The Unseen

I am entering into a season of loneliness in my life, again.  I’ve often reflected that loneliness is a surprising and fairly constant companion in this vocation; surprising, because my motherhood not only has me constantly surrounded by kids, but also in contact with other parents as the lives of our children cross paths, and constant, because just as it seems to me I am passing through it, lo and behold I find it has once again crept in.  Under a new disguise, but always there, always the same.

Bring Them In

Whenever I bring home a new baby, it’s always especially important to me to make the younger children in our family feel like this baby is theirs too.  I never ever want to get angry with them or punish them for being curious about the new little one, because I want them to love the baby as much as I do. It is of course, very easy in our desire to protect this new little one, to keep the smallest ones away.  But I worry that will only create pain and resentment, because they are after all my babies too. So instead of keeping them apart, I choose to teach them how to be around the baby.  To touch their toes and not their hands and face.  To be gentle and not rough.  To sit beside Mommy while I nurse and not on top of me.