May 11, 2008, Praises Along the Way- The Mother's Day Card

"It's 6:45!" Matt said. "Oh man, not again!" I said to myself as I jumped out of bed and ran for the stairs. I was supposed to give Danni her IV infusion at 6. "There's still time," Matt reminded as I flew down the stairs. I grabbed her tray and got things together quickly. "It's going to take forever to warm this syringe." I thought to myself.

I opened the door to Danni's room apologizing all the way. "It's okay, mom" she said. Kids are always so forgiving. As I flushed the line with a saline syringe Danni and discussed the possibility of squirting the cat with an extra saline syringe. Danni was more kind than I, she said the cat was having a bad day. Her humor is so rich. I cracked up.

"Due to lack of funds and transportation," she said in her high pitched voice, " I made you a Mother's Day card." Her next breath was to ask me if I was sitting on it. "No, I put it on the floor," I said between giggles. We were almost done with the antibiotic syringe when we both realized, man, we've got to go to the bathroom! "Just squish it in she said," I got the hint and since I had to go too we decided to hurry the process along a bit.

She gave me the card saying, like any kid would, "You have to look at this first and then I will show you the picture I took of us at the beach." The card had a big red heart on the front drawn on her drawing paper in her color pencils. When I opened it she had wrote in there that she wanted me to have a Happy Mother's Day and that when she got better and rich and famous that we would go to the beach together and yes even the "Egg McMuffin" could go with us. Danni gets this nickname for my hubby Matt partly from my nickname for him (of which I will spare him the embarrassment) and because when she was in the hospital he would bring her egg mcmuffins to eat with her hospital food. Steroids do make a person hungry.

I laughed with joy as I read the card and then she handed me the "picture" she had taken (in colored pencil). Sure enough there was Matt McMuffin and I and Danni on the beach. She chuckled a bit as she described the picture of Matt saying, "I picked up the neon yellow by accident so his egg is a little bright." Her rendition of Matt was, you guessed it, an egg and cheese sandwich with a head, mustache, stick arms and legs. He was of course holding a Nascar flag in one hand. "His feet remind me of wheels," she said, "and he's short, I should have given him a stepladder."

Don't get her wrong, she loves him dearly, she just has a sense of humor that won't quit.

"Why are my feet on backwards?" I asked "I was tired and kept falling asleep and the pencil kept slipping, see I don't have any thumbs either!" "Sorry about your hair, I grabbed the purple and thought it was brown so then I had to color really hard.." by then am losing it! "Heeeeyyy," she says. "See I have my hat on (her bandage) but my eyes are all wrong, at first they were one way then I changed them and now they are all messed up!" she said with a hint of disgust and orneriness.

It's times like these that make you realize how blessed you are as a mom. Not everyone got a card like that this morning at 6:45 am! "I'm sorry I couldn't get you anything," she said. "This was the best Mother's Day present ever!" I told her.

"Thank you for taking care of me, mom" the card read on the opposite side. "Where else would I be, what else would I be doing?" I always wondered how moms took care of their sick-beyond-the-normal-stuff kids, now I know.

Thank you God for Danni, Jessi, and Atlee, I love them all so much. Thank you for the opportunity to be a mom, even when they drive me crazy! Bless them richly today, cause them to go deeper in you than I ever will be, let them stand on my shoulders and reach farther into you. Keep them close to you, no matter the cost. I love you, Lord and I commit them into your hands, they were yours to begin with and I dedicate them anew to your purposes. AMEN!