A Blessing That Really Blessed Me!

Yesterday I was blessed to be able to go and visit a great friend, who needed some help. So, I want to start by saying a huge THANK YOU to my hubby and kiddos for graciously sharing me with my friend. Also, a huge THANK YOU to my mom who stepped into my shoes for the day, caring for my kiddos! So I (and my dad - who I dropped off at "work") took off early in the morning and I arrived at her house at 8am. It was SUPPOSED to be a surprise, but the boob dragged it out of her oldest daughter. Oh well. I went to help because over the course of the last few months her youngest (6 or 7 months - I should know) has developed an extreme case of eczema. It is so very bad. So please pray for him! His sweet baby face was covered with scabby, dried skin, while the rest of his sweet baby body was covered with patches of red raised bumps - that itch like crazy. The sweet, sweet boy only wants to scratch his itch, and imagine the pain of the mother who just wants to be able to do the simple thing to make her baby feel better, but cannot because by doing that simple thing would make his condition worse. This breaks my heart every time I think of it. So, the poor baby has not really slept for more than 1.5 hours at a time for the last 3.5 months. Neither has mom - who had been exclusively breastfeeding. Oh.....in the meantime.....dad was sledding with the other kids and fractured his back. This only worsened the strain on mom. So, after lecturing my friend on her need to call on her church family to help her with basic needs and knowing she would not do it, I decided to go for a visit. Actually, during my quiet time Monday morning, I felt as if God was telling me to go and do what I told her she needed to do. "Don't just tell her what she needs to do, go and do it." The verse just came to me too (with a ton of searching)

James 4:17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

So I put the plans into action to "surprise" her. It didn't totally work as I had planned, but it worked nonetheless. I was able to do like 20 loads of laundry, make homemade mac-n-cheese, meatloaf and brownies, give a sweet little girl a bath, changes some sheets, do some light kitchen cleaning, hold, feed and changes that angel boy, spend some face-time with 2 sweet girls who have really stepped up to help their momma in a time of crisis, and most importantly, I was able to tightly hold that sweet baby in my arms, kneel before God in Heaven and pray over him - pleading with God to take this from him - to heal him. I love this family more than anything. My friend means the world to me and there is nothing I would not do for her. Her kids are like my kids. In fact, on more than one occasion yesterday I kept referring to her #2 as my Jadyn. They are like 2 peas in a pod. Weird. I was so fortunate to be able to help out, to have a family that would share me. But, even that came at a price. Let me tell you. While I was planning this in my head, I knew Greg wouldn't like it. Not that he wouldn't like me helping my friend, but that he would not like me going away. And certainly not overnight (which was only an option in my plan - not a real part of it). It's not like I have not been away overnight before, but well, you know husbands. Anyway, Monday night Greg was not real nice about me going, which led to, you guessed it, a fight - at the dinner table. I was explaining to my kids (like that sound rational adult that I am - yeah right) that dad had apparently forgot about when my friend packed up her family and came and stayed with us - FOR A WEEK - while my leg was broken and dad HAD to go to China. Greg even asked me if I had practiced that all day. How rude! The fight ended when, after all my many attacks, Greg kinda broke down and told me the REAL reason he did not want me to go. It was not because he didn't want me to help - because he did. He just did not want me to leave. He hates it when I am gone and even the thought of having to take care of the kids alone scares the heck out of him (I think he was really thinking about if I was no longer here, not just watching them for one night). Wow. That stopped me in my tracks. THAT really made me feel loved. And after I was a horrible, yelling jerk to him. It took everything for me not to break down right then and there, and I guess if I had, it would have been OK too. But I said to him, "Why didn't you just say that in the first place, instead of making me think you were totally insensitive?" Reason number 759 to have constant conversation in marriage. A note about Greg caring for the kids: I asked him about what time he really started to miss me. Was it when he had to make dinner, or give baths? He said it was when he had to kneel down, tell stories and say prayers. I think it was good for me to be gone. I think he needs to do that more often. Don't you?