A Surprise!

I'm a little behind in blogging, but really wanted to do this post, even though we've now entered March. On Valentine's Day, CC was gone to the US, but surprised me with red roses. There is a florist on our street. When I walked by him to school on February 14, he smirked at me. I thought it was strange, but just smiled and waved back. Little did I know, he would be the delivery man for my husband's sweet gift. The roses were a deep red and were beautiful. I displayed them on my kitchen table and faithfully trimmed them and freshened them up every few days. They (or at least some of the roses) lasted 2 weeks.

But the biggest surprise was that the bouquet included 3 sprigs of a Pussy Willow bush. I have never in 10 years seen a Pussy Willow tree in this country. Not here, not down South, not in greenhouses. I was stunned, for I grew up in Indiana with 2 giant Pussy Willow bushes just outside my bedroom window. (By giant, I mean at least 6 ft.) My great grandmother, who outlived both her children and lived into her 90's, had given them to my mom (her granddaughter-in-law) to plant at our Indiana house. I lived under these trees! I hid in them. I pulled the blossoms off and pretended they were kittens. I made little families out of the fuzzies and hid them in my closet. I played in the bushes every day. So to find them in my bouquet, here in Turkey, touched me. You'll think I'm crazy, but I had this strange feeling that God was telling me something. Something like..."I've known you always."

I pulled the springs out and put them among some other flowers in my bathroom. My littlest girl, Sweet Cheeks, took a strange liking to them. She adored them. I told her about my giant Pussy Willows and how much I'd loved them. I told her Grandma tried to bring a cutting down to Tennessee when we moved, but they didn't survive, and that it made Grandma sad. She asked if she could plant one of the little fuzzies to grow her own tree.

Then I went online and discovered that I could keep them in water for a very long time, that roots would grow, and that we could grow a bush in a pot once the roots got long enough. That's exactly what Sweet Cheeks and I are attempting to do. I'd love to have a daily reminder in my home that God has known  me always.