A Labor of Love

We started this week with Labor Day and a time to remember those who serve in the work force, which hopefully is, or has been, most of us.  So this week on Two Chums, our posts are about things somehow related to “Labor”.  Yesterday we offered some info on some products that can make work at home easier.

But today I want to share with you the joy and benefits of another kind of labor…that of caring for our children and grandchildren.
In case this is your first visit to Two Chums, or you are not a regular visitor, I will give you a brief background to my story.  About six weeks ago, while caring for two of my five grandbabies, I fell.  I was holding my granddaughter, Evangeline, who then was just shy of her second birthday.  Hurrying to get out the door with her and her four year old sister Savannah, I caught the toe of my sandal on a wrinkle in the entryway rug and went down on the hard wood floor on my right shoulder.  My first instinct was to protect Evangeline and NOT land on her so as I was going down I turned my body so as to be able to keep her from hitting her head, and to keep me from landing on top of her and crushing her.  I had no way to accomplish this feat and manage to somehow break my fall at the same time, so I came crashing down in a freakish way on my right arm/shoulder and in the process, shattered my shoulder, broke the ball of my arm, dislocated my arm, and tore my rotator cuff….all in about 2 seconds or less.

It was necessary to have surgery to put this “Humpty Dumpty” back together again.  I have never had any kind of serious illness and never broken anything before, nor had I ever been in the hospital other than overnight when my three daughters were born.  So injury, surgery and recovery are all new experiences for me…very painful ones at that.

Still I was determined that I wasn’t going to let this get in the way of our annual family trip to Palm Desert for a week of sun, fun and most importantly to me, family time away from the day to day stuff that can clutter our lives and relationships.  I had no way of knowing the amount of pain I would be having or the lack of sleep I would be getting as a result.  About mid week I hit a kind of wall of exhaustion and instead of heading out in the morning with all the children to the pool for some laughter and fun I decided I really needed to try and get some sleep that had escaped me during the middle of the night.  As I settled in and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible, my two oldest granddaughters (pictured above), Savannah, (4) and Sadie (6) came bounding into the room to ask if there was anything they could do to help me.

“Just pray for me girls”, was my reply.  “Pray I will get a little sleep and feel better so we can have more time together to play.”  “OK Lolli”, (that is what they call me), “we will pray for you right now.”  And the next thing I knew, these two precious little ones, were as close as they could get to me, putting their sweet little hands on my wounded shoulder and asking God to make their Lolli better “real soon” and let her sleep “real good”.  Tears rolled down my cheeks in gratitude and appreciation for their love and sensitivity to me.

This would have been gift enough to make my pain tolerable but then about two minutes later back they came with another idea.  “Lolli”, said Savannah, “would it help you go to sleep if we sang to you like you always sing to us when we go to sleep at your house?”  “We could sing you a lullaby”, Sadie sweetly offered.  “Yes my little chickens.  I would LOVE that”, I said.  Savannah started and sang a lullaby I’ve sung to her since her birth.  It’s one sung by Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins in the Disney film of the same name.  The lullaby is called “Stay Awake“.  It is a lovely melody and though I don’t have a singing voice anything like that of Julie Andrews, my children, and now my grandchildren, have fallen asleep to hearing me sing it to them at bedtime.  So having Savannah sing it back to me was such a sweet, sweet gift to me.

She sang it all the way through and with such feeling and compassion.  When she finished she turned to Sadie and said, “Your turn, Sadie.”  “I don’t know another lullaby,” Sadie said.  And then she got a gleam in her eye and bolted out of the room and just as quickly returned with her mommy’s phone in hand.  “Here’s a lullaby Lolli.  A really good one just for you.”  And with that she turned on the phone and played a recording of a song just called “Lullaby” that my husband, Randy, had written and recorded for our grandchildren, reminding them that, as they drift off to sleep and dream, no matter what the nighttime brings, “God is always near”.

As parents and grandparents, or as aunts and uncles, or teachers and guardians, we pour ourselves into the children we love, we labor in love, and hope and pray that some of what we offer to them will “stick” and make a difference in their lives someday.  We care for them when they are hungry and tired, when they are sick and need a cooling touch, or when they need to be held and loved on, and especially when they need us to pray with and for them.  Even when we are tired and frustrated and overwhelmed and sleep deprived, we do our best and often wonder if it will be good enough.  We hope someday we will see that it was, and that our children and the children we’ve cared for and taught will themselves become good, loving caring people.

Seeing these two little girls play all that out, not only in front of me, but for my benefit and care, brought me to tears of joy.  It was the best medicine I could have had.  It was precious to me just as they are precious to me.  What they offered in their prayers and songs was a labor of love….their labor of love for me.  So I can honestly say that having been hurt and in pain was a gift.  Without it I may have waited much longer to see this kind of love offered back to me by my sweet granddaughters.  It was a reminder about why we do the things we do with and for our children and their children.  I sang and prayed for my children and grandchildren and my daughters carried on that tradition and already their children are recognizing the benefit of it, and the love it communicates.

If you haven’t sung to your children as they are falling asleep in a while or prayed with or for them, tonight is a good time to start.  It is so very worth the investment of time it will cost you, even when you are tired….especially when you are tired and spent from all the other demands of your day.  You won’t be sorry you did, I promise.

In the midst of pain and recovery that has already taken so much longer than I was prepared for, I can honestly tell you how grateful I am….I have a very abundant life!