Growing Up Blended
God answers prayers
I look back now and all I see is a great life. It’s like when you’ve been staring at one spot in a painting for so long but then step back and see the big picture. Each pigment, brush stroke and even blemishes make up a great master piece. That’s what my blended life is like. A master piece.
For whatever reason or reasons my biological parents got a divorce when I was 3. My dad became a single parent of 4. We were never hungry, never naked, and never died. Our birthdays were not neglected, and Christmas fun. I have so much I could share about the 5 years he was our only caregiver, but that’s another story.
I will talk about how he made sure we never missed church. I could tell you every bible story in the old testiment by the age of 5. One time the pastor’s wife was vacuuming the stage and my dad walked us in there, sat us down and prayed when she unplugged the Hoover. All that said to make this point, we prayed. We prayed over our pizza we had delivered. We prayer at church like every 15 seconds. And we prayed before bed. In fact for 5 years we prayed the same thing before bed every night.
“Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
And Jesus can we please have a go cart and new mom.
Thank you,
Amen”
So God was hearing that prayer every night, from 4 children, for 5 years. If you’re curious, that is 7300 prayers He heard over a five year period.
As you know, we went to church every time the doors were open. And we prayed. We had a routine. Sundays we got up, to church, had lunch, played outside and then went back to church for the night services. One Sunday morning as we were all getting ready for church our dad told us that we were going somewhere special for lunch. We asked tons of questions but he was being very vague. So we just went the the flow.
After church we loaded up in our Isuzu Trooper and drove to this special lunch. We pulled up to the big 2 story antique house. Think of a southern home and that’s it. Big porch with a veranda. We walked up and this beautiful woman can out in a purple flower print dress with a lace square collar. My dad introduced her to us as his friend Sharon. She had two kids, Tracy and Craig. We all went inside and I was amazed at the house! It was the first time I had seen hardwood floors, French doors and a brass pinned runner that climbed the stairs.
“I wish I lived here,” I said as I bolted up the stairs to explore this old house.
We all gathered around the big oval dinning table and feasted on homemade fried chicken, fried squash, green beans and potato salad. This was so new to us. We lived with a bachelor. He made sure we were never hungry, but we had dominoes on speed dial and knew the name of every delivery guy they had. We all got to know each other and in my 8 year old mind it was my dad’s friend, who cooked well and lived in a mansion.
Over the next few weeks and months we saw a lot of Sharon, Tracy and Craig. We went there, they came to our house. We went to her church, they came to our church. It was fun. And then I learned how good God is and that He answered prayers.
It was a Thursday evening, near the end of the summer. The sun was setting and we were outside playing waiting on Daddy to come home. We saw his silver Trooper pull in the drive way and climb the hill. Right behind him was Sharon’s white Oldsmobile.
As he got out of the SUV and called us over. He and Sharon met us at the back to show us something. He opened the back hatch and there was a red, single seat go- cart!!! We all squealed with excitement. He and my older brothers Andy and Randy pulled the cart out and put it on the ground. We all took turns driving it around the yard for a test drive. And they he and Sharon called us over.
“Do you guys like the go-cart,” they asked.
“Of course!”
“Yes!”
“thank you” we all rang out.
Then my daddy said, “well you know how you always prayed for a go-cart, you finally got it. And you’re getting a new mom too!”
Excited is not a big enough word for how we felt or acted. 7300 prayers answered right before our eyes.
It wasn’t a long engagement. On October 24 we got married. I say we because we ALL had to stand on stage and take vows to honor and love and cherish each other as a real family. Mom, brother and sister and them us. And it was all caught on tape for them to remind us every time there was a sibling squabble.
I’ll share more about the rest of that blended master piece in part 2. But I have always loved how we started out.
