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For a good many years we lived just up the street from a QT. We were regulars- regulars as in the people that walk in and the counter help greets with familiarity. And I'm not talking the usual "hi-welcome-to-QT," but more of a "hey guys! Ready for your slushes?" Or even, "Aren't you a bit early today?" That kind of regular.

In those same years, I carried my kids around on a lot of missions. We walked alongside a lot of folks in those years. We experienced and shared situations and lives that were messy and beautiful and crazy and broken and sad and sweet and beautiful. I imagine it all as one crazy mosaic pattern.

My kids were patient. And generous. They flexed. They played with kids that weren't always easy friends. They often waited beyond when they should have waited. They helped when they would rather have been doing something else. Maybe part of that was the promise of slushees. But they still help today. No slushees. I am grateful. Maybe that when they are old they won't depart from it really is a promise.

(photo from a DFW area QT- sadly, none in the Rio Grande Valley; but then again, we do have the Laredo Taco Company...)