'Rents

I really think I'm one of a kind. I have issues. Since when do the parents cause the ulcers in the kids when the kids can't track down their parents???

Everyday on my way home from work I call my mom. Her and my dad moved to North Carolina almost 2 years ago and being that I'm just really close to my mom and them moving away from me was really hard for me, I call her everyday to make the distance between us seem not so far.

My parents have a routine as I'm sure most of your parents when they hit mid 50's. Folks that age very rarely live outside of their routine. I know my mom and dad's routine and if there's a change in their routine, they usually inform me of this. I know that since both my parents' children live far from them, they pretty much don't let their cell phones out of their sight. It's latched onto them. And as it should be. Parents need to be accessible and available to their children at ALL times; no matter what age their kids are.

Yesterday, I call my mother on my way home from work around 4 pm. No answer. Okay, she could be driving or in the middle of her Bible study; she'll call me back. Go home, shower, get ready for my Bible study. No call. I go to the market and decide to call again, ya know, just in case. No answer. Okay... get home, get ready to leave to my Bible study. I call on the way there (and know that it's only been since the morning since I heard from her last). No answer. I call my dad (he works the night shift so he'd be at work, but surely he has his phone on him at all times). No answer. Panic arises. I'm at Bible study, I lay my phone by me, on silent, but able to see if someone calls just so I can calm down when I see that they are calling. Bible study ends, no call. It's now around 10 pm their time. Mom should be home from all duties by this time. I was awful and distracted off and on throughout the study because horrid instances are running through my head of what could have happened:
"My parents were both in a car wreck earlier today and no one could call me because they don't know that 'Mariko' in their phones is their daughter."
"Something happened to my brother overseas and they are in too much distress to call and tell me yet."
"What if they've both been kidnapped."

On the way home from Bible study, I am now literally pleading with Jesus that someone call me and just let me know why I haven't heard from my mom and my dad. I keep calling. No answer. Again, mind you, this has only been 10 hours since I've last heard from them and now I'm almost in tears on my way home thinking the worst of the worst of what could have happened and trying to sort my thoughts and start planning my life accordingly. !!! I'm now bitter with that "Why doesn't someone tell me what's going on!" mentality.

I get home. I go to my computer. I check weather.com to see if there was some major natural disaster that hit Zebulon, NC that could explain all this. I check the news online to see if any horrific happenings had gone on in that area as well...nothing. I find my dad's work number and call. It rings a lot and then FINALLY I hear my dad's voice. Peace overcame me, at least halfway; my mother is still "missing." I keep my cool talking to him and let him know little of the panic attack I was suffering. I tell him I can't get a hold of mom and he said that he'll call the home number and then have her call me.

I finally talked with my mom last night and she was just busy at church most of the evening and forgot to take her phone off silent and honestly didn't think I would have kept calling to get a hold of her. What was she thinking?!

Let's recap here: I called my mom probably a combined total of 10 times and my dad about 3 times within a span of a few hours when the last I had heard from her was just that morning. Now, if I for some reason didn't call my mom one evening and she called me that many times, I would have retorted with something like this: "Mother, it's only been a day since we've last talked. I'm a 26 year old woman, I am completely capable of taking care of myself. If something had happened, you are in NC and there's nothing you could've done at the moment. If it's my time to go, you can't prevent that; it's God's plan." Now, it would've been completely unacceptable if my mother came back with this attitude toward me, though; do you guys see this? =) But she, being the perfect mother she is, just said sorry and didn't think that I would have kept calling.

So it was a happy ending: mother and father were located and found doing their normal routine, my panic attack didn't last too long, and the Lord taught me that I haven't learned to let go of my parents and let Him take control...

Man, I can never be a parent...I can't even be a non-controlling child.