Little Moments of Grace

Yesterday all four kids needed to get bloodwork done (!) so my mom helped me at the appointment. It was a task I was absolutely dreading for weeks and had zero idea how to optimize such a feat.

My plan was to have Eloise go first and then proceed in age order, oldest to youngest, in hopes that the oldest ones would show the little ones how to be brave and then hopefully save the hysterical crying for last. Eloise was up for her turn and was looking nervous, so I started singing the first song that came to mind: "Jesus loves me this I know..." and what do you know but our wonderful, tall, Caribbean phlebotomist chimed in with his deep voice, "...for the Bible tells me so" and proceeded to sing the rest of Jesus Loves Me along with me.

The whole room was bathed in calm. The word that came to my mind was GRACE. None of the kids ended up crying except Alice! Not even little George! I had never before profusely thanked anyone for doing such a good job for a blood draw, but there's a first time for everything.

Yes the world is terrifying right now and I so frequently start to lose hope. But what's getting me through these times is focusing on all the little moments of grace.

A babysitter who lets me know she's home from the beach for the night and do the girls want to play with her? Grace. A sister and brother (in-law) who are moving to our town this month!!!! Grace. Eloise reading to George before his nap. Late-night fires in the backyard with friends after all of our kids are in bed.

The macro things are out of my hands, so I'm trying to look on the micro level. Tiny little moments of grace—they are there if we look for them.