A little sleep for a change

After all the excitement yesterday in court I went to see Mindy and tell her the good news. I know she’s always with me and I don’t have to go out to the grave site to feel close to her. On important days like yesterday it feels better to me; like I’m closer to her and more focused on what she would say to me. I am so excited that the termination of Bio Dad’s rights is completed and I just had to go tell her. It was good for me to remember the inscription on the back of her stone lacked the children’s last names on purpose. I left them off because at the time the Teen still kept Bio Dad’s name and the wording only reference my last name. This way the inscription implied that the children’s names were all the same as their mother and I. Now we are legally closer to what we have always been…one big happy family. Just one more court proceeding to go, the final adoption.

I guess the excitement had my heart pumping more than I expected because after we had a little dinner I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. I manage to stay awake long enough to get the little ones bathed and in bed…barely. I told my Teen to do the same and wake me if I drifted off before she went to bed. I don’t really know what time it was but the last look I got at the clock was around 9:30p. I woke up this morning with the lights on, TV still playing, and surprised that I could hear the alarm clock over all the noise. I must’ve been more exhausted that I thought to sleep through all of that.

I probably could have slept for a few more hours but life doesn’t let me do that very often. I still managed to get about three loads of laundry done between last night and this morning while getting ready for work (mostly this morning) but I’m so thankful for the sleep and not really caring that my house looks like a disaster area. Of course the cleaning service is coming this week so, according to the kids, my house is supposed to be a disaster.

Today is just such a wonderful day. I’m so thankful for God’s work in keeping our family together and for the apparently much needed rest. I just want this feeling of exhilaration to last a little while longer. It’s a welcome change to the daily norm that has become my life. It’s so much easier to praise God for answered prayers than to be vigilant about lengthy requests such as adoptions and reconciliation of grief. For now I’ll take as much of the easy as I can get.