A GRATEFUL HEART…….

You know….sometimes it’s hard to remember to have a grateful heart. I want to remember to have a grateful heart. I don’t know how many times I have fervently prayed for something to happen and then when it does, I forget to turn right to God and say thank you. More often, I remember to complain when my prayers are NOT answered. I also want to interject here that that is Black Magic on my right…..you must be all getting sick to death of my Black Magic with a White Twist creations, but sorry to say, I am not…..it’s my favorite technique and one I return to time and time again. For those of you NOT sick or it, or better yet, NEW to it, scroll down a few blog entries for a tutorial. Now, below this card is an emboss resist snowflake card- emboss in white and then smear with color – another favorite technique of mine. Okay, back to the subject at hand which is having a grateful heart…..can I tell you a story of something that happened to me that gave me a grateful heart – so grateful that the feelings swelled up inside me and I cried my little eyes out? About…..oh……maybe….who really knows, 5 or 6 months ago, I got an email from my daughter Jen and it said, Mom, Tovah asked me to ask Gramma Karen to please send her some pretty hair ribbons…….oh my….that’s all I need to hear from one of my 7 sweet grand daughters. Tovah and Lami live in the Congo, East Africa where their parents are missionaries, and hair ribbon I am thinking is pretty scarce. Anyone who knows me knows that I probably did not stop at sending them a few little hair ribbons. I think I sent enough ribbon so that when they have children of their own, (Tovah and Lami that is)there just may still be some left. 🙂 I packaged up a really sweet little package with lets see…..polka dot ribbons in at least 6 different colors, white satin ribbon, organdy ribbon, gros grain ribbon, and we are talking SPOOLS here people….every color their little hearts could desire……fat ribbons, skinny ribbons, elegant ribbons, and cute ribbons. Then of course a good gramma can’t JUST send RIBBON, lets see,what
else can I throw in there….Starburst, no chocolate to melt but Starburst would be okay, and Lip gloss, cotton candy, watermelon, mango, and strawberry….let’s see, what else can I throw in there, a few stickers would be sure to bring smiles to their pretty little faces…..and of course- birthday cards…..so i made them each a House Mouse card,,,,and I even found one for Tovah who dreams of being a ballerina – of a House Mouse ballerina!! (Tovah once told me that when she grows up she wants to be a ballerina animal vet dentist – hmmmm….that would give her quite a trade to fall back on, eh?)So I made two quite beautiful cards for their birthdays, all pink and pretty….and I put it all into a little mailer along with a piece of my heart and mailed it to the Congo. Little package cost me like $20+ just to send if I remember correctly, and in hind sight, I probably should not have sent that much ribbon overseas to a country that does not have the best track record for getting packages to where they are supposed to go…..but you know what they say about hind sight……..So as the weeks went by I sort of dreamed of how excited they would be when my little package finally got to them. The other one of my grand daughter’s who loves hair ribbon is Layla….but Layla is a little lady. Most of the time it is the feminine side of Layla that you see. Tovah on the other hand, though she LOOKS just as feminine can go from feminine to rough and tumble tom boy in the blink of an eye. But this little girl LOVES hair ribbon and pony tails, and tutus. So I would imagine her squealing with delight when she got my package, and it would make me warm all over……and it sorta eases some of the deep pain I can feel just missing them so badly that tears are always just right there, ready to make their way down my cheeks…..Every couple of weeks I would say in an email, “Jen, did you
get the package yet with the hair ribbons?” and it was always returned with, “Not yet mom, but it can take a long time – we’ll keep watching….” In the meantime I sent another big package out with someone traveling out there from their mission and I kep thinking why oh why did I try to send thru the regular post office…..my heart was breaking thinking they will never get that package…..some other little girls are enjoying it somewhere……and I would try to be happy about that. I even prayed about it quite a bit and my prayers would go something like this, “Now I realize that in the grand scheme of things, what with wars, and rumors of wars, famine, hunger, poverty, abuse of all kinds, etc etc etc and the list goes on, that my little package to Tovah and Lami is small stuff…..but Lord if they could just get that package I will feel so happy…..I will feel so blessed….I will be so grateful…..because I sent a piece of my heart out with that package and somehow picturing those two girls with ribbon in their hair and lip gloss smeared up to their cute little noses and mouths full of Starbursts…..while they squeal over the cute cards I made them……well Lord…..it just eases my pain somehow…..but I do know it’s small stuff God……and as the months dragged on, I figured I was right, it was small stuff, and I should just be happy to think of some little girls somewhere enjoying my gift to Tovah and Lami. Somehow, that was not a lot of comfort. I asked Jen again and again and again and
again, “No ribbon package yet, huh?” and then one day she said, “I am going to ask Davis to ask again because recently one came that had been mailed months and months ago from Gramma Crocetti.” Interject here, the card above this is just watercoloring – but this one to the left I am pretty proud of as I threw away 3 or 4 attempts at sketching on this silhouette stamp before I made this one I love….pretty sweet, huh? Back to my story……while getting ready for work the other day my cell phone dinged or whatever to let me know I had a text. Jen and I have discovered we can text – such joy!!! I went over and picked up the phone and thot “Oh no, something must be the matter because we just talked on Saturday,,,,I hope they are safe, etc etc etc which is what ALWAYS goes thru my mind when I am about to hear from them and this is what my text said…..and I quote, “davis found the package! thank u lord!! the girls r putting on lip balm now:)” I just sat down at my kitchen table and cried so hard I had to go put my face back on for work before I left the house. Thank you Lord…..my girls by now are smeared up to their cute little noses and I am sure they have ribbons in their hair by now and Starburst in their mouths and they are squealing over the mouse cards……Thank you Lord, that you love me enough to really truly care about my small stuff. All is right wtih the world, Tovah has her hair ribbons from Gramma Karen! Until next time – remember – God really does care about the small stuff!!!