My children are always surprising me, from little seemingly insignificant frames in our lives to those that inspire me to be better than what I am.

Jessica has always been the child who has endured more obstacles in life than I could ever have foreseen one of my children having to deal with. As stroppy as she reacts to disappointments or criticism she makes up for in courage with grace. When she was a baby it was easier to hold her screaming body while the doctor suctioned her ears, injected antibiotics, readied her for her next operation or cracked her spine. My tears would be mixed with her sweat unaware of how tough and not so brave her Mommy was. Now it is different, now she sees the injections, now she is aware of the pain and most of all she can see the angst in my face and knows that I can understand every painful moment she has to undergo. Yet our little trooper faces her demons with a brave heart and soul and sometimes verbally wishes that her brother could just take one of her painful experiences instead of it having to always be her.
She has had three teeth pulled in the last three weeks and still has one to go. She is the bravest little girl I know and is the one that makes me ready to face the world with a vengeance. She is quirky and funny, stubborn and tenacious, loving and kind.
Then there is the oldest child, the perfect pregnancy, the perfect little bundle – toes, fingers and palette all in order – thank you very much. The one who has not had 20 operations or hundreds of injections or medicine or ENT, Chiro, Orthodontic, Physiotherapy, Speech therapy…..visits. The one who can be sarcastically funny and tries to make us laugh when the going gets a little too tough. He pushes his sisters buttons, as siblings do, but loves her with silent brotherly vigor  that he would be mortified to admit to.
And it is this little man that inspires me further, he has a talent that takes my breath away and I often just sit and listen in wonder at the naturalness of it all. This is something he started pottering around on and has solidified into his first composition. His question to me after he played this was: “Do you think Granny would be proud of me?”
Do your children inspire you? Mine do!