Sometimes you have to let go of the dirty drawers and allow your caring colleagues to minister to you!
I sank down in the midst of the piles of neatly folded and partially sorted laundry that was spread around the living room floor and began to cry.
Who knew it would come to this? Me, who’d always been the caregiver, the rescuer, the one to jump in and help. I was the one who struggled over being a working mom because I wanted to give my kids 100%, and I struggled over having three children because I wanted to give my students 100%. Now, here I was after a week and a half emergency stay in the hospital with my boy, finding that a friend and co-worker had cleaned my filthy bathroom and washed, dried, folded and sorted our family’s laundry. My husband was her boss, and now she had folded our underwear! Something just wasn’t right about that!
Tears trickled down my cheeks because I felt like a failure. I couldn’t’ keep up with everything right now! Automatically my hands moved to sort the girls’ undies into the right piles and moved the socks into piles. With each shifting movement, my tears dried a little more. I stood up and gathered an armload and headed to the girls’ room. They were quietly sleeping, not even noticing how late I’d gotten home because my friend had been there with them. The next load went into my son’s room. It was tiny pile; leftovers from before we knew he was sick. I carefully placed the items in his dresser and looking around his empty room, I prayed yet again for his healing and soon return home.
The next load went to our room. Putting away my husband’s clothes I thought about how little we’d seen of each other. One of us was in the hospital and the other of us was with the girls; and then we switched. I thanked God for a loving partner in this whole uninvited cancer thing.
My steps retraced to the living room, now cleared of the piles my friend and co-worker had folded. The room was clean and the house quietly settled for the night.
I looked around, feeling peace for the first time in weeks. “I’m not a failure.” I whispered into the silence, “and I’ve got people who care and support. It’s okay if they fold my laundry.”
What an unexpected blessing!
Sometimes you have to let go of the dirty drawers and allow your caring colleagues to minister to you! #write31days via @caregivermom Click To TweetRead more of the series 31 Days of Unexpected Blessings from Caregiving.
