Tender Moments

I have a really sweet story about Eliana to share. My nieces have been staying with us for the last month or so, and they are sleeping in Eliana's room, so Eliana has been sleeping with us. Well, she has had a few bad dreams in the last couple weeks, but thankfully she has finally figured out that dreams aren't real (that's a hard concept to grasp). Anyway, the other night I noticed she was tossing and turning a lot, whispering to herself, and just not going to sleep. I told her to lay still and go to sleep.

"I don't want to go to sleep, because I don't want to have any dreams," was her reply.

"Oh," I said, "Why don't you pray and ask God to give you only nice dreams?" I asked. "Can you ask Him for me?" she said.

"Okay. Dear God, please watch over Eliana tonight and give her nice dreams. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Eliana waited a minute or two, "...What did God say?" (So cute!)

I said, "Well, God loves you very much and He doesn't want you to have bad dreams."

She seemed content with that answer, but she still wasn't going to sleep. So, I decided to start her off by giving her an image to think about. She's always saying how much she wants a kitten, so I said, "Why don't you think about a little, white kitten with blue eyes and a pink bow? It's lost and it's looking for it's mama. Then you find it and you say, 'Don't worry baby kitten. You can come home with me and I'll take care of you."

She liked that idea, so she asked me, "Do you want to come in the dream with me?" How adorable is that? "Yes, I can be in your dream," I said. Eliana gently picked up one of my hands and laced her fingers with mine. "Okay," she said, "You have to hold on tight so I don't get lost. Let's go into the dream." My heart melted. She fell fast asleep, still clutching my hand as tightly as she could. These are the moments that make motherhood so meaningful. Just the other day I was complaining to Miller about having to share our bed and how I couldn't get comfortable with Eliana leaning on me, plus her body heat, and my big belly in the way. This little moment made all of that well worth it. Before I had kids, I looked forward to being a mommy more than anything in the world, but the most I could imagine was holding a tiny infant and rocking him/her to sleep while I sang a lullaby. It's so amazing to watch my girls grow, discover their personalities, and receive such unbelievable blessing from them. I cherish these little moments with them, and I definitely had to blog about it because I don't ever want to forget it.