I should be cleaning now!

Yeah, my house is a total disaster... welcome to the Monday post-weekend with all four kids home chaos. I should be cleaning it right now instead of posting to this time sucker therapeutic blessing blog!

I am just thankful for SO many things today that I had to get it out of me. First of all for my husband! He is so amazing! He called me to check in a few minutes ago and I can't believe how much I get excited to get a mid-day call from him after 12 years of marriage. I am so blessed to have a relationship that still feels new and exciting to me!

Also, I am thankful that I have a doctor, who I LOVE and TRUST and who might possibly be the best pediatrician on the planet, and who is only 40 minutes away by car (yes, there are closer pediatricians, but 40 minutes by car is closer than most of the world enjoys and I get to see someone I admire) and after seeing him I get to pay $10 for an anti-biotic that will fix my baby right up.

And that brings me to the biggest blessing of the day. Last night at about 12:15 I hear Meg crying out in long, non-sensical sentences. I rush into her room to see what the matter was and she was talking alot of nonsense and some things that I could make out, but that didn't seem right. I realize she is burning up with fever (103 to be exact) and figure out that she is actually hallucinating. I don't know why this didn't totally freak me out... well, actually, I do know why... it's pretty hard to throw me anything in the middle of the night that I haven't seen at one time or another so I don't tend to get too worked up if it's not apparently life threatening. But what was the blessing in all that? I gave her some Motrin (thank God for access even to that) and sat down beside her bed to pat her back until she fell back asleep. I had not felt good yesterday so I was dead tired and initially I was just wishing she would close her eyes so I could go back to sleep. But she is laying there on her stomach staring at me with those big brown eyes of hers and I remembered this post I put on her blog about this time last year. At that time, I had only seen my daughter in a photo. I worried that she was sick in the night with no one to comfort her. I worried that there was no one to scoop her up when she skinned her knee. And I worried that no one was wiping her tears when she cried. And I sat there, rubbing her back, not caring about my sleep, because I remembered the immense privilege it is to be sitting up in the night with her. And I am so thankful for that sweet moment with her.

I am also painfully aware how blessed we are to be dealing with pink eye and a double ear infection. Sweet Maggie is facing surgery today, and possibly a repeat of the surgery she already had. Stellan and his family are fighting for his very life. Precious little Hope is living every day with the real possibility of a grave injury or worse. My baby has a very minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, and for that, I am thankful too. And yet, somehow, in Jesus kingdom, all these other families are joyful in their situations too! Thank you Jesus for these friends!

Last but not least, I am thankful that I got to have a conversation today with a friend who is discerning religion for her family. I am thankful for that privilege because I know there are countries where the conversation would not be possible or logical, because there are places where there are no choices regarding religion.

"Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care." Psalm 95:6-7