30 Days of Thanks: My Children

In light of all of the craziness that has been happening with children lately, I have to sit back and realize that no matter how nutty my children may drive me on certain days, my life would be such a void without them.

My heart has been broken in two reading and listening to news stories about nannies, and babysitters, and cold-hearted people who have done nothing to protect the innocence of children this week. We could learn so much from the open hearts and minds of children.

Have you ever seen your child interact with others? We have new neighbors moving in soon, and they have a daughter. My ladybug LOVES her. Just absolutely loves her. She loves that there is FINALLY someone on our block that she can play with and another girl at that. When this family was looking at the house, the girls struck up conversation before the adults did. That’s not to say that we were being rude, but there are none of these boundaries with children. No wondering if people like you, or if they are thinking about what type of job you have, or will they think I’m lazy because I’m a SAHM.

My children don’t go to bed when told. As a matter of fact, they stay up for long hours giggling into the night when they are supposed to be sleeping. They put their dirty hands on my sofas, dump out toys on a daily basis, and they never stop eating. Ever. Especially that ladybug.

Some days I wonder how I manage to do it all, and some days I don’t even pretend to manage to do it all. I have moments where I want to crawl back into bed and pretend to be asleep. Some days I do that and let Mr. Houseful handle the house.

Today, though. My spirit is heavy because three mothers will not be able to do that with their children. They won’t hear the laughter. They won’t be able to tell anyone to get back into bed for the last time, they really mean it! They won’t see them graduate from high school, or college, or get married. They won’t see grandchildren. All because someone was selfish.

Americans lack so much compassion as a whole it’s not even funny. Our children will be the future of this country, and they are being taken from us at breakneck speed.

One of these days, I hope that my children are able to see this country become what it should be. Until then, I’m going to thank God daily for them, and pray daily for these three moms who lost their children much too soon.

To me the cellist still looks like this:

And the triad will always be this way, no matter how old they get.