About six weeks ago, my brother called me with an idea. He & his wife and boys wanted to fly up to WA from CA over Memorial Day weekend, for their son’s first birthday. The catch? The trip was to be a surprise to everyone but me – I could not tell my husband, my kids, or my parents.
The first step was to purchase the tickets. They bought one-way tickets up here with miles, but I had to drive to Bellingham and purchase their tickets home. Problem: How was I to do that? Ed takes care of the finances. He would notice a $160 charge to Allegiant or a $160 cash withdrawal with no explanation from me. What was I to do?
Enter a very good friend, who watched my kids while I drove to the airport (under the guise of doing GEMS business) and who loaned me $160 cash so I could pay for the tickets at the airport.
Over the course of the next six weeks, up until today, my life was full of lies and trying not to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and give away the surprise. I lied about the piano recital. I lied about where I went today. I lied about phone conversations. I lied about mailing birthday presents. I lied about oh, so many things. Lying really stresses me out. I begged Ed to guess because I just couldn’t stand it anymore. He couldn’t of course. And then he even forgot that he knew I was planning “something.”
Plus, I was soooooo excited about the visit and the surprise. I’ve been jittery for weeks.
This morning I drove to Seattle to pick up my brother and his family (under the guise of going to garage sales with another very good friend) and dropped them off at my sister-in-law’s family in a nearby town. Later on, my parents came over for games and dinner and were surprised (along with my kids and hubby) by the arrival of my brother, his wife, and his two adorable boys. Everyone was actually surprised! No one had figured anything out and it was so awesome. We had dinner, a birthday party, a one-year-old digging into cake, cousins giggling, and 12 smiling people in my house today.
I am so relieved to be able to live in the truth again!
And we are all looking forward to 3 days of family togetherness.
1 comment:
Wow, I didn't know you had that in you.
I saw your mom with Josh in church on Sunday.
Enjoy the time with family.
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