rewarded

This morning I was feeling a bit frantic, I had to drop Theo off at school and then run to Carter's Veteran's appreciation assembly and I was doing this all by foot.  Luckily, we live just around the corner from Theo's preschool and fairly close to Carter's school.  She does take the bus to and from school, because it's not that close and today, just happens to be a day that I am car less.  As I was walking to Carter's school, trudging through huge piles of leaves, leaning as far over on the shoulder of a busy non-sidewalk street, I started to complain in my head and whine to God about the injustices of my life, why we don't have a 2nd car (which we made by choice) etc.  By the time I got to Carter's school I was in a pretty bad mood, with wind blown hair and a runny nose from the cold crisp air and pretty much over all annoyed.  I was really wishing that I had skipped the whole thing as I really doubted that it matter much to Carter if I was there or not.  However, as I sat through that assembly I was deeply moved that even in this very liberal state and at a public school, the children sang songs that not only had God in them but were also very moving. God Bless America, the pledge of Allegiance,  What a Wonderful World, etc. and then I noticed that my Carter kept turning around and waving to me and her little friends turned to wave too.  I started to feel very grateful despite the fact that our lives are far from the life we had in New York, I had much to be thankful for.  After the assembly Carter ran over to me an gave me a big hug and asked if I liked the songs and a bunch of her classmates gave me a hug too. After I said goodbye, I heard Carter say to one of her classmates "I love my mom" and then my heart swelled and I realized I would walk 5 or more miles on the side of a busy street with no sidewalk's, so that my daughter (and son) know that I am present in their lives, that they matter to me, that I choose them.  I am so very blessed and although I often feel discouraged about our life here in Washington I also know that God cares so deeply for our little family.  I need to remember to look at what might seem like such little words (I love my mom) and reap that reward.