Today I had so many plans for my afternoon.

Chore charts and cleaning and sending kids out to play while I did all the work in my pile.

And then ... life. The life of a mom, really. Perhaps you've been there.

A baby needed me.

Not a little baby, sadly — no actual babies live here now. But what you don’t realize when you’re first starting out is that as those babies grow, they still need you.

I found this one waiting for me in my bed when I walked into my room. I had visions of spending a little me time before the afternoon got started but one look at her face and I knew.

The plans for the day were on hold. At least for the moment.

Because she needed me. There was nothing really wrong but nothing was really right. It brought me back to the days of holding a fussy baby, one you’ve changed and fed and comforted and so by all rights should be content and yet still is not.

I now know this is not just baby thing but also a human thing. To have these off moments and days and seasons.

So she needed me to soothe her tears and rub her back and get her tissues and water and just let her snuggle in next to me so she could sleep and rest.

She needed me to put her before the dishes and the chores and the work and the To Do’s.

She just needed me. What an enormous blessing it can be to be needed.

And so I rubbed her back and smoothed her hair and curled around her until we both slept.

Time stopped for a bit in the afternoon and yet it also kept going even though we didn’t fill it with a thing.

And so there might be laundry late into the night tonight if we do indeed want clean underwear (and really who doesn't) and the lunch dishes aren’t done and it's almost time to make dinner and no one has mowed the lawn.

But my baby has what she needs and so do I.

I got to be her mom for an afternoon. I got to be her mom and take care of her when love was really all she needed. I got to be her mom and love on her and make it better just by being me. How crazy is that, really?

I got to be her mom.

And there is nothing on any to-do list that could compete with that in a million years, is there, my friends? My sweet baby, today I choose you over my To-Do's. And it made all the difference.

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