Josiah's Prayer

Josiah rode the bus for the first time on Friday. He's been BEGGING me to let him ride so I finally gave in. Since I already had him signed up at the beginning of the year (just in case), I wrote a note a few days ahead of time to his teacher so she could make arrangements. That was all he talked about on Thursday and Friday morning.

Sure enough, Friday came. Shannon & I explained to him the things we thought he'd need to know and sent him on his way to school. His friend Aliza rides the same bus. I think she had already told him the "dos and don'ts" of bus riding. He was to get off at his Mema & Papa's (which was written explicitly on the note with directions) who live just a mile from us.

So there I am, waiting ever so patiently at Mama & Daddy's, when I hear the bus coming. I go over to the door and, before I can get it open to go out on the porch, the bus zooms by! I call my friend Tammy who works at his school. She checks with his teacher and, sure enough, he IS on the bus.

So I proceed to chase the bus down...not knowing exactly how to go about that. Meanwhile, my friend Tammy has the school to call the bus shop and try to notify the driver of his missed stop. I finally find the bus MILES down the road...almost in Habersham. I run up to the window and ask the driver about Josiah. Evidently he'd just gotten the call from the bus shop and was semi-looking for me. He wasn't nearly as apologetic as I would've been had I done the same thing, but he was nice all the same.

Josiah got off with me and we got in the car and headed back to his Mema's & Papa's. He had NO idea that the driver had even missed his stop. He was actually even kind of mad at ME because I "didn't let him get off at Mema & Papa's house." I forget the "thinkings" of a 5-year-old sometimes. I think he knew the driver had passed their house but he just assumed they'd go back and drop him off whenever the time came.

Oh, the trust of a child.

This, however, did not upset his desire to ride the bus in the least! I had told the driver he'd probably be riding on Mondays and Fridays some. Well, Josiah knew that Monday was coming up and asked to ride again. I decided it would be safest to let him get off at Mama & Daddy's again...so as not to cause any unnecessary confusion. Josiah also requested that I NOT be there...that he wanted to get off BY HIMSELF and be WITH Mema & Papa...just HIM. Not me. I clearly understood this 5-year-old's need for independence and decided to let him make a go of it all by himself.

He did great, of course, and was soooo proud to be such a big boy! My daddy asked him if he thought the bus was going to stop this time and he said, "Yes, I prayed that it would and it did!" Just like that! How simple.

And I truly believe in my heart that my heavenly Father heard that simple prayer of little Mr. Independent.

Shannon reminded him last night during our prayer time to be sure and THANK God for answering his prayer. He just smiled and said, "I already did."