Here is a little
background…I love sleep – I am really quite good at it. When someone asks me what my hobbies are, I
suppress the strong urge to blurt out “napping”. That said, the time period in my life with my
first newborn was challenging…to put things mildly. Sleep deprivation was wicked and I did not
process it well. I decided early on that
I could not sleep with Alyse in the same room with me. Every little sound she made jolted me awake
which provided for disjointed and erratic sleep. The solution was for me to sleep upstairs
with Alyse but in a different room.
Anxious and desperate for sleep I plugged in the baby monitor in her
room, took the “walkie talkie” portion to my room and lay down blissful with
thoughts of sleep. It took approximately
30 seconds before I processed what was happening…Tejano music was coming out of
the baby monitor. Panic. I tip toed into Aly’s nursery and changed the
channel on her monitor and likewise changed the channel on my receiver. Nope – still Tejano. There were 3 channels to choose from and all
produced the plucky sounds of Tejano from the monitor. AYE CARRAMBA!
I barely slept at all that
night. The next morning I explained to
Doug (probably more like hormonally fell apart in a meltdown any toddler would
be proud of) that Tejano music was coming out of the monitor. We decided that surely this was a fluke thing
and I would give it another try that night.
Money was not free flowing in our household so I didn’t want to just
race out and purchase another monitor. I
had researched all baby monitors and this one had gotten 4 baby fist pumps (or
some other crazy rating system they use) and so I was determined to try and
make this monitor work. Nope. Night after night – Tejano music. We discovered that the local Tejano station
was about a mile from our home and the frequency they used perfectly matched
the same frequencies used for baby monitors.
No bueno.
Completely delirious from
lack of sleep during this phase of life, my quiet times with God consisted of
reading through the Psalms. It was about
as much as I could mentally muster up to read a Psalm each night. Psalm 6:2
“Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint; O Lord, heal me, for my bones
are in agony. How long, O Lord, how
long?” Clearly David’s inspiration
comes from the same “infant doesn’t sleep coupled with Tejano baby monitor issue”
I was having because what else could have prompted the songs of lament he
wrote. David and I were simpatico.
I can’t recall when I
finally ditched the Tejano singing monitor and just listened for Alyse to cry
out but it was at least a few months. I
built a true disdain for all things Tejano during that time period.
Alyse was still an infant
when I decided to take a trip to visit my parents in Houston. Doug was out of town and I thought a 5 hour
car trip alone with an infant would be an awesome idea (I have heard people
don’t make their best decisions when they are sleep deprived). The trip was going along well at first. We had made a few pit stops to change a
diaper and eat. Right after one such pit
stop, Alyse began to lose her mind. I
knew she was not hungry or dirty as we had just stopped for those things. She was fighting sleep and there was nothing
to do but just keep driving. Whew – she
had quite the cry out going so I decided to turn on the radio to try and find
my happy place. Unfortunately, we were
in some podunk little town and music choices were limited….except guess what
came through loud and clear? Yep –
Tejano. A flood of bitterness fell over
me and I was jamming my finger on the “skip forward” button, but there was a
lag so the music blared out…and then it happened… Alyse stopped crying. The music was so different from anything SHE
had heard that it was enough to break the freak out cycle. I simply couldn’t believe it. The music that I had such animosity towards
for months was bringing comfort to a current situation. I flat out set the dial to that channel and
we listened to Tejano music until she fell asleep. Magnifico.
Since that day, I have
always kept a radio station channel with Tejano music. (Shout out to 99.1) When Alyse and Grant were
smaller and would begin to get pesty to each other in the back seat of the van –
I dialed up Tejano. They would swivel
their heads around and begin to bop up and down and temporarily forget the
“will you stop touching me” moment.
Fast forward to today and
my sweet Alyse is almost 12. You
know…the age of all knowing everything.
I find it simply a feat of amazingness that I have managed to stay alive
for 41 years without her “advice and input”.
During this season our tastes are quite different…and that includes
music. There is a current pop song that
has a lyric that says “I can’t feel my face when I’m with you…but I love
it” Alyse doesn’t appreciate when I tell
her that this man clearly has health issues and should see a dr. I further explain that maybe it is a side effect
of that toenail fungus medicine they advertise on TV – it seems that for all
the good it does, there are quite a bit of awful side effects and bell’s palsy
was mentioned – an indicator that something is amiss. …. Eye rolling commences
and Alyse just sings louder.
Alyse typically jumps in
the car after school and answers my obligatory school questions and then begins
to press all the programmed buttons on the radio. One day recently, all her radio stations were
running commercials so she got to the last button on pre-programmed buttons…Tejano. She gave me a crazy look and I simply said,
“Tejano…who can’t be happy listening to Tejano”. We laughed out loud and then both began to
dance in the car together. We understood
not one word…but didn’t have to. We
bonded together over the sweet sounds of mariachi. She now regularly finds the Tejano station
when we are in the car. I consider it a
win as she is reaching out to connect us together (and I am not being subjected
to listening to songs where people can’t feel their face).
In these moments of
listening to Tejano with Alyse I am struck by Romans 8:28,
“And we know that in all things God works for the good
of those who love Him".
You might think I am
reaching to lump Tejano music into God working all things. But I need to put it there. I need to see His hand working in ALL
things. Not just financial things…not
just things for successful people or nice people, not just working in BIG
things or in your things…but in ALL things.
If I can see His hand working to redeem my issue with Tejano music it
helps me cling harder to this promise: I
can trust that He indeed does work ALL things for my good…even Tejano
music!
Gloria a Dios
