Coincidence?

Today I took Clara and Emma to run errands while Grace was at a friend's house. As I drove into Caldwell, passing the place where we would turn to go to Dad's and Mom's, I looked in their direction, a little sadly. I just don't get out there as often lately and I thought to myself that I wished I had time to run out to visit or help but thought I'd better get the shopping done as we were low on quite a few foods.

We ran to the bank, the bread store and finally, to really complete the whole experience, we went to Winco, the "big grocery store, great prices, do it yourself and save type place".

It was an average afternoon at Winco. People in all the isles but only some of them clogged up. We did really well for quite awhile.

Emma is terrific. I love shopping with her. When it's just her or her and Clara. She rides in the basket, nicely, with her seat belt on, pointing occasionally at something wonderful like Lucky Charms and exclaiming, "MOM, those.. I want them!!" I, in my mad dashing shopping manner reply, " NOOOO, well now I mean, Emma, those are nice but they are more for like Christmas, they're just not that good for us you know." Emma is just cool, very seldom asks again. She's just quiet, thinking, probably about Christmas breakfasts. I just love it. Lots of happy emotion but not so much begging, pleading and weeping for things as someone else I know right now, who is maybe about five years old and must sneak out at night for drama classes.

Anyway, today Clara was doing ok but pretty sure she was not sure about this shopping frenzy. I kept handing her things to look at, jars of baby food, cans of refried beans, 12 roll packs of toilet paper, (she looked cute peeking out from under that). She was in her car seat in the basket and the food piled up around her while Emma waved around happily from the seat. About 3/4 of the way through the list, Clara's whimpers turned into crying. Pressure was starting to build. I had a big list, time limit, full basket, busy store, crying baby. Hmmmm. Well,,,,, I was staring at the bulk foods, trying to figure out if I should buy cous cous for the first time or maybe semolina if I could just find it in all these bins with strange granular substances in them. When, who should MAGICALLY appear, right there in the bulk foods isle?? Non other than my very own DAD! How very, very amusing. We both live in different towns, maybe 25 miles away, not in exactly the same direction, neither of us make even a weekly trip to Winco, I go maybe once a month. What, tell me, WHAT are the odds?....

We had a nice, rather quick visit. Dad was sick and probably lightly fevering but not feeling too bad. Clara was gathering breath for a nice big screaming fit so off we went to finish our list, all the while watching for "Grandpa Rod". I was hoping we'd check out with Dad but not holding out much hope for it. Emma kept her eye out for him while I held Clara, talking in her ear and giving in to the urge to kiss her fuzzy head. She cooed to me while I pushed my heavy, loaded basket, and threw cereal, produce, and salad dressing into the basket. (I am not sure but I think I may have thrown some cereal into someone else's basket too by mistake.)

By the time we got to the check out, Dad was already starting to pay but we got in the line next to his just to look at him for comfort as Clara was going to scream while I loaded all the groceries onto the conveyor belt, paid, and then bagged all my own groceries.

Why, why do I go to these "bag your own" places with babies and toddlers? It should just be illegal. For the health of us mothers, they should just not allow us to bring them in there, I say.

As I started to try to pack my huge load of groceries, Clara began the predicted screaming match. Dad was getting ready to walk out but noticing the scene I was making decided he'd better try to help. He put away his dignity and approached, ducking in and grabbing toilet paper here, and bags of produce there, gingerly trying to fit them in around screaming Clara. I wish I could have had time to look at the people around us. I just wonder what they were thinking.

We finally left, Dad asking me if I wanted to check my two foot long receipt for mistakes. I said no, I just wasn't going to. He helped us out to the van, loading kids and groceries, shivering a little because of his bit of fever and the coldish wind. We hugged when everything was loaded and as he was starting to walk off and we were saying, "glad I ran into you", I stopped and said, "you don't believe it was a coincidence do you?"

I knew his answer would be no, of course, but I was surprised when he said, "No, and when I was on my way over I called Lydia. She had just called the house and left a message but I had already left and had no idea!"

It's no coincidence. Just a great Dad, and a Heavenly one too, watching over us, trying to make things easier for us. Thanks so much Dad! Thanks to a Heavenly Father too for every little blessing.