Category Archives: Tired Mom

Moms in Progress: Melody Thompson

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Virginia

Hey Melody, I’m excited for you to share your wisdom with our readers!

Look at this happy group. Tell us a little about your family. 

Melody

I would be delighted. Here we have my husband Jason, our oldest Levi (6), Jonathan (1.5 yrs), baby Solomon (6 mo), and myself. We are far from pErFeCt – notice the lack of professional quality to the picture. I don’t even like how I look in this picture but I love it because it is actually my entire family in one picture. Our family has been going through a rough season and just to be all together in one place is a blessing.

 

Virginia

Well, I’m glad you’re in it! It’s easy for moms to be absent from the picture for the sake of looking good but this proves you were there. 🙂 

So we can see that you’re totally a #boymom! No one rocks it like you do, my friend. What should we know about these sweet boys? 

Melody

My oldest, Levi, who just turned 6, is spunky, outgoing, encouraging, smart, inventive and strong-willed. I love him and all his inventions and art projects (that may or may not end up in the trash), but boy has he driven me to read and re-read parenting books.

 

My Jonathan, who is just over 18 months, is my sweet, helpful, funny, entertaining, and, who like his older brother, is also strong-willed. I think God is playing a joke on me and he’ll turn compliant at age 2, haha. He can entertain an entire group of adults and keep them in stitches, and he doesn’t even talk in full sentences yet.

 

My Solomon is just 6 months old. He has a winning smile and a calming presence about him. He has had a very busy little life with a couple days in NICU, lots of doctors visits, and 17 days in the hospital that ended in major surgery. I’ll get into it more later but, long story short, he’s doing great! In general anyway, I’m typing this from a bed in the ER at John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital because he has walking pneumonia. Thankfully,  they are sending us home with meds. Whew!

Virginia

You and I both know people love putting you in charge, especially when you’re up to your eyeballs in responsibility. What else is going on? 😉

Melody

Besides being a mom, I lead a Mommy & Me playgroup at church once a week. I also head up our church’s nursery volunteers. My husband, Jason, is a high school band director so sometimes I am running errands for the band.

Virginia

I remember those errands, like cooking A LOT of BBQ in your own kitchen! ? You get into the craziest predicaments but you handle hard and crazy stuff with grace. 

How do you keep your sanity and encourage yourself?

Melody

It’s not easy, that’s for sure. Right now, I’m enjoying Lysa TerKeurst’s book “It’s Not Supposed To Be This Way” and her other works. I love the Calm Parenting Podcast and Dr. Dobson’s Family Talk, too. 

Virginia

Would you mind sharing more about Solomon’s medical issues and how that has impacted your faith?

Melody

Sure. At the age of 4 months, Solomon landed in the hospital after having a breathing episode where he turned blue. That began a 17-day hospital stay, including a major surgery. Basically, it was similar to open-heart surgery but they worked on his windpipe instead of his heart. The challenge during this time was giving my children back to God. They are His anyway. Why am I worrying about them when the Creator of the Universe has them?

 

Virginia

Definitely! So how did you make that happen?

Melody

Basically, you let some stuff fall through the cracks, but for a purpose. I had to give up making sure Levi’s Kindergarten homework was done (and I still haven’t really picked that chore back up ?‍♀️). I had to give up knowing what was going on all day everyday with my older two children while I was stuck in the hospital 1.5 hours away. I had to give up knowing what’s best for my baby and trust medical professionals with his life. 

Virginia
Contributing

You had a lot of challenges. I remember you texting me that you weren’t allowed to feed him for maybe 7 hours and how stressful that is/was with a newborn? You had the ability to feed him but not the permission. Now, that’s a test!

Contributing
Melody

Yeah, that was a bit insane. I couldn’t control any of the things I normally control for my children: bedtime, teeth brushing, meals, books, clothes, snuggles, nothing… But you know what? They all survived and handled the situation with ease. The medical professionals knew how to handle Solomon. Friends and family took fantastic care of Jonathan and Levi. And somehow Jason and I survived on little to no sleep and strange hospital food.

Virginia

Ugh, the loss of control is SO hard, even though it’s probably want God wants from us the most.

What advice would you give someone going through that kind of struggle?

Melody

Keep giving your children and family back to God, because we all know as a moms we keep taking things back from God when we shouldn’t. In this life you will have situations that are more than you can handle. But if you entrust those situations, your entire life, and family to God, a peace will come in those overwhelming situations. Don’t give up trusting the Creator of the Universe when life seems to not give you any breaks. Sometimes some of “life’s setbacks” are actually setting you up for success in harder situations to come.

Virginia

That’s great advice that comes from seeing God come through for you personally. I’m so proud of your faith!

Let’s lighten this up a bit. I know one of them has said something silly lately. Care to share? 🙂 

Melody

I was cleaning something with a little bleach in the bathroom and for some reason my 6 yr old knows that smelling bleach can burn your lungs and he says, “Jonathan, we got to get out of here. That smell is going to give us the pneumonias”. ?

Virginia

Lol, at least Levi’s trying to take his bro out of there, instead of pushing him in further! 🙂

Anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

Melody

My best advice is to trust God with everything even those little people that you might consider selling to the traveling circus. Pray to Him about everything big or small. Pray in the heat of battle with your child. Pray over their angelic sleeping body. Pray over their health. And when the tough times come it will be easier to use His strength to carry you through. And secondly go find yourself a mom BFF. One you can text, call, encourage and rant to or in my case, angry text. 

You’ve heard this before and it needs to be said again, and maybe put on a tee shirt: God has specifically given your children to YOU, not to anyone else but YOU. He knew you would be the mom they needed. Don’t ever forget that. 

Virginia

I’m happy to be one of your happy/angry/crazy text recipients. To be fair, a lot of times they are also infused with comic relief. You really need to write a book, as I say regularly. 🙂 

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Moms in Progress: Jen Moore

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Virginia

Thanks for chatting with us, Jen.

This is a beautiful and precious picture! Who is this handsome little guy?

Jen

This is one of my twin boys, my sweet Owen. He’s been through a lot of health challenges in his little life, so I cherish moments like these.
At least a few times a week you can find us at either a therapy appointment or specialist follow-up. I’m blessed that I can be fully present for all of his day-to-day care, though it certainly challenges me as well.

Virginia

It’s great that you can be there for him. Would you tell us what you’ve been learning through those challenges?

Jen

Lately, I’ve been reminded that perspective shapes everything. There are certainly days when I feel the frustration creep in and I’m running on fumes. Sometimes the last thing I want to do is go to another appointment, or I long to go back to the professional world with my former colleagues.

I’m learning not to push those feelings away when they pop up, but acknowledge what I’m experiencing, grow from it, and then look for the positive. Moreover, I’m learning to look for the lesson: What is it that God is trying to teach me?

Virginia

That’s a good way to handle those feelings – not dwell on them as much as find a reason for them. So how you apply that to your life?

Jen

Well, for example, our son’s combination of medical needs makes it so that I’m not able to work outside of the home right now. In a couple of years, my boys will be in all-day school and I’ll have the capacity to work or volunteer – to figure out what’s next. Some days that feels only a heartbeat away; other days it feels like an eternity. I’ve learned that I can either dwell in a place of sadness for the career I loved and lost, or I can praise God for allowing me the opportunity to be my child’s primary caregiver and number one cheerleader. I can thank Him for the thousands of ways my former teaching days have helped me navigate the special education process as a parent with confidence, or how it’s helped me address unique sensory challenges with creativity and craftsmanship.

Virginia

I love that you’re using your professional experience to help you with parenting. Talk about skills that translate! It’s reassuring to hear that God really does prepare us for the next big things in life. It is hard, though, to long for a life we no longer have. I bet many of our readers can relate to that.

Jen

Sometimes it feels like I’m stuck in my current situation and the rest of the world is moving on without me…and maybe that’s the point. Perhaps He’s teaching me to shift my perspective and where I place value, helping me to grow in patience, and find comfort in the waiting.

I was reading a blog post written by “Proverbs 31 Ministries” this morning, and author Chrystal Evans said this: “In a day when so many people are searching for significance and great purpose, perhaps the simplicity of Jesus’ instructions has been lost to us. There’s value in your ministry at home – whatever home is to you in this season.”

Virginia

I love that! …I can relate to that. Sometimes it’s hard to see past our mundane tasks but they’re not mundane to God. What does your new perspective look like now?

Jen

I find myself in this unique position. Our situation has forced me to take a step back personally and professionally – whether I wanted to or not. Caring for my twin boys and being their mom is the most incredible privilege. Our circumstances have allowed me the opportunity to meet people and experience things I would have never otherwise: I’ve grown in self-confidence as an advocate and knowledgeable caregiver for my child. I’ve had the privilege of meeting other families who navigate incredible medical journeys with grace and unequivocal strength each and every day. I’ve witnessed, time and time again, the passion, heart, and endless knowledge medical professionals and therapists bring to the table, and we’ve been fortunate to have a village behind us who now feel like an extension of our family. I’ve unearthed passions that had slowly been smothered by old priorities, and I’ve fallen into new passions for helping others that I might have never discovered otherwise.

I want to keep my heart open to where God is leading, but sometimes it feels like He’s given me too many passions! I’m feeling inspired by so much right now, but family life in this moment takes all of me. Living in the “grey area” can be scary and overwhelming, but it’s also exhilarating and, I know, ultimately purposeful when it comes to His plan for what comes next.

Virginia

How cool that you can look through the difficulties and see that wisdom.

So where do you go from here?

Jen

We just found out a couple of months ago that Owen needs bilateral hip correction surgery this February, which means 6 weeks of recovery in a full lower-body hip/leg brace. For a while, I struggled with the worry of what those 6 weeks would look like, and I felt all of the sadness. But as I’ve had time to reflect over these past 2 months, I’ve also been able to find the positives: we caught the problem early, thanks to constant monitoring and an incredible medical team. The surgery will, ultimately, improve his quality of life. And I’m reminded again that right here, right now, this is where I’m meant to be. I’ll wait, Lord. I’ll wait.

Virginia

Waiting is hard but the Lord makes it worth it.

Do you have any other advice for our readers out there?

Jen

Everyone is struggling with something. Problems both big and small come to us in waves. When we start to get swept off our feet, our first inclination is typically to turn inward and close out the rest of the world.
Don’t.

Look outward, look to others. How can you help? His plan is so much bigger than you or I. Connect with the people He brings into your life.

Keep perspective. You’ll almost always find a positive.

Trust, and be patient in the “grey areas” of your life. This season of motherhood you’re in? It’s chock-full of humility, grace, and lessons. Your worth is not attached to a title, profession, or the current chaos level in your household.

Do you keep showing up, Mama?

Then your “significance” and “greatness” in His eyes is already assured. You just need to see it, and believe in it, for yourself. ??