Seriously, Who HAS This Life?

Tonight we attended our first kid-based philanthropy club meeting in a neighboring town. The club is organized by a young philanthropist, a girl of only 16, who started a successful, local non-profit organization several years ago. She is amazing and I've been wanting my girls to meet her and be inspired.  Since there are so few opportunities for children under 14 to get involved in volunteerism and charity, this 16-year-old has put together a little club of varying projects that meets once a month.

Since I run a small and sparsely attended Kids Care Club of my own through my Moms Club, I organized an outing to this event.  The meeting was held at a senior center/nursing home this evening and since my husband works very late all week (leaving the house at 8:00 or earlier and getting home close to 10:00 pm) I had to bring CB along which always holds the potential for an interesting event.

I'm not going to lie - it's not easy going places with CB and all the other girls by myself.  In general it's easier now that the kids are older, but I still stress about it. CB will always be CB - a wild card, potentially aggressive, potentially uncooperative, and always very conspicuous and loud.  

We were there for an hour meeting with many other Moms and kids, and within the first 10 minutes of arriving, CB soiled her diaper something fierce.  Unfortunately, it was full-blown diarrhea.  You just can't make this stuff up. If you can imagine diarrhea on, say, a 24 month old and how messy that can be, just think of the sheer volume of a 17 year old.  

Of course, I had no diapers or wipes or changes of clothes either on me or in my car.  I somehow thought we might be able to manage an hour without a hazmat event. Even if I had the supplies, there really was no place to change a 5'2" girl with diarrhea likely dripping down her legs.  

Thank God my friend Lori was there, someone I could mumble my predicament to and would help me brainstorm without batting an eye.  Despite CB's odiferous diaper, I decided that to take her back home either with or without the girls was just nuts.  Of course, leaving her sitting there with a full stinky diaper for the rest of the hour was nuts too, but since everything seemed contained under her black stretch pants with just some discrete, minor leakage in the front, all I had to do was supervise that she didn't get her hand in there and keep her tucked away in a corner to avoid everyone gagging from the smell. In short, I just had to play it cool and keep my fingers crossed.

The kids all decorated wooden Easter Eggs for the residents of the nursing home.  Then they filled fifty gift bags with hand lotion and tissues and treats plus the decorated egg.  After that, they walked around the halls and delivered these Easter bags to the nursing home residents which put a smile on everyone's face.  Thankfully,  Lori kept her eye on my girls while I stayed behind in the meeting room with CB.  I just couldn't risk it.

You know, things like this would have been my complete undoing years ago. Of course, the other three were much younger years ago so any situation with CB was complicated by also having toddlers.  Certainly the girls being older helps, but also having social support makes a huge difference.  Lori's presence there was my emotional anchor.  I don't know if I had went into this novel situation completely cold that I would have been as calm and unashamed.  I might not have even gone at all. Having someone there who gets it, in more ways than one, makes all the difference in the world.

Sometimes I think to myself "Seriously, who HAS this life?"

Me.  I have this life.  And ya know?  Anything less would just be plain boring.