Challenges and Stress

It seems it's going to be a crazy and long weekend. I ought to be enjoying it, but I'm not looking forward to it. I love St. Patrick's Day, with all the green, and Irish music, and food, and revelry. I don't love the ridiculous idiots that abound, especially when the day falls on a weekend. I bet the police have bets on the number of drunks they'll be bringing in. It could be a budget-booster for some areas.
My weekend got busy as soon as my friend's mother died. I knew before she told me, that the funeral would be Saturday. It's in a really rural area of Kansas, and that's when folks do things like that. I knew before she asked that I'd end up doing the funeral too, and that means travelling four hours, to the town and back. That's okay. But in the mean time, my kids have soccer, a Girl Scout outing, babysitting my nephew while his family attends a piano recital, and there's a church dinner.
As if that weren't waaaay too much.
So this afternoon, the phone rings and it's my daughter's friend, who is living in Janesville, WI. Only she's now at the Days Inn with her mother and two little brothers-- down for the weekend. And I'm sure there are expectations here-- as I asked her what was going on, her response was cut off, and I could hear whispering. Her mother is probably hoping to dump the kids on me while she goes out-- she did this from August 05 to St. Pat's 06, in between misusing babysitters, leaving the kids unattended, and expecting the little girl (age 10) to watch them. Last summer my family had the little girl for a month, and we paid for her to go to church camp. She wants to again, but I wonder if we won't be expected to also keep her brother. This just puts dread in my stomach, already. I hope this isn't the beginning of another year of worrying about these kids, and being able to do nothing.
I guess I should pray for guidance here, and ask for God to do or show me something to do. Turning my back won't help these children. Their grandparents have already done that, and it means bad things have happened with no system of checks and balances. So, I guess that's my prayer-- to find a way to help these kids, and to deal with the extra stress it puts on my family too. Amen.