Sometimes I wonder if my children and I are living through the same day.
For example, I got up this morning to the sound of my daughter crying. It was obvious that she wasn’t feeling well. I carried her around for the first few minutes of the day, trying to get breakfast served and take care of all those early morning tasks.
She ate breakfast (all of it)… and then decided to throw up.
Up for less than 20 minutes and I’m already dealing with vomit. Not a good way to start any morning.
I cleaned her off, started the laundry (of course!), and tried to get dressed.
As I was still dealing with a fussy 2-year old… AND trying to get dressed… AND trying to put some make-up on, the doorbell rang.
It was our next door neighbors (and dear friends), telling us that their basement had flooded. (It had been raining non-stop since Tuesday morning… remember me being on the roof? Yeah, that was because I was warned that this was coming). My kids BEGGED to be able to go over there and help, so I told them that would be a great idea. (I couldn’t go over, of course, since I had a sick kid to deal with. They didn’t need to be exposed to some horrible virus on top of everything else!!) They threw on yucky clothes and boots and spent hours taking out toys and carpets and bucket after bucketful of water.
Homeschooling day shot.
Extra laundry to do.
Vomit to deal with.
Choir practice cancelled (since the baby was sick).
I got very little accomplished that I had planned today.
And yet as my son Christopher, tired and grungy as he was from a day of hard work in a wet, wet basement, came into the kitchen to see what was for supper (chili), he grinned and said, “You know, Mommy, this has been the best day EVER!”
I hope they never lose the ability to see the good in things, or to find a way to make even yucky tasks fun!
Wow! You are truly blessed to have children that would not only agree to help with something like this but actually begged to do it! That alone should make the vomit, laundry, lack of homeschooling, etc. worth it. I’m sure they learned something from the experience, but they have also taught us something by being little Christs to their neighbors. I think I will share this story with my own child! Thanks!
I think it was the “wow factor” that did it for them — the chance to see their friends’ basement covered in water! I don’t think I could have held them back from that!