Busy day so far today. First was Mass. Thomas was fairly quiet until the Prayers of the Faithful. After a few prayers had been offered, there was a brief pause while Father waited to make sure no one else had something to say.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH waWOOga wahgah! Ba GEEGA! Bah!" shouted Thomas, waving his arms as his burblings reverberated through the tiny stone chapel.

Another brief pause. "I don't know whether we should say 'Lord, hear our prayer' or not," Father said, struggling manfully not to roar with laughter.

Next came breakfast at the local cafe with the boys' surrogate grandparents. John contentedly munched his scone and soaked up the adult conversation. (This always makes me nervous. Often adults don't realize how closely he's listening until they look over and see two eyes several sizes too big for their head.) Thomas flung Cheerios and bounced in his seat.

Next was a half-hour drive to a new park, ostensibly to meet some of the moms in the local Catholic homeschooling community. I've been on their e-mail list for a couple years now, but have yet to meet any of the moms on it, except for one who happens to be the La Leche League leader lady (say THAT ten times fast) and another whom I met at church (hi, Sarah!). So I was eager and excited to finally meet these folks, and find some wholesome kids for John to make friends with.

We found the park. Beautiful day. Lovely park. Lots of small children climbing around. My LLL friend was walking up in my direction. This is looking good! I thought, as I woke up a sleepy Thomas and bundled him into the stroller. Then she informed me 1) nobody else had come, and 2) she herself was on her way home, as she'd been there for an hour and her youngest had a messy diaper and her oldest was bored with no one to talk to.

Sigh.

I wandered the grounds with Thomas on my hip while John clambered about the play structure. I called Jen and chatted while sitting on a park bench and trying to keep Thomas from eating the phone. I shuffled over to the merry-go-round, sat down, and let Thomas crawl around it while I held one of his ankles and John ran over to push us. Turning slowly in a circle, scuffling my feet through the mulch and trying not to get dizzy, I moped for other moms. Did I mention how no one had come to the lake yesterday either?

Thomas' fussing escalated and I realized he was probably hungry. John threw a handful of mulch on another little boy and was removed swiftly from the scene, bundled into the stroller with his brother and wheeled away. I looked for a place to sit in the shade and feed them both. Up ahead was a likely-looking spot, on a small hill overlooking the park beneath some trees. As I made for it, John spotted the park fountain and asked for a closer look.

From there things grew steadily brighter. We found another bench by a spectacular wisteria arbor, through which we could watch the fountain. John ate his lunch next to me on the bench, swinging his legs. Thomas ate his in the stroller. When they were finished, we went up to the fountain; I lifted John up and held his waist while he leaned over to splash in the water and play in the side jets. From behind him I heard his giggling crescendo into belly laughter as the water droplets flew higher and drenched his whole front. When he turned around, his face was glistening, there were water beads all through his hair, and his eyes were shining.

And then, just when he couldn't have been any happier, up rode a park attendant in a John Deere Gator. Instant awe and adulation from a three-year-old who just so happened to be wearing his John Deere T-shirt. The attendant started cleaning out the fountain. I asked him if we could have a peek at his Gator when he was done. "Sure, if you'll supervise him, you can go on over now," he said, smiling.

So it wasn't a disappointing morning after all. It just didn't go according to my plans. But as I'm slowly learning, it's one thing when plans go awry because I'm thoughtless or lazy, and quite another when it's because Someone upstairs has a better idea.