Faith Lessons from Children

Honestly, I do everything people ask me to do usually without asking question and I'm not much good at flexing my "no" muscles especially when it comes to what "a good mother would do". School is one example. I take everything too much to heart when they say Beatle needs improvement. I just feel desperate. There's another mom I just think the world of and her daughter and Beatle have always been about on the same level and when she goes in for conferences, she doesn't get all wrapped around the axle about what they say. She usually just ends the conference with, "She's just fine but thank you." with a big smile on her face and leaves, knowing that they're doing the best they can and, at that point, what more could you do?? Another example, we got a letter in the mail from Children's Hospital telling us an appointment time and date for Beatle's kidneys to be checked again. It was on my calendar and I was planning on going but then Brent asked, "Why is she going back? They released her from her medicine and she hasn't had one infection since." Wow! I never thought about NOT going. Silly Mom. Beatle added, "Yeah, I'm not really feeling the cord up my po-po thing." We laughed and she said, "Oh, not a cord, a tube up my po-po. I mean, why do I have to go in and have them fill me with fake pee and then let it out." Brent asked, "Would it all be worth it if we took you to Chuck E. Cheese afterwards?" (our usual Little Rock stop). She hesitated awhile and then said, "No." She continued her explanation by doing a hilarious rendition of what it would look like with her waddling around Chuck E. Cheese trying to play and other kids beating her to every machine. She's such a hoot! She never had to waddle through Chuck E. Cheese though because I canceled the appointment.

Jasmine's still here. She's really trying to get around and sit-up. This morning though, it was so sad. She was sitting up but then toppled over. At first, I didn't think the tumble was that bad but right by her eye started getting red and puffy. :( Right before one of Jasmine's first visits with her mom, a baby at daycare crawled over to Jasmine and scratched her face. I hadn't met her mom yet and didn't know it until a few weeks later but her mom saw her, she hit the ceiling, calling her attorney and everything about it. There was an abuse investigation opened on us which I didn't know about until I got a letter saying that the abuse was unsubstantiated on us and we would NOT be listed in the Child Abuse Registry! Ok, I understand they need to keep a watchful eye on the kids and look out for their best interest but that scared me!! It makes me nervous to think that I'm trying to do something good and it could blow up in my face and tarnish our reputation for life. For the past week, Jasmine's had and unsteady stomach and it left her bottom raw. It made me sad but the daycare and I were doing everything we could to keep it clean and dry. Well, while talking to Jasmine's aunt last night, she said Mom freaked out again and was commanding Lauren to give her my number. I told Lauren that we could have talked about it but I wasn't going to have her yell at me--especially when she's feeding her ravioli at visits!! Give me a break! (Plus, it hurt my feelings because I thought Mom and I had gotten to a good place.) So, this morning when she bumped her eye, I was getting upset about it because I knew that Mom would freak out and open an investigation on me again. After mentioning it for the second time, Beatle said, "Trust God, Mom. He's in this battle for you." I took it in for a second and she's exactly right. I have nothing to hide. I'm in His hands and that's a peaceful place to be.

Birdie's at that wonderful stage of development where she says at least two new words a day. It's so exciting! This morning, she kept getting up at the breakfast table and Brent was repeatedly telling her to sit down but then she started saying, "BB, juice. BB, juice." And Beatle realized that she had left Birdie's cup in the kitchen, instead of bringing it to Birdie's place setting at the table. It's nice for everyone when they can communicate!!