Valentine's Day Deux

so cute I had to share it twice. 

Today is our second Valentine's Day.   Mainly because of the traditional Vintage Homeschool Moms Valentine's Day party we will be having at church this early afternoon, for which my kids have been making Valentines all week long.  But then also tonight is the annual Parents' Night Out, where the college ministry at our church blesses us parents by providing an evening of free childcare!  So Dear Husband and I are going to drop off the kids and go do something fun. 

So it seems that, just like First Christmas Second, our Valentine's Day Deux is going to be the day with the most holiday fun. 

But too, by the end of the day yesterday, I had my heart all back in a good place.  I was seriously not trying to gripe or complain about my life or my kids--really and truly, I am always ALWAYS aware of how incredibly blessed I am.  But I was heart-struggling yesterday, and was being vulnerable about it, and now kinda wish I hadn't.  I shared what I did intending to encourage anyone else who was not having a great Valentine's Day--a day that is set up to sabotage love and just wound hearts in many families--but realized later it was coming off as one big pity party. 

So let me reassure anyone--it was a fine day.  The kids were not perfect, I was blue (it is that time of the month, so that *might* have been part of it. ahem.), the house looks like the beginning of a hoarder's episode, the long-running allergies are starting to really wear at me, I started Lent already feeling like I was letting God down (more on THAT later)--and really, it was a fine day! 

And that's what I was trying to say in that last post, trying to encourage anyone feeling as discouraged and heart-weary as I was not to think about the way we wish things would be, and instead be free to look at our messy lives and forget the bad stuff for a moment and just be blessed by whatever good we have in them.  Whatever love we have received.  To forget our ideals for a minute and just give love however we can, right at that minute. 

Because it does not matter how much around us is less than ideal--whatever little bits of good we can see around us are Good, and worth celebrating.

However we wish we were being loved at any given moment--whatever little bits of love we can see pointed in our direction are Love, and worth clinging to.

And I have the perfect way--for me, and maybe for some of you--to get some more Good and Love into your day, in honor of St. Valentine.  There is a family, who you can read about here, who is trying to bring home two orphans with dwarfism from China.  They seem to be the ideal family for these children, who will likely spend their lives in an institution if they are not adopted.  They are doing such a fun fundraiser--for every donation, they add hearts to a wall in their house, and share photos of the wall on their blog as they get more and more donations!

Except as of this morning, they are not getting many donations.  In fact, they shared with obvious heartache that yesterday--on the day celebrating LOVE--they only received one donation, so only one heart went up on their wall.  Oh, can you just hear all those little hearts crushing under that blow?  All the adorable children in the family who cut out pretty hearts in anticipation of all the LOVE they would receive from people who care about children being placed in families?  They are little kids who want to share love with two little unloved kids in China--of course they assumed lots of people would have love to share in response! 

My own children recently helped with an enormous undertaking, cutting out paper hearts for an art project on one wall of our church coffeeshop:

photo credit: Abbey Coffeelounge on facebook, instagram

It took my three girls and five other girls--plus help from me and my dear Becky--several hours to make all those hearts.  It was fun, but seriously a lot of work.  So I can really see in my mind's eye all those cute little girls and boys in this family so eagerly getting out their scissors and paper and making those hearts, cutting with concentration to get them just right.  Then being so excited to get to put them on the family wall, each construction paper heart meaning one more person who loves them, who is joyful in sharing their excitement, meaning one step closer to bringing their new siblings home. 

And instead, yesterday--the day of Love--I imagine all those little hearts crumbling, all their hand-made paper hearts lying forlorn.

So if any of you readers did not get your fill of love yesterday--please consider GIVING love today!  It will make you feel so good!  It will redeem a little bit of Valentine's Day for you--at least it does for me!

And if any of you were blessed with an abundance of love yesterday--please consider SHARING some love today!  Your blessings will increase!

xoxoxoxo