I was really excited the first week of March.  The sun was out and there was so much to look forward to during the month.
However, just as my husband and I were leaving to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary…my kids got sick.  Foster was first, with a nasty stomach virus.  It was really hard to leave him but my mom was here and I knew she would take good care of him.  Thank God for cell phones, I think I talked to her about 50 times between Friday and Sunday.  We went to Gatlinburg and stayed in a free condo, thanks to a good friend.  We ate out and shopped and had many uninterrupted conversations.  It would have been really perfect if it hadn’t been for the fact that I felt like my heart was torn in two.

Here’s the deal.  I love my husband with all my heart.  But my little boy was really sick.  And I couldn’t be here to hold him, to wipe his face with a cold cloth, to read his favorite book, to take his temperature and whisper prayers over him.  The reality is that my mom was taking wonderful care of him, and I was praying to a God who doesn’t care where I pray.  But to me, I was abandoning my child in his time of need. I was selfishly choosing time away over my duty and obligation as a mother.

So why didn’t we just stay home? Or come home early? Did I want to do that? Definitely.  But I had to stop and realize that what I was doing over the weekend was even more important than what I could have been doing for my child.  If you are a believer, if you try and do things God’s way, then you know His idea of priorities are lined up like this. Your relationship with Him, then your spouse, then your kids and then everyone else.  I could not get a peace about abandoning that priority.  I wanted my husband to feel that his rightful place is 2nd to God. Not just saying it, but actually showing him.  Because so many times as a  mother to young children, I am not able to do that.  I am either dealing with pressing, immediate issues – like puke on the carpet or toddlers sinking their teeth into siblings.  Or I am so tired and selfish that I put him off, again.

So I stayed, he did offer to bring me home several times.  I would cry and pray and God would say “I can take care of Foster.”  Oh…really? Sorry God, here I thought that if I wasn’t constantly in control of the things around my children that they would meet a terrible demise.

Turns out, we did have a great time, we connected and we shared and we showed one another that we are thankful that God brought us together.  I agree with my husband, he always tells me, “We’re a team right?”

We are a team. Thankfully, we have the greatest coach and leader, the glue that sticks us together is our Savior. Without Him, we would not have made it to 9 years.