Let Me Tell You About My Friend Dixie...

My friend Dixie offers to care for my kids ALL THE TIME! She is amazing and selfless and cotinually impresses me with her servant's heart. I even try to talk her out of it often, but she insists. She always says that it actually makes her job easier, but I don't know if I believe her ;-)

Earlier this week I was talking about how Mother's Day is kind of a bummer for me because Rich is always attending commencement at the college and is gone all day. I think when your kids are older and more like upstanding citizens you actually want to spend Mother's Day with them. But when they are preschoolers you want to hear their little voices say "Happy Mother's Day", coo over the handmade cards, maybe receive a slobbery smooch, and then HIGH TAIL it out of there for some "me time".

Anyway, as we were talking, she offered to watch my kids so I could have a Mother's Day to myself. Now, let me repeat that. Dixie has two kids of her own and she offered to watch my kids as well on MOTHER'S DAY! That is the kind of person she is. Anyway, as usual, I said, "that is so nice of you, but I would NEVER ask you too do that!".

Fast forward to Thursday afternoon when I received a call from Rich's Division chair about the award he would be receiving at Commencement on Sunday (Mother's Day). He said they wanted to let me know so I could be there, but that seating was limited so they would be stretching to get me a seat. As I hang up the phone, I'm thinking about who in the world I'll be able to get to watch my kids on Mother's Day. I've tried this before and it is impossible. Everyone is spending the day with their mothers or are mothers themselves. And then I remember the conversation with Dixie.

With a very guilty conscious, I give her a call. "Remember that conversation we had the other day and how I said I would NEVER ask you to watch my kids on Mother's Day? Well..." Dixie, as usual was so gracious and didn't even bat an eye at helping me out with this. Isn't that amazing? She is a true friend. Dixie, I love you and I thank you!