Hero of the week...

Let me start this weeks hero edition off with a little back ground on my family, mostly me. I am probably the most over-protective mother in the world. It's true, I'm out there. I've accepted it, so have my kids, don't try to get me to change, or convince me of the error of my ways, it won't work, move on. Anyway, I don't really let people watch my kids much. I mean, if it is for an hour or two I will hire a babysitter. If it's longer than that my mom watches them, if she can't I usually take them with me, or just miss out. And it isn't just that, even if I do trust someone completely I start worrying about inconveniencing them, or about my kids being totally out of control or something, so I just don't ask anyone. Anyway, this isn't always an easy thing, especially since I moved away from our family, it usually means that I have to miss out on things that I really want to do. Usually it is easy to get over, but every once in a while it hurts. Last Wednesday was shaping up to be one of those days. I am a Young Women's leader in our ward, and we were taking the girls to the Draper Temple open house. I so wanted to go, but I didn't have anyone to watch the kids while I went, and because of liability rules of our ward I couldn't take the kids with us. Then I remembered my friend Melissa. We have been friends for a long time, we met when I was the day care provider for her kids, and we developed a friendship. Her family has been there through all of our "hard stuff" over the last four and a half years, and now we are blessed to live near each other again, and get to see each other fairly often. Over the last year or so I have watched her three darling girls a few times like during soft ball tournaments, doing volunteer work, and just recently cute little Hannah stayed six days with us. Each time Melissa tells me that she owes me big, and even went so far as to print up tickets good for hours of babysitting. I really had no intention of actually cashing in, but I really wanted to go to the temple, so I got up the courage and asked Melissa. Not only did she agree to do it, she said she would be EXCITED to do it, and she actually sounded like she was, so I felt pretty good about it. Then the day before I was going to take the kids to her house she called to ask some questions about Ethan's special diet so she would be sure to have stuff that he could eat, and she could put away the stuff that he couldn't. WHAT!?! She remembered that Ethan has a diet, and not only that, but wanted to follow it! Then I took the kids to her house. They were there for a LONG time, like eight hours. When I went to get them Melissa was still my friend! Ethan had been his usual self, but Melissa had stuck to the rules. She stuck to the rules of our behavior plan, she stuck to the discipline rules, she had stuck with it even when he was trying to push her buttons, and she had enforced the diet even when he tried to sneak other food every chance he got. And how did she know what to do? It wasn't because I had given her a nine page list of instructions (I had written one, but I forgot it at home:) She listens to me when I talk about Ethan! She listens when I talk about his struggles and his triumphs. She listens to me when we try something new. She listens when we find things that work and when we find things that don't work. Why does she listen? Because she is a good friend, and good friends care about what is important to their friends, whether or not they would ordinarily care about it, whether or not they understand it, or whether or not they agree with it.

You have no idea how much it meant to me to be able to go with my young women and not have to worry about my kids. I never get to do things like that. It was one of the nicest things anyone has done for me for a really long time, like really, I still tear up when I think about it. So thanks to Melissa, my Hero of the week, (She's not only a hero because of this, but maybe I will tell you more about her another time:) And thanks to the whole Skinner family, for being so accepting of our family. And thanks to good friends, I have been blessed with so many good friends, and appreciate each one of you for everything you do.