Mickey Lost His Leg and Why That's Okay

     The day after Thanksgiving, I pulled out the Christmas decoration boxes and started to unwrap the ornaments. Annually opening the tissue paper reveals treasures that come with a lot of memories we've collected over the years. One very sentimental ornament is Mickey and Minnie Mouse ice skating. In 1996, Marty and I were engaged and we took a trip with another couple to Pier 39 in San Francisco where we found Mickey and Minnie. It represented our first Christmas together as we anxiously waited for our wedding date to arrive the following Spring. It was old school Disney style, colors muted making it look a little more antique. And for 17 years, it made its way to the top of our tree. Every year I would tell the kids the significance of it. I even left the original tag on it to make it more collectable, not that we'd ever sell it. 

     Yesterday, Mickey and Minnie emerged from their tissue paper. I held them up, nostalgia filling the room, when instantly my heart sank. One of Mickey's legs had broken off. NOOOOOO!!! I had preserved this ornament all this time and wanted it to be a cherished heirloom someday, and now Mickey was an amputee. I immediately began to search through the box they were stored in to see if I could find the missing limb. I fell just short of asking God if I couldn't find it, could He grant a Christmas miracle and grow back another one. 

     In my disappointment, I wrapped the skating mice back up in their tissue paper and put them back in the box that was headed for the attic.  Later that night, I realized that was the wrong call. Legless Mickey probably represents our marriage better than before he was maimed. We've been battered and broken. We've taken our hard knocks. Life has thrown us some curves and storms have come, but the biggest revelation that came from our now imperfect ornament was we're not... perfect. However, we are blessed, we are healing, we are forgiven, we are learning. And we're trying to be like Mickey and Minnie regardless; side by side, smiling, and still skating through life. 

     I don't know where Mickey's leg is and I don't know if I'll ever come across it, but I just might crawl back up into the attic and bring the mice back down to be placed on the top of the tree where they belong. Sorry that I temporarily needed you to be perfect, Mickey. Hope no one expects that of me.