Come on.
We have to find "The Dress", get the "Glam Squad" together...figure out a way to get her ready in a window of 45 minutes. No stress AT ALL.
I don't even know WHY I stress about ANYTHING EVER anymore.
She constantly tells me, "Mom, God HAS this".
and I "know" that, but I don't resonate with it.
GOD HAS THIS.
My #1 go-to girl, Johnelle Evans, kept me on track with lunch and accompanied me to the assembly, where Gina danced and shined and then competed in a sibling spaghetti challenge, with her brother.
Oh guys.
The plan after the girl's basketball game was to grab Gina, run her over to Stephanie Aynes's sister, Gina's house, where they would take her natural good looks and enhance them with ALL THE THINGS. Gina was so pumped for this process. Now a fun note is realizing Stephanie's sister's name is GINA also (Gina Marie) to be exact, so there was a bunch of "the other Gina" convo happening.
BUT, before we get to the house of beauty....let's review ole Mom's antics. You KNOW it ain't a party, unless something "Laura'ish" happens. If you were in the Edmond area last night, you know that it came a downpour of rain, hail and coldness about 7:30ish. I was standing under the awning, outside at the gym at OCS, as I glumly surveyed my elements I was about to have to face. I took my thin little over sweater I had on, OFF and put it over my head. (sure, that will help) and dug in my purse for my keys. I even thought, for a second, that she would look ok in her basketball clothes for the coronation. I had strapped my purse over my shoulder and had my keys in my hand when a middle age boy walked by folding up an umbrella! "Hey!" I found myself saying, "Do you know Gina Jackson?" I asked him, to his mom's reply "YES, I know her!" as the boy extricated himself from my clutches with humiliating speed, I turned to his mom, (With his umbrella I had snatched from his hands) and asked, "IhavetogogetGINAfromthebackdoorandfirstIhavetogetmyCarintheparkinglotandit'spouringandI'mscarylookingenoughandcanIuseyourumbrella?" to her, "OF COURSE, GO, GO"
and as I struck out in the rain, it not only opened the gates of wrath from the sky, to add ultimate insult to injury, it started to HAIL. The precious layer of goodness of umbrella vs that layer of complete tornadic activity SEEPED through the umbrella and my feet, shoes, legs, pants, skin, bone and bone marrow got SOAKED.
I got in my Tahoe, sat there for a minute trying to catch my breath, and guess what? It stopped. S.T.O.P.P.E.D. raining.
God sets me up for entertainment value. Makes for great stories for my friends.
Gina comes out the back door, jumps in the car and off we go to the waiting Glam Squad.
53 minutes later, we walk back in like this.....
And 30 minutes later this happened..... and the rest they say .... is history.
THE WINNER IS....
When Dr. King announced Gina, we (both her and I) just pretty much sat there in stunned silence. My kids went nuts around me, Katelyn Magruder, (who came to help me cheer), Johnelle and Jon Evans (who paid Zachary $5 for going to the other side of the gym and retrieving Jon's umbrella from total strangers) (You guys....my life is a comedy show) None of them were surprised..... I think it took a solid 10 seconds for the words to soak to my medula oblongata, so I could conjure up a response.
By the time it registered she won, Dr. King said a prayer for her and I had TURNED OFF THE VIDEO.
"Dear Lord......thank you for bringing Gina to OCS, Lord. We are all better for knowing her."
Well, slap my face and call me Shirley.....that got me.
Don't judge me in the pictures. I was catching up and had walked through a tsumani.
And I'd do it again.
People say to me, all the time. "what a miracle you have worked in this girl" and all I can say is, "What a miracle she worked in me". We both saved each other. She's made me more patient, more flexible, stretching my faith, working on me constantly. If I'm having a bad day and everything is coming out of my mouth wrong, instead of correcting me, she just sniffs and says, "Well, I'm going to look at things a little more positively than mom right now" or "I've got to go to my room and get me some Jesus" and it shuts me down. She is my right hand, my helper, my cheerleader and my friend. Seven years ago, I couldn't have said any of that, but with the grace of patience and a whole LOT of Jesus (for both of us, trust me) here we are, heading out the other side.
Thank you Jesus, for bringing Gina (and her brothers) to my house, I am better for knowing her.
Amen.
