The house was clean, the kids
were just waking up from their naps, and I had just relaxed on the couch with a
mug of hot tea and a book. It was peaceful. Serene. Exactly like the scenes in
movies where things just can’t be going any better…then the music changes and
you know things are about to take a turn.
The doorbell rang. And rang
again…. and again. I opened the door and there were my nieces with their
overnight bags. They gave me a quick “Hi, Aunt TJ!” dropped their shoes and
bags at my feet and went running through the house in search of Rachel.
My sister-in-law came in with
my nephew and his bag. She dropped him off and had to run to get to her
appointment on time.
She closed the door behind
her, I turned around and was amazed to find the living room completely
trashed.
Marshall was by the toy
basket, throwing things out onto the floor with a passion.
Three of the four girls,
along with Jeremiah were engaged in a “who can bark the loudest” contest.
I went to my room to put my
book away (I learned my lesson the last time they were here and I found
Marshall sitting in the floor tearing books into shreds).
I returned to the living room
to find 2 girls playing the piano together. They played different songs, at
different tempos, in different keys…but together. Jeremiah was singing along at
the top of his voice. It was bad. lol
Another girl had taken out a
board game, left it on the floor and Marshall was tossing pieces in every
corner. I'm still finding pieces all over the house.
About that time it hit me
that these kids eat dinner a lot earlier than my family normally does. I went
in search of food. I quickly realized we didn’t have anything decent to feed
these kiddos. I started making waffles and scrambled eggs…and barely had enough
of that to go around. After a few minutes I went in to check on the kids again.
I still don’t know how he did
it, but somehow Marshall got into the pantry. I found him in my bedroom. He had
dumped an entire bag of Doritos onto the floor. He had a mouthful of crumbs,
and was enjoying stomping all the rest into my bedroom carpet.
I started cleaning up that
mess and realized I was burning the waffles. I went back into the kitchen to
try and save them and found that Marshall had moved from playing with Doritos
to playing in the toilet.
Jeremiah didn’t like that at
all and stood there fussing at him and crying when Marshall didn’t obey his every command. He had been especially whiny over the last few weeks and it just seems to be getting worse.
I saved the waffles first
(just barely), then got Marshall cleaned up. Jeremiah was so whiny at this
point that he just clung to my leg, crying and glaring at his little cousin.
The kids were running around
the house, screaming, singing, dancing, using at least 7 different noisy toys
at once and having a merry old time.
I got dinner (or breakfast)
on the table and called them all in to eat. They were thrilled to see waffles for dinner! No veggies here. Once they were all seated and had
food on their plates I went into the living room and plopped down on the couch.
I was tired. Exhausted really. I had only slept about 2 hours the night before
due to crazy pregnancy heartburn.
I could feel myself slipping
into resentment, frustration, even anger.
I had been feeling this way
for a few weeks. Being so exhausted all the time had started to take its toll
on my attitude. I’d been praying about it a lot and prayed again now.
I asked for peace, patience
and strength. No sooner had I said “amen” than my little 26 week old baby
kicked inside me. And kicked hard.
The second the baby kicked
something changed. It was like something just hit me over the head. I saw
everything differently. My messy kitchen was evidence of 6 beautiful kids
eating dinner. The trashed out living room floor looked like the joys of
childhood instead of a mess to be cleaned. The kids all talking at the same
time in the other room (very loudly) sounded like music to my ears.
I was filled with joy. I LOVE
these kids. Suddenly I couldn’t wait until the stampede of kiddos trashing my
house were all my own kids. I couldn’t wait until scrambling 18 eggs at a time
was an every day occurrence rather than a once a month thing when my nieces and
nephew came to visit.
It still amazes me what God
can do in your life when you turn to him. A Simple “help me” prayer can turn
around your entire day. Your entire LIFE.
