Dear Reader:

Most of us by now, at this stage of life, have experienced more different types of waiting than we can (or even care to) remember.

In the photo above Mandy was trying to help get Tigger to pose with his Christmas decorated collar on (Sunday evening) by holding a treat up high behind her. Sweet Tigger patiently waited for me to make some snapshots and then pounced on his treat….he has the ‘game’ down now. No need to fight it…just do what it takes to get the reward in the end.

We have all experienced Tigger’s type of waiting…like waiting for our turn in a long restroom line, or in customer service to make a return, or Walmart….the store famous for being able to get in…just not out. We won’t even touch the SC DMV (Dept of Motorized Vehicles) as an example…too unsettling.

Waiting for serious health testing results ( now that has got to be near or at the top of everyone’s most dreaded waiting period in life) can be excruciating…we would actually prefer to “DMV” it over waiting for the phone call letting us know our medical testing results.)

Caldwell, in his readings for a modern Christmas, suggests that the news, itself, on the state of the world, is comparable to “standing in the slop and calling out, “How long Lord can the world wait…how much longer can this earth survive without Your return?”

Yet waiting is just as surely about “standing in the shining, shivering with delight and singing, “Come, Lord, come.”

Can’t we all remember the wonderful “delicious, shivery“kind of waiting? There’s smelling the “almost done apple pie, listening to the opening theme of a movie we have waited a year to see, or feel the baby kick a week before one’ s due date…letting the world know of his/her approaching arrival.

Advent encompasses both kinds of waiting…It is about feeling the difference between God’s absence and our deep understanding that everything one day will change….there is no “if” in the equation…simply “when.”

So until tomorrow…”Okay God, You know i’m no good at this waiting thing. But I know You are. So enter into my “wait” and liven things up by showing me another clue to understanding You.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

*Yesterday it was Rutledge’s turn (along with Mollie and me) to wait on his ear tube procedure at MUSC. We were both rather nervous because Rutledge had the tubes put in when he was ten months…(been there…done that)…and wanted nothing coming at him near his ears again. (one tube had come out)

I added more trucks to his backpack, a Mickey Mouse doll, coloring books, reading books…they all worked well, along with the kind nurses’ stickers and plastic animals.

Rutledge came through like a champ….no crying, or temper tantrums….he laughed and played…and was still laughing when the medical crew left with him rolling his bed to surgery.

Rutledge had been promised a popsicle as soon as the procedure was over (by the nurses)….but by the time Mollie and I got to the recovery room Rutledge was still out like a light.

However, later, as he was coming to…he remembered the popsicle…I had forgotten he said “orange” and ordered a purple “grape” (right color scheme anyway) so I had to physically track down the nurse for the right flavor.

He was so drowsy he couldn’t open his eyes and  kept hitting the popsicle on his forehead or nose…anywhere but his mouth…still he held on tight…no one was taking that hard-earned popsicle from him. It was his “shining, shivery” reward of delight for waiting.

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*Christmas didn’t have to wait long at the Turners…they got back Saturday from Huntsville, Alabama and the tree and house (inside and out) decorations went up Sunday. It really got me in the spirit!

Catch-up Family Photos of the Ya’s…..Loving on Ya!

Tommy and Kailtyn have the cutest tree around….loving on it!

*Today is the first day of December….Say “Rabbit” and hold on tight…it’s going to be a wild ride!”