All he wanted was Frog plates, cinnamon rolls, and Lunchables… How hard could that be?

As the derecho tore through the Midwest on Monday, August 10, 2020, the cities that we live and pastor in were greatly affected. I happened to be on the phone when the storm turned the sky as dark as dusk and the wind tore through our trees. I hung up to console my crying children as we heard the giant cracks of trees and branches falling all around us. The power flickered off and on for about twenty minutes until all went dead. 

As the living room darkened that evening, I started lighting all the candles I could find. There was a special nervous-excitement coming from the children as the luxuries like lights, air-conditioning, WiFi, and flushing toilets were stripped away from us.

Now under normal circumstances, I would have decorated the house after the children went to bed. However, given the storm that shut entire towns down, I didn’t go to the store that afternoon (as planned) to buy balloons and little odds and ends to make the next day special for my oldest son’s birthday.

Instead, I found our little felt “Happy Birthday” banner in the basement by candlelight and proceeded to hang it in the living room. It was a meager attempt of decorating, but an attempt nonetheless.

I went to bed exhausted and perhaps slightly defeated with no working power, no running water, no presents to wrap, and no cake to bake.

As I lay in bed that night with the windows open and the crickets singing their midnight melody, I stressed about our fridge staying cold overnight.

Nathan’s birthday breakfast request was simple: cinnamon rolls and eggs, and I certainly didn’t want the one thing that I could control to spoil.

After tossing and turning for a while, I got up and threw on my robe. I made my way out to the kitchen by flashlight and gathered the milk, eggs, and cinnamon roll tubes and transported them out to our camper fridge, which (thankfully) also runs on propane. 

There were already plans in place on Tuesday to float a certain river with our staff, and Nathan was going to get to tag along as it was his birthday. However, with the storm that left power outages, trees obstructing roads, and closed gas stations, we made the decision to cancel the Staff Float Day.

“We’ve gotta make the most of it.” That’s what my husband, Jeremiah, told me that Tuesday morning.

I found our French Press and heated water on the camper stove to get some caffeine flowing through our veins. Once coherent, I began to tackle Nathan’s birthday breakfast. 

My little camper oven reached 400 degrees in no time, and as the rolls baked, I realized that I wasn’t smelling the delicious smell of cinnamon and sugar, but burnt cinnamon and sugar. 

Apparently I had the oven rack too close to the flame’s heat. And as birthday boy patiently waited inside the camper with me, he heard my frustrated, “Are you kidding me??” that I chastised myself with when I pulled out the smoking pan.

I realized that I had just seeded frustration and disappointment when he pulled a blanket over his head and stayed there for a while.

Even though the cinnamon rolls burnt on the bottoms, thankfully, the eggs turned out beautifully! We took breakfast back inside the house to eat around our kitchen bar.

Now normally, I would have decorated and set the table with themed plates and napkins of the birthday child’s choosing. Nathan’s choice?! Frogs. 

Given that I didn’t make it to the store, I used the t-rex plates that were leftovers from his younger brother’s birthday back in March. I attempted to tell him that dinosaurs and frogs were at least in the same family. He gave me a weak smile. He knew better. Frogs are amphibians and dinosaurs are reptiles. (Duh.)

My husband saved the cinnamon rolls by sawing off the bottoms with our bread knife. We were making the most of it…although off to a very hard, burnt start.

Midmorning, as the mailman handed me my one package, he said that the post office was still without power, so they had sorted the mail by headlamp earlier that morning. Little did he know that the package was one of the presents we had ordered, and I was happy to have at least something to give!

I wrapped the box in Kraft paper, and taped some curly ribbon on a lone can of Sunkist I found in the camper fridge. 

Present time was a bit ridiculous as we all sat around Nathan with his pop and one gift. We all erupted in laughter when Titus handed him the box and excitedly said, “It’s gum balls!” before he could even open it. 

Afterwards, I took Nathan on a trip into town to see if we could buy him Lunchables (his lunch request) but discovered that our only grocery store was closed due to having no power. We did find that Dollar General was open and bought three cases of water, three loaves of bread, and candy. Lots of candy. 

Later that afternoon, Jeremiah took the older boys to redeem the day somewhat and longboarded the river’s dike.

Nathan was born in a record storm and turned ten in the wake of a record storm. And both of those days have proved to be memorable for sure.

We went to a friend’s house to shower later that night, and I overheard Nathan being asked what he had gotten for his birthday. 

His animate response was, “I had burnt cinnamon rolls for breakfast…a can of pop that was from the camper fridge - leftover from the Staff Family Fun Day two weeks ago…and gum balls!”

I realized in that moment that he was fully aware of the frustration and disappointment of his own birthday, and had felt every single one of the emotions that I had been feeling all day long… 

I had wanted to give him a super special, one-of-a-kind day. Instead it had turned out to be a day full of disappointments and challenges.

Nathan could have lost his joy as he had every reason to. However, he choose to see the good. And I was impressed with the fact that he had made the most of it.

He knew that I had burnt the cinnamon rolls, but he just ate his with extra frosting. He knew where the can of pop had come from, but he didn’t say anything other than, “Thank you.” He knew that only one of his packages had arrived, but he didn’t ask, “Where are the others??”

And if there’s one lesson I can learn from my ten-year-old son on his birthday this year, it’s…

Life burns the rolls sometimes…but that just means you need extra frosting.

Some days are hard and full of challenges. The storms rage and the power shuts off. Sometimes the fun is cancelled, the cinnamon rolls burn, and the gifts don’t arrive on time. And in those moments, we need to count our blessings, and not our disappointments. Yes, we have to make the most of it.

In fact, the Bible instructs us to:

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:12

And after going 100 hours without power and water, I’ve promised to make it up to him - frog plates, cinnamon rolls, Lunchables and all. Only this time, I won’t be burning the rolls and we’ll add extra frosting anyway.