an hour lost, an hour gained: part one

Amazingly, after almost 9 months of allowing Azariyah (our foster daughter) to sleep between us, Matt and I bit the bullet and made the ol' switcheroo to the crib.  

It's not that we didn't try this in the beginning, but she cried.  And cried.  And cried.  We were suckers.  We were tired.  We like quiet.  So we had the best 9 months of baby-snuggling!  We didn't complain when our little chunk decided to sleep horizontally, forcing both of us to hang off the edge of the bed.  We didn't mind when our arm fell asleep from holding her tightly, snug against us, for hours.  We didn't get angry when we'd awake to our hair being pulled or our backs being kicked by her little feet.  We loved it all.  But she's in her crib now and sleeping through the night.  This is a good thing.

This morning I awoke to her little whimper.  Turned our her diaper was at its maximum capacity which resulted in a wet set of pajamas and a dissatisfied 9 month old.  So much for our morning snuggle time.  A bath was required and I was exhausted.  There went my last hour of sound sleep before the start of another day - and the day before the first week back at Co-Op.   After her bath and dressing her in a clean set of clothes, I tried to sneak back into bed with Azariyah snuggled up against me, just hoping against hope that she'd go back to sleep.  That did NOT happen.  Instead, she giggled, babbled and smiled at me, flashing her two bottom teeth.  I just looked at her and kissed the bridge of her nose (my favorite sweet spot to kiss her) and began thinking of how much I will miss her and how my heart will ache when our time with her is over.  I cried for a good ten minutes and she touched my tears with her little fingers.  I wasn't in a despairing place, but I was sad.  

It was clear she wasn't going back to sleep and I knew I just needed to get up and begin the day.  I felt like I lost an hour but after grabbing some coffee and sitting down with my Bible, I was reminded that this hour was a gift.  Sure, I could have been sleeping in my toasty bed, but it was an extra 60 minutes I unexpectedly had because of a Luvs Diaper blowout.  Since I'm behind in my daily read-through-the-Bible plan, I found myself in Job 1.  

God met me in a very specific and sweet way, gently caring for my soul and redirecting my affections to Him, through His precious Word.  I will share how He did that in Part Two of this entry, but for now I can say without hesitation and full assurance of faith:

Thank you God, for ordaining a Luv's Diaper blowout.