"It's gonna be wild, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be full of me"

So there's this Jesus Culture song called Come Away With Me that I just love. We sang it this past Sunday, and I just couldn't help but smile. The song is about just letting go and going on the adventure Jesus has planned for your life. The title to this post is one of the lines to the song.

The part about "it's gonna be wild" in particular is what made me smile. You know, God never calls you to something that he won't also equip you for. Sometimes you feel unequipped right up until (or even a little after) the moment you need help. But there is so. much. grace. Not sure if everyone would call being a mom an adventure. They also might not describe it as wild, or great. But I beg to differ. Here are a couple wild moments from my mothering life lately.

Two weekends ago we drove out to Ohio for Shaun's uncles funeral. The trip back home took us seven hours. About two hours into the trip, whilst driving approximately 80 miles an hour on the PA turnpike, I hear Isaiah buckled into his car seat behind me saying "POOP! POOP! POOP! HINEY! POOP!" I turned around and said something like "It's ok baby, we'll stop and change you when we can pull off..." and faced forward again. Then he starts yelling "POOP!! HAND! POOP! HAND!" And I look back again to discover he has poop all over his hands. That's when I realized this was not going to be any ordinary diaper change, this was a true emergency. Shaun found the first emergency pull off on the side of the turnpike he could and we whipped over, I jumped out of the car and began unbuckling Isaiah and Shaun came around the side of the car to help. As we pulled him out we realized that his shorts, his shirt, and the entire back of his car seat were literally covered. COVERED. covered. Did I mention covered?? As huge trucks zoomed by we finagled him out of his clothing with Shaun holding him dangling in the air in front of him and me trying to pull things off with my finger tips without getting anything on me... Then I laid him in the front seat of the car on a changing pad and proceeded to use almost every wipe we had cleaning him up while Shaun used paper towels to try to wipe out the car seat. Luckily Shaun's parents were right behind us and had pulled off when we did. They had plastic bags, paper towels and hand sanitizer to contribute to our efforts. I will never forget that traffic zipping by, Isaiah practically up side down in the passenger seat completely naked, frantically cleaning poop out of our car. We finally got everything into a sanitary state of being and plunked our naked little Isaiah into his paper towel-lined car seat, buckled him back in, and carefully pulled back out into that 80 mile an hour traffic. Now, who wants to say my life isn't wild?? ;)

But, you may not be convinced yet. Want to know how I was awakened yesterday morning? By Drew throwing up into my face and hair. Yep. Better believe I was up and out of bed faster than any alarm clock can get me awake. I rushed sweet boy to the bathroom hoping to get the rest to go into the toilet and while he finished throwing up I washed my face in the sink and pulled all my hair up into a bun on top of my head until he was finished and I could get into the shower to wash it. What wilder of a wake up call can you imagine?

(You might not believe it now, but I used to have a really weak stomach, and still do when it comes to anything gross that doesn't involve my kids. Remember how I said God always equips you for what he calls you to?? I didn't even gag in either of those wild situations. :)

Maybe you're still not convinced. Maybe we need more stories. The other day I felt like the only thing I had accomplished by 11 a.m. was cleaning up broken glass from the picture frame that was knocked off the wall when Drew was playing baseball in the house. Most days I can be found refereeing like an NFL professional, negotiating like the best of any high priced lawyers, or multi-tasking like a crazy person. I sneak vegetables into mouths like you've never seen before during dinner time, I distract, I comfort, I get down on the floor and play legos and match box cars and I watch countless airplanes take off, or back hoes lift their scoops, or imaginary weed eaters cut the grass.... I wash the dishes with two little "helpers" stationed standing on chairs on either side of me, and more water ends up on the ground than in the sink.

Do I do this all joyfully all the time? Sadly, no. But as I type out each situation all I can do is smile and thank the Lord for this wild, great, full of Him plan he has for my life right now. I couldn't ask for anything more.

To all you wild moms out there, cheers. ;)