What Matters Most

I've been working hard this week. Seeing as it is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness week, I have been blogging like crazy at my perfect broken hearts blog. In fact, I bet I have been making all my Facebook friends crazy with all my pulled posts and news feeds about CHD. Sorry if you are one of them. Anyway, being so involved with CHD awareness this week has had quite an impact on me. Watching Abby's surgery video, blogging about it, talking with many other mom's who have been through the same thing or worse, lost their children to the deadly defects has made me stop and take pause. Life is busy! So So busy! Running here and there, raising kids, teaching kids, cleaning up after kids, making valentine's, doing homework--mine and theirs, church callings....the list goes on and on. But what truly matters most? This week has reminded me. A few little nudgings from the Spirit helped reinforce my lesson.

Lesson #1--My friend shared a link to a blogger mom here in Provo. Some of you may have seen her on the news. She was a mom like me, busy. She has a family with small children and for one moment, one very small moment, she got distracted. She left her 16 month baby in the bathroom with a tub of running water. His story is amazing and even has a happy ending, but reading her posts as she was going through the agony of having him rushed to the hospital, with no pulse, no sign of life was LIFE changing for me. Literally! I don't leave my little boys in the tub to go wash dishes anymore. I don't leave them unattended. I sit and watch them play in the tub, play with their toys, tackle the stairs, tackle each other. Their lives are pure joy and I am no longer too busy to notice. All because a courageous mother shared a tragedy, that many blame her for and that she carried guilt for. Her tragedy helped me see...what matters most.

Lesson #2 --Learning about other heart moms who weren't as fortunate as I was. I've talked to a few mom's this week whose children didn't survive heart surgery or who took home seemingly healthy babies only to have them pass away, at times in their very arms. One such amazing woman is Kristine, Cora's mom. She has turned her tragedy into a crusade. Her sweet baby, Cora, is saving other babies lives. Regardless, Kristine wishes for one more day. She cherishes the five days and reminds me that every day with every child is a gift from God, to be valued.

Lesson #3 --Re-hashing the old surgery has brought it all home this week. Knowing we face another one in a few short months reminds me that life is a gift from God and his time frame is what matters.

I share all this not to bring a downer to your day...quite the opposite. I share all this in hopes of passing on that life is uncertain. The relationships we share should be valued and celebrated E-V-E-R-Y day! What should matter most to me is not the bustle and hustle of every day living. What does matter to me is.....

These four souls...whose lives are incredibly fragile! I need to protect them, watch them, be with them....my time for this is NOW. Tomorrow may be too late....soon they will be grown and gone but now is the time for me to be a mom.

Every day is a blessing...I have been a little kinder, a little more patient, a little more forgiving. I say I love you more often. I love and hold and kiss more often.
This relationship is also what matters most. I value it and protect it and treat him like my most valuable asset. He is.
This is what matters MOST. This is where priority now is. The house can stay dirty, the dishes can sit in the sink overnight. Bedtime stories, snuggling on the couch, letting them snuggle into my warm bed with cold feet, listening more, laughing often and loving completely.