oconfessionario's Journal

Jan 2007
9:02 PM EDT

Well, this is a good place to write this amazing story that happened tonight! When I was a little girl, about 12 years ago, a neighbor of my family's took care of me and my little sister until my third little sister was born and then she went to work at a bakery. She was a very important part of my childhood as I remember it. She was an amazing chef and a diehard Christian and I have many fond memories of staying at her house, being babysat by her 16 year old daughter Robin and the many delicious recipes she would cook for us. Then she moved out to Colorado and we moved out to Michigan. We lived in the same neighborhood in Maryland. Somehow we got the wrong address, and have been out of touch unfortunately for several years. Still, every year, my parents send a Christmas card to the CO address they gave us, just hoping against hope it might not be returned. But it always does get sent back. In particular, there are three things we remember about Mrs. R's culinary talents: French toast, this wonderful stuff called Spaghetti Pizza that is to die for and my mom's favorite, an almond raspberry layer cake. Since then, we've tried in vain, so many times to recreate those recipes. So anyway, back to the AMAZING story. Last we heard of the R's, they were in CO and we had no way of telling them when my dad found a job in NC almost 8 years ago. Now I go to school four hours away from home in the mountains of NC and just this past fall, I took a part time job working a grocery store on the opposite side of town from where I live. All of these things culminate into the experience I'm about to tell you! Meanwhile, Robin, the daughter, has married, had two little girls and is 9 months pregnant with her third baby girl. Her husband was offered, and accepted a job teaching math at a small private school in the mountains of NC, moving from their previous home in Pennsylvania. Mrs. R comes to stay with Robin to see her third grandchild born, and the little family I once knew and very much loved decides to go grocery shopping, at least 45 minutes out of the way, at the very same grocery store that I happened to still be employed at (which is miraculous in and of itself since I very much wanted to quit at the end of last year). Had Mrs. R not been visiting and been with Robin at that moment though, I never would have recognized Robin, since she was so pregnant and so different seeming from the teenager who took me the pool and the grocery store to get pints of pistachio ice cream. Surely my babysitter couldn't be pregnant, and with a family! Thats just how memory works. But no, Mrs. R was with her. And the reason I even noticed was because there was a woman standing near the register I was working at talking on her cell phone. And as I happened to look over and notice this woman, I thought, WOW she looks JUST like Mrs. R! But No, couldnt possibly be her, that was over a decade in Germantown MD. My mind is just playing tricks. But she stood there for a while, just talking on her cell phone, 10 feet from where I was working and the more I tried to prove to myself that it wasn't her, the more I picked up on the phrases she used to say (Well, frankly...) and then as she walked off, I smelled her perfume, and although I never would have guessed I still remembered that, the scent itself was exactly Mrs. R's! IT IS HER! By the time they got up to my register, I was shaking, I was so excited to meet my beloved Mrs. R again!!! Long story short, it was a dramatic reuniting filled with lots of laughter, a few tears of joy and whole lot of hugging, in the middle of the grocery store!!! I called my family, including my younger sister to tell them the news right after I got off work tonight. They just couldn't believe it either. Part of the reason this experience was so amazing is because just recently, I came to believe, for several reasons, that God does exist, and only in the last few weeks have I started to realize certain things through a lot of different epiphanies I've had which have culminated in the gift of faith, I believe. I had a lot of holes of doubt throughout high school and into college, until the fragile blanket of belief I had lovingly treasured became like a child's favorite, tattered and torn until there was absolutely nothing left. And then for some reason, very recently after I started talking to a counselor, convinced that my life was falling apart, I had three seperate epiphanies that restitched that blanket to something tangible, and now that blanket of faith not only exists again, but is embellished with a miracle. When I saw Mrs. R tonight, it was like God saying, 'See, Caley?? I really am here, watching out for you.' And although God doesn't provide miracles everyday, he helps us along while our faith is still weak as long as we're willing to pay attention. And I am ready and willing to pay attention. But he always leaves it up to us from there. It's just a preliminary push, so we can be absolutely certain that we're not crazy for believing in angels and glory and the Cross and Satan. Thank you, God. This was beyond anything I could ever think to ask for. God, you've not only blessed my life, but my whole family's as well. HALLELUJAH!

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oconfessionario's Profile

Username: oconfessionario

Gender / Age: Female, 39

Location: USA - North Carolina

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About Me: I'm a senior in college, majoring in Spanish. I'd like to someday spend time in another country teaching English or something like that. I'm not really ready to graduate. I want to get a masters/teaching license first in TEFL. I started out doing Elem. Edu. but I don't think that's for me, I do want to teach though. For now the biggest thing, is figuring out where to go next!

Interests: Reading, writing, babysitting, walking, kickboxing, skiing

Favorite Movies: Amelie, Brokedown Palace, Shawshank Redemption, Sean Connery 007 movies, anything with Grace Kelly, lots of old movies on AMC, Edward Scissorhands, Matilda, Requiem for a Dream, 28 Days Later

Favorite Television: CSI Las Vegas, Nip/Tuck, That 70's Show, Unsolved Mysteries, Family Matters, Full House and the old TGIF show lineup (man I miss that program!) and of course, What Not To Wear

Favorite Books: God-Shaped Hole, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, Something Wicked This Way Comes, White Oleander, Patron Saint of Liars, This Much I Know Is True, The Arms of God

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