I remember the first time I experienced the vulnerability of one of my children not feeling well. It was when Grace was a baby and she wasn’t even sick but she was teething and it was causing her a lot of pain. She woke me up in the middle of the night and I just held her in my arms and we laid on the couch together. It was the first time since she was a newborn that she just snuggled up and stayed there…she was just still in my arms as she soaked up my maternal comfort.

I was overcome.

This girl of mine is vivacious.  She literally buzzing with energy at every waking moment. She can’t sit still. So sometimes I forget that she’s still so small and fragile.

Poor thing got the Christmas break bug and was out of commission for two days. I walked into the living room and she had fallen asleep on the couch and just the sight of her made my heart skip a beat.

It was just a stomach bug.  But it still put me on guard, every maternal instinct on high alert. It tapped me on the shoulder and said “it’s your job to protect her”. 

And as she lay there in a rare stillness I saw before me, wrapped up in a blanket asleep on the couch…all that truly matters.

I have goals and dreams for this year. I will write them down and I will fight hard to reach them. But more than anything I pray that I grow as a wife and mother. That I live by example and love without conditions.

I may not have the power to prevent every stomach bug, scrape, bruise or broken heart, but it’s how I love them through it that really matters.