True Love

This is going to be one of those posts where one of the worst moments of the day weirdly became my good blessing story. Molly felt a little better today, but was very up and down - she woke up chatty, energetic, and cool as a cucumber, but on the way to church totally nose-dived into fever-induced puniness. She took a good nap and seemed to be doing okay, but then started heating up and wimping out again. I picked her up and walked into the kitchen. She was cuddling on my shoulder when all of a sudden she pulled up straight. I had that split second of feeling something was not right, when she threw up ALL OVER ME. I mean, contents from lunch and random snacks over the past few hours all on the outside AND inside of my clothes. While there was the part of me that wanted to immediately put her down and strip off the nastiness, the Mom in me just held her, soothing her and telling her it was going to be okay. When it seemed she was done at least for the moment, I dashed up to my bathroom, where she did in fact throw up again, but at least this time onto a towel. I stripped us both and we showered all the grossness off, got into pj's, and sat on my bed to watch a little tv and recover from our trauma.

As I was sitting there with her afterward, I began to think of what a quintessential parent moment this was. I mean, what better example is there for true unconditional love than to allow someone to throw up all over you? Not only that, but rather than get upset of flip out (as are completely acceptable reactions) you concentrate your energies on calming the vomiting culprit? I have to admit, I am grossed out by very little at this point, and even I found myself suppressing my gag reflex. But I was so focused on soothing Molly and making sure she didn't freak out any more than she already was, getting sick myself was not even a consideration. This was by no means an event I ever wish to experience again. However, in its own twisted way Molly's getting sick was a nice reminder of just how much I love my kids, and that the unconditional love of a parent can make me capable of things I never would have imagined possible.