"Mom" for a weekend

This weekend I was "mom" to three beautiful children for a few days while their parents were out of town. It was a learning experience to say the least. Wow, I am more convinced than ever that the Lord knew exactly what he was doing when he established marriage to come before children. Raising children is a two person job. I also see His wisdom in the fact that (usually) children come one at a time and start off very small and mute.
We had a lot of fun though and I managed to keep everyone dressed, fed, and on somewhat of a normal schedule. We attended birthday parties, made art projects, played games, and had a pajama party with pizza and a movie. Of course things never go exactly as planned...
Saturday morning while at a birthday party another child hit one of 'mine' with a water gun which resulted in a fairly deep gash in the four-year-old's cheek. I called the parents and, with the advise of the other moms, decided to go the ER to get it stitched up. I was so thankful that there were lots of moms around to give their advise and a couple that could even call their doctor husband's for me. God is good and, though it was emotionally exhausting to hold the screaming child's head during the stitching up process, the whole ER visit only took about an hour and Lil' Man was instantly calmed with a popcicle and some spiderman stickers.
That night as I lay in bed, I unwound by making a list of my many blessings. Even though it hadn't been a good day I was overwhelmed with how much I'd been blessed; my sister, who'd come to watch the other children while I went to the hospital, had baked muffins for breakfast the next day, one of the sweet birthday party moms had put her number in my phone and told me to be sure and call if I needed anything, the children had behaved themselves exceptionally well that day and have even gone to bed in a timely manner! My many blessings made the memories of stress, tiredness, annoyance, and frustrations fade away.
The next day when Mom and Dad arrived home all the stress of the past few days was rewarded. They were pleased and had had a nice, relaxing trip. The children said they'd missed them but had a great time with me, and even Lil' Man enjoyed showing off his "Football player" look for his parents.