ThisNest.com

Looking through family pictures today and came across this old photo of my husband…

His smiling face so beautifully hides all the sadness…no, not sadness…um, burden that must have been weighing so heavily on him at the exact moment this photo was taken. He looks so young (he’s still youthful) and so handsome (he’s still so gorgeous), and as I look that young, handsome man I think about all that still lay ahead of him.  

So many battles you still have to fight, young man…many more heartaches and frustrations still to face, young man…but still SO many blessings you have yet to receive, young man.

Those hands of yours have many years of hard, back-breaking work coming to keep them busy, that mind of yours will worry for countless hours about how to provide for and protect your siblings, those sparkling eyes of yours will hold and release tears to numerous to count…but that heart of yours will love, and be loved, harder than this woman could possibly convey with mere words.

Don’t worry about all that’s to come…you won’t be alone.

I love you…with all of my heart, soul, body and mind. I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and I will most certainly love you tomorrow.

Dev: Mom, what would you do if you found out you were pregnant again?

Me: Cry…

Dev: You’d be sad?

Me: Well, I’d never be sad at the start of a new life…but I’m tired, and I’d be frustrated, and I’d be worried.

Dev: You’d be worried about Downs Syndrome?

Me: Because I’m that damn old, Dev?!

Dev: Well, um… you’re not damn old…you’re just…old.

I hear a lot of moms talking about how their kids think they run the show…”My baby thinks he’s the one in charge!”  I have certainly uttered those words on more than one occasion over the years God has allowed me to be a parent. How many times have I seen one of these people’s children, acting a fool out in public, unresponsive to the threats (or in this day and age, the “communications” – what I like to call begging) of their parents, and thought to my self…”Oh, uh uh, hella to the no!”

Well…the Lord has graciously allowed me to catch a little glimpse, shall we say, a little first hand experience, of just what it means to have a child like this. Only difference is that D’Lo doesn’t think he’s the boss…he is the boss! Case in point: I was giving him a bath the other day and asked his sister (she’s almost eleven) to sit next to the tub and watch him while I went on a turd search (long story…two words – potty training). I told her to do what ever it takes to keep him quiet since the babiest Sparrow was asleep in the next room. Although D’Lo has the tiniest build of all five of our children, he still seems to be able to muster from that small stature some of the loudest screams I have ever heard…usually when he’s not getting his way. “Keep him quiet!” I insisted of Destiny, leaving her there with a horrified-please don’t leave me-expression on her beautiful face.

My realization that Destiny would do whatever it took to keep her tornado-of-a-little-brother happy turned my frustration (the turd search) into hysterical laughter, as I returned to the bathroom to find this scene…Destiny, in the bathtub, fully clothed, letting her two year old brother wash her hair. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to laugh or cry…but hey, at least her hair was oh-so-pretty!

On a side note, Bossy man has officially used his authority to change the words of the beloved childhood song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Fish” and he asks (insists rather) that you all honor that change…Thank you.