Open Letter

I have been reading the blog Traded Dreams for a while now, in fact Lauren is the one who redesigned my blog a couple of years ago.  I love her blog - the design is so calming and clean.  It invokes feelings of peace and quiet.  Her writing is so poignant and of course her two little Ethiopian darlings are the highlights of the show.  They are just precious.  This week she is doing a link up called Open Letter Campaign.  You can go over there yourself and read about it.  Some of the letters are hilarious and others are very serious and moving. I have not felt very creative myself lately, so I haven't been blogging much in a couple of weeks - so I thought I would try my hand at a letter to my family.

My Dear Husband and Children,

These past few weeks have been pretty difficult.  I have needed some time to recuperate from some things and then on top of that have ended up sick with a respiratory illness.  I have needed some extra "sick days," and unfortunately I am not completely well yet.  Moms don't really get sick days, of that I am well aware, but sometimes God "forces" us to periods of rest, even when we don't have time.

These past few weeks I have really been able to see you put hands and feet to your love for me and I thank you for that from the bottom of my heart.  You have cooked meals, cleaned the house, run the errands, taken care of the baby, and brought me home made chicken soup and hot tea.  You have gone above and beyond what I expected you to have to deal with when we entered into this period of rest.  I have felt cherished and loved by each of you.  Your gentle spirits and good attitudes have bolstered my heart.

Yes, there have been periods of time when attitudes were not the best (yours and mine) - that is the way of a family.  There have been times when I have cried in frustration that the healing is taking too long and then to get sick on top of it was especially discouraging.  

There have been some really good things to come out of this time, however.  Things that I would not trade.  Our pace has been very slow, that is a good thing.  I have spent more than the normal amount of time in prayer, Bible reading, and journaling.  I have been able to cry out to God about some things on my heart and I have seen Him moving.  There have been some good talks with each of you individually as you visited me in my room, and we have prayed together, watched movies together, and laughed a lot.  

The six of you are my greatest earthly delight.  You bring me great joy and being your wife and your mom are the most important things to me next to my relationship with Christ.  Thank you for taking care of me these past few weeks.  Thank you for loving me with such tangible expressions.  Thank you for simply being there.

I love you.