Handkerchiefs and Sunscreen, or Miracle on Kinau Street

This morning I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. by our new kitten’s insistent mewing. It’s weird, but to me it’s worse being awakened thirty minutes before your alarm is going to go off than in the middle of the night. At least if it were something like two in the morning I’d have a possibility of going back to sleep.

But at 5:30? I’m just lying there going shut-up-shut-up-shut-UP! PLEASE just let me have that last precious half-hour of sleep!!

But of course I got up and went to sit with the kitten. I help him in my lap and petted him, which he tolerated, and I gave him his medicine, which he hated. And it WAS almost time to get up anyways… but STILL!

Once the kids got up, they each took a turn petting the kitten, and he really seems to like them better. (Maybe because they never give him any medicine.) Then it was time for them to get dressed and fed and head off to school.

I was already planning my morning; Thursday is usually my errand day. I take the twins to the daycare on post from eight to twelve and I am able to go to the grocery store or the post office or whatever without having to lug them with me. They get breakfast and lunch there and have a good time playing with other kids, and I get to eat MY lunch without ANYONE ASKING ME FOR ANYTHING! Bliss…

The twins were still sleeping after the second bus had left, so I started working on a care package I’ve been putting together for a soldier in Iraq. I had planned to mail it off today, but as I was composing the letter I was putting in the box, I realized I wanted to include a few more things he‘d mentioned he was interested in. So I decided I should go to the store before sealing up the package.

And then I looked at the clock.

Ack! It was already eight! I quickly got the twins up and dressed and we were in the car by 8:15. Not too bad! As I was congratulating myself on this, I made a wrong turn on the way to the daycare and ended up on the interstate going the wrong way. Then I had to go a couple of miles out of my way before I could turn around. I was no longer pleased with my ability to make good time.

We got to the daycare by 8:30, and I rushed the twins into their classroom, where I saw the teachers had already cleaned breakfast off the table. Oh no! The twins hadn’t eaten anything!

Fortunately, the teacher was really nice and said we weren’t too late and she would still feed them. So I was relieved as I left that I wasn’t going to be Bad Mommy Who Brings Hungry Kids Too Late For Breakfast.

I headed off for my first errand of the morning: Wal-Mart. (Yeah, I know I was just there on Monday. What’s it to ya?) I was thinking about what I needed to do next: make a return, then buy the drawing supplies for the care package, then find something pretty to hold the things we’d be baking for the kids’ teacher gifts…

I stopped at a red light next to an elementary school and saw a big group of kids dancing in the bright sunlight. I gasped as a memory hit me.

Last night I’d noticed that Boo had a bit of a sunburn and I’d commented on it. She said, “Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, my teacher says I need sunscreen every day this week because we’re practicing for our May Day program out in the field.” (This is their end-of-the-year hula program.) She’s a redhead, so you can imagine Boo has very pale skin that burns easily. I really should be putting sunscreen on her every day, but I usually only do it when she’s going to be out in the sun.

But did I remember it this morning? Oh no! Why is that? Because I’m Bad Mommy Who Forgets to Put Sunscreen on Her Sensitive Child Even Though We Live on a Tropical Island Not Far From the Equator.

I started smacking myself on the forehead. How could I have forgotten? I looked at the children waving their arms in the blazing sun. I’ll bet THEIR mommies remembered sunscreen, I thought, starting to really get upset.

I was almost to Wal-Mart at this point. My kids’ school was about twenty or thirty minutes behind me. I told myself, I’ll go ahead to Wal-Mart and pick up some sunscreen while I’m there, and then I’ll go to the school and put it on her.

But what if they have practice before I get there? I wondered, and started to go off on myself again. How COULD I have forgotten? I’m the worst mother in the world. Et cetera.

I thought of poor Boo, baking in the sun. I started crying about it. So I prayed. I asked God to be merciful on my little girl, and somehow fix it so she wouldn’t get sunburned before I got there. Maybe He could have her teacher put sunscreen on her.

That sounded like a stupid and trivial prayer, even as I said it. But I remembered a story I heard about Corrie ten Boom. You know Corrie from “The Hiding Place,” the Dutch girl who hid Jews in her house during WWII and ended up in a concentration camp, which she survived and became a writer and Christian speaker? I heard a story about her that happened before all of that.

Corrie and her sister Betsey were walking to their job at a factory in the winter and Corrie had forgotten her handkerchief. Corrie was upset because her nose was running, and Betsey said she should pray and ask God for a handkerchief. Corrie said it was stupid to ask God for something so small, so Betsey said the prayer herself, asking for a handkerchief for her sister. Then, as they continued to walk along the street, a handkerchief fell down from an upstairs window and landed on Corrie. She looked up, but no one was there.

That story affected me quite a bit when I heard it several years ago, but I hadn’t thought of it much since. But today it came back to me, and I prayed for divine sunscreen.

Once I arrived at Wal-Mart, I forced myself to stop worrying about Boo and made my purchases. I was done by about 9:15, so I felt I was making pretty good time so far. Then when I went to get back on the interstate, the on-ramp was blocked with two police cars, complete with flashing lights.

Now, I was in downtown Honolulu. I know how to get to and from only two places in downtown: Wal-Mart and our church, and I have to go the same route in and out each time in order to find my way. And now the way out was blocked. I told myself not to panic, and that if I kept driving parallel to the interstate I would eventually see another on-ramp.

Then I immediately found myself in a left-turn-only lane, blocked in on my right by another left-turn lane. I turned left and looked for a way to double back. I turned around and found a no-left-turn sign. This just got worse as time went on. Honolulu is maze of one-way streets and only lanes. Usually I would just get out the GPS and push the “home” button, but a piece broke off of the GPS charger so it is currently not working.

I was close to tears again, trying to keep working my way back towards the interstate in hopes that I could one day enter it. I stopped at a red light, looking all around to see if I recognized anything. Suddenly I realized, I’m near the church! The other place I know! And in front of me, shining like a beacon, the 7-11 where I sometimes get a Big Gulp after choir practice! Yay! I knew where I was, AND I could get a diet coke!

Directly in front of me, in the crosswalk, a blind man started crossing the street with one of those long sticks tapping the ground. He tapped along, veered slightly off course and tapped the tire of an SUV in the center lane, and then corrected himself. The light changed to green while he was still finding his way. I gasped to myself, hoping no one would start driving and run him over, but no one moved. All four lanes waited patiently until he was safely on the other side.

I thought to myself, You see? Your problems are NOTHING compared to that guy! Just crossing the street is a major thing for him, but he did it!

I pulled into the 7-11 feeling pretty serene. I hurried in to get my Big Gulp, where I saw a piece of paper taped over the diet coke button. Oh no! Out of order? No diet coke? Serenity shattered!

Now, I know you’re thinking, big deal! Why don’t you just walk over to the refrigerator case and get a diet coke in a BOTTLE? I’m sorry, but it’s just NOT the same! I wanted a fountain diet coke. I had my heart set on a FOUNTAIN diet coke!

Remember the blind dude, I told myself.

So I sighed and purchased an inferior soda. The cashier had really beautiful natural long fingernails. I wouldn’t be remarking on it, but it was a GUY! I mean, they were longer than mine!

I thought about complimenting him on his lovely nails. I thought about asking him if he’d met Omar the Dead Sea Facial and Manicure dude. I ended up saying only, “Thanks! Have a good day!” because I decided I didn’t even WANT to know why.

From the 7-11 I found the interstate with no problem and made it to the elementary school at a little after ten. As I arrived, first I checked the field where I knew they’d be practicing. No one was out there. I suddenly noticed it was a little overcast and the grass was wet. I walked in past the cafeteria where some of the older kids were lining up. I heard their teacher saying, “Now, get in your places just as if you were outside.”

I went ahead to Boo’s class. The kids were just coming in from somewhere and were half in/half out of the door. One yelled to Boo that her mother was here.

The teacher came to the door and I said I’d forgotten Boo’s sunscreen. She said, “Oh she probably doesn’t need it. We were going to practice at nine, but you know, the weather, yah?” She gestured up at the cloudy sky. “We’ll practice inside instead.” Boo was already in front of me, so I rubbed the sunscreen stick all over her face anyways.

But as I walked back to my car, I almost couldn’t believe it. When I had prayed for Boo, back on Kinau Street at 8:45 or so, the sun had been shining full force on Queen Kaahumanu Elementary School. It had still been beating down like crazy while I was lost in downtown Honolulu. But here at Boo's elementary school on Red Hill, the clouds had covered the sun for over an hour!

Talk about divine sunscreen! Hallelujah!