It Only Makes you Stronger

Since graduating from the single jogger to the double hills have become HARD.  At first when I started to push the girls I would see a hill and just sink.  "Oh thats gonna be rough."  I would huff and puff up the hill, dramatically exuding all of my inner disgust over how hard I had to work and Lily would always ask me about it.  "I don't like hills Lily, they are so hard!" I would reply.

I didn't think much of it until one day a while back Lily started being afraid of hills.  "They are too hard Mommy, I can't do them!"  All of a sudden I had the acute realization that instead of empowering my daughter, I had crippled her.   I had failed to communicate that adversity is hard, but strength is found by pushing through the hardship, not running from it.  I had a pivotal moment in my life and realized right then and there that I needed to change the way I approached hills.  Yes, hills with an 80 pound jogger are hard, BUT they have made me stronger than I have ever been in my life.  So now when I see a hill I look down at my oldest daughter and say with confidence, "Here comes that big hill Lily, we can do it together.  Remember, it is only gonna make us stronger!"  She has taken to it and the other day someone was talking about hills and Lily piped up, "We like hills, they make us STRONGER!"

I'm glad I had this little epiphany because the past week and a half has been a monumental hill of a different kind.  A week ago Wednesday I came down with a stomach bug and ended up vomitting well into the night.  Between fever, chills, body aches and having to mother two girls the 2 days following were rough.  By last weekend I was confident that we were all on the mend.  Then Sunday Evie quit eating and just looked miserable.  She was fussy and I could tell something was wrong.  Monday morning I woke up to a horrible sore throat and headache, awesome, and Evie was still not herself. Sure enough, the doctor diagnosed the little one with an ear infection. Poor Baby.  Lily was doing well with a little stuffy nose and mild cough.  By Wednesday I was horribly worse.  My chest was tight, my head was miserable and I was in the throes of something AGAIN.  Then it got real.  Lily woke up in the middle of the night on Wednesday screaming, "Mommy my ear hurts!"  We got her comfortable and waited for the morning.  She slept in (another sign something wasn't right :) and woke up in pain and vomitting.  So we took her to the Doctor and sure enough, ear infection.  The poor kiddo was miserable all day.

Towards the end of the day we were all tired of the house so we ventured out.  We got to our one errand and Lily says, in the store, "Mommy I have to throw up."  I raced outside and nothing.  I got her in the car and as I was strapping her in the poor baby got sick.  Oh my heart hurt for her.  It was all over me, all over the car.  It was rough.

Finally on Friday morning I decided to get to a doctor and ended up being diagnosed with bronchitis.  Yeah, its been a BIG hill.  The saying, "If it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger" is sometimes so cliche, but, it is so very true.  There have been moments this past 9 days where I have literally wanted to quit.  But I didn't and somehow now that we are coming out from under the cloud of sickness I can honestly say I'm glad I've learned how to like hills.  After all, they only make you stronger.