Help is a good thing...

Most of you who know me well know that I am almost incapable of receiving help...in regards to everything!  It can be something as small as dropping a pen and trying to pick it up while juggling two kids, grocery bags, a purse, and a latte and having someone ask me, "can I get that for you?"  My response is always, "no, I'm fine, but thank you!"  Or it can be something bigger such as going through a difficult time in regards to my son and having a friend ask me if there's anything they can do to help ease the stress load, emotional grief, etc. etc. etc.  Again my response would undoubtedly be, "no, I'm fine...but thank you!"  

I am in no way proud of this personality trait.  I'm almost certain life could be a lot easier if I just accepted help from people now and then.  It wouldn't have to be ALL the time...just some of the time.  I experienced this first-hand today.  

Alex has a cold that quite possibly could kill him. (not really, but if colds were rated on a scale from one to ten, this cold would be a twenty!)  Anyhow, our Sunday routine is to go to church and even though Alex elected to sit this one out, I decided it would be nice to let him have some get-well time and take the kids by myself.  It sounds easy and in theory it should be, but since Cale cannot yet walk and Riley is still in a car seat, taking them anywhere together where there are no shopping carts to drop them in is nearly impossible.  I work out but not nearly enough to make lugging the two of them around easy.  I managed to get them both inside the church but not without breaking a sweat.  I hobbled down the hallway in my high heels, Cale clinging and sliding off my hip, Riley's car seat being bumped and tossed against my leg with each step, my purse annoyingly slipping off my shoulder, and to make things more interesting Cale was DETERMINED to yank the earrings from my ear.  I finally reached the nursery only to realize that Cale didn't need to be in nursery but upstairs in his sunday school class.  "Okay, okay, that's fine because at least I can leave Riley here," I thought.  I dropped Cale off, ran back downstairs to leave the diaper bag with Riley, raced back upstairs to the room where I was leading a high school bible study, and finally plopped down in a big comfy chair where I could sit down and wipe the beads of sweat off my forehead.  Whew.

The bible study went well and it was nice to get a brief break from the kids.  I then went and got Cale from his class, took him downstairs to the nursery, took Riley FROM the nursery since she needs to eat every ten minutes, (not really, but it sure seems like it) and then proceeded to try and listen to the sermon while Riley was crinkling paper and yelling at me for trying to stop her.  After church was over I literally cringed at the thought of having to try and get the kids back out to the car all by myself.  Luckily, the husband of one of my best friends offered to go down to the nursery to get Cale for me.  I initially said no and told him I was fine to do it myself, but since he knows me better than that he insisted.  And then as if he wasn't helpful enough he offered to carry Riley to the car.  This time I insisted I was fine and could do the rest without his help but my girl friend very sternly said, "Erica, accept help when it's offered!!!"  Alright, alright, alright...

It was nice to walk out of the church without feeling like I was breaking my back.  It felt good...no, it felt great...to accept help.  Next time it's offered I might wait a few more seconds before I say, "no, I'm fine.  But thank you!"

Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.