May AD 2010 Truly Be Anno Domini - "The Year of Our Lord"

2010 has started off with a bang…one day early! Allow me to share a little bit of what happened this morning in the 8am – 9am hour alone.

It all started off when I stayed up playing games at John’s house past the time of the the last MARTA train departure. I ended up sleeping at his house, and at 7:30 am when I woke up, I realized that the fact that my car was in the MARTA lot overnight meant that they probably had towed the car (a big no-no unless you’re in long term parking). “Great” I silently muttered, “the New Year is going to start with me down $250.00 to get my car out of the impound lot.” I prayed silently that my car would still be at the Lakewood Ft. McPherson station when I got there.

At around 8:15 am, I arrived at the station and was overjoyed to see my car still there (Miracle #1 - let's keep a running tally). I got in the car and tried to drive out of the lot, only to find that the entrance/exit was chained up (I guess they were trying to keep the 10 or so cars safely in the lot until they could bring out a wrecker and get us). Luckily, the sidewalk that went around the barricaded entrance was wide enough for a little Saturn to drive through (Miracle #2), and the Saturn did surprisingly well at jumping the curb (Miracle #3). I was free from the restrictions; time to head off to the office.

On the way there, I decided to go through the Chick-fil-A drive through across the street from my building. When I pulled up to the window, I realized that the drive through window was being manned by my favorite Latina (name unremembered at this point). We immediately struck up a conversation in Spanish….which went something like this (JD = James Daniel, CLG = Chickfila Latina Girl):

JD: “Como estas?” (how are you?) CLG: “Cansada. Dormi solamente 4 horas” (Tired. I slept only 4 hours)
JD: "Yo tambien. Porque estuve jugando a las tres en la manana" (Me too, because I was playing until 3 am."
CLG: "Mi esposo - el mismo. Se dormio a las dos." (My husband same thing - he also went to bed at 2am.)
JD: "Estas casado? Tienes hijos?" (You're married? You have children?)
CLG: "Si, estoy casado y tengo tres hijos - 11, 8, y nueve meses." (Yes, married with 3 kids - 11, 8, and 9 months
JD (giggling...joking): "Empezaste cuanto tuviste quince anos!" (You must've started when you were 15!) (Keep in mind...she looks young))

(For brevity, I'll translate the rest into English directly and summarize).
She then goes on to tell me that she got pregnant at 16, married at 17 and has been married for 10 years. He teenage pregnancy was the compelling reason for her to move to the US to be with family. All this in the CFA checkout window!! (Miracle #4)

I think asked her what her name was...it was Irma (this is important). She asked me mine, and when I told her, she said "oh, one of my favorite verses in the Bible is Daniel 2:44". Having my Bible in my backpack, I pulled it out and read it. Great verse, btw. I then told her that 3 of my favorites were Daniel 6:25-27 and asked her if she had Jesus in her life ("tienes Cristo en su corazon?"). AS she responded "yes", I handed her my Bible while checking my rearview mirror to ensure that no other vehicles were behind me in line. I had been at the window for 5-6 minutes at this point as she read Daniel 6:25-27. How perfectly beautiful that chica from El Salvador and I were having a conversation about El Salvador del Mundo (The Savior of the World =))!! (#5) Finally, another vehicle comes into the line, right as we were finishing our conversation.
"Adios, Irma, y Dios te bendiga....Prospero Ano y Feliz Navidad!"
"A ti tambien, Daniel."

My head is spinning as I finally pull into the Hewitt building...but we're not done yet. As I step into the elevator, I'm staring at a woman's FedEx package that she's holding in her hands. On the outside of the box it says "if the product quality is not up to your specifications, please contact (are you ready for this???) IRMA Herrera, Product Manager." (Miracle #6) IRMA...again!! Not like I see the name Irma anywhere...and now I've seen it 2x in the last 10 minutes. In the ChickFila windown and on the side of a random cardboard box! Almost like God was saying "yeah, you liked that didn't you?" I just wanted you to be sure that I wasn't asleep up here, and that things are under control, and that I'm interested in the Irmas of the world...the people in the checkout line of your neighbhorhood Chick-Fil-A."

May each of us not miss out on the Irmas in our lives...they're out there. May we love them as we 1st have been loved.

=Daniel