easing my burden

for the last few weeks {maybe month}, Elijah has turned a whole new leaf.
a whole new crazy/insane leaf!

i don’t know what it is but if i thought the terrible twos stage was bad before it just kicked into overdrive.
i literally cannot take him anywhere without him screaming bloody murder the first 2 minutes we get there.
his tantrums have gotten worse & his endurance is stronger plus all of a sudden he has a new aggressive streak.
so basically i’m losing my mind every day.

[i have a point besides complaining about my two-year-old. i just want to set the stage for my story :)]

so with all this new craziness, and my ever-increasing brain melting-ness, imagine me taking this little boy to the health clinic before we moved so that i could get updated on my vaccinations.
yep. pretty much the worst. 

Adam was in class/working and i had no one to watch Elijah so i had to go by myself with him.
and if you ever been to the county health clinic you know that there’s lots of people & lots of paperwork, which feels utterly impossible to accomplish with a toddler.

at a couple of different points i thought i lost him cause he would run away from me {anxiety},
he made these little girls cry cause he kept stealing their toys,
and i missed my place in line cause i was tending to his tantrum which made the nurses [and other patients] give me the stink-eye and act like i was the worst, irresponsible person in the room.

i was basically at my breaking point.
but i had already invested so much time & energy in that waiting room that i didn’t want to leave,
not to mention i was going to have to come back some time so might as well get it over with.

right when i literally had tears in my eyes and was about to bury my head in my bag and let it out, i saw Elijah playing on the floor with a bunch of older boys.
they were about 7-12 years old and were all playing with those little tech deck skateboards.
i was watching them, waiting for Elijah to push their buttons too and yet it never came.
Elijah would take their toy, run away with it, and they would just go over to him nicely and show him how to play with it.
at one point, Elijah even accidentally broke one of the wheels and the oldest boy {who couldn’t be older than 12} said, “oh that’s okay! it’s not a big deal. besides, it’s my brother’s anyways.”

the older boy sat there for the longest time playing with Elijah.
he talked to him, asked him about his shoes, showed him how to make the skateboard flip, tried to help him count, helped him play with those wire maze toys that every doctor is legally bound to have in the waiting rooms, and even told me that Elijah looks exactly like me {which, if you know me is something i always want to hear!}.

i couldn’t believe how kind he was to this little two-year-old who was all about destroying anything and everything around him.
or how he took the time to help him when Elijah would get upset & start to throw a fit.
or how he was incredibly patient to teach Elijah new things or forgive him when he broke something.

this kid,
this pre-teen, 12-year-old kid who i’m sure is way too cool to hang out with a two-year-old,
took the time to show me and my son so much love that day.
right when i was seriously about to have a breakdown, this boy stepped up and helped ease my burden.
i couldn’t believe it, honestly.
i mean, what cool kid would do that?

while i was sitting there watching them play i again got tears in my eyes but this time out of joy.
i was just so SO grateful for this angel kid in the waiting room.
i was SO grateful to Heavenly Father for sending me someone to help me in a time of need.

motherhood is really hard.
life is really hard!
but i know i receive small blessings every day to help get me through.
whether it be through someone else’s kindness,
a 2-hour nap,
a sweet email from a friend,
or a Friends marathon on TV & Oreos,
i know that there are many things that help me with the hard days.

now if i can just remember all of them the next time i’m dealing with another tantrum…