Adventures at Wal-Mart

After church yesterday we went out to run some errands. By the time we made it to Wal-Mart, our fifth stop, I was beginning to wonder if we were pressing our luck with the babies. Everyone was awake and happy for the time being, but you just never know. But I had some items I needed to return, we were completely out of formula, and we've been wanting to get a second high chair for Baby Girl M. for several weeks now so we decided to go through with it.

About 30 minutes later the infants started getting restless, and I realized we left the bottles in the van. Billy offered to go get them, but we were all the way in the back of the store and I just wanted to get done and go home. So I ended up carrying one baby and pushing the stroller and Billy carried the other baby and pushed J. in the cart. We hurried through the rest of the trip, just getting the items for WIC we had left. We actually found a check-out lane that was empty (that never happens at Wal-Mart!) and it looked like we were going to make it. But when our checker got to the cereal, she told us we had the wrong size. WIC requires two 18 oz. boxes, and I had grabbed 12 oz. boxes. Nothing more, nothing less is allowed. We either had to put the rest of J.'s WIC items back (milk, juice, beans, eggs, and cheese) or go get new cereal.

At the very moment that we made this realization, both D. and M. started crying at the same time. It was unreal. I grabbed D. and practically ran back to the cereal aisle to get replacements. I did not make eye contact with the lady in line behind us because I figured she had to be annoyed with us. When I got back to the line I signed the voucher and whisked the babies out to the van to be fed and changed.

When Billy came out with J. and our groceries, he said that the checkout lady (and the lady behind us) had been very nice and even asked for our names so she could pray for us. She said to come back to her lane the next time we were at Wal-Mart. We have been blessed so many times by the kind words of strangers and a lot more offers of prayer than one might expect. There is no way we could do what we are doing without God's help!