Signs

This morning after dropping the kids off at school I was thinking about the M. Night Shyamalan movie, "Signs." In the beginning Mel Gibson's character is a former Priest named Graham who had lost his faith in God a few years earlier when his wife (and mother of his young children) was hit by a car and killed. As she died in her husband's arms, she gave a couple of words of counsel, but only told him to "see," and also "tell Merrill to swing away," which made no sense to him - it seemed like just the random last firings of neurons in her brain. This was crushing to his faith.

The movie introduces a cast of characters with quirky characteristics and difficult life circumstances - the Priest's brother Merrill is a washed-up former Baseball champion; his daugher has a habit of leaving half-full water glasses around "because they taste funny" to her; his son has life-threatening athsma. The plot is weird and unsettling as an alien attack ensues - which is a circumstance which pretty much negates the notion that a loving God could be watching out for the inhabitants of earth. Mass suffering occurs and the destruction of the human race is imminent as the indestructible aliens release a poisonous gas into the air... until the day that the approaching aliens reach the home of this Priest and his family. In one climactic moment wherein an alien is holding the little boy, poisoning him with gas in their family room, the father remembers the phrase his wife uttered as she died: "Tell Merrill to swing away." There is a baseball bat hung on the wall above Merrill's head, and he yells "Swing away Merrill, swing away!!" Merrill grabs the bat and his mighty swing causes the alien to drop the little boy, whose falling body knocks his sister's half-full water glasses onto the alien, and the water kills it. The little boy's athsma has stopped his breathing.... which made him unable to inhale the poison. All of the seemingly random circumstances - even the difficult ones - ended up being divinely placed to eventually save the family in their most desperate need (and they even ended up saving humankind by discovering that water would stop the aliens). In the final scene Graham puts his Priest collar back on and goes back to church.

As I wrote yesterday, I had a quiet but powerful answer to my prayer yesterday, and although it wasn't life or death, it felt like a big deal to me. The sudden knowledge that "Stone was fine" and then the inspiration of how to approach the principal and teacher, and their receptivity and warm hearts helped me feel that God was aware of me, which something I want to feel all the time but often don't. Then yesterday after school, predictably, Sophie had a cry about not wanting to go to school. I forgot to mention that yesterday when we went to meet with the principal, I looked out the office window and saw the 1st graders going out to recess. Sophie walked out all alone and just watched everyone. I had to look away from the window, and even writing this now I am full of tears. I kept repeating yesterday "this is good for her, this is good for her, she has to develop the strength to deal with this!" but I have been praying earnestly for friends for all of my children to make this time easier for them.

So this morning Lindsay and Lucy skipped excitedly into the school again, and I was left with an anxious-looking Sophie holding around my waist and Stone hiding behind a pillar. As we inched closer to the door, a couple with a little girl approached us with big smiles and introduced themselves. "This is Carlota - she is in your daughter's class and they sit right next to each other." I replied "Oh yes, Sophie told me about her! She said she was so excited because the nicest girl in the class sits right next to her! I am so happy to meet you!" They said "Carlota told us last night that Sophie was a little bit teary yesterday, and that at recess she stands alone because she doesn't understand the games everyone is playing. So Carlota said she would like to be Sophie's special friend and stay with her in class and at recess and she can explain things to her when she doesn't understand." Maybe I'm just overly emotional right now, but my eyes filled with tears again and all I could think to say was just "That is so beautiful. Thank you. Thank you so much." Carlota took Sophie's hand with a big smile and they walked in together, and I swear it looked to me like those two parents had light around them - they were glowing. 

I then walked Stone to the door - Sophie had taken up my attention during critical Stone-pep-talk time and I could tell it was going to be tricky. I crouched down to go eye-to-eye with him and he immediately bear hugged around my neck. We started talking about Nephi being courageous, about Grandpa going to a new country and learning a new language when he was Stone's age, and of course about the "bonker thing! bonker thing!" but nothing was helping. Then next to us appeared the principal, who with a warm smile said "Stone, I need a helper here at the door. Will you hold my hand and be my helper for awhile?" I translated for Stone, and he relaxed as he saw her calm spirit and outstretched hand. He looked at me and perked up and said "Oh yeah, she said you can come get me at recess, right?" I said "Right! I'll get you at recess and then we'll go to the park for a play date with Isaac (his American friend)!" And he kissed me, said "Bye, Mom!" and walked away with the principal.

I was overwhelmed as I walked away from the school - I thought about how alone and self-doubting and worried about my children I had felt yesterday, and into my mind came a quote by Spencer W. Kimball,

"God does notice us, and he watches over us, but it is usually through another person that he meets our needs."

I felt warmth and joy rush into my heart as I thought of:

-The fact that whenever I have felt confused or dark during the past 6 months, I have felt a quiet voice saying "Go to Spain," and I have known there were things that our family needed to learn here.
-The moment we heard two women speaking English in the line at the District Office, and it turned out there was a beautiful, lovely American family here for the exact length of time having similar experiences. It turned out that neither of us needed to be in the building at that time - she told me she waited in that long line only to find out at the end that she was in the wrong place. I think we were both there because we needed to meet each other.
-The outpouring of love from my friends and family after they read my blog post last week. 

-The good feeling I had when I saw Colegio San Isidoro for the very first time, and the kindness of the entire staff.

-The kindness of Lindsay and Lucy's teachers and classmates.

-The timeliness of a Wall Street Journal article our friend Rich sent yesterday (so reassuring to me after I had been questioning why we're making our kids do such hard things):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443819404577635352783638934.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

-The willingness of Stone's teacher to work with us
-The extra-mile kindness of the principal

-The calm and complete assurance yesterday that Stone was ok, when that was not what I was feeling at all, and

-The goodness and Christ-like love of that sweet family. To think that I was praying for a friend for my children, and somewhere in Sevilla in that family's home, they were speaking Sophie's name and making a plan to help her feel welcome. 

There are signs everywhere that God is real and he is aware of us. We just need to open our eyes, be patient, and choose to see them.