March 21, 2010

• Ladybugs..

  ..Last summer I told the kids that God sent me ladybugs to show me that He was thinking about me..  And He does..  Everywhere - I always see them in the oddest places, and always when my mind is furthest from God (which is usually when I'm wrapped up in my own thoughts about myself - and how could I possibly get through whatever situation I'm faced with).  And anyhow..  A couple of days after I told them this we had an INFESTATION of ladybugs.  Every morning when we went outside to get in the car it would be COVERED in ladybugs - so many we couldn't even count - and we tried.  There were just - lol, I wish I'd had the mind to take pictures.  Over the course of the summer we saw all kinds - there were two that were white - well, one of them was a pale pink - but it was almost white.  And once, on the way home from church, Doodlebug and I saw a gold one that clung to the windshield almost all the way to the house - and I was hoping it would go on and stay there until we got home so I could take a picture, but it flew off right as we turned the corner to our street..

  February of last year, Chris lost his grandfather - who was like a father to him..  And he walked out of the nursing home utterly disgusted, because his grandmother was in the hospital, and hadn't even gotten to see her husband for weeks - and only got to talk to him briefly by cellphone before he passed, but by that point he was so gone we weren't sure he would even know who he was listening to..  But he did, thank God.  We could see in his eyes - in his face - his whole countenance - that her voice brought him to the present, if only for the brevity of that call.. But still..  Chris walked out after his passing just sick - so confused why things happened the way they did - and then a gold ladybug landed on his shoulder..  "Gold," he said, "with silver spots..."  And he never told anyone, until me here recently, because he never thought anyone would believe him...  And honestly, I don't know if it was a gold ladybug with silver spots..  But I can't not believe it because of the gold ladybug Doodle and I had seen..

  Last Friday I had taken off work because I'd been (and still am a little) sick..  And I wondered why God let me be ill, and I wondered how we were going to get by on my short check - and Chris was outside smoking a cigarette because I don't let him smoke in the house - and he started ringing the doorbell incessantly. The dogs immediately hyped up and started hopping around, and when I went to the door to see what was the matter, I saw in his arms a white cat with black spots and wide eyes who was scared out of her wits.  "She's pregnant," he said...

  So I told him to bring her in while I put the dogs out, and we brought her into the bedroom because she'd already informed us by claws and hisses that she didn't care for our cats anymore than she did our dogs.  And when we sat her on the bed we noted that she was VERY pregnant, and at that moment a ladybug flew off of her back leg.  Doodlebug wanted it, so I handed the bug to her, and Chris said that the ladybug then flew to the Bible that was sitting on my bedside table...  which I didn't see..  but moving along..

  That night she sat under the bed and cried, so I called her into the bed with me, and she was so sweet and friendly - and the next day Chris asked me what we were going to name her. "Momma Catz" I answered looking at her swollen belly..  but he didn't like that, "She's not always gonna be a momma cat," he explained.  But for that moment, she would be Momma Catz, "with a Z," I informed Doodlebug..

  So the next day we went to Wal-mart and spent the last of our money on kitten food (for the momma, because while her pregnant belly was absolutely enormous, the rest of her looked painfully thin), and canned food ("..the GOOD kind," Chris says, "not that patte crap"), and only what we absolutely needed to get by for ourselves until our checks would come in..  And we came home and set her up in the bedroom, with a blanket under the bed - since that's where she seemed to prefer, and we fed her, and we loved her, and we let her know that she would be safe..

  Then the second night as I was petting her and feeling around on her swollen belly, I felt her kittens wriggling around. And I smiled thinking about how God sent her to us with the ladybug, and as I thought of all the ladybugs God has sent us it came to me...  and I called Chris at work.. "I know what her name is..,"  I said.  "What's her name?"  he asks..

  "Ladybug."

  "Ladybug," he replies softly..

  Monday morning I looked at Ladybug as I was walking out the door - and I told her that I wanted to get pictures of her pregnant belly before she had her kittens..  And then I came home from lunch, and she didn't come out from under the bed when I called her. I knelt down to see her breathing heavily, quietly, and I saw it was time. I gently pulled the blanket out with her on it and rubbed her belly, felt the contractions, told her she was a good Momma, and told Chris to get my camera..  she wasn't waiting for pregnant kitty pictures.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Doodlebug took these next two after I'd gone back to work..

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  And these are from this morning...

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • 3:38 pm
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