It's catch up time again! This one was one that I started back in early November and just kept forgetting about it. It's fitting that today I actually post it since I need to be reminded of how blessed I am!
When we lived in Texarkana I felt like our boys were a little famous. I would get stopped by people in the store telling me they had seen my family at church and just think they are so cute. Or my teacher friends would ask where was I last night, as they explained they saw my boys at the store with Dad and not me. At daycare, the ladies would just sigh and say “here comes the Allen boys”. On the Boarder didn’t need a name when they put us on the waiting list. Crazy, but good crazy. I am proud to say my boys stand out 1- because there are so many of them, 2- they are cuties, 3- they behave (for the most part) and 4- they are crowd pleasers! Then when you add Makaela into the mix and we get even more comments.
Around here we are just now getting to the point where we are running into people that have seen us before. The best was when we were eating at our new Mexican food favorite, our waiter at the end of the meal mentioned that he had seen us in the restaurant before. He also said that he thought our family was a “utopian” family- John and I were shocked! One the boys were not at their best that day, two Utopian???? That was a first. I had to look up the definition just to make sure I was understanding the kid right. The definition is “any real or imaginary society, place, state, etc, considered to be perfect or ideal.” Not sure if many people would consider our lives to be ideal or even perfect, but this young waiter did. I thought it was a little funny, because it never fails when John and I are frustrated with the boys the most; we get a comment from someone that makes us take a step back.
We do have an Utopian family. There are two parents that love each other. We have healthy, happy, and good kids. We have four wonderful boys that help around the house, are thoughtful, loving, funny, and just awesome. We have a little girl who is smart, sweet, curious, fearless, beautiful and lovable. John has a good job that provides us with an opportunity for me to stay at home. We have a nice home with big backyard for the kids, 2 vehicles that work, and more stuff than we really need. We have family that wants to be around us and will help with the kids or whatever needed. We’ve got it good!
I know that waiter was a messenger. It felt like I got knocked upside the head when I heard his words. Of course it came from God. He knows that sometimes we can get wrapped up in the day to day, the routines, and everything else that we forget what we have. And that day I guess, God felt like He had to do something big to get our attention. He didn’t have the normal “what good kids you have”, “they are all so cute”, etc. that we seem to always get. We got “utopian” to remind us that, this is IDEAL, this is PERFECT, so APPRECIATE IT!
On the way home after dinner that night. We talked about that we really do have good kids. We also told the boys how good they were, how others watch them and see what they are doing and tell us about it. We thanked them for trying so hard to be good and to do what’s right.
Thank you God for our Utopian Family.
