An Unexpected Gift

It was 6:30 on Monday evening. Danny had just left for a meeting, after running home and grabbing a quick dinner. And, once again (so I said to myself), here I was, dead on my feet, with two hours of caring for and entertaining 4 kiddos looming before me. I sat on the couch, marinating in self-pity that threatened to grow thicker by the minute.

As I sat there, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a grinning face heading toward me at top speed. Before I knew it, I'd been tackled by the 33-lb. tank I affectionately call "Mr. Moo." He immediately began asking me, in his barely-decipherable vernacular, to play a game with him. I sighed. "What do you want Mommy to do?"

He ran to his room, grabbed his pillow, and showed me that he wanted me to lie down on the pillow and pretend to sleep. He would then be the "alarm clock", screeching to wake me up. We spent a little while falling asleep and waking up, and then he decided it was time for Round 2.

For the next 30 minutes, we played this bizarre game, which involved him being different kinds of animals (interestingly, they ALL made loud growling noises), crawling up onto the couch, and me kicking the animals off the couch by shrieking and pointing at them. He would then wait on the floor while I hid behind the pillow for various amounts of time, before pulling it down and "scaring" him with weird faces and a lot of noise. I have never heard him giggle so hard - we're talking huge, hysterical belly laughs. The kind that, when you hear them, you can't help laughing too.

Eventually, he came over and tackled me again, this time to cover my face with huge drool-y kisses and give out big bear hugs.

While all this was going on, I noticed that Zekers and Karis had snuggled up together on the chair opposite us and were reading a book together, as he tried to work with her on her ABC's. And Rachel, unbeknownst to me at the time, had gone downstairs and cleaned part of the basement, before settling down with her own book. In almost no time at all, it was 8:00 and time to start getting ready for bed, which they did very obediently. I even got an extra hug and kiss from Zekers, for making him a fried egg sandwich for lunch.

Words cannot do justice to the sweetness of that scene. I've always loved my kids, but after Monday, I appreciated and enjoyed them more. So often life becomes a dreary cycle of obligations: making sure everyone's needs are met, fulfilling my responsibilities. Sometimes God has to remind me that there's so much more.

It may not sound like anything that earth-shattering, but to me, this evening was nothing short of a gift from God. In spite of my less-than-sanctified attitude, He opened my eyes to appreciate the good and the fun things in my kiddos - to realize again that they are truly a gift from Him. And in the times since then, when they've had their moments of fighting and whining and basically getting on my last nerve, God has brought that scene to my mind - and permanently etched it on my heart.

I am thankful for unexpected (and undeserved) gifts.