One of my favorite books is "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom. It is an excellent story. I especially appreciate the message to be grateful for all the things that come into your life, no matter how horrible they may seem.
I have been a foster parent for several years now. I have had wonderful experiences and terrible experiences. But today, I experienced a first.
Today we discovered that Miss Nita had lice.
Now, with Corrie ten Boom's story in mind, I am trying really hard to find something to be grateful in regards to the lice. This is what I've got so far:
I am grateful that only Miss Nita had lice. I checked and double-checked every person's head in my household. Then I triple-checked using a magnifying glass that came in the little Get-Rid-of-Lice Kit I had just purchased. The rest of us are lice and lice-egg free.
I am grateful that Wal-greens is so close to my house. And I am extremely grateful that they had seven boxes of the all-in-one kits in stock.
I am grateful that five of the ten people in my house are males with short, short hair. They will be so much easier to de-lice!
I am grateful that only three of the five females in this house have excessively long hair. I am grateful that I am one of those three, so Hubby is stuck doing my hair, which means I only have to de-lice four gals!
I am grateful that the de-licing of nine out of ten family members is purely precautionary and not because they have lice. The pharmacist and my mother concur that if one person in the house has lice, everyone has to get the treatment...just in case. That is fine by me. I am always happier being extra precautionary.
I am grateful that my family jumped into action to help sanitize the bedding, stuffed animals, towels, and so forth.
I am grateful that my new washer and dryer have built in Sanitize functions that will blast any hiding bugs to smithereens.
I am grateful my friend who watched Miss Nita, Cakes, and Baby Jim this morning so I could get some teacher observation hours in didn't yell at me or call me any bad names when I called to tell her that Miss Nita had lice.
I am grateful that Hubby only freaked out for five minutes.
I have been wanting some time to just focus on cleaning my house. But other things always get in the way. Kids need to be taken places, homework assignments have to be completed, Baby Jim was sick for a few days and just wanted to be held, and so forth. My house has not had a truly deep and thorough cleaning in quite a while. I am grateful that cleaning the house now gets to be a first priority and my kids support that.
I am grateful that Miss Nita won't have to go to preschool for a few days. I'm pretty sure they won't want her back for a while after I tell them she had lice. And I am absolutely certain that I don't want her there since that is where I think she must have gotten the lice from in the first place. I mean really...the only places she goes without us is to preschool and visits with her parents.
I am grateful that Miss Nita's Mom noticed the lice at their visit today. I thought Miss Nita just had dandruff. When the weather starts getting cold, myself, Hubby, and a couple of our kids get dry scalps for a couple of weeks. Using Head and Shoulders always fixes the problem promptly, so I don't usually think much of it. I am grateful that Miss Nita's Mom recognized the little bugs for what they really were.
Well, I think that is enough to be grateful for now. Hubby just got back from de-bugging the vehicles, which means it's my hair's turn to be de-liced.
Wish us luck!!!
