Prayers For A Friend

I wish I could live in a perpetual weekend.  I don’t know why I feel so much more relaxed and at home on the weekends than I do during the week.  I guess I’m always afraid I’m going to get another call saying something about Avery getting taken away.

It’s funny how the events of the last few weeks have really changed my outlook on life.  I’ve always been ‘peppy’ and ‘optimistic’.  I’ve always loved life and done whatever I could to help others in need.  I would give the shirt off my back to help someone in need.  It’s just the way I am.  It’s the way I was raised.  It’s an amazing quality that my mother passed on to me and one that I fully intend to pass onto my children. 

However, the last few weeks have made me look at everything differently.  I still value the beauty of life.  I still love everything about the people in my life, but I am SO much more cautious about people that I don’t know.  I’m a lot less likely to interact with people because I’m afraid that my ‘situation’ will cause them to immediately judge me.

It’s sad, but I’ve actually lost friends because of this.  Being labeled as an accused ‘child abuser’ apparently darkens your reputation faster than you could imagine.  People have already judged our family, without knowing anything.  And that’s always hard.

But those who KNOW me.  Those who have spent any amount of time in my house, who have seen my children, who have interacted with me on my best and worst days, anyone who knows anything about me – they know.  They know that my children are my life.  That my girls are what makes me wake up every morning.  I love everything about having children.  I have patience like most mother’s dream of.  I rarely have a day that I ‘need a break’ because as soon as I walk out, I miss them.  It’s just wonderful to me, being a mother, it’s amazing.  I just wish that people who don’t know me would know that. 

Today, my amazing friend Melanie and I drove to our local hospital (Altru) and painted the windows on the fourth floor.  It was amazing.  We did it at night so as to avoid the crowds of people walking through the halls, but the finished product is incredible.  If you are local, take a trip there and take a picture in front of them!  I’d love to see the photos!  You can upload them and post them on Facebook at “Help Bring Baby A Home” or if the commenter has the ability to post the photos, do so! 

I’m hoping that the extra splash of color on a very monotonous hospital unit will help brighten someone’s day while they are walking to see their sick son, daughter, friend, mother, brother or someone who is having a baby! 

As I’m typing this Avery is peacefully swaddled in the only place she’ll sleep now that her tube is in – the swing.  Thank God we upgraded swings when she was about 3 months old.  We got the Fisher Price lullaby swing at OUAC and bought the plug-in adapter for it.  We would have gone through countless batteries by now.  It runs for about 14 hours a day.  It’s insane.  I wish I knew why she wouldn’t sleep in her crib anymore.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to get her back to her crib after her tube surgery – I’d appreciate it.  She looks so much like an angel in her swing, but her body isn’t flat while she is sleeping, it’s cradled, and I’m sure that can’t be comfortable long-term.

 

Tonight, I am asking for prayers for a friend.  She has been very helpful to us the last few weeks and she is about to go through her first deployment from her husband since they have had kids.  She has a special needs child as well who has been very sick the last few weeks.  I know how hard deployments are without a special needs child.  I know how tired you can get.  How much support and strength you need.  And she needs to be lifted up!