According to Plan

We have this conversation with our kids a lot. Plan A is the plan that you have right out of the gate. That's the plan you formulate at the beginning. Well, life has a funny way of happening while you're making other plans. So we have Plan B. C. D. E. F...

You get the idea.

Brandon's emails this week are all pretty much about the same thing: his big sister and her husband are having a baby girl. They did a gender reveal party Sunday afternoon in Phoenix, and video taped it. We were part of the party via Skype, but (as happens) our video feed froze seconds before the big reveal. But I was able to share this video with Brandon via email this morning:

He's pretty excited. Evidently, he prayed for a niece. Which is pretty funny, because years and years ago, a little blond girl looked up at me and said, "I want a baby brother." We encouraged her to pray, and when that baby was born and we called her, we asked, "What did you pray for?" She'd gotten her baby brother (Brandon, in case you weren't sure). And now that baby brother, grown into a fine young man, prayed for her little baby to be a girl, and she is. I think it's safe to say they've come full circle.

We got a little bad news this week, too. Brandon asked for some more clothes, which I found on sale and excitedly shipped to him right away (they arrived Thursday to his doorstep via UPS). However, in his emails today he mentioned nothing about receiving them, and said he hadn't gotten any packages. I want to believe he's being a poorly communicative 18 yr old and is not equating a package shipped from JC Penney with a package shipped from home--because they aren't the same thing. But, as you know, I can't contact him directly beyond letters and the once-a-week email so it's really hard to get a straight, clear answer. I'm going to send a letter out in the morning, and probably follow up with UPS later in the week. But it's hard not to grumble and gripe a bit about the dishonesty of the world today. I mean, it's not like 3 short sleeve white dress shirts and 2 pr of dress slacks are so exciting for someone to just steal off a doorstep. Ugh. You'd think they'd at least put them back once they realized how boring the plunder turned out to be. :(

Hopefully, we'll have better news to report next week.