Day 12 And Into His Arms

We are in the home stretch! Wednesday morning is almost here. I wish I could take a picture of the kids running to Nick at the airport, but of course our camera is with him. I know it will be a beautiful sight. My life used to be romanticized from movies in which I would invision myself running to the man I love in the airport. Now my fantasies involve watching my children run to their daddy. The wonders of life.

(This is not to say that Nick will not equally be attacked by me as well.)

Caleb had a croup attack in the middle of the night. Thankfully, I am not new to this with him so when the barking sound woke me out of a sound sleep, I knew what to prepare for. We stepped outside while the shower heated up, then quickly came inside when his barks echoed through the quiet neighborhood...I did not want the neighbors to wake up thinking they were in a completely different environment with seals!

We sat for a little while in the steamy bathroom, Caleb clearing his airways and me sweating it out. Normally I take care of this part and then Nick lays down with him until he falls asleep. It was hard work doing both, but completely worth it. Funny how the human reaction of anger at being awoken in the middle of the night just changes to sympathy for one's child when he or she is sick. It seemed every hour or so he would start another attack, but thankfully went back to sleep. Each time my heart ached for him and his little body.

Caleb being sick gave me a nice excuse to stay home all day. All three of us absolutely loved it.

We received a nice phone call from California at dinner time. Apparently, cousin Nico just had to call Abby and Caleb because he missed them so much. That is good, because they really miss him and all the family, too!

While cleaning up this evening, I went to check the downstairs bathroom for stray toys and realized it was locked. However, all three of us were not in there. Interesting.

Since this was Caleb's first offense at pulling the old "shut the bathroom door while it is locked," I kept my anger at bay. I pulled out the trusty tools, took the doorknob apart and managed to get it open. Clearly, this was not my first time in this situation.

While putting the doorknob back together, Abby started dancing to the song that shuffled onto the ipod. It was "All I Need" by Bethany Dillon. She came up to me and said, "This song makes me feel like I'm running into God's arms."

As I dropped the screwdriver in surprise, she said, "Like this!" and ran off with her arms stretched open wide to demonstrate what it would look like.

I do not need a camera to ever forget that image. My heart rejoices when I think about running to Jesus with the same excitement as a five-year old. I am grateful that God gives us the foreshadow of this joy in times like this Wednesday morning. My kids will run to their earthly father and then someday to their Heavenly Father.