I don't sleep well. JJ finally sleeps through the night most nights of the week, and most nights he makes it through in his own bed. But, he still doesn't usually fall asleep until close to midnight. By the time I get him sleeping and get to sleep myself it is usually after 1. I have never been a person to shut my brain off quickly at night so when I don't start that process until after midnight it makes for a late night.
Last night I got the bright idea to try the Melatonin that we give to Grace. I figured if it helps her to sleep, it could help me fall asleep.
It worked.
I woke for church this morning very groggy (and was plenty groggy the 3 times various kids woke me in the night as well). I made it through Sunday School and church. During the sermon I tried to pay close attention, but was a bit distracted by JJ in the pew (quiet but not still). I was also struggling to keep my eyes open 3 hours after I had supposedly woke up.
As I was listening to the pastor give an excellent sermon on what we should put our faith in for salvation (what Jesus did on the cross) and what we should not put our faith in (a ritual or the teaching of a particular person) I was suddenly struck by an odd comment. He was sharing about the Greek culture of the time and how people put their faith in the people who were sharing ideas. Then he said some people put their faith in soccer teams. What? Soccer teams? I ran this back and forth in my brain trying to make sense of it. Did they have soccer in the 1st century? Was he giving an example of current day sports as an idol? I was really struggling until it dawned on me that he did not say "soccer teams" but rather, "Socrates."
Ahhhh, now it made sense.
Now, our pastor does not have difficulty enunciating his words. In 15 years I have never questioned his pronunciation of any word. But today...well today I was still not awake and was really struggling with tracking.
That got me wondering about Grace. She is often giving us answers that are in left field. Case in point just to give you another laugh. A few days ago Grace was saying that a girl at the pool was asking her questions about being adopted that made her uncomfortable. I asked Beautiful who the girl was then explained to Grace that Beautiful said she knew the girl came to AWANA, that she needed us to show her Jesus love and not be scared of her comments. I told her that if the girl started to ask any questions in the future to just say, "my mom would love to answer your questions" and bring her to me.
What did Grace hear from my explanation?
I'm not sure. But her response was, "Beautiful is going to teach my AWANA class?"
Whaaaaaa?
Anyway, the way my brain was tracking this morning I think I got a tiny sense of what ADHD may feel like. What a struggle to hold 2 thoughts together, combine it with previously known information, and formulate a logical conclusion. I decided that if this was how Grace experiences every moment of her life I need to extend more grace...
So, an experience with Melatonin has helped me to understand our least understood child better and I am thankful for that.
I am very happy to report that I came home from church, promptly went straight to bed with no lunch, fell asleep immediately and was shocked to wake up 2 hours later having not moved a muscle...and thankfully with a very clear head.
The next time I have 12 hours to sleep straight through (ha ha ha ha...did I just think that to be a possibility???!?!?) I will trust Melatonin to do the job. Until then, I will simply forgo sleep until my children are sufficiently grown to finally let me sleep through the night again. It just will not do for me to be thinking about soccer teams when I am supposed to be contemplating Socrates!
No comments:
Post a Comment