Promise

My friend Gretchen made this for me when we first found out that we were expecting Kate. I was excited and overwhelmed at the thought of being a mother of three. One of our neighbors, who has three kids and also the one who later babysat Emily and Jenna while Dave and I were in the hospital welcoming Kate, said, "three is when you are officially outnumbered - it's one more than the number of arms you have, and one more than the number of parents." How true- the early days were a juggling act of transitions and new patterns. It was challenging to hold both Kate and Jenna in my arms - literally and figuratively - and to leave an armpit or two of space for Emily.

This little framed verse sat on the bedside table in Kate's room (the nursery) until she moved into Jenna's room a fortnight ago. (Emily has moved into Kate's room). It has been good company for me through the sleepless nights, the nursing, the manic unearthly-hour screaming, the questioning of my own competence as a caregiver and gatekeeper of my faith. Kate is no longer a baby, and many of the initial needs that prompted Gretchen's gift have been met. But life ever steamrolls forward, so this precious promise now sits on the ledge beside my sewing machine, where it continues to remind me that God goes ahead of us in our bumbling experiments as parents, and that He is infinitely tender with not just the skippetty lambs, but also the wretched ewe that dares call herself their mother.