God Put a Smile Upon Your Face

This has been one eventful week. There are two very important lessons I have learned from all of it.
1. Don't ever trust a professional. Just because they went to college, have years of experience, etc. does not mean they know what they are talking about. Sometimes YOU have to be the one to speak up and question them about one thing or another.
2. God has a sense of humor.
Now on to my story and then I will explain the second lesson.
So, my 13 year old sister has been going to orthodontists this past week trying to decide which one to get braces from. I decided to come with to the first one because I hate one of my front teeth and wanted to see if there was some quick fix like a retainer or something. If there wasn't, I was perfectly content with just leaving it alone cause there was no way in hell-o I was going to get braces and my smile isn't bad enough to do anything about it. Going to this orthodontist was my first mistake and the beginning of a betrayal.  You see, I still have a baby tooth (I know, weird right?). Every year when I would go into the dentist to get my teeth cleaned he would say, "Well you still have that baby tooth." But that was it. No further discussion of "maybe we should look into that" or "that might cause a problem in the future." You would THINK he would have said SOMETHING! Especially now that I'm 19, and just got my teeth cleaned about a week ago, and he said the SAME thing he always says. So anyway, we go to this ortho and he says that I have a fully grown permanent tooth above the baby tooth....no, really?? (I really hope you can catch the sarcasm ha). He wanted me to go to this specialist to get a 3D picture of it and see if it's ok or whatever for $300. YEAH RIGHT! I ask him if there's a simple fix and he says no, so I decide forget it. I'll just live with my teeth how they are. But my mom insists (well actually forces) me to go to the next ortho to get a second opinion. I liked this guy a lot more because he didn't act like it was urgent to get the tooth out like the other guy. He just said to go to my dentist and get a picture of the tooth to see if the root was good. I went to the dentist for the second time that week and got the picture. My dentist said yes the root was full and that I should get that baby tooth pulled so that the tooth could come down (wow, could you have told me that 3 days ago when I came in?? or YEARS ago?!). We asked if it would come down on it's own and he said oh no, I would have to get braces cause there isn't enough room. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME??!!! (I should have yelled this at him....but I didn't.) My mom had asked him lots over the years if I would need braces and he always said NO. NOW he decides to tell me, when I'm almost 20! I felt completely betrayed (hence the first lesson).
My mom let me decide whether I wanted to do it now and get it over with before Jake got home, or wait til I was married and then get them on. It was hard but I decided I better just do it now so that I could be done and have my teeth perfect for the wedding. My sister and I both got the spacers in and stuff to prep for the braces and the whole time I was just so angry. How could this be happening NOW? Why couldn't the dentist have figured this out years ago when I would have been perfectly happy to get them on? I'm in college! I'll have them all of sophomore and junior year. During the prep work and all the way home, I tried not to cry. This was ruining my life (I know this sounds super dramatic but that's how I felt at the moment). My mom tried to make me feel better by saying that at least now I'll be around when Jake gets home cause there's no way I'm getting married with them on! This got me thinking....and then a light bulb came on and I thought "Oh, no." Since Jake left, I've been praying that I would be around when he gets back so that we could at least see if things would work. If I didn't have that chance I think I would always wonder. At that moment I realized lesson number two: God has a sense of humor. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me that this was the answer I got. Not at all what I had thought, but then again when has God ever answered prayers the way we thought they would be answered? Now I feel bad for being mad. He's just doing what I had asked and I'm grateful.
So for the next two years I'm going to try my best to grin and bear it. God will put a beautiful smile on my face and I will no longer hate the little problems.
Tuesday, I will be brace face. Here we go!