Our morning, June 1, 2019.
4:27 a.m. Eli begins to talk to himself in his crib. Bubby, why are you awake?! I’ll leave him, hopefully he goes back to sleep. I doze, but never fully go back to sleep myself.
5:04 a.m. Eli cries out, then fusses, rather upset in the monitor. I get up, go down to get milk, and head into his room. As I open the door, it smells like…well, a full diaper. 😉💩
5:07 a.m. I pick him up out of his crib. “Hi Bubby! How is your tummy do…” I realize my arm is wet because his bum and legs are wet.
5:08 a.m. I lay him down where his head is in the shadow, but his body is in the light coming in from the hall (because the sun isn’t even awake yet). I pull off the diaper to discover the contents of his diaper cover his legs and halfway up his back. No amount of baby wipes will fix this mess…or this smell.
5:10 a.m. Eli is wiped down, has a clean diaper and is wrapped in a towel. We head to our room. “Mike, Honey, uhh, this is gonna take two sets of hands.” Mike holds Eli while I run the bath. This includes taking a bucket into the bathroom that has hot water, filling it and then dumping it in the tub in the other bathroom that doesn’t have hot water. Twice. #IndoLife
5:16 a.m. Bubby is in the tub. He’s tired, I’m tired, but he still wants to play with his fishing pole and catch the “fishies” in the tub. This is actually quite fun. Mike is stripping the bed of the sheet, pee pad, and mattress cover (“it” went through all three) and starting laundry.
5:29 a.m. Eli is dry and clean and clearly not going back to sleep. Let’s eat breakfast. Milk, bread and a banana it is. Maybe that will slow “it” down.
5:47 Bubby is tired and now full, let’s hope he’ll go back to sleep.
5:49 Oops, the extra crib sheets are in the office/guest room…where Auntie Nicole is fast asleep. Good thing Eli is cute. 👶🏻
5:51 a.m. I make up the crib with a clean sheet while Daddy sings Wheels on the Bus. Eli thinks this is hysterical.
5:55 a.m. Night, night Eli. Please go back to sleep…Mommy and Daddy really need a nap. 😉
5:57 a.m. The cutest, most adorable high-pitched squeals are coming from the monitor while Eli plays with Softy (his beloved blue dinosaur). I drift off to sleep only to be awoken by “Gagagagagaga!!!”
5:58 a.m. “The joys of parenting,” Mike says. We both laugh. “But, really. This…taking care of Bug this morning was some of the most fun I’ve had all week.” Same, baby. Same.
6:16 a.m. One final laugh from the monitor as we all drift back to sleep.
I always say, “Joy is a choice! Choose joy!” And, on some level, I still believe that statement. But, today, I read the fruits of Spirit and realized – those aren’t a choice for Believers. They are a by-product of a life surrendered to God’s Holy Spirit.
I’ll be honest. I was not choosing or showing or thinking of joy as I marched downstairs to get a cup of milk at 5:04 a.m. Mike and I were up until about 11:30 the night before. This mama needs more than five hours asleep! I was not a happy camper. But you know what? The moment I realized Eli was sick, that he needed me, I was overwhelmed with complete joy. The honor and privilege it is to be his Mom. That I was able to bring him into this world and get the opportunity to raise him as a Kingdom builder is worth a thousand middle-of-the-night blow out diapers. Plus, I had an hour of uninterrupted time with my favorite boys. That was few and far between this past week.
So today, I do choose joy. And not in spite of my son’s poopy circumstances, but because I am a child of God and joy is already inside me. I just have to choose to show it or not.
Bless you all! Have a happy Saturday!
Originally written for Facebook June 1, 2019