Thursday, June 4, 2009

All I needed to know in life, I learned from my daughter's pooped stained walls.

We are finally out of the old house and into the new.  It's been a hectic couple of weeks trying to get everything packed, moved and unpacked.  Apparently, one of our kids has been lacking for attention in this move and decided to go about getting it in a new way.

Sunday morning, Cora had a bit of an accident on the floor outside her bathroom.  She hadn't been up long, so she still had her pull-up on when the poop occurred.  She left us a nice poop stain on the carpet.  Geron was quick to help me get my wits about me and clean it up.  And he helped get it up, too.  Everything appears to come have come out nicely, but this was only the tip of the iceberg. 

TUESDAY brought a whole new side of Cora. Around 12 or so, I laid Cohen down for a nap and then got Cora ready for her nap.  When I thought she was settled, I went to the kitchen and began unpacking a mountain of boxes.  Much was getting accomplished in about 45 minutes, and then I heard the cough.  Thinking that Cora was waking up from a short nap, I went to her room to check on her.  As I opened the door, I was hit with the biggest shock of my parenting life...POOP!  Poop was on the floor, smeared in a two foot mess.  Poop was smeared on the walls in a finger paint design.  Ballerina Bear, a favorite toy that had been put away for some time, had poop all over her pretty head.  And Cora was laying in bed, with the covers pulled up to her shoulders, looking at me, just looking.  I saw her shorts and underwear laying on the floor beside her bed.  There was no poop in them.  Dare I pull the blanket back to see what mess was underneath? Slowly, I slid it back and found a practically clean bottom, a little poop on the legs and fingers,and a smudge on her nose...  YUCK! 

I have never had so many emotions rush forth at once as they did that terrible Tuesday.  I was shocked, I was angry, I was confused, I was humored, I was disappointed....you name it, I was it!  At first, I thought, I've got to clean this mess up.  How will I ever do this?  How much money will I have to pay to have the floor repaired?  I'm going to have to paint!  I called Geron and had him thinking something much worse had happened.  One of my piano parents called--a mother of four.  I told her what was going on and that I'd have to get back to her.  Her response "Been there, done that."  At that point, I started to calm down and see some humor in it.  I called my friend Keri, also a mother of four, and said "I need your help.  How do you get poop off of hardwood floors and off the wall?"  She gave me some advice and also helped me to relax.  When I got off the phone, I began cleaning and then realized "Cora still has poop on her body."  So, I stopped mid clean and took her to the bathroom.  I asked her what she'd done and why she'd done it.  She had an obvious answer for the first but didn't seem to understand the second.  I said "I'm going to have to spank you,Cora."  And I did.  (Later on, someone told me I should have made Cora help me clean it up, but I didn't want her touching it again. NEXT TIME, HOPING THERE IS NO NEXT TIME, I wil.)  After cleaning Cora, I took her back to her room and sat her in her rocker while I cleaned the rest of the poop.  Cohen woke up during the cleaning, so I sent her to entertain him.  At some point, it dawned on me that if there was poop on the wall and the door frame, there was probably poop on the door, too.  I closed the door and found some more finger painting.  Cleaned it up.  Took all the rags and threw them in the washer, threw the sheets in and Zoe, her favorite sleepy time toy, too.  Ballerina Bear, unfortunately, had met her demise and went to be with the other teddy bears who've passed on from this world.

Poop.  Lots of Poop.

Being a parent who tries to see the lesson in things, I prayed and asked God to help me see what was going on here.  Maybe some lack of attention, stress from the move, adjusting to a new house, etc.  I was so thankful that I had taught Cora a BIble verse last week because when I would start to feel angry, Cora would pipe up "For God so loved the world..."  She knows the whole thing.  After the first time she said it during an angry spell, I requested she say it during other times to immediately calm me down.  Thank you, Jesus, for your Word.

SO, I got to thinking, we learn a lot about God's love for us through our parenting.  I learned so many lessons on Tuesday. When we do something to mess our lives up, and get the yuck all over us, we can't clean ourselves up.  We have to let God do it.  And He doesn't want us to be dirty.  He loves us too much to let us stay in the "muck".  He longs for us to know how much He loves us and wants to spend time with us. He wants us to see our children the way He sees them, in need of love and a feeling of value. God wants us to make a mark on the world, but one that brings Him glory.

To look at her room, there is no evidence of poop having happened.  I want to leave evidence that love has. 

1 comments:

Bird's Words said...

Wow.. you are a great mom Lydia! Sorry you had to deal with that one though. Not a pretty sight, I am sure.
I love how you always look for the lesson in these moments. I can learn from that!
Love you all!