Blessings of Children

"Mom, Dad, I need to go potty," Caleb yells from the next room.

I look at the clock. It is 3:30 AM.

I pull myself out of bed and drag my swollen, sprained ankle into the children's bedroom. I take Caleb to the bathroom and help him get a drink of water. I tuck him in and limp back to my bed. I fall into it hoping for sleep. All I hear is Caleb coughing up a lung in the next room. There are few things worse than wanting to help a sick child but knowing that the illness must run its course. I mutter a short prayer for him and close my eyes to the beckoning sleep.

"Mom, Dad, I need to go potty."

I look at the clock. It is 3:37 AM. He cannot need to go again. His coughing is keeping him up. I go get him and his blankets and stumble out to Mary's rocking recliner. I cover us up and rock. Caleb calms down and the coughing soon abates. I recline the chair and elevate my feet.

I love to rock with my children. I love for them to fall asleep on my chest. They don't do that any more since they are so big. But that's not true tonight. Caleb snuggles in and falls asleep. I might have been snoring before he was.

When Caleb gets up around 7:00 AM, I realized we both got some of the rest we needed. He slept through the rest of the night without coughing and I got enough sleep to sludge through another day at work. But more than that, I got to hold onto my little boy. I loved it.

Some people may say that being a dad is hard work. Others might think I am crazy for calling a lack of sleep a blessing. But it is great. I'll trade a night's sleep to hold onto my children for a little longer.