Red Glasses

This week is Spring Break for the kids, so I took the week off. I knew this week would be full of appointments for “Z” and “J” and that I had a lot of catch-up house chores/organizing to do, but I was hoping for some fun this week. So far, I must admit, the “fun-ometer” has not been going very high. “J” has had a VERY hard week. I don’t know if it is another “layer” of healing or if there has just been too many changes of schedule in the past two weeks (the teachers were on strike, then they went back to school for a few days and now they are on break and we don’t have a normal routine for each day). I have really wanted to wear a tee-shirt and put a huge sign out in our yard that says “Don’t mind the blood curdling screams, it’s just healing taking place…really!” Then to make the week even MORE fun, I took “Z” to his follow-up appointment from his ear tube surgery and was expecting the “it looks great!” report and instead heard the dreaded, “I’m sorry but his one tube is falling out of his ear and will need surgery ASAP.” Ugh! The poor kid can’t get a break. Not to mention I had all 5 kids with me at the appointment and when they heard that this meant our fun overnight away that we had scheduled for the same time would be cancelled, well let’s just say things went downhill. Then during one of the appointments at our home for services for “J” (which I’m praying will be helpful for her to work through a lot of tough issues), she broke her glasses. We went today to try and get another pair and it will take a week. While we were in there, “J” had another one of her moments and while I know I could let things slide in public and become not consistent with following through (to prevent a meltdown in public) I choose to be consistent to help in healing. As I was leaving, a nice older man stopped me and said, “I will be praying for you; you have your hands full.” J

I was worried about “J” going so long without her glasses so I decided to take a family trip after dinner to the mall. Now this is probably not a big thing to anyone else, but the Barkley’s don’t frequent the mall very often. I’m not big on spending money and I’m also allergic to the perfumes that permeate the stores. I knew that the mall had at least one of those 1 hour glass stores, so we went. “J” was so excited to find a pair of red glasses (ok, she thinks they are more pink but whatever!) and pair of brown ones as well (buy one get one free!). She looked in the mirror and said, “I look so beautiful” which always comes out boot-if-full J. It was a wonderful time being there as a family, playing in the play area, getting ice cream, checking out some of the stores and we found a great store that had jewelry for $1.00 that the girls had fun finding treasures at. When we were leaving the play area, “J” started to talk about a memory with her brother at the same play area. It was a special time as she was able to connect with a positive memory. So, while I wasn’t thrilled to have her glasses break, these little red glasses provided a respite from tough healing, some spring break fun and hopefully another step forward in our journey together.