The Kindness of Strangers

Today started out pretty uneventful. Ian came down with the stomach flu Monday afternoon (of course, we were on a field trip that I had planned). Poor kid, he started feeling yucky right before we left to go to the pumpkin patch and since I had arranged the trip and there wasn't time to call anyone to cover, we had to go. You know your child doesn't feel well when he keeps his head between his knees on a hayrack ride! We made it through, barely and a few short hours later, Ian was sicker than a dog. He started feeling better late Tuesday, but I didn't want him to over do it, so I kept him home from Awana tonight.
We did have to go into town to pick up Pepper, the miniature schnauzer we are dog sitting for a week. I know, we're nuts, having three dogs in our house. So far so good. I was worried about how Buster would get along with Pepper, but they're fine. The biggest problem is the big baby, Dilly. She has too much energy! I tell you, I think Pepper and Buster look at her, shake their heads and mutter something about "kids!"
Since I was in the big city and I needed my allergy shot, we headed over to Group Health, where Ian was having a cow about his shoe being untied. Yes, Ian is 7 and still hasn't mastered shoe tying! I blame it on rain boots! Ian's only had one or two pairs of velcro shoes because I think they slow down the process of learning to tie shoes. However, living in the rainy state of Washington pretty much requires rain boots, which Ian is happy to wear year round (or at least until he can wear sandals). Which is why he can't tie shoes. I have tried to get him going with the shoe tying for 2 years. I got him a cute book to practice with that showed all the steps...not interested. I tried showing him myself and getting him to practice so he could learn...not interested. In fact, that led to hissy fits because 'it was too hard'. He wanted to instantly be good at it without any practice. Finally, I told him he had a deadline. 3 weeks and then he had to be tying his shoes by himself. I was trying to get him to see the need to practice!
Anyway, there we are sitting in Group Health after I had gotten my shot and was waiting my 30 minutes and Ian starts having a cow because his shoe is untied and he wants me to tie it for him, but I want him to at least try to tie it himself before I help him. He's whining and fussing when an older lady in a wheelchair comes up and asks if Ian is a good boy (she sort of states it...like she just knows he's a good boy), to which Ian replies he's no good. He meant no good at tying shoes so I explain that. That leads to a mom and her young teenage son commenting. The son says his sister taught him how to tie shoes and the mom tells a little of the story. In the meantime, the son comes over and starts showing Ian how to tie shoes. He shows him a couple of times and before I knew what had happened, Ian tied his shoes!!! Amazing! He'll still need to practice a bit, but he's pretty much got it as long as he keeps at it.
So I'm saying thanks to God for sending this young man into our life for 20 minutes. It sure helped Ian and it saved us both a lot of frustration! Isn't God cool to do that for us?