Ok, so God knew all this was coming, right?
God knew this life transition was coming my way and he knew that sometimes I’d feel like crying in the midst of it all.
God knew I would need some comic relief now and then.
So…
He gave me three rambunctious, hilarious, accident prone, beautiful little boys to make me laugh in the midst of the crazy.
People pass by in the grocery store and comment: “Three boys, huh? Wow!” But thankfully they usually follow it up with something nice about what a blessing they must be, or how handsome they are, or what fun I must have. And I’m glad, because as much as they sometimes feel like more than I can handle, they also bring me more joy than I could possibly express. Joy… heart attacks, and lots of laughs.
I’ll give you a few examples:
Friendly To A Fault
When we stopped off for the night at a hotel on the way south, there were a group of construction workers waiting in line at check in. Tough looking dudes. Eli (our 3 year old middle man), turned to one of the men waved and said a very loud, “Hello!” The man laughed and returned the sentiment and I told Eli how kind it was that he was being friendly. His little face lit up and in that moment, I created a monster of sorts. Not an ugly monster. Oh no, I created an adorable, blond haired, blue eyed, enthusiastic greeter of every stranger kind of monster. I take that boy out in public and he turns into the perfect little gentleman who is incredibly quick to give a smile, a wave, and an enthusiastic, “Hi!” to everyone he meets. And most of the time, this is just about the cutest thing ever. Whether we’re at the grocery store, or the park, or our first Sunday at church. His friendly “hello” bring so many smiles and mutual greetings!
But there was this one time where it was cute and just a little bit horrifying…
A few days after arriving in North Carolina we decided to go to the nature center (a mini zoo) with my sister-in-law. Now with mask mandates lifting, most people weren’t wearing them, but a few were. As we passed by the donkey pen, I saw a man with his little boy who looked to be about Eli’s age, standing by the fence, both of them were wearing masks. I didn’t think much of it other than noticing that they were obviously very COVID aware. No biggie. Right? Yeah, no biggie until that next adorable but horrible moment.
Quite out of the blue, my uber friendly (but very unmasked) Eli walks over, squeezes between the father/son duo, turns to the little boy, and standing only about an inch away, breathes a very long “Hiiiiii!” directly into that poor child’s face.
I just about died. I was laughing (our family has done the COVID thing already so I was fairly certain he wasn’t a danger), but I also felt really bad because they didn’t know that fact and were taking obvious steps to be extra cautious.
I rushed over to gently pull him away while I apologized to the dad. Thankfully, he was super chill about it and said he knew that kids don’t understand what’s going on and just want to be friendly. I was really thankful for that as I wasn’t about to scold my 3 year old for being friendly…. although we did have a little discussion on the importance of personal space.
Lord bless his sweet heart.
Boys And Snakes Do A Heart Attack Make
Ok, as I said in a previous blog, we have warned the boys numerous times that although the could touch almost every living thing in MN without fear, that is simply not the case here. We’ve told them that snakes and spiders are often poisonous so we leave them well alone.
Derek caught a black snake just the other day, showed it to the boys and ONCE AGAIN told them that only Daddy is allowed to touch snakes. They should NEVER, EVER TOUCH ONE.
That should stick, right?
The next day, Derek was down in the creek by my grandparents house shifting rocks around to make a dam for the kids to have a little pool. Well, I guess he must have stirred up a nest seeing as our friend next door saw a mama and a baby snake come out of the rocks later in the day (he immediately tore the dam down and put everything back as it was.) At the time he thought they were water moccasins.
Derek and I were talking about it later when Ryan overheard us and proceeds to let us know that around that same time he’d seen a tiny tan “worm” pop up out of a hole by the water. At least he thought it was a worm. But it was kind of moving funny. He then tells us how he tried to pick it up but it fell in the water before he could get a good hold of it. I just about died right there. Ya know, maybe it was a worm, but I feel like there’s a good chance it wasn’t. And although our friend later told us that after some research he’s pretty sure they were just brown water snakes… my horrified feelings remained and we had to have yet another discussion with our 6 year old about never, ever, ever touching a snake… we’ll see if it sticks this time.
Merry Go Ouch!
One of the places we looked at while house hunting had an old merry go round in the back yard. How fun is that??? So, while we were touring the house, I sent the boys into the back yard to play on it.
They had a ball. Who wouldn’t? Merry go rounds are the best.
That is until I heard a blood curdling scream coming from my middle man. I ran outside carrying Liam. I wasn’t honestly super worried because the boy is a born screamer and I never know if it’s a big deal or not.
But then Ryan ran up and yelled, “Mom! Mom! Elijah’s hurt!”
“What? What happened??”
“Well, he got his finger stuck in the gear—“
I quickly put Liam down and started running. This merry go round was probably from the 60s and I knew any exposed gears on that thing would mean business to a little boys finger.
By the time I reached Eli, he was sitting there squeezing his finger and sobbing.
I glanced and there was indeed an exposed gear in the center of the merry go round that looked like it might very well crush or tear off any tiny little fingers unfortunate enough to be caught in it.
I was at least glad that his finger was not still in the gear, but I wasn’t sure what condition I’d find it in as I peeled his other fingers away. Would it be super bloody? Would it be crushed? Would… would it be there at all?
But somehow, as I finally got him to release his grip, there was his little finger, whole, uncrushed, and unbloodied. Now, a good layer of skin had obviously been peeled off the tip of his finger, and I bet it hurt like crazy, but praise God no ER runs were needed and he still has all his digits.
Good gracious, these boys will be the death of me.
“It Comes Naturally”
Soooo…. Derek had his first day of work last week (Praise God for a paycheck!) and that was my first day juggling the boys alone since we moved. And for whatever reason, the boys decided I needed a test in patience. Which I failed. And I failed it miserably. (God forgive me, sanctification is such a process.) They yelled… And so did I. They were impatient… and so was I. They were miserable… and so was I. They were having a bad day… and so was I. We were a really great team, I tell ya. And let’s not talk about the fact that I’m the adult. That I know what conviction is. That I’m supposed to be the responsible one. (Ok, maybe we should talk about it…)
But anyway, after a very long day of arguments, tears, and tantrums (on literally everyones part), I finally turned to the currently offending child and said,
“Oh my word! Are you trying to annoy me or does it just come naturally???”
And with a voice that lacked any defiance or disrespect and face that was quite serious and almost apologetic, he replied:
“It comes naturally, mom.”
Wow! That statement did two things: Number one, it made me laugh and broke the tension that had been building. I don’t laugh when my boys are disrespectful but I really don’t think his answer or tone were disrespectful at all. He seemed as though he was genuinely trying to answer my (probably unhelpful) question with complete honesty. And secondly, it reminded me of truth. Both his sinful attitude, and my own, come naturally. We’re naturally born sinners and we all need grace both from God and from one another every moment of every day.
It was a good moment. Funny but profound.
That’s All For Now
I’m sure there have been many more tales worth telling but I’ll stop there. In some ways, this journey is so much crazier with three little boys filling my days, but truth be told, they just make it so much better. They make me laugh, they make me think, they bring conviction into my life as God sanctifies me daily in my heart and my actions as a mom.
Psalm 127 speaks to the need for the Lord to be building our house, watching over us and calming our anxious hearts, as we can’t do any of it alone (which is very applicable to our current situation.) But what’s even more amazing to me about this passage is that it goes straight from those verses into this precious reminder… as if the Lord knows that children add a whole other element when we are anxious or learning to trust God with an unknown future. The latter half of the Psalm says:
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
These boys… they’re loud, crazy, messy, silly, smart, handsome and a blessing like no other. They are God’s grace in my life. I can’t imagine these crazy days without them. And I’m so thankful.
My Family Freedom 