I realised last night that I was actually looking forward to my appointment at the dentist for two fillings.  I now know I was a fool as my entire mouth is numb, there is an ache in my jaw and the sound of drilling is still ringing in my ears.  Plus there is a dent in our bank balance that I would rather have spent on shoes. Bearing all that in mind, what kind of a week did I have that made me look forward to such mouth violation? My week contained  32 hours of work, visitors in the house who weren’t keen on children (eat my food, sleep in my house and wash your clothes in my machine – like my children peoples!), ferrying my children to various lovely friends houses to look after them while I did many hours of work with visitors, husband working 12 hour days and PMT like you wouldn’t believe. Highlights were… Minnie announcing for the tenth time that she doesn’t want me to be her mum anymore and …

My little girl’s middle name is Hope.  This is because when I had no hope, Minnie gave it back to me.  This person, when she was only five cells big, was my gift of hope. I will always be thankful to my daughter for that gift.  The Bible says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life”. And I think if Minnie hadn’t been the little embryo that could, my heart would have been very sick indeed. I’ve been overwhelmed by how much I love Minnie this week.  Which is odd to me because she has been a right little madam, pushing boundaries, telling me she wants another mummy, being rude to visitors in our house, generally looking nothing like the daughter I would like to see as the result of my parenting!  I’ve had to discipline her so much, setting her boundaries and not letting her go over them (the harder part of the boundaries!).  I am exhausted. It has made me wonder about where we will be …