Live Small, Love Big

“Hey ms west how is baby jase can I see you soon”.  That was the text I received earlier this week, complete with punctuation errors and all.

He has food to eat and nice clothes to wear. He also has a dad that’s MIA, no family around, and a mom who works ALL THE TIME to buy the food and the clothes and the things. She’s doing the absolute best that she can.

What he needed from us was time. Attention. During soccer season, we picked him up from school every single day. We took him to soccer practice and soccer games. We cheered just as loud for him as we did for Kyndall.

When soccer was over, he came to the house some afternoons just to hang out. (If he wasn’t with us, he was home alone until 9:00 most nights.) Having him around was easy before Jase came.

But with a newborn, sometimes I looked at him and stressed because I couldn’t fathom taking care of ONE MORE kid, ya’ll.  And these past few weeks, I’ve failed him.

Reading that text message, I flashed back to the day he grinned at me and said, “Mrs. West, the best days I have are the days I spend with you.” Stopped me in my tracks.

Is it a little inconvenient? Yes. Does his mother work on a completely different time-table than I do? Yes. I mean, I am the BEDTIME NAZI, ya’ll. 8:00pm and my house shuts down. When he is here, she doesn’t pick him up until close to 10:00. ON A SCHOOL NIGHT.

But really? His best days? I can be a little inconvenienced for that.  Because that’s what love does.

This post is part of a link-up on Lori Harris’s blog.