feeling grateful

me & chelsea

while shopping for our first house, it quickly became clear that we were going to have to move some ways away to get the things in a home, neighborhood, school that we felt were important. relocating was nothing new for us, but it was harder this time. i told brian that i felt like we had (finally) made a life for our family in chino. our beloved doctor, pre-school, neighbors, clients, and friends were there. brian reminded me that our lives were wherever our family was. which is true, but the move put 15 miles between us and our people. making yesterdays events even more problematic.

i dropped miley off at school first thing, headed for dr. liu who confirmed that levi and mia did indeed have ear infections, filled prescriptions, and headed back to get miley. i was listening to the kiddos happily devour their lunches in one ear and an audiobook in the other as we approached miley's school exit at freeway speeds. the exploding sound of a jet landing on the freeway caused me to rip the headphone out of my ear and frantically survey my surroundings. it took me a few seconds to realize the noise was my rear driver side tire exploding.

we pulled safely onto the shoulder and all i could think about was getting miley from school. in two minutes her class would be getting out. i called chelsea, who despite being 15 miles away, was still my closest person. she had been pulling up to the grocery store with an incredibly long grocery list when i called. she instantly turned her van full of boys around and sped off in the direction of my little girl. miley's teacher asked if the friend coming to pick her up was on her emergency card, which of course she is :).

then things got interesting. while talking to the aaa dispatcher, levi tried to escape out his half open window. i grabbed his foot to pull him back in the car, smacking his face on the window in the process. he turned his screaming face to me as i was reading my membership number to kind lady on the other end of the phone. he had a swollen line across the bridge of his nose and his eyes weren't focusing. then, he started choking on the lunch he'd been chewing. after jumping into the back seat and pounding his back, the food dislodged, his beautiful blues focused solidly on me, and i finished making arrangements for a tow truck.

i'm so very grateful for my dear chelsea, who never hesitates. and for those of you who are even further than 15 miles. the people who would be with me on the shoulder of the freeway if natural laws allowed it. ya'll build a virtual cocoon around our family. thick, silky, protective layers of love.

thank you. all of you.