Everything Happens for a Reason

Last month I met our neighbors Tarek & Heba for the first time at the playground where our kids were playing.  They invited us to their house for tea.  We talked mostly about the neighborhood since we moved here almost the same time last year, and of course we talked about our kids.  Their 4-year-old daughter Maya goes to daycare while both parents work.

It suddenly dawned on me, as if I was awakened from my coma, that such an arrangement does work after all. Papa has always wanted me to go back to work after I had Stefan, and I kept dismissing the thought all along.  My reason, I will be putting everything I will earn just to pay for Stefan's daycare.

One month later.  I now have the preschool's Parent Handbook in my hands.  My days with Stefan are numbered.  No, I'm not going to be in coma, not again.  He's just going to start preschool next month, while I am finally going back to work.  I am still job hunting at the moment. But that will be an entirely different story to write about.

Heba & Maya had already left when we got to the playground after dinner on that evening last month.  We only caught Tarek who was checking the mailbox on his way back to their house.  Moments later, they all came back to the playground. 

I have always believed that everything in this world happens for a reason, even the smallest details that merely pass us by.  If we had not decided to go for a walk that evening, or if our neighbors had not gone back, we wouldn't have met them.  The conversation would not have taken place and we would not have arrived at the decisions we have made today.  Papa may still be convincing me to go back to work.  And his words could still be falling on deaf ears.  And I may still keep wondering when I can ever put Stefan in an environment with other kids for social interaction and more active play, which are harder to teach and learn at home.

Yesterday I was slammed with pages of forms to be filled-out and a list of "Items to bring in" to school.  While I am excited about the thought of Stefan going to preschool, I am also getting emotional to see him thrive in the world outside Mommy's arms of love and protection which I have gladly and so unselfishly provided for almost 3 years.  I am comforted though by the fact that 'to everything there is a season,' and for everything there is a reason. 

And the season is now; the reason, big enough to just let it all happen.