I got sick. It came up suddenly and before I knew it I was curled up on the couch with a fever of 103.5. As it often happens when crisis strikes, Ben was out of town. The silver lining being, he also had taken with him our two older boys. So that left me and the baby for some mother-son bonding. It was lovely until it was not and the NOT hit hard. Quickly realizing I was going down fast I reached out to notify the outside world. To be honest I was a bit concerned about someone out there simply making sure I was able to surface enough to care for baby. 

I’m not good at asking for help. I’m even worse at accepting it. The only two people I feel comfortable with giving me help are my husband and my mom. Neither of whom where in town at the time. So, before I went to bed Thursday night I fortified with as much advil and tylenol as my body would tolerate and texted a friend. I simply told her I was pretty ill and said I’d like to text her at the night feeding and in the morning just so someone was tracking that I was able to get out of bed to care for baby. 

Friday morning she was at my door caring for both of us. Saturday morning she was back. Saturday afternoon, my brother and sister in law came to do the same. And one more friend dropped off trashy magazines and coffee (the best medicine). 

Sometimes you have to accept help. It’s not always easy to accept help, or even ask for it. But we all need help. It may be in a big or little way. And that’s OK. We don’t need to always know all the answers or be self reliant. The inability to accept help actually takes away the opportunity for someone else to “love their neighbor”. While I feel like it is being considerate of others time, it can also turn into a selfish desire to be self reliant to a fault. 
Where can you accept help today?