Disappointment

Today we were supposed to go to the Marine Lab. We were supposed to have gone two weeks ago but because I made a little planning error they didn't have room for our group. So we picked this afternoon as an alternative. Nature Girl was so excited. She loves sea life. At the Marine Lab they have starfish and fiddler crabs and an octopus and nurse sharks and all kinds of things that I do not know the name for :) They even have touch tanks! As of last night I had to cancel our trip because a couple of the families had conflicting schedules and there just wasn't enough left of us to cover the cost. When I told Nature Girl she tried so hard not to cry (she is like me.) But by the time she went to bed she was in tears that could not be stopped. I felt horrible. I had already explored all of our options before I had told her the bad news. But she is a problem solver and kept coming back to me with great ideas but ones that I had already thought of and had had no success. We spent the first 20 minutes or so discussing those ideas and how they hadn't panned out. Then after awhile I started to explain that disappointment is part of life. We all have disappointments from one thing or another. I explained that it is OK to be sad, upset and maybe angry and confused. But after a little while it is important to try to cheer up - to think about something positive about the whole deal. Like I told her, "No we are not able to go today but when daddy is home when the baby is born he can take you down there and you will have a great time." Daddy knows a lot about marine life. We have a choice in how we deal with our disappointment. We can wallow in it or we can make the best of it. It doesn't negate how we feel or doesn't minimize our disappointment but we can't let it become the focus. I also told the kids we have a really busy weekend coming up. We have our author study this morning at the library, tomorrow we are going to the pumpkin patch and later on shopping and dinner with Sissy. On Saturday is the football game and then the annual Halloween party at the Junior Museum and Sunday is church and Dog-a-ween. So, we can feel bad, sad, and mad but we shouldn't let it ruin our weekend. After Nature Girl went to bed she came out a couple times for tearful hugs but by the last time I saw her she had a smile on her face. Red eyes but a smile . . . .