comparisons can be good

Yesterday we had a rough start to our day. Annikah woke up at 5am and would not go back to sleep so after 2 hours of screaming I was losing my mind. I actually felt angry at her. An emotion that I hate to admit I feel towards her sometimes. I know rationally that she is not screaming to irritate me and keep me from any restful sleep but in the moment it is hard to convince myself of this. I do not have the reputation for being the most rational person around and I swear that sometimes she calls up her little baby friends and they decide to all go in together on making their mamas nuts. I thought about the passage of scripture that says “do everything without complaining or arguing” and was convicted that too often I am quick to complain and slow to be patient. I am thankful for God’s grace at times like this. I asked Annikah to forgive me for my impatience with her and even though she may not understand my words she looked up and smiled at me. After nursing her for an hour we both fell asleep in bed. When she got up we ate breakfast and started our day. As she was jumping in the bouncer and I was admittedly still feeling a little sorry for myself that I got no sleep and today would probably be hard for both of us I flipped on Oprah (a great mindless only one eye needed morning activity).
Turning on Oprah was the best thing I did that morning. The first guest was a couple that had sextuplets! That is right- a LITTER of kids. Just for an added challenge they also had an older son. They are the only surviving African American sextuplets in the world. I listened as the mother was very candid that having these 6 babies was a blessing but also made her question her sanity. She even breastfed all of them explaining that she was pumping over 50 bottles a day. Would there be time to even eat or shower? I might have given a few of them away on freecycle 🙂
They are precious 4 year olds now and so full of life. The show included a brief clip of their everyday life including a trip to the store. Can you imagine? Getting 7 kids in an SUV so big it might as well have been a bus and making sure they were all buckled in and no one is killing anyone else. I thought of my many days taking kids on field trips and thought it must be similar with one gigantic difference: her kids NEVER get picked up and go home! I feel overwhelmed just going grocery shopping with one baby. I know God gives you as much as you can handle. I am glad he knows me well. I looked over at Annikah happily jumping in her Jumperoo and decided that I was done feeling sorry for my minor inconvenience that morning.