Remembering

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the funeral of a dear friend's father. He passed away as a result of an accident way before his time. His death is a tragedy for my friend, her family and our town. I realized as I sat squished into a tiny room off to the side of the chapel at the funeral home (because the turn out was greater than could be accommodated for) what a prominent figure he was and how much he was cared for. As I left the funeral home and returned to my own I had to ask myself if life as of late was really as bleak as it seemed. Sure Baby C has strep throat, an ear infection, a temperature of 103 and 2 molars coming in - but she is on the mend and her utter misery (and refusal to sleep at night) will not last. Sure I am 39 weeks pregnant and completely uncomfortable - its difficult to move around and I have contractions all the time - but soon we will have a beautiful new blessing in our home to make it all worth while. Yes we are tired, and stressed out and at times scared, but we have a beautiful life full of ordinary blessings. Above all, we are healthy and truly what else can one ask for?

I had to remind myself of this over and over again last night as Baby C screamed and screamed after waking up for the 10th time after we put her to bed. At 2am I rolled over to Nick and with a smile on my face said, "Can you even believe it? She went back to sleep - and we had a solid 2 hours! What a great night so far." A few days ago I wouldn't have had this reaction but I realized how lucky we are to be able to wake up in the night, and how special it is that when our beautiful baby girl is not feeling well she wants us near. These are the sorts of everyday blessings that I'm tightly holding onto today, these are the sorts of things that help me to get through horrible days like yesterday.