When it Sucks to be a Single Mom

(I'm going to throw a teensy pity party. But I'll try to keep it short :)

Okay, let's be honest. MOST of the time it sucks. But I always tell people it's all about perspective. And if you want to be happy, then do your darnedest with what you've got, change what you can, get over the rest.

Yes, it's hard being a single mom to three kids with no family in the area. But if I had only one and did have family in the area, I'm sure I'd still feel overwhelmed . . . and underwhelmed, and lonely and hemmed in, and excited and warn out, and full of joy, and all the same emotions I feel now.

But there is one time in particular that I HATE being a single mom of three kids. When I'm sick. That's the time I feel it the most. Because that's the time when I LITERALLY am on my own and still have to hold it together to parent.

Just found out I have to have a procedure on Wednesday morning that requires . . . you guessed it . . . help. I'll be sedated. I am not allowed to drive. But my kids need to get to school, and at some point the hospital will kick me out and make me go home. Awesome.

It was too short notice to ask my parents to come up. Barry (who has already nursed me through two similar illnesses) is an ocean away. And it's a complicated matter to ask friends for something like this, especially when I feel I've used up all my chips as it is.

But just as I was figuring out how to drop the kids off at school, cab it to the hospital, cab home, cab back to hospital/school once sedatives wear off, pick up car/kids, feed, bathe, homework, put to bed said kids, all after having been on a "clear liquid" diet for two straight days and likely no energy or patience remaining, a miracle happened. A friend of mine from church (who I will name later if she'll let me) agreed to do all the driving for me! Hooray!

So thank you thank you thank you to all those who have helped me in my times of need (and there have been many). It is not easy to ask for or receive help. It's not easy to let your privacy go in the process of asking for or receiving help. But it humbles me every day, and I find myself actually being thankful for the lessons I've learned and the strength I've been given BECAUSE of being a single mom.

Being a single mom sucks sometimes. There's no getting around it. But I thank God for the remarkable people He has put in my life who hold my hand, pat my back, and lift me up along the way.