One Scoop or Two?

Just this morning I got a FB message from a friend whose husband is traveling for the first time in their young marriage.  She encouraged me by saying she remembers how I used to have to "hold up the fort" in Africa when we had three young boys and my hubby was traveling.

Immediately two scenes come to mind, and both involve three little boys, a broken generator, and Kris on a long trip.  Our boys were young, the littlest one still nursing, and Kris had to travel out of the country.  In our dusty little home in the desert, when Kris "got to" travel outside the country, I always fought jealousy...and things always went wrong.  On this particular trip, the generator broke.

We had a generator for the frequent power outages.  At 120 degrees, once the electricity went out, it was only a matter of seconds before we were sweating and tearfully praying for the power to return.  In the mean time we'd crank up our old half-working generator.  Sometimes it worked. On this particular day it did not.

So the first scene that pops into my head is me sitting on the bed trying to nurse my baby.  It is hot as you-know-what and I am dripping sweat.  The last thing I want is a warm little baby body up next to me and I can't understand why my baby would want to drink milk at a time like this.  Logic, of course, flies out the window when one is hot!  I can't help but imagine his little baby belly full of curdled milk.

The second scene that comes to mind is later that day.  I can't get the generator to start and am about to go out of my mind with the heat and three little heat-struck younguns.  I call the generator company in town and use my very best Arabic to tell them the problem.  The man tells me that since I had a friend look at the generator before calling them, the warranty is void.  WHAT?  I explain that my friend didn't touch anything on the generator but he maintains that the warranty is now no good.

"You had some one else look at it, that is the problem," he says to me in Arabic.  And here is proof that our deepest feelings can only be expressed in our heart language:  because I burst out in English, loud English, angry English.  I am pretty sure the loud and angry part translate pretty well even if the words do not.

"THAT'S not the problem!" I say, my voice escalating, "You know what the problem is?  The problem is my HUSBAND is gone and I am HOT!!!!  And I have three little boys and THEY are HOT.  WE NEED THE GENERATOR TO WORK!!!"

Those of you who know me can see the humor in all of this, as I have never yelled at a single soul.  But that day, I found my limit!  So here is my limit:  120 degree heat, husband gone, a preschooler, a toddler, a nursing baby, no ceiling fan, and news that my warranty is void.  That's my limit y'all, now you know.

As bad as I felt about the yelling episode, it did get the results I wanted.  The man paused for a second and then replied in Arabic, "We will come right over."

They honored the warranty and fixed the generator.  We got some air circulating in the house.  I did not hurt anyone, we all survived!  I felt a mixture of accomplishment that I'd figured out a way to fix the problem and guilt that I'd resorted to yelling at someone to do so.

So what do we learn from that?  I guess I learned my limit. That generator man learned not to mess with foreign ladies who are suffering from the heat!  And maybe we can all just learn to laugh at ourselves a little more.  I started, now it's your turn!  Laugh at the crazy things you've done when you reached YOUR limit!