One Sunday morning at church, baby Justin started crying mid-service. My mom quickly made the long walk to the back of the church to calm him down in the nursery.
Sitting next to her in the other rocking chair was another mom, a baby laying against her chest about the same age as Justin. He sat nuzzled peacefully against her, not a peep out of him, even as Justin screamed at the top of his lungs.
“What’s your secret? How is he so easygoing?” my mother half-joked, half pleaded.
“Well, he’s actually not mine. I’m his foster mom, and it’s not so much that he’s easygoing. He just spent the first few months of his life crying non-stop with no response. Nobody ever came. The crying didn’t work for him. So he stopped. And now, he never cries.
Your son’s crying is a good thing. It means he trusts you, trusts that you’ll come.”
So on those really bad nights, when I was so sure this was my fault, I would replay that conversation in my head.
His crying is a good thing.
He’s crying because he knows I’ll answer.
So to the mamas of hard babies, be thankful for the crying. Go scoop them up and hold them close.
They’re not crying because you’re a bad mom.
They’re crying because you’re such a good one.
