Poor Little.

When you're a starry-eyed newlywed couple that's just about to have a baby, you don't think of days like this. All you can think about is how amazing it will feel to be parents and have a family of your own. When that little baby is born, you think "This is perfect! This is what I was meant to be!". You know in your heart that you will do absolutely anything for your children, that life will never be the same again.

On days like today, I don't regret my choice to have children, even though I've had to clean up various bodily fluids that make me gag just thinking of them. Hands can be washed, I say to myself. On days like today, I don't wish for life to be the way it used to, even though I've had one boy puking on the toilet while the other screamed in his crib because he had a soaking diaper, was hungry, and wanted out. On the contrary, as I'm rubbing my frightened and sad toddler on the back while his tummy ejects its contents, as I fetch a distraught eight-month-old from his temporary prison, as I change the sheets for the third time, I realize that I am thankful. No, this isn't what I imagined when I said to Joey with a gleam in my eye, "Let's have a baby!"  (although it certainly was and is bound to happen), but I find that this new realization of parenthood fits me so well. When things start to get messy and my mothering instincts kick in, sometimes I catch myself thinking "This is just what I was meant to be", and although I do not welcome the presence of this sickness, it gives me the chance to be thankful for the job God has both given me and equipped me for.

Here's hoping this little boy is feeling better tomorrow!