Annal 106: Tale from all my Children

You know that scene in that book or movie where the heroine returns home and all of the older ladies of her church/community ask her about her love life or when she is going to have children?  Well I got to have my own variation of that last night.

My home church was having a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for its tweens group.  They did a lovely job of serving and the food was quite tasty (and this is coming from the woman who was sick on spaghetti as a child and as a result has a psychological dislike for the food--I can eat it and my tastebuds will tell me it is yummy, but my brain will tell me I don't like it).  My pastor's little girl was carrying around a baby doll throughout the evening and for some reason decided I was the only person present capable of taking care of this doll for her.  She would randomly appear at the side of my chair and hand me her doll.  I then had to cuddle it and give it back.  She stopped doing this just in time for another little girl to come up to me.  This darling motioned to a little boy who was running around and asked me if he was mine.  After pointing out his real mother to this girl, she too decided I needed a child.  She went off in search of a different baby doll and would repeatedly give this child to me to watch as well.

So for whatever reason, everything about me last night screamed motherhood.  I hadn't realized I seemed to maternal!

I then returned home after the banquet and my one brother and sister-in-law had come over to celebrate my dad's birthday.  My sister-in-law pulled out a box of mints, handed them to me, and told me she saw them and thought of me.

And so I thought I should share the image with all of you!  Every time I looked at the package last night I couldn't help but break out laughing!

And so thus far I am really enjoying being home for Christmas.  I had only a brief moment of true awkwardness when I ran into a friend at the grocery store who appeared to really not want to chat with me... at all.  Making the decision to leave the church I left last year definitely has impacted relationships I had through that church, and while that is hard and I sometimes feel as if I am walking around with some sort of scarlet letter on me, the adjustment to being back has gone smoother than I thought it would.

I am convinced that one day I will right a story based on some of these experiences, and by golly the co-worker who is convinced it is some great evil that I am single and the little girls who want me to have babies will make their way into this story!

Such is the life of a Christian single.