went home to my filthy house, ran my kids to 3 hours of soccer practice and woke up the next morning to a sink full of rotten dishes and thought, "yep, I would kill for a house cleaning service right about now."
Fast forward to this Tuesday. I got a call from preschool telling me my 2.5 year old was sick, he had to picked up ASAP. He was running a 102.7 fever and had puked all over one of the extended day teachers. He would not be able to return to preschool until he was symptom free for at least 24 hours...and even tonight, 5 days later, he has the same fever. Unable to immediately secure a sub, and too exhausted to dig deeper and find the names of other subs I didn't' have right at my fingertips, I turned to my friend Sarah (mother of 4) to see if she wouldn't mind watching one more. She didn't (because that's just the kind of friend she is) but her in-laws were in town and she didn't want to expose them to whatever the little puker had. So she asked if it would be OK by me if she watched little Liam at my place. Of course it was! I was just thrilled to have solved this problem so easily.
Wednesday, I left Sarah with Liam, in a pretty filthy apartment-dishes from breakfast on the table, pans from last night's dinner "soaking" in the sink, toys and clothes strewn about, I could go on, but you get the picture. The (almost) ex picked Liam up from my apartment in the afternoon and three hours later I returned home.
I unlocked the door and walked in, turned the lights on and saw a vase full of flowers on the counter in the kitchen. A split second later, it registered in my brain that the place was really clean, and I burst into tears of joy. Sarah had cleaned the house, cleaner than it had probably been in an entire year. I walked in and saw not only a clean kitchen, dining and living room, but a table full of clean clothes, neatly folded and put into piles. This sent me to the laundry room, which I found empty (formerly full to overflowing with unwashed clothing). Actually, it wasn't empty, there was a brand new bottle of Tide and everything that had been haphazardly dashed about the room was now neatly organized.
Sarah had single handedly brought God's answer to a prayer that I hadn't even made into a serious prayer, as I left it on the drawing board as a hilarious wish-joke. I get so caught up with questioning where God is when I want Him to show up that it is almost shocking when He pens me a love letter using a willing member of His own body. This woman, whom I had known in college over 15 years ago for less than a year before we reconnected this year in Florida, cleaned my house and left me gifts that days later I am still discovering. Toilet paper. Cereal. Oreo cookies and snack size chips (found by the kids to the tune of "SHE IS THE BEST EVER!!!"). Utensils-because we are famous for leaving them at school or throwing them in the trash and were a few shy of a full set. Organized closets and drawers. Shampoo in the boys' bathroom.
Thank you Sarah. Thank you for watching my sick son. Thank you for cleaning my place. Thank you for all the gifts that you scattered throughout the apartment. Thank you for making the rest of my week so much easier. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for showing me through your love, the love of God.
P.S. Sarah is hilarious and fun and if you don't know her, you're missing out on a great friend!
