Midnight Mama Hugs

After an incredibly long day, I had crashed into bed and was sound asleep.  The phone startled me awake at 11:15pm.  Braeden didn't feel good and wanted to come home instead of staying at a sleepover.  While I dozed in and out of sleep, Braeden came home and told us that he was really tired more than anything, and just wanted to sleep in his own bed.  Willlie tucked him into bed with a little Pepto for his stomach, as I began to drift back to sleep again, smiling at how my boy has always handled fatique with tears and wanting his own bed.

The next thing I know, Braeden walks back into our bedroom and collapses onto Willie in bed, holding him tight and sobbing.  "I can't stop crying..........you guys love me so much to get up in the middle of the night and take care of me."  Needless to say, my Mama's heart squeezed me to fully awake.  We talked with Braeden in the quiet and dark of the night, assured him that before midnight does not qualify as "in the middle of the night", and reminded our sweet boy that we are always on duty and would do anything anytime for him.  After calming down and starting to feel better, Braeden suggested his belly may hurt from a little hunger, and so he and Willie ventured downstairs for a midnight snack.

As I lay there in bed and replayed the dramatic events, I chuckeld at the thought that this only seemed dramatic because it was our 13 year old baseball-loving Braeden.  This wouldn't have phased us if it had come from our sweet little Drama Queen.   In fact, we would have expected it, and probably rolled our eyes and been less than compassionate.  But for my son, who stands taller than me and is quickly growing stronger than I, the tender heart he braved to expose became a pricless treasure.  He just wanted to be home and loved on.  He felt we were sacrificing ourselves for him and he was touched to tears.  Our love had truly penetrated his heart.

Just that day I had shared with a friend how Braeden had seemed to flip a "teenage" switch on his birthday.  He seemed overly confident, centered a bit too much on self, and time simply talking to Mama was not an option he would choose over video games.  Yet, here, in the vulnerbility of the night, my son was running for home, for Dad, and for Mama.

Thank you Lord, for waking this bone-tired Mama to see the-heart-outside-her-body reaching for his Mama's hand; even when he begins to tower over me and tread the teenage waters.