Well one of my Facebook friends posted “the storm is here” and about 20 minutes later it was at my house. The thunder cracked so loud I must have jumped a good foot and the kids came in screaming from the porch. Simultaneously, Little Bit woke up full panic and SCREAMING to holy heavens. M1 goes to get Little Bit and she is screaming “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy” until she is in my arms and then the full body sobs began. She was trembling so hard I thought I might drop her, I quickly wrapped her in a blanket and sat down to cover her ears. Her little heart was racing as I held her tight and sang quietly to her. The next crack of thunder brought Little Man and M2 flying onto the couch so they could bury their faces in arms and legs. We sat like this for about 20 minutes and thankfully just when I was sure I was going to die of heat stroke the storm lifted and the kids untangled themselves from me.
M1 at me with her usual adolescent smirk as sweat literally streamed down my face and said “So how comfy was that?” It was my turn to roll my eyes and she laughed at me. On a positive note they all turned to me for comfort and reassuring so I focused on that as I went to get a drink. It did dawn on me though in that moment that maybe, just maybe I was doing something right. All three kids were standoffish from me when they came to live with me and now when they needed to be comforted they sought me out. So in that moment I thought “Yeah I can do this parenting thing” and then I laughed wondering how many minutes till I messed up again. Success after all is fleeting.
After I got my drink we turned the storm into a weather lesson as we talked and played with the hail pellets on the porch. The kids enjoyed the light rain and had a bit of fun learning about what makes hail happen. I just marveled at how far they all have come in so many ways and just felt plain old proud of them. Yeah maybe I can do this parenting thing after all.
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