Before I go confessing things that I have been wrong about, perhaps I should declare some things that I was totally RIGHT about:
*Troy Burwell is indeed the Greatest. Husband. E-vah.
*Teaching middle-schoolers is infinitely easier than parenting them.
*My kindle reader is quite the wise investment.
*Adoption is a good adventure to be on.
*Jesus is the best, best, best!
But there are a few things in my life that I have been totally, completely, laughably wrong about.
I will never forget the scene: It is 1994 and I am sitting in my Rome, Georgia apartment with my BFF Kristi. She tells me about a conversation she has recently had with her dad:
Kristi: “You know how my dad knows a lot about computers? He told me about the coolest thing that is coming soon!”
Me: “Yeah? What is it??”
Kristi: “They are calling it the ‘world wide web’. It is a way to connect computers across the world, so that you could write a letter on a computer here in Georgia and the computer can send it to England, for example!”
Me: “Really? Hm.”
Kristi: “And you can put information about a store or product on this web and people could use their computers to get to it.”
Me: “Where is this ‘web’?”
Kristi: “It’s like in the air.”
Me: “Really?? Okay, I am just going to go ahead and say it: Mark my words, that will NEVER work. I’m sorry, but it just won’t.”
Another scene that comes to mind happened not too long ago, early February 2020. Troy-Babe and I are sitting in bed (like old people) reading, while the news drones in the background. Suddenly Babe remembers a news story from earlier...
Babe: “Oh my gosh, have you heard about this virus that has popped up in China?”
Me: “Nope. No idea what you are talking about.”
Babe: “Well, they say it is really bad, and that it is coming to the US, and it could affect a lot of people.”
Me: “They always say that stuff.”
Babe: “But this one seems to be different.”
Me: “Mark my words, that virus will be no big deal.”
Fast forward to summer of 2021. Without going into detail, I will just say that I have not seen my mom in twelve years. Long ago, I thought to myself: “I am never going to have a relationship with my mom again. Mark my words. And that makes me very sad.”
Suddenly in mid-June, she reaches out to me, as my stepdad Jim is dying of cancer. She says that I and my family can come see them both. She meets my crazy-but-beautiful children. She takes me to the room where my stepdad lays dying, and I try to talk to him about being right with God before he dies. (He is such a good man but has never really wanted a relationship with God. Since he is soon leaving this earth for eternity, that is concerning to me.) I find out that his close friend Mike has been talking God-talk with him and his perspective has changed, to say the least!
Jim does indeed die within days of that conversation, but it is my belief that he is happily with God now. (Don’t get all mad at me for being religious. Aren’t we supposed to practice “tolerance”, people?!)
And I am happily spending time with my mom again. Plus she is getting to know my kids. We have gotten to spend a lot of time reconnecting and I have really enjoyed it! Mark my words, friends and family: I am so glad that this is one more thing that I was very wrong about!
(The picture above is Cate and me with my Mom; we are at the Clanton, Alabama Airfield at my stepdad's memorial.)