Bakersfield Friends

Sunday April-26-09 Bakersfield Ca.

Last night in the hotel lobby Jonah and I met Somer and her two kiddos, Nickole and Jacob! God put them in the room next to us, and we planned to hang out after her children had their baths! We quickly became friends as the three kids jumped on the bed in the hotel room, and we chatted about life. It was our last night in Cali, as we were headed to Arizona after the show closed this evening. They were there because of some unfortunate things going on with their home, but what a blessing in disguise, for if they hadn't come to stay, we wouldn't have met them!

We went to church with them this morning, and then to McD's for some apples and fun! After several trips to the bathroom, and lots of laughter, we headed to the park, first stopping by the hotel for some park-appropriate attire. Somehow, a skirt wasn't designed with the intention to chase kiddos in the playground!

We had fun chatting between the frequent sprints to stop the two year olds from running into absolute misfortune. Sammo tested my sprinting ability(and my heart strength) when he went climbing the curved ladder made for a teenager's leg span, and put in place just to insure parental supervision of anyone under four foot. It was so unbelievable that it should have been caught on video! He started climbing, and I started sprinting. With each rung that was left behind as he climbed, I ran harder and faster. Buckets of sand were flung into the air as my feet dug into the ground, propelling me closer to my child. He reached the horizontal section of the ladder just as I slid into arm's reach...he lost his grip and his body slipped through the fifth and sixth rungs, and I caught him! A collective sigh of relief was heard throughout the park-all from parents in sprint position ready to intercept, had I missed! His top half fell fist, and the only thing left holding the rungs when I caught his belly in my arms, was his left ankle. He would have landed on his head and neck. Praise the Lord for that burst of Super Mom Power when our young are in danger! I can't run that fast to save my own life! Good thing I changed out of that skirt!

After the excitement had died down we were handed a ticket for free pizza and an entry form for a basketball drawing. The local Calvary church was doing a youth outreach, so we went to check it out(mostly to take advantage of the chance to sit for a moment of rest!) We met some really nice teens, and all four of the kiddos had their names put in the drawing. After some time to down some pizza and visit, Nickole was asked to draw the name of the winning child, from the tub of names. She drew Samson's name! What fun! Steve was wanting to get the boys a basketball, and now Sammo had won one! Thanks Nickole! You are excellent at drawing names!

We shared excitement and good lessons(as it was hard for Jonah and Nickole to accept that Sam had won), and then Somer and I had spotted the Lord's saving grace! We were tired of running, but knew our time together was nearing it's end, so we didn't want to leave yet. Just a hop, skip, and a jump away, was the fenced in tennis courts! Wonderful!!! The kids could run and bounce the new bball, and we could sit in the shade and chat some more! It was quite nice! They played and ran and bounced and played and sat and played and bounced some more until Steve called and it was time for us to pick him up and start our journey to Arizona!

Nickole and Jonah had to be torn apart. Jacob and Samson are two, so they didn't care much that we were leaving. Somer and I exchanged info and thanked each other for the new friendship. We drove off, Sammy passed out from the fun of the day, Jonah asking if Nickole could come to our hotel room to jump on the bed, and me thankful that the Lord loves me enough to connect me to a sister 800+ miles from home!

We picked up Daddy, played for a short time, packed our life back into the truck, and headed to Jody's house in Tucson Arizona, almost 600 miles away!