When You Just Know

Sometimes, there comes a moment when you just know. And this morning was one of those moments.

Looking back, I can see the path that was so carefully carved out to put me at that exact place at that exact moment. It didn't make sense at the time, but it's blindingly obvious now.

The weeks the girlz spend at Camp Arrowhead are awesome, but require an enormous amount of preparation and planning. We often run late, which makes our typical morning very hectic and rushed.

We've been feeding a neighbor's cat for the last few weeks and they're due to return early this afternoon. We always check on the cat in the evening, but Campbell wanted to go next door this morning and say goodbye to Mr. Pretty Kitty before our neighbors returned. A very sweet idea, but it was one more thing to cram into an already too-short window of time.

On top of all that, I somehow needed to squeeze in a quick trip to the grocery store before work.

The stage was set for an ugly, crazy morning.

Campbell and I checked on the cat, and then I worked on getting everyone dressed, fed, packed up, sunscreened, bug sprayed, teeth brushed, hair brushed, and pottied. When we pulled into the camp parking lot, I noticed we had arrived a full 10 minutes early. Now how did that happen?!?

It definitely didn't make sense, but I didn't think too much of it. I walked the girlz to the lodge, gave them each a kiss, and made one last visual check to ensure we didn't forget anyone or anything. Everything appeared to be in order, which I chalked up to a mid-summer miracle. Hooray!

Since I had 10 extra minutes, there was ample time to stop by the Food Dog for groceries. But instead of going to the closest store, I passed two different Food Dogs and went to the one by the dance studio. I didn't really know why, but that was what my gut was telling me to do... so that's what I did.

I gathered up our groceries and took my place in the checkout line behind a girl pushing two very young children in the police car shopping cart. Within a minute, another cashier called the guy behind me over to her line. That was obnoxious, but I didn't dwell on it. Thanks to my super-chill morning, I wasn't in a rush. There was no point in stressing about a few extra minutes.

As the girl in front of me stacked jar after jar of baby food on the belt, my mind wandered and I thought through the day ahead. I was not paying close attention to what was happening around me because my brain was completely focused on figuring out what time I needed to leave the house this afternoon in order to get the girlz to the dance studio on time. That's when I thought I heard the girl in front of me say "I don't have it".

Within about 2 minutes it all became crystal clear -- WIC had covered most (but not all) of her cart full of baby food, generic-brand vegetables, and other basic food staples. She didn't have the money to cover the remaining balance.

As the girl and the cashier tried to figure out what wasn't covered (so they could remove it from her bill), I looked at the cash register and noticed the total due: $9.74 -- that's my birthday, y'all.

God clearly doesn't play around when He wants my attention. In that moment, I just knew. All the food in her cart was clearly for the babies -- they needed food and God had carefully placed me in that check out line at that exact moment to make sure those two children were covered. There's no other way to explain how we ended up at camp 10 minutes early when we should have been late, why I felt compelled to pass two perfectly good Food Dogs in favor of that particular store, and why the other cashier took the guy behind me when they always call for the next in line.

And if it wasn't already obvious enough, those kids were in the police car shopping cart and her total due was my birthday.

Something needed to be done, and I had quite obviously been chosen to do it.

So I did.

Part of me wished the girlz had been with me this morning - there's no better example of what I mean when I say we have an awful lot to be thankful for. And part of me was glad they didn't have to see that mother cry.

This afternoon, the girlz munched on snacks as we drove from camp to the dance studio. And of all days, Cassidy chose today to thank me for always bringing them good snacks.

"Yeah, about those snacks..." I said. "Let me tell you what happened this morning at the Food Dog."

Sometimes, you just know.