Ok technically not, since I am an only child and even mom couldn’t see all this coming.<g>   Life is rarely on *slow* here.   Allen is in Baltimore this week.  We have tripled our milk intake.  Older sons are in the throes of college transfers and graduation and new jobs.  And morning sickness has settled in with a vengeance.  Some days you just want a *pause* button!

A friend and I were discussing the temptation to doubt God and His promise to be faithful, to fill the gaps, to give us strength equal to our tasks. There are days when you think, "No offense, God, but there seems to have been some kind of Divine miscalculation. I am not equal to this after all!"  However 20 years of mothering and living through disasters large and small have done a great deal to bolster my gut feeling that these days also pass.  I try not to give too much attention to those worry words.  They don’t help.

There is a certain steadiness that comes with weathering these days year in and year out.  While at times you stagger under the weight of a particular trial, you do bounce back.  Eight kids require a person to continue to press on and throw yourself into the daily rhythm of cooking, cleaning, teaching, driving, counseling, cuddling and that is a blessing indeed.  It keeps you from indulging in negativity – there is no time for that!

All that to say perhaps God DID know what He was doing giving us this load. While it is formidable at times, it also has likely strengthened us in ways we could not have imagined and protected us in unforeseen ways. So thank you God for days like these.  We may not have seen them coming but I don’t doubt that they were designed perfectly from all time to be exactly what we need.