Finally! We committed to a date night, got a sitter, and organized various transportation logistics for all of the kids activities. It’s been too long, but now it’s just me, Dr. McHottie, and our fav Middle Eastern spot with our fav Cuisine. Just as we were about to dig in to our Falafel appetizer my phone buzzed. It was our youngest daughter’s soccer coach:
Coach- “Hi Mrs. Andrews! Is someone coming to pick Avery up from practice?***commence paranoiaville***
Um, yes. The answer is that our babysitter is picking her up. She’s with our son Owen. And also -they should have been there 30 MINUTES ago!
McHottie’s ER doctor brain went straight to “Motor Vehicular Trauma!!!” Meanwhile, my Mom, writer/activist thoughts sounded more like: “Our responsible, and certified lifeguard – babysitter is secretly a human trafficker and has abducted our kids for the purpose of selling them!!!”
Of course we immediately called over the waitress to bring the check and blurted “Never mind the food! We have to leave EMERGENTLY and SAVE our children!!!!”
I then called our oldest, who, technically does not have a legal driver’s license yet and instructed her to stop doing her homework. “Go find my keys, BREAK THE LAW, and drive over to the soccer fields to intercept the child selling!” “And tell her to look for overturned vehicles on the way there…” instructed the Dr. – and STAT.
We were sprinting through the restaurant parking lot in a panicked fashion toward the car when my phone rang. It was coach again.
Coach- “Never fear! All is well. The babysitter has arrived. Her phone died and with it, – her navigation. So she got lost. But now she is here and has both kids and they’re on the way back home. Enjoy your date!”
ENJOY OUR DATE !!!?? Enjoy our flingin’ Flangin’ !?&@* date !!??? We have just prepared to drag our children out of one of the following: Either 1) an inflamed automobile on the verge of combustion, using the jaws of life, or b) an 18-wheeler containing people for sale.
How can we de -adrenalize enough to enjoy our date? As if executing date night wasn’t hard enough! We have to at least take a minute to breathe before choking down Shawarma and pita bread. Of course, our oldest is still in danger of being arrested for driving without a license whilst on mission to find her siblings, so we may get a call about THAT soon.
Marriage is sort of like date night. Its hard to commit to, harder to “ feel” like doing, and unfortunately easy to cancel. Staying home, donning pj’s and watching Netflix together is SO much easier. But there’s something about putting on SHOES and showing up for each other. Like marriage, date night takes intentionality. Sometimes you have to choose to make it happen. It carries the potential for being interrupted by trauma, emergencies, and certain loads of adrenaline -producing stress. But every time we get home from date night, we say, “We should totally do that more!” So we’re going to keep our dates, and our covenant. Aka, not BAIL.
Like Dharma and Greg 