Heavenly

I got to do something this morning that I've wanted to do for years. I always knew I would, I just never dreamed it would be this soon.

G is a little girl in my class. Her mom just had twin boys. They were 6 weeks premature and they were in NICU for 2 weeks. They've been home about a week, and today was her first day to have them all alone. Her MIL left this morning after making the school run, and her hubby is out of town until this evening.

She has 5 children now: Kindergarten, Pre-K, 3 yrs, and twin newborns. I can't even imagine. Anyways, this weekend, she called and invited me over to meet the babies. I was thrilled and knew it would be fun for me to hold and cuddle them while my girls played with her older children. We set the time for this morning so that I could help her with her mid-morning feeding.

This morning, about 10 minutes before I left the house to head that way, she called. Her foot was swollen and she needed to run to the doctor and have him make sure it wasn't serious. Did I mind if she went and took care of it after the babies ate? Well, of course not! I was glad she felt comfortable enough to ask.

When my girls were babies, I desperately needed someone I could call. My mom and dad were wonderful. They were there any time I needed them, but they both work, you know, real jobs. And sometimes I just didn't have a good enough excuse to justify them taking the morning off of work.

People always offered, but I never felt comfortable asking. I wanted someone that I knew wouldn't be overwhelmed with 2 babies. I wanted someone who could handle the feeding time if they had to. I wanted someone who understood that my house just couldn't be picked up, organized, or clean. (That was my excuse then, I'm not sure what it is now. . .)

During those long isolated months I decided that when I was able, I wanted to be that person to others. And today, I got to do just that. Two (tiny) babies and a few preschoolers do not overwhelm me. If I'd had to feed them all alone, I could have. If they both got fussy at the same time, I would have known what to do. And I think that's why this mom only hesitated a second when she left them all, all 6 of them, in my care for about an hour and a half.

That, and she isn't real far in to the whole twin thing. The reality is about 4 weeks into it, you start blocking it all from your memory. You bury it somewhere deep in your subconcious. All the middle of the night feedings, the constant diapers, and laundry, and spit up, and crying? It's all just a blur, mercifully removed from your memory making it possible to continue day after day. It's just one of those miraculous coping mechanisms the Lord blessed us with.

Hey don't laugh, I know that's only like 90 minutes. But to a mom of a newborn or two, that's plenty. And it was plenty for me. It was all the time I needed to be reassured that even though those first few months were so hard and all I seemed to do was fumble through the day, it was not all in vain. I picked up a valuable skill set during those difficult months. And today when I got to snuggle with two sweet, tiny babies, and smell their precious heads, and kiss their soft temples, all that hard work paid off.