Mother Pollard

You can usually tell what kind of night we have had in the Russell house by how many dirty bottles and diapers we have in the morning.  There were 6 bottles and 5 dirty diapers this morning... rough night.

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and just stare at my bed and I talk to it... "Hi sweet bed.  I am sorry to be leaving you so soon because you are so cozy.  You were so good to me for the little time I spent with you last night.  I'll miss you and think of you often today.  Someday there will be a night where we will get some quality time together...bye bed."

 I am tired.

As most moms know, being a parent is a full time job with unpaid overtime.  Being a foster mom is another full time job- lots of appointments, transporting to/from home-visits, doctors appointments, meetings with attorneys and caseworkers, etc.  I spent a lot of my day today trying to nail down a time for a meeting with bio-mom, caseworker and parent coach.

I am tired.

A lot of the time I am emotionally tired too.  We know that our little guy will be leaving in the next few months, so preparing for another goodbye is always running laps in my brain.  Will he be ok?  Will his mom keep up the good work?  Is there enough support?  Will we be able to stay involved?  Will he wonder if we abandoned him?  Will he be traumatized?

Questions can be a catalyst for exhaustion.

Recently, I keep coming back to one of my favorite stories from the Civil Rights movement that Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke and wrote about.  It's about Mother Pollard who was 72 years old at the time.  During the 1955-1956 Montgomery Bus Boycott (a social protest against segregation in the public transportation system), Mother Pollard was asked if she was tired since she chose to walk for several weeks instead of taking the bus, to which she replied...

"My feets is tired, but my soul is rested."

The quote is so simple, yet so profound.  

When you are tired from serving, it's a good tired.  When you know you must keep marching for the sake of injustice and for life... it's worth it.  I can guarantee that you will find endurance when you are standing up for those that need it most- the needy, the hungry, the orphans, the bullied, the widowed, the social outcast, the broken... the "least of these."

Keep marching.

So, tomorrow morning when I am staring at my bed... or at 3am I will remember Mother Pollard and how tired she was and my soul will be rested.

He is worth it.  It's all worth it.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."                                 - Galatians 6:9