My Life, It is Blessed

I think I failed to mention that when I was sick last week Tim was out of town. He had a 3 day/2 night business trip to another town in Louisiana and although I wished he’d been here, we were well taken care of by my MIL (thank God for her!!) and in retrospect I’m kinda glad he wasn’t here just for the possibility of him getting sick as well.

It probably goes without saying that when he returned on Thursday evening my heart swelled as he walked in the door and I was more than elated to see him (but, I said it anyway…).

As he entered the door the boys ran into his arms in classic Norman Rockwell fashion as I held our 2 week-old daughter and we smiled at each other. A little later he hugged me tightly and told me how sorry he was that I was sick while he was gone.

After the baby’s 10:30ish feeding we laid down in our bed together and he was out in an instant (as most men are prone to do, right?). I was having a hard time falling asleep myself, a million things running through my mind like a long train full of box cars of my thoughts (as most women are prone to do, right?)

“I still need to buy Halloween costumes for the boys, what time did I need to pump again, is that lightening outside, I need shampoo, did I sign The B Man’s homework, I want those shoes on Etsy I saw yesterday for Baby K, Oh crap I forgot to return that email, I need to get on those giveaways for my blog (did y’all catch that?), hopefully I can eat something besides cream of wheat and pretzels tomorrow… “ (and on and on and on…)

In yet another attempt to fall asleep I turned on my left side facing my husband, and my arm fell perfectly into his to hold his hand and so I did. I could see his face a little in the bit of light cast from the light I left on in the bathroom area and I simply took in his features while we exchanged the same air as we’ve done for so many years now. My thoughts changed to how long and how much I’ve loved him and how that love continues to grow and even transform as we approach our tenth wedding anniversary and almost fourteen years as a couple. I listened to his breathing and heard our baby’s on the other side of me as she lay in the bassinet, and I thought about how much I love her too and my boys and how extremely lucky I am to have only had the stomach flu and not something much, much worse. And how blessed I am to have three beautiful, healthy children asleep in their beds, well fed and with access to clean clothes and water ever day. How God put a man in my life that loves me and thinks I’m beautiful no matter how I look on any given day or after having a baby (he told me so after reading my post the other day).

As these thoughts continued the rain began to tap on the window, at first sounding like a gentle wind chime and shortly thereafter, a mini-monsoon. I relaxed into my blessings and found sleep somewhere there and it was glorious.

I feel the need to mention that this post was inspired by the writings of a newer bloggy friend of mine, Susan at Warm Chocolate Milk. She’s a wonderful writer and has inspired me to try to write better too. I hope she takes this as a compliment. 😉