Tender Mercies

Julia asleep on my bed

Lately Julia has been driving me nuts because she just won't give me any space. She's been refusing to go to sleep in her own crib, won't let her daddy hold her if I'm around, and won't even let me go to bathroom without running over and wanting me to pick her up. She did this when we first moved to Virgina and I attributed it to being in a new environment. Then she stopped, but last week she suddenly started up with it again. It's been a little bit of a Julia overload.

Today while Julia was taking her nap I was browsing online and stumbled upon this family's blog. They lost their healthy eighteen month old girl in a tragic accident less than two months ago. I'm not normally a very emotional person, but I cried and cried and cried while I read their story. I felt so much for them to have to go through such an unexpected and devastating loss. I felt for the little girl who fought for a week to live after the accident, but ultimately returned to live with her Heavenly Father. I just felt sad and empathetic towards everyone involved.

We hear about children dying and bad things happening to people all the time, think, oh, how sad, and then move on to the next news story. But reading an account of events first hand from the family on their blog as it happened has so much more impact. It made me really think, that could just as easily have happen to us. Here was this beautiful healthy little girl, no different from my little one, in a normal family just like mine, and one day the baby just wasn't there anymore. I couldn't even finish watching the videos on the blog because the little girl who had died reminded me so much of Julia.So when Julia woke up from her nap early I went and laid down with her and snuggled with her and was just grateful to be able to hold her. And when we went to the park this evening I took the mother's advice and took lots of pictures, just because. I'm going to try to be a little less grumpy about Julia's clingyness and a lot more cheerful around her. Because really, what am I getting upset at her for? For loving me too much? I'm just grateful that she is my beautiful little girl, no matter how much she tries my patience. She is such a sweet little spirit and a welcome blessing in our lives.