I have had a ROUGH morning! Can't even really put my finger on why. One of those days where you wake up later than you wanted to, moved to slow to get ready before the hubs has to leave for work, ya eat a wholesome poptart and DP breakfast, the toddler and preschooler are finding all the "bad choices" they can to get lots of your negative attention, the preschooler has decided today is not the day she is going to become fully potty trained but instead is going to full-out poop and pee herself, lunch consisted of ham and cheese sandwiches, and all ya wanna do is scream then hide in the quiet pantry and eat oreos...melodramtic, I think not.

God decided to change my afternoon!

As both my girls headed upstairs for nap and the babe was still snoozing, I looked out my front window to watch a women shoving something out of her car into my side yard. She proceeded to poke at it and stare at my yard... I RAN to grab my shoes, threw them on as fast as I could, all with a huge smile on my face. As I hurriedly unlocked the front door I watched the car drive away. As quickly as possible, without bringing awkward attention to myself from my across-the-street neighbor and alerting him to my craziness , I wide-strided it across the yard in the vicinity of where I saw the yard-pocking women drop off something. I'm sure if that neighbor had seen me he would have thought I was a crazy eyed little kid looking to get into trouble.

I FOUND IT! That's right, it was a TURTLE!!!

Isn't he CUTE?!?! (Could she have sat it any closer to the curb?)

I snapped this shot, watched him for a moment (hunkered down like a preschooler investigating something on a field trip), and then, as if there were any other options, picked him up and carried him quickly over to my house all the while trying to figure out where I was going to keep him. hmmm... This will work until the girls get up from nap and I introduce them to our new friend:

 Sooo excited!!! Eeeee!

This may sound just plain silly to all you sane people out there but here's a little background and what I feel God is trying to tell me on this HORRIBLE day.

When I was a child, one of the things my mom Always let us do was "save" turtles from off the road! We could be driving along, in a hurry to somewhere, I'm sure, and we would see a turtle in the middle of the road. It never failed, whether it was her idea or my brothers and mine, we would "save" the turtle by just moving it to the side of the road or on some occasions, TOOK IT HOME! I usually don't advise taking them home. Most of ours, if kept in a box, did not like lettuce, ripped up grass, and dirt we threw in there to create a lovely habitat for them.

Every time (and I DO mean Every time) I see a turtle in the road, to this day, I want to "save" it. I once "saved" a turtle during the 1st year of my marriage. One the way home, on my 45 minute commute, I found a turtle and naturally brought it home. When I arrived home, bearing my treasure and grinning ear to ear, my hubby just raised his eyebrows in confusion as he stared back and forth at me and my new friend. "Why?" he asked. I was taken back..."why"...why would I need a reason? That's just what you do. He proceed to explain to me that it was not a good idea to "save" turtles. Reasoning: danger factor- for me to be in the middle of the road just like it is for the turtle, sickness factor- wild creature, weirdness factor- it just is, and the turtle factor- this is not his home, wilderness is, they don't really eat lettuce and carrots, and so on. Ok ok, I hear ya. So I submitted to his God-given and obviously well placed authority. No more turtles coming home. I placed that one in our giant, treeless backyard, hoping it would live there and like it! I checked on him the next day and some how he'd escaped my fenced in paradice...boo!

This morning was different though! For some unknown reason, a random stranger in a white station wagon (also hold a place in my heart), cruised down my cul-de-sac and chose my yard of all the other well-wooded yards to place this little guy in. YAY! Our Father is good! There are so many little nuggets I could pull from this but today I'm going to walk away with: my Heavenly Father knows me! He knows my past, present, future. He KNOWS me! He knows me today. He knows I had a rough morning. He knows a silly turtle in my yard would make me smile! Tears are coming just thinking about how loving He is toward me. He's not disappointed in me. He's not upset because I lost my cool with my babes this morning. He isn't giving up on me because I wasn't seeking His detailed will from my life today. He knew I needed some encouragement today and He knows me so well that He places a turtle in my yard to jog a silly memory from childhood, renew my joy, and give me inspiration to interact more meaningfully with my girls this afternoon!

What kind of turtle stories do you have? I'd love to hear them. PLEASE share.

*side note: I intend on putting the turtle in our backyard while the girls Ooo and Awe over him, give him a name, have a lesson about adorable little turtles, and then set him free!

**UPDATE**

Pics of my girls spotting and chasing the turtle